A rocky exoplanet with an atmosphere

Astronomers have spotted a rocky exoplanet that looks likely to have an atmosphere — and could be a host for life. The planet, LHS 1140b, appears to have a helium-rich upper atmosphere and sits in the habitable zone around a star, the area in which an orbiting planet could maintain liquid water on its surface. Researchers can’t say for sure whether there is water on the exoplanet, but the findings constitute an “amazing missing piece of the puzzle” as to whether rocky exoplanets can have atmospheres, says astrophysicist Sara Seager.

Maya glyph names maths powerhouse

A mathematical formula inscribed on a wall at the Maya site of Xultun in Guatemala has revealed the name of an important Maya mathematician-astronomer. Sak Tahn Waax, or ‘White-Chested Fox’, was a scholar comparable with mathematical giants of the past, researchers suggest. The calculations inscribed in this set of hieroglyphs expresses the relationships between several calendar systems in a playful manner that hasn’t been seen before in Mayan texts, says archaeologist and study co-author Heather Hurst. “I think it was a mathematical flex,” she says.

First ‘true sugar’ molecule found in space — offering hints to life’s origins

Astronomers have detected a four-carbon sugar molecule in a cloud of gas and dust near the centre of our galaxy. The molecule, erythrulose, is the most complex sugar detected outside of our Solar System, the team says. If erythrulose exists in these molecular clouds, it could be transferred to passing asteroids and comets as a star system forms. Such bodies could have brought sugars — the feedstock for early versions of DNA and RNA — to Earth during a period of heavy asteroid bombardment around four billion years ago, suggests astronomer and study co-author Izaskun Jiménez-Serra.

‘Super-puff’ planets lighter than candy floss

Data from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission has revealed two super-rare, ‘super-puff’ planets. Though as big as Jupiter, TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c “have densities comparable to a nice blob of shaving foam, fresh from the can,” says astrophysicist George Dransfield.

Visiting comet formed in Universe’s infancy

An unusual comet that shot through the Solar System last year — and tempted some to dabble in the idea that it was an alien spaceship — could have formed as long as 12 billion years ago. From the chemical composition of the comet, 3I/ATLAS, researchers estimate that it formed relatively early in the history of the Universe, after an intense period of star formation. Gathering data on more interstellar objects — those that aren’t tied to an orbit and can ‘wander’ the galaxy — could “totally revolutionise what we know about the field of interstellar comets, but also star and planet formation in general”, says planetary scientist Darryl Seligman.

Clouds stream on distant exoplanet

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe a far-off planet in stunning detail, just by studying the tiny fraction of the light from its star that is filtered through the planet’s atmosphere. The team found that thick clouds continuously form on the night side of WASP-94 A b, which is 210 parsecs (690 light years) away from Earth. As winds carry the clouds from the cool night side to the lit day side, they quickly dissipate. The results show how tiny differences in starlight’s spectrum between the start, middle and end of a planet’s transit in front of its star can improve researchers' understanding of planetary atmospheres.

Galileo’s handwritten notes found in ancient astronomy text

Around 1590, Galileo Galilei filled the margins of a copy of Ptolemy’s The Almagest with his musings — and they have just been rediscovered. Historian Ivan Malara recognized the storied astronomer’s handwriting in the book, which was held in a library in Florence. The contents, including a transcribed psalm, could shed light on the intellectual origins of Galileo’s groundbreaking view of the Solar System.

Strange lemon-shaped exoplanet defies the rules of planet formation

The exoplanet PSR J2322-2650b is a place of unimaginable weirdness. It takes just 7.8 hours to orbit its star, which is an ultra-dense pulsar that spins almost 300 times per second. The star’s intense gravity pulls PSR J2322-2650b into a lemon shape. And the planet’s atmosphere seems to contain unexpected molecules of carbon. “You can imagine that this planet would look deep red, with clouds of graphite in the atmosphere,” says discoverer Michael Zhang. “I would say it’s definitely the weirdest exoplanet.”

Surprise ‘tail’ found on an iconic galaxy may rewrite its history

In the first test image from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, astronomers have spotted a ‘tail’ on the galaxy Messier 61 — a thread of stars called a stellar stream. Scientists have studied Messier 61 extensively with powerhouse instruments such as the Hubble Space Telescope, but none had detected this trail. Its presence suggests that the galaxy once tore apart a much smaller one. The power of Rubin, which contains the largest-ever digital camera, leads astronomers to hope that this finding is only an appetizer for observations to come.

Biggest black-hole outburst ever seen records death throes of a star

Scientists have described a ‘superflare’ from a distant black hole — the most luminous burst of light ever detected from such an object. At its peak, the blaze shone more than 10 trillion times brighter than the Sun and was probably triggered by the black hole’s gravity shredding a star that was at least 30 times as massive as the Sun. The flash also seems to be the farthest ever detected at roughly 10 billion light years away from our Solar System.

