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Scientists have uncovered the first robust evidence of a black hole and neutron star crashing together while orbiting in an oval path, challenging long-standing assumptions about cosmic pair formation. Most neutron star-black hole pairs are expected to adopt circular orbits long before merging, their orbits slowly rounded out by the constant emission of gravitational waves over millions of years.

Far from the warmth of any star, moons orbiting rogue gas giants might harbor oceans of liquid water—and potentially complex life—for billions of years. Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could exist far from any sun.

Astronomers have witnessed the birth of a highly magnetized, spinning neutron star, confirming it as the hidden engine behind some of the brightest exploding stars in the cosmos. Superluminous supernovae—which can be 10 or more times brighter than run-of-the-mill supernovae—have puzzled astronomers since their discovery in the early 2000s. They were thought to result from the explosion of very massive stars, perhaps 25 times the mass of our sun, but they stayed bright much l

Anastasios Tzanidakis was combing through old telescope data when he found an otherwise boring star acting very strangely. What he uncovered was the violent birth of a dust cloud—the aftermath of two planets colliding. The star, named Gaia20ehk, is located about 11,000 light-years from Earth near the constellation Puppis. It was a stable "main sequence" star, much like our sun, which meant that it should emit steady, predictable light. Yet this star began to flicker wildly.

By analyzing the delicate balance between gravitational pull and cosmic expansion in our local neighborhood, astronomers are rewriting the rules on dark matter and the expansion rate of the universe. Two new studies have measured the expansion of the universe in our immediate cosmic neighborhood using a novel method.

Just a few days in simulated microgravity can subtly change the way women's blood clots, sparking bigger questions about health monitoring protocols for astronauts who spend six months or more in orbit. First reported in 2020, an International Space Station (ISS) mission detected an unexpected blood clot in a female astronaut's jugular vein.

For the first time, scientists have successfully measured magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence on scales below one parsec within the gamma-ray halo surrounding the Geminga pulsar wind nebula. Published in Science Advances, this groundbreaking observation extends to the highest energies—above 100 tera-electron volts (TeV)—providing entirely new insights into the behavior of cosmic rays and magnetic fields within the Milky Way.

It is one of the most famous questions in science, asked over lunch by physicist Enrico Fermi. With hundreds of billions of stars and billions of years, life should have emerged many times over. And yet, no signals. No visitors. No evidence of anyone at all. The universe is 13 billion years old. Our galaxy alone contains hundreds of billions of stars, a significant proportion of which host planets. Many of those planets sit in the right temperature range for liquid water.

Here's a thought experiment that keeps planetary scientists awake at night. Strip every living thing from our planet—every bacterium, every blade of grass, every creature that has ever drawn breath—and ask a simple but profound question: Would Earth still be a world capable of supporting life? The answer, it turns out, is yes. And that finding has enormous implications for how we search for life beyond our solar system. The problem is subtle but important.

Using the MeerKAT radio telescope, astronomers have discovered a natural "space laser" originating from a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away. When gas-rich galaxies collide, the impact compresses enormous reservoirs of gas. This violent cosmic crash can stimulate molecules—specifically hydroxyl (OH) molecules—causing them to emit incredibly bright, coherent radio waves.

Imagine trying to reconstruct the history of a city by studying only its oldest surviving buildings. By tracking ancient, pulsating stars, astronomers are doing exactly that for our galaxy. When astronomers study the formation of our galaxy, they can't watch it being built. All they have are the structures themselves, their materials, their arrangement, and the subtle clues locked into their very fabric.

An international team has uncovered SN 2024abvb—a violently stripped, carbon-rich supernova exploding deep in intergalactic space. When a massive star dies, its explosive finale provides essential clues to the evolution of the universe. Most supernovae (SNe) fall into neat categories based on what elements they vomit into space: Type II explosions are rich in hydrogen, while Type I explosions lack it entirely.