Scientists are peering into the universe's mysterious Cosmic Dawn using the faint whispers of hydrogen radio waves emitted over 13 billion years ago. These signals, particularly the elusive 21-centimeter signal, offer rare insights into the masses and behavior of the universe’s first stars—Population III stars—whose light we can’t see directly. With projects like REACH and the upcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA), researchers are unlocking a cosmic treasure map, predicting how early starlight and powerful X-ray binaries influenced these signals. It’s a thrilling detective story unfolding not through images, but through the statistical patterns of ancient radiation.

A stunning breakthrough in solar physics reveals ultra-fine magnetic structures on the Sun's surface, thanks to the NSF's Inouye Solar Telescope. Researchers captured never-before-seen bright and dark stripes—called striations—within solar granules. These features behave like magnetic curtains rippling across the Sun, reshaping our understanding of magnetic field dynamics at microscopic scales. By achieving a resolution of just 20 kilometers, scientists could match real observations with simulations, revealing subtle magnetic fluctuations that alter how we see the solar surface. These discoveries illuminate not only solar activity but also magnetic behaviors in faraway cosmic environments, with implications for predicting space weather on Earth.

Astronomers have uncovered a colossal, searing-hot filament of gas linking four galaxy clusters in the Shapley Supercluster a discovery that could finally solve the mystery of the Universe s missing matter. This giant thread, 10 times the mass of the Milky Way and stretching 23 million light-years, is one of the best confirmations yet of what cosmological simulations have long predicted: that vast, faint filaments connect the Universe s largest structures in a cosmic web.

Astronomers have produced the most detailed map yet of the Sculptor Galaxy, revealing hundreds of previously unseen celestial features in stunning color and resolution. By combining over 50 hours of observations using the European Southern Observatory s Very Large Telescope, scientists captured a full-spectrum portrait that unravels the galaxy s stellar makeup in thousands of colors. This revolutionary technique offers an unprecedented look at the age, composition, and motion of stars and gas across the galaxy s vast 65,000-light-year span. Among the highlights are 500 newly identified planetary nebulae, glowing remnants of dying stars, which help pinpoint the galaxy s distance and open new windows into galactic evolution.

Astronomers have identified a new kind of cosmic explosion extreme nuclear transients so powerful they outshine typical supernovae by orders of magnitude and stay bright for years. Triggered when massive stars are torn apart by supermassive black holes, these rare events emit energy that challenges previous theories of stellar death.

When Apollo astronauts stumbled across shimmering orange beads on the moon, they had no idea they were gazing at ancient relics of violent volcanic activity. These glass spheres, tiny yet mesmerizing, formed billions of years ago during fiery eruptions that launched molten droplets skyward, instantly freezing in space. Now, using advanced instruments that didn't exist in the 1970s, scientists have examined the beads in unprecedented detail. The result is a remarkable window into the moon s dynamic geological history, revealing how eruption styles evolved and how lunar conditions once mirrored explosive events we see on Earth today.

For the first time in history, we re seeing the Sun from an angle no one ever has: from above and below its poles. Thanks to the European Space Agency s Solar Orbiter and its tilted orbit, scientists have captured groundbreaking images and data that are unlocking mysteries about the Sun s magnetic field, its puzzling 11-year cycle, and the powerful solar wind. Instruments aboard the spacecraft are already revealing strange, chaotic magnetic behavior near the Sun s south pole and tracking solar particles like never before. As the Orbiter climbs to even steeper viewing angles over the next few years, the secrets of our star may finally be within reach.

At the heart of our galaxy lies a cosmic puzzle: although the Galactic Center is packed with star-making material, massive stars form there surprisingly slowly. Using NASA's retired SOFIA observatory, scientists captured rare high-resolution infrared views that revealed dozens of new stars being born, but not in the numbers or sizes one might expect.

A cosmic particle detector in Antarctica has emitted a series of bizarre signals that defy the current understanding of particle physics, according to an international research group that includes scientists from Penn State. The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere.

AI has helped astronomers crack open some of the universe s best-kept secrets by analyzing massive datasets about black holes. Using over 12 million simulations powered by high-throughput computing, scientists discovered that the Milky Way's central black hole is spinning at nearly maximum speed. Not only did this redefine theories about black hole behavior, but it also showed that the emission is driven by hot electrons in the disk, not jets, challenging long-standing models.

