Astrophysics

Private group unveils plans for large space telescope

January 8, 2026

PHOENIX — A billionaire-backed philanthropic organization is funding the development of a series of new observatories, including a…

SSpace

James Webb Space Telescope image showing a broad area of space with many small galaxies, four of which are highlighted in pull-out boxes. The four highlighted galaxies are very small, appearing as points of light. Black areas of the overall image indicate where the telescope did not collect data - a vertical section in the center and a square in the lower left corner.

January 6, 2026

After combing through NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s archive of sweeping extragalactic cosmic fields, a small team of…

SScience

A region of space is filled with stars and clumps of glowing orange and tan dust. A small portion of the sky at the center of the image is outlined with a white box. Lines extend from the corner of the box to the inset panel at the top right showing a magnified version of the outlined portion of the image. In the inset, there are smatterings of dim whitish-blueish stars and about seven glowing red orbs across the center in a line. Also across the center of the inset is a green glow. The background of the image is filled with stars and galaxies of various shapes and colors.

January 6, 2026

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted two rare kinds of dust in the dwarf galaxy…

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An illustration of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, its companion star, and a dusty wake. The disk of a red-orange star is in the center. It is surrounded by a diffuse orange cloud representing its extended atmosphere. Below it about one stellar diameter away is a yellow dot representing a smaller companion star. From the companion, a dark red cloud wraps around in a counterclockwise direction. It begins very narrow and expands as it gets further from the companion, finally disappearing at the outer edge of the diffuse orange cloud around 10 ou2019clock. The words u201cartistu2019s conceptu201d are at lower right.

January 5, 2026

Using new observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories, astronomers tracked the influence of a recently…

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This artist’s concept depicts a smaller white dwarf star pulling material from a larger star, right, into an accretion disk. Earlier this year, scientists used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) to study a white dwarf star and its X-ray polarization.

January 5, 2026

By Michael Allen For the first time, scientists have used NASA’s IXPE (Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer) to study a…

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A region of space mostly filled with background galaxies, with one prominent star at upper left. A large blob of purple haze occupies much of the field. Within the purple region, an unremarkable area is outlined with a dashed white circle.

January 5, 2026

A team using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object — a starless,…

SScience

$This release features a composite image of a galaxy cluster first discovered on New Year's Eve day, 2020. The cluster appears here as a large collection of brilliant white lights, each a distinct galaxy. A neon purple cloud stretches across the cluster's crowded core. Many of the hundred-plus galaxies in the cluster are in two clumps of galaxies towards the top and bottom of center. Some are encircled by a faint glowing haze, while a few foreground stars gleam with diffraction spikes. Some of the smaller galaxies are tinted blue, orange, or red, and some appear more oblong than round, suggesting spiral shapes viewed edge-on. The neon purple cloud sits at the heart of the image, surrounding the most densely-packed part of the cluster. This cloud, which spreads vertically across the cluster, is multimillion-degree gas observed by Chandra. The two clumps of observable galaxies, and the spread of superheated gas, reveal that the Champagne Cluster is in fact two clusters in the process of colliding. With the two clusters of sparkling light clinking together, and the auspicious discovery date, astronomers have dubbed the merged cosmic structure "The Champagne Cluster".$

December 30, 2025

Celebrate the New Year with the “Champagne Cluster,” a galaxy cluster seen in this new image from NASA’s…

SSpace

A grainy orange oval ring tilts slightly from upper right to lower left.

December 27, 2025

Like a game of cosmic bumper cars, scientists think the early days of our solar system were a…

SSpace

$Near the center is an object that resembles an edge-on view of a hamburger. There is a diagonal dark strip (the meat patty) of dust, running from 1 o'clock to 7 o'clock, that obscures a central star. Curving away from either side of the dark strip are glowing white clouds (the buns) where dust is reflecting starlight. Bright blue finger-like wisps of material extend far above and below the dark center plane. A few dozen stars, some with four diffraction spikes, are scattered on the black background of space.$