Research

For years, astronomers have hunted for Population III (Pop III) stars. These are the first stars ever born, composed *only* of the hydrogen and helium left over from the Big Bang. They were massive, lived short, violent lives, and died out long ago. Now, a team led by Ari Visbal believes they've spotted their signature in a distant galaxy called LAP1-B, and it's the first candidate to match all theoretical predictions.

Johns Hopkins researchers may have identified a compelling clue in the ongoing hunt to prove the existence of dark matter. A mysterious diffuse glow of gamma rays near the center of the Milky Way has stumped researchers for decades. Now, new research published in Physical Review Letters suggests two leading theories—colliding dark matter particles or rapidly spinning neutron stars—are equally likely to be the cause.

Astronomers have captured the clearest picture yet of how massive stars are born. A team led by Dr. Qizhou Zhang from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to conduct the largest and most detailed survey to date of magnetic fields in 17 regions where clusters of massive stars are forming.

For twenty years, two European spacecraft have been watching the red planet. Now, by combing through their vast archives, scientists have done something remarkable: they've created the first global map of Martian "dust devils," the tornado-like whirlwinds that sculpt the planet's surface. The findings, published in Science Advances, track over a thousand of these twisters, revealing a dynamic weather system with winds far faster than we ever expected.

Astronomers from Australia and Serbia have performed multi-band photometric observations of a binary star known as V717 Andromedae, finding it to be an active, low-mass-ratio contact binary system. The research, published on the arXiv preprint server, provides the first detailed look at this fascinating system, where two stars are locked in an extreme gravitational dance.

First discovered by NASA's Parker Solar Probe near the sun, magnetic "switchbacks" are S-shaped kinks in magnetic field lines. Now, researchers analyzing data from the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission have observed a switchback-shaped structure in Earth's own magnetic field.

Not all stars are created equally. The first stars after the Big Bang were made almost purely of hydrogen and helium. Each successive generation was forged from the ashes of the last, becoming progressively richer in heavier elements. Now, astronomers led by Alexander Ji believe they have found the most "pristine" star on record—SDSS J0715-7334—a red giant that offers an unprecedented window into the universe's infancy.

In the hunt for extraterrestrial life, astronomers are looking beyond sun-like stars to a surprising candidate: white dwarfs, the hot, dense remnants of dead stars. While these stellar embers have habitable zones, it was thought that gravitational nudges from nearby planets would trigger lethal tidal heating. However, new simulations show that Einstein's theory of general relativity can stabilize these worlds, preserving their oceans and their potential for life.

Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2) is a titan of star formation, a dense cloud near our galactic center churning out new stars at a furious pace. Using the unprecedented power of the James Webb Space Telescope's infrared eyes, astronomers have pierced through the obscuring dust to get their clearest view yet of this stellar nursery, revealing hidden structures and challenging previous assumptions about how stars form in extreme environments.

Textbook illustrations often depict rocky planets with neat, uniform layers: a crust, mantle, and core. But for Mars, the reality is far messier. Seismic data from NASA's InSight lander has uncovered a chunky interior, where fragments from colossal, planet-forming impacts are still preserved like geological fossils, giving us a unique glimpse into the chaotic first 100 million years of the solar system.