14 articles
New research proposes that Sagittarius A*, the supermassive object at the Milky Way's center, might not be a black hole but a dense concentration of dark matter. Future observations of its photon ring could reveal the truth.
Interstellar visitor 3I/ATLAS has revealed surprising details about its composition and behavior. Passing near the Sun, it exhibited intense outgassing and color changes, and was confirmed by radio telescopes to be a water-rich comet, not an artificial object. Its unique chemistry suggests it has been "cooked" by cosmic rays over billions of years.
Could CERN's Large Hadron Collider create a doomsday black hole? While theoretically possible under certain speculative physics, the scientific consensus and evidence suggest the risks are vanishingly small, with microscopic black holes likely evaporating instantly or having negligible gravitational impact.
Astronomers have discovered the largest known rotating structure in the universe, a colossal cosmic web filament spanning 50 million light-years. This discovery challenges current models of galaxy evolution and suggests the cosmic web plays a more significant role than previously thought.
LIGO's latest observations of a black hole merger, GW250114, provide the strongest evidence yet for Stephen Hawking's 1971 area theorem. The data confirms that the surface area of the resulting black hole was greater than the sum of the areas of the merging black holes, validating a key prediction about these cosmic enigmas.
Scientists have detected a powerful coronal mass ejection from a distant star for the first time, offering new insights into stellar activity and planetary habitability. Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope faces record proposal submissions, and new research suggests interstellar comets may be altered by cosmic radiation.
Researchers have developed an AI-powered simulation that models the Milky Way's 100 billion stars 113 times faster than previous methods. This breakthrough dramatically accelerates galactic simulations by using neural networks to predict supernova impacts, reducing a 36-year run time to just 115 days.
New simulations suggest that direct collapse black holes, a theorized rapid formation pathway, may explain the existence of supermassive black holes in the early universe. Evidence comes from matching JWST spectral data.
2025 has been a banner year for astronomy, with breakthroughs ranging from averted asteroid threats to the first images from the Rubin Observatory and tantalizing hints of life on exoplanet K2-18b. The year's top discovery was the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas, offering unique insights into alien solar systems.
The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered enigmatic "platypus galaxies" in the early universe. These objects exhibit unusual spectral properties, challenging current models of galaxy formation and potentially revealing new insights into quasar activity or the birth of the very first galaxies.
