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The axion, a hypothetical particle, could hold the key to understanding dark matter, the unknown material making up 80% of the universe's mass. Decades of searching have found nothing. Now, physicists from the University of Copenhagen have turned the cosmos itself into a giant particle accelerator, and they may have heard the first "cosmic whisper" of the elusive axion.

The exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 d has been a prime target in the search for habitable worlds. It's rocky, Earth-sized, and orbits in its star's "habitable zone," where liquid water could theoretically exist. But according to a new study using the James Webb Space Telescope, it does not have an Earth-like atmosphere. The finding helps astronomers understand just how special our home planet is, even as the search continues in the record-breaking TRAPPIST-1 system.

Brown dwarfs are "substellar" objects, more massive than planets but not massive enough to ignite hydrogen fusion like stars. They are the "in-betweeners" of the cosmos. Using JWST, astronomers have found the most chemically diverse disk ever seen around a brown dwarf, challenging our understanding of planet formation.

In astronomy, "metal" refers to any element heavier than hydrogen and helium. Ultra-metal-poor (UMP) stars, with iron levels 10,000 times lower than our sun, are the rarest of these ancient objects. They are believed to be the direct descendants of the very first stars (Population III), which were forged from the pure hydrogen and helium of the Big Bang. Now, a team led by Guilherme Limberg has found a new one, GDR3_526285, by sifting through data from ESA's Gaia satellite.

Many people share a fear that a giant asteroid could wipe out life on Earth. While scientists are clear that it *could* happen again, the odds can be hard to grasp. A new study led by Carrie Nugent aims to contextualize this risk by comparing it to other misfortunes one might encounter in a 71-year lifetime. The goal: to help the public and policymakers understand why "planetary defense" is a worthwhile investment.

For decades, the search for life has followed a simple rule: find the liquid water. But this may have blinded us to other possibilities. A new study from MIT scientists raises a tantalizing question: What if an entirely different type of liquid could support life? They found that "ionic liquids"—salts in liquid form—can easily form from common planetary ingredients and remain stable at temperatures and pressures that would instantly vaporize water.

The edge of our galaxy is a strange place. Unlike our solar neighborhood, this region has low-density gas, very few heavy elements (low metallicity), and isn't churned up by spiral arms. This makes it a simpler, cleaner laboratory for studying star formation. However, these distant molecular clouds are faint and difficult to observe. Now, a new study from the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory has used the IRAM 30-meter telescope to get the best look yet at this extreme enviro

Gamma-ray binaries are among the rarest and most extreme objects in the galaxy. They consist of a massive star in orbit with a compact object—a neutron star or black hole. HESS J0632+057, a TGB (TeV Gamma-ray Binary) 4,560 light-years away, is one of these mysteries. It's a massive Be-type star with a "decretion disk" (a disk of material it has shed) orbited by what is likely a pulsar.

Since 2015, we've detected over 100 gravitational wave events from binary black hole (BBH) mergers. We've always assumed they were isolated pairs. But researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) have found compelling evidence that a famous merger, GW190814, was part of a "hierarchical triple system," providing new clues to how these violent events form.

How do the most massive stars form? Astronomers are looking at "hub-filament systems" (HFS) for answers. These are vast molecular clouds with dense central hubs fed by long filaments of gas, like spokes on a wheel. An international team led by scientists from Yunnan University and the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory used the high-resolution ALMA telescope to study HFS I18308, uncovering groundbreaking new evidence.

Researchers have discovered an ultramassive black hole by pioneering a new method. The cosmic behemoth was found in the "Cosmic Horseshoe," a massive galaxy 5 billion light-years away that is so large it warps spacetime, bending the light of a more distant galaxy into a perfect "Einstein ring." This discovery provides new clues for understanding how the most massive galaxies and their central black holes grow together.

At just 4 light-years away, the Alpha Centauri system has long been a prime target for exoplanet hunters. While planets have been found around its faint red dwarf (Proxima Centauri), finding worlds around the two *sun-like* stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, has been incredibly difficult. Now, using the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument, astronomers have the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A.