Phys.org Astronomy News

  • Mysterious gas 'bullets' race from Milky Way's only known helium nova at up to 20 million mph
    on July 21, 2026 at 11:00 pm

    Mysterious high-speed "bullets"—clumps of possibly oxygen-rich gas traveling at up to 20 million miles per hour—have been discovered shooting out of the rarest stellar explosion in our galaxy.

  • New technique enables LIGO to peer farther into the distant universe
    on July 21, 2026 at 10:30 pm

    Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, have developed a new way to help gravitational-wave observatories see farther into the universe by solving one of their biggest challenges: tiny heat-induced distortions in the massive mirrors at the heart of the detectors.

  • Black hole jet may be stirring gas cloud containing early 'red potato' galaxy
    on July 21, 2026 at 10:20 pm

    A black hole may be stirring a "pot" of gas containing a neighboring galaxy in the early universe, according to a new study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics that used observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The galaxy slowly being "cooked" is named MQN01 J004131.9-493704, but astronomers have nicknamed it the "red potato" because of its appearance in images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

  • New simulation challenges leading explanation for why galaxies stop forming stars
    on July 21, 2026 at 8:50 pm

    For decades, astronomers have cast galaxy mergers as the universe's ultimate relationship drama: two galaxies collide, chaos erupts, black holes awaken and star formation comes to a screeching halt. Upending this long-held belief, new research from Florida International University suggests most galaxies don't "die" in spectacular cosmic pileups after all.

  • Jellyfish nebula may be the scene of two stars going supernova
    on July 21, 2026 at 8:30 pm

    The star that formed the Jellyfish nebula may have had a partner star that exploded 100,000 years earlier, according to international researchers, who say that this may be the first known discovery of a binary star system in which both stars have gone supernova.

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