Nebulae News

August 26, 2025

Top Headlines

A Star Torn Apart by a Black Hole Lit Up the Universe Twice

Aug. 22, 2025 — Astronomers using AI have captured a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event: a massive star’s violent death triggered by its black hole companion. The explosion, known as SN 2023zkd, not only produced a brilliant supernova but also shocked scientists by ...

World’s Largest Camera Just Snapped the Universe in 3,200 Megapixels

June 27, 2025 — The LSST camera at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory has released its jaw-dropping first images, each capturing 45 times the area of the full moon in one shot. Over the next ten years, this cosmic giant will scan the southern sky in ultra-HD, helping ...

Webb Reveals the Surprising Origin of Ultra-hot Exoplanet WASP-121b

June 2, 2025 — WASP-121b may have been born in a frozen zone and later migrated into its current inferno-like orbit. A surprise discovery of methane in the wrong place suggests intense vertical winds are reshaping how we understand planetary ...

Understanding Why Galaxy Clusters Are Warm May Explain the Origin of Giant Interstellar Structures

May 29, 2025 — Astronomers have explained how a galaxy cluster maintains its heat, despite emitting X-rays that cool the hot gas at its center. The group discovered the existence of a fast-moving, high-temperature ...

'Raindrops in the Sun's Corona': New Adaptive Optics Shows Stunning Details of Our Star's Atmosphere

May 27, 2025 — Scientists have produced the finest images of the Sun's corona to date. To make these high-resolution images and movies, the team developed a new 'coronal adaptive optics' system that removes blur ...

Why Are Some Rocks on the Moon Highly Magnetic?

May 23, 2025 — Scientists may have solved the mystery of why the moon shows ancient signs of magnetism although it has no magnetic field today. An impact, such as from a large asteroid, could have generated a cloud of ionized particles that briefly enveloped the ...

Unveiling the Secrets of Planet Formation in Environments of High UV Radiation

May 21, 2025 — Even under intense ultraviolet radiation from giant stars, the raw ingredients for planets can endure. Using Webb s powerful infrared eyes, astronomers examined a young star in the Lobster Nebula and ...

Gas Location Drives Star Formation in Distant Galaxies

May 21, 2025 — In the intriguing realm of star-forming galaxies, the key factor isn't the total amount of gas but rather its strategic distribution within the ...

Not One, but Two Massive Black Holes Are Eating Away at This Galaxy

May 19, 2025 — Astronomers searching for massive black holes shredding stars found one in an unusual place -- 2,600 light years from the core of a galaxy. The roque black hole may be from an earlier merger with another galaxy, or have been tossed out of the core ...

Streaked Slopes on Mars Probably Not Signs of Water Flow, Study Finds

May 19, 2025 — Researchers analyzed a global database of 500,000 strange streaks that occur on steep Martian slopes, concluding that they're most likely caused by dry processes rather than liquid ...

Stretched in a Cross Pattern: Our Neighboring Galaxy Is Pulled in Two Axes

May 16, 2025 — Researchers have discovered that Cepheid variable stars in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, are moving in opposing directions along two distinct axes. They found that stars closer to Earth move towards the northeast, while more ...

A Multitude of Protoplanetary Discs Detected in the Galactic Centre

May 15, 2025 — Using new observations with the ALMA telescope array in Chile, researchers have compiled the most precise map of three regions in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone to date, providing valuable information on how stars form in that ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:16pm EDT

How Did a Planet This Big Form Around a Star This Small?

Aug. 26, 2025 — Astronomers have discovered a giant Saturn-sized planet orbiting TOI-6894, the smallest star ever known to host such a world. The finding overturns long-held theories suggesting that tiny, low-mass ...

These Asteroids Share a Strange Fingerprint from Billions of Years Ago

Aug. 23, 2025 — Scientists studying asteroids found that two seemingly unrelated types share a strange dusty coating of troilite. By using polarization of light instead of traditional spectra, they uncovered ...

Mysterious “little Red Dots” Could Reveal How the First Black Holes Formed

Aug. 22, 2025 — Astronomers may have uncovered the origins of the mysterious “little red dots,” some of the strangest galaxies seen in the early universe. These ...

Astronomers Uncover Enormous Bubble Bigger Than Our Solar System

Aug. 21, 2025 — A giant bubble of gas and dust surrounds the red supergiant DFK 52, likely created in a powerful outburst 4,000 years ago. Astronomers are baffled at how the star survived without going supernova, ...

Astronomers Stunned by the Strangest Supernova Ever Seen

Aug. 21, 2025 — Scientists have identified a never-before-seen supernova, SN2021yfj, which exploded after losing nearly all of its outer layers. Instead of light elements, it revealed silicon and sulfur from deep ...

How Hidden Cosmic Highways Feed the Universe’s Biggest Stars

Aug. 21, 2025 — Massive stars have always puzzled scientists—how do they grow so quickly despite fierce radiation pushing material away? New high-resolution ALMA observations suggest that instead of relying solely ...

Stunning Galaxy Blooms With Pink Nebulae in Hubble’s New Image

Aug. 20, 2025 — Hubble’s newest view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2835 adds a stunning twist to a familiar sight. By capturing light in a special wavelength called H-alpha, astronomers have revealed glowing pink ...

Hubble Just Snapped the Clearest-Ever Picture of a Rare Interstellar Comet

Aug. 19, 2025 — Hubble has taken the clearest image to date of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which is racing through our solar system at 130,000 miles per hour. Astronomers are using Hubble and other telescopes ...

Scientists May Have Finally Found the Universe’s Missing Sulfur

Aug. 19, 2025 — For decades, scientists have puzzled over why so little sulfur appears in space, even though it is one of the most common elements in the universe and vital to life. A new study suggests that the ...

