Space News & Blog Articles

In astronomy, some of the most profound discoveries happen by accident. As the saying goes, "The most exciting phrase in science is not 'eureka!' but 'that's funny.'" This was certainly the case with Matus Rybak - a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University - and his colleagues were observing RXJ1131-1231, a quasar located 6 billion light-years away in the constellation Crater. This active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a favorite among astronomers because of the supermassive black hole (SMBH) at its center and the fact that there is an intervening galaxy between it and Earth.

Water is key to life as we know it. But that doesn’t mean its key to life everywhere. Despite the fact that the ability to house liquid water is one of the key characteristics we look for in potentially habitable exoplanets, there is nothing written in stone about the fact that life has to use water as a solvent as opposed to other liquid options. A new paper from researchers at MIT, including those who are developing missions to look for life on Venus, shows there might be an alternative - ionic liquids that can form and stay stable in really harsh conditions.

The Taurus star-forming region is only a few hundred light-years away, and it may be the nearest star formation region to Earth. It's a stellar nursery with hundreds of young stars, and attracts a lot of astronomers' attention. One of the young stars in Taurus is named IRAS 04302. IRAS 04302 is sometimes called the "Butterfly Star" because of its appearance when viewed edge-on.

Around 11,300 years ago, a massive star teetered on the precipice of annihilation. It pulsed with energy as it expelled its outer layers, shedding the material into space. Eventually it exploded as a supernova, and its remnant is one of the most studied supernova remnants (SNR). It's called Cassiopeia A (Cas A) and new observations with the Chandra X-ray telescope are revealing more details about its demise.

When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) began science operations, one of its first tasks was to observe the earliest galaxies in the Universe. These observations revealed a huge population of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) that astronomers nicknamed "Little Red Dots" (LRDs), owing to their small appearance and deep red hue. Based on redshift measurements, these AGNs are estimated to have existed just 0.6 to 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang (13.2 to 12.2 billion years ago). Studying these objects has already triggered some groundbreaking discoveries about the early Universe.