Astronomers using ALMA have uncovered how gas and dust in planet-forming disks evolve separately an insight that reshapes our understanding of how different types of planets form. While dust lingers, gas dissipates quickly, narrowing the window for the formation of gas giants like Jupiter.

Data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has revealed dozens of small galaxies that played a starring role in a cosmic makeover that transformed the early universe into the one we know today.

Surveying nearby galaxies in the process of merging with other galaxies, astronomers have identified massive, dense star factories, unlike any found in the Milky Way. The findings provide a rare glimpse into processes shaping galaxies in the very early universe and possibly the Milky Way a few billion years from now.

NASA s CODEX experiment aboard the International Space Station is revealing the Sun like never before. Using advanced filters and a specialized coronagraph, CODEX has captured images showing that the solar wind streams of charged particles from the Sun is not a smooth, uniform flow but rather a turbulent, gusty outpouring of hot plasma. These groundbreaking observations will allow scientists to measure the speed and temperature of the solar wind with unprecedented detail, providing critical insights for space weather forecasting and understanding how solar activity impacts Earth and space technology.

Scientists have discovered a giant planet orbiting a tiny red dwarf star, something they believed wasn t even possible. The planet, TOI-6894b, is about the size of Saturn but orbits a star just a fifth the mass of our Sun. This challenges long-standing ideas about how big planets form, especially around small stars. Current theories can't fully explain how such a planet could have taken shape. Even more fascinating, this cold planet may have a rare kind of atmosphere rich in methane or even ammonia something we've never seen in an exoplanet before.

Astronomers have pulled off an unprecedented feat: detecting ultra-faint light from the Big Bang using ground-based telescopes. This polarized light scattered by the universe's very first stars over 13 billion years ago offers a new lens into the Cosmic Dawn. Overcoming extreme technical challenges, the CLASS team matched their data with satellite readings to isolate this ancient signal. These insights could reshape our understanding of the universe s early evolution, and what it reveals about mysterious components like dark matter and neutrinos.

By using a clever quantum approach that involves two "hands" on a clock one moving quickly and invisibly in the quantum world, the other more traditionally scientists have found a way to boost timekeeping precision dramatically. Even better, this trick doesn't require a matching increase in energy use. The discovery not only challenges long-held beliefs about how clocks and physics work, but could also lead to powerful new tools in science, technology, and beyond.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have captured breathtakingly detailed images of two giant exoplanets orbiting a distant sun-like star. These observations revealed sand-like silicate clouds in one planet s atmosphere and an unexpected disk around another that may be forming moons something previously seen only in much younger systems. These snapshots offer a rare chance to witness planet formation in real time, giving clues about how worlds like Jupiter and even our own solar system came to be.

A violent solar eruption on May 31 launched a coronal mass ejection (CME) hurtling toward Earth, triggering a rare G4-level geomagnetic storm alert. Captured in real-time by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory instruments, this cosmic blast has the potential to disrupt satellites, communications, and military systems.

A team of international astronomers has uncovered what may be a gas giant planet forming around a distant young star. Using the powerful Very Large Telescope in Chile, they captured dazzling near-infrared images of a spiral-armed disk, matching theoretical predictions of how young planets shape their environment. With structures extending beyond the scale of our solar system and evidence of planet-driven disturbances, the system could provide vital clues to how planetary systems, including our own, emerge.

Planets may begin forming much earlier than scientists once believed during the final stages of a star s birth, not afterward. This bold new model, backed by simulations from researchers at SwRI, could solve a long-standing mystery: why so many exoplanet systems have tight clusters of similarly sized planets orbiting close to their stars. These compact systems seem to emerge naturally if planets start forming amid the swirling chaos of gas and dust still feeding the star.

An international team of scientists has unveiled the largest and most detailed map of the universe ever created using the James Webb Space Telescope, revealing nearly 800,000 galaxies stretching back to almost the beginning of time. The COSMOS-Web project not only challenges long-held beliefs about galaxy formation in the early universe but also unexpectedly revealed 10 times more galaxies than anticipated along with supermassive black holes Hubble couldn t see.

Astronomers have revealed new research showing that millions of new solar system objects are likely to be detected by a brand-new facility, which is expected to come online later this year.

Supermassive black holes might naturally replicate the colossal energies of man-made particle colliders possibly even revealing dark matter offering a cosmic shortcut to discoveries that would otherwise take decades and billions to pursue.

Scientists have identified a new source of energetic particles near the Sun. These definitive observations were made by instruments aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which detected the powerful phenomena as the spacecraft dipped in and out of the solar corona.