The Disappearing Planet Next Door Has Astronomers Intrigued

Aug. 14, 2025 — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected strong evidence for a giant planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, the nearest Sun-like star to Earth. Located just 4 light-years away, this possible ...

Hubble Captures a Wild Star-Birthing Storm 160,000 Light-Years Away

Aug. 11, 2025 — Hubble’s latest portrait of the Tarantula Nebula reveals a turbulent star-making region far beyond the Milky Way. Located 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, this cosmic expanse ...

Hubble Just Exposed a Rare and Violent Star Collision

Aug. 7, 2025 — Hubble has helped uncover a white dwarf that’s likely the result of two stars crashing together. Carbon traces in its atmosphere tell a story of a cosmic merger, a rare phenomenon previously ...

‘Bridge’ of Stray Stars Reveals Two Massive Galaxies Tearing Each Other Apart

Aug. 6, 2025 — Astronomers have discovered a ghostly, million-light-year-long bridge of stars connecting two massive galaxies within the Abell 3667 cluster, 700 million light-years away. This glowing thread of ...

Baby Star Fires a Jet, Then Gets Blasted by the Fallout

Aug. 7, 2025 — Astronomers have stumbled upon an incredible cosmic chain reaction: a young star launched a high-speed jet that ignited an explosion, creating a massive bubble in space that is now slamming back into ...

This Star Survived Its Own Supernova and Shined Even Brighter

Aug. 4, 2025 — In a spectacular image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the spiral galaxy NGC 1309 glows with cosmic elegance and hides a strange ...

Scientists Just Recreated the Universe’s First Molecule and Solved a 13-Billion-Year-Old Puzzle

Aug. 3, 2025 — Long before stars lit up the sky, the universe was a hot, dense place where simple chemistry quietly set the stage for everything to come. Scientists have now recreated the first molecule ever to ...

Astronomers Detect Life’s Building Blocks Around a Young Star

Aug. 2, 2025 — Astronomers using ALMA have discovered complex organic molecules, including potential precursors to life's building blocks, in the protoplanetary disc of a young star, V883 Orionis. This finding ...

NASA and Japan’s XRISM Just Found Sulfur Hiding Between the Stars

Aug. 6, 2025 — An international team of scientists have provided an unprecedented tally of elemental sulfur spread between the stars using data from the Japan-led XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) ...

Betelgeuse’s Hidden Companion Star Found After Centuries of Searching

Aug. 13, 2025 — Astronomers have finally confirmed the existence of a long-suspected companion star orbiting Betelgeuse, the iconic red supergiant in Orion. Using the advanced 'Alopeke speckle imager on the ...

Astronomers Capture Giant Planet Forming 440 Light-Years from Earth

July 23, 2025 — Astronomers have likely witnessed a planet forming in real time, seen inside a spiral arm of the HD 135344B protoplanetary disc—exactly where theory predicted. The direct light detection is what ...

Hubble Caught a Star Exploding — and It’s Helping Map the Cosmos

July 25, 2025 — In the sprawling Hydra constellation, 137 million light-years away, lies NGC 3285B—a dazzling spiral galaxy recently spotlighted by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. This cosmic beauty orbits the ...

NASA’s Roman Telescope Will Catch 100,000 Explosions — and Rewrite the Universe’s Story

July 22, 2025 — NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is set to embark on a deep-sky survey that could capture nearly 100,000 cosmic explosions, shedding light on everything from dark energy to black hole physics. Its ...

Astronomers Just Witnessed Planets Being Born Around a Baby Star 1300 Light-Years Away

July 20, 2025 — Astronomers have, for the first time, observed the very beginning of planet formation around a star beyond our Solar System. Using the James Webb Space Telescope and ALMA, researchers detected hot ...

NASA’s IXPE Tracked a Rare Pulsar—and Found an Unexpected Power Source

July 20, 2025 — Astronomers studying a rare neutron star system have uncovered a surprising source of powerful X-rays. Using NASA s IXPE telescope and data from other observatories, an international team found that ...

Ghost Particles May Secretly Decide the Fate of Collapsing Stars

July 28, 2025 — Neutrinos, ghostly particles barely interacting with matter, may secretly be reshaping the fates of massive stars. New research suggests that as stars collapse, they form natural "neutrino ...

Hubble Cracks Open a Glittering Cosmic Time Capsule, Revealing Multi-Generational Stars 160,000 Light-Years Away

July 14, 2025 — Hubble’s crystal-clear look at NGC 1786—an ancient globular cluster tucked inside the Large Magellanic Cloud—pulls us 160,000 light-years from Earth and straight into a cosmic time machine. ...

It Looked Like Nothing—then Scientists Found a World 10x the Size of Jupiter

July 14, 2025 — Astronomers have uncovered a massive, hidden exoplanet nestled in the dusty disc of a young star—MP Mus—by combining cutting-edge data from the ALMA observatory and ESA’s Gaia mission. ...

This Interstellar Comet May Be a Frozen Relic from Before the Sun

July 11, 2025 — A newly discovered comet, 3I/ATLAS, may be the most ancient visitor ever detected, potentially older than our solar system itself. Unlike previous interstellar objects, this ice-rich comet seems to ...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Finds Hidden Barrier That Explains the Sun’s Mysterious Heat

Aug. 2, 2025 — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has flown closer to the Sun than ever before, offering the first direct glimpse into the turbulent solar atmosphere. Scientists have discovered that a phenomenon called ...

Big-Bang Echoes Unmask a Billion-Light-Year Hole Around Earth—and It’s Stretching Space Faster

July 15, 2025 — Our galaxy may reside in a billion-light-year-wide cosmic bubble that accelerates local expansion, potentially settling the long-running Hubble tension. Galaxy counts reveal a sparsely populated ...