Surprise meteorite debris uncovered on Moon’s far side

Fragments of a rare type of meteorite have been discovered in the first samples from the Moon’s far side, brought back by China’s Chang’e-6 mission last year. The debris resembles material from asteroids that carry dust pre-dating the Solar System, so analysing it could help to trace how asteroids seeded Earth with volatile compounds, including water.

Mysterious cosmic ‘dots’ are baffling astronomers

The mysterious ‘little red dots’ (LRDs) seen in images of the early universe captured by the James Webb Space Telescope are probably a brand-new type of celestial object, astronomers have tentatively agreed. Researchers now believe these ‘rubies’ to be a hybrid of a black hole and a star: an active black hole wrapped in a cocoon of hot, dense gas that glows as the black hole warms it. Armed with this theory, astronomers are turning to figuring out how LRDs form, how they evolve and whether they still exist in the modern universe.

Wind from Earth is rusting the Moon

Oxygen particles blown from Earth to the Moon can turn lunar minerals into haematite — otherwise known as rust. The particles are carried in ‘Earth wind’ — a gust of ions of elements such as hydrogen, nitrogen and the offending oxygen — which hits the Moon for around five days each month. Researchers simulated the process by pelting single crystals of iron-rich minerals known to exist on the Moon with ions of oxygen, which caused the crystals to transform into haematite.

Uranus has a new moon

Astronomers have used the power of NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to discover a tiny new moon orbiting Uranus. S/2025 U1 is just 10 kilometres or so across. The distant ice giant now has 29 known moons. “No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus,” says astronomer Matthew Tiscareno, who co-discovered the new body. “Their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons.”

New method reveals perhaps the most massive black hole yet spotted

Astronomers have detected what could be the most massive black hole found yet. It has a mass 36 billion times greater than that of the Sun and lies at the centre of a galaxy around 5 billion light years from Earth. To gauge the mass of a black hole so far away, researchers had to devise a new technique, which relies on light emitted by the matter being sucked inside. It works, but “relies on a lot of assumptions”, says astrophysicist Carlos Melo-Carneiro. As such, astronomers can’t determine the object’s exact mass with much certainty.

Planet spotted in its star’s Goldilocks zone

Astronomers have caught a glimpse of what could be a nearby planet in its star’s habitable zone — the ‘just right’ region where life could flourish. The planet, which appears as no more than a bright smudge on images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, is circling Alpha Centauri A, just 4 light years from Earth. Because it’s a gas giant, researchers aren’t holding their breath for life on this planet, but its moons could be habitable, they say.

Astronomers crack 1,000-year-old Betelgeuse mystery with 1st-ever sighting of secret companion

This dim blue smudge next to the bright orange of Betelgeuse is the iconic star’s stellar companion. Betelgeuse’s brightness varies roughly every six years, leading astronomers to guess that it was being blocked by a dimmer partner in an incredibly tight orbit. But “papers that predicted Betelgeuse’s companion believed that no one would likely ever be able to image it”, says space scientist Steve Howell. Now the smaller star has been detected for the first time using ‘speckle imaging’ by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, which uses short exposure times to remove the distortions in images caused by Earth’s atmosphere.

Birth of a solar system caught ‘on camera’ for first time

Astronomers have spotted a solar system beyond our own in its very earliest stages of formation. Using both ground- and space-based telescopes, the team zeroed in on the young star, named HOPS-315, at the start of its planet-forming era. The baby star was at just the right orientation for astronomers to get a glimpse of its surrounding disk of gas and dust, which is usually obscured by jets of gas pumped out by newborn stars. Researchers have long sought such a system to help them understand the humble beginnings of our own.

Monster black hole merger is biggest ever seen

The biggest ever merger of colliding black holes involved holes that were too massive to have formed from collapsing stars. And the holes were spinning about 40 times per second — near the limit of what Einstein’s general theory of relativity allows. These ‘forbidden’ high-mass black holes might have been the product of an earlier merger. It’s like “four grandparents merging into two parents merging into one baby black hole”, says physicist Alan Weinstein.

Exoplanets that cling too tightly to their stars trigger their own doom

A young exoplanet called HIP 67522 b orbits its host star so tightly that it’s slowly destroying itself. The planet whips around the star in under 10 days, releasing waves of magnetic energy as it goes. When these bursts of energy hit the star, they trigger a flare that fires a huge dose of radiation back at the planet, stripping away some of the planet’s atmosphere each time. The findings are the first recorded instance of a planet magnetically influencing the behaviour of its star.