Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

Webb reveals black hole that formed before its galaxy

Using the unprecedented imaging and spectroscopic power of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers have mapped the motion and composition of gas orbiting a black hole in the centre of Abell2744-QSO1, a tiny galaxy more than 13 billion light-years away. The results suggest that the 50-million-solar-mass black hole predates its host galaxy, possibly forming within the first second of the Big Bang, and must have been immense from the start.
 
Something Just Passed Between Us and a Distant Star.

On the night of 18 December 2019, a star in our satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, briefly got brighter. Not dramatically nor explosively, just a smooth symmetrical rise and fall in brightness lasting about an hour, as though something had passed in front of it and bent its light toward us. Then it returned to normal and was never seen to vary again.

That something has been named Phoebe. And working out what it actually is turns out to be one of the most intriguing puzzles in modern astronomy. The phenomenon at the heart of the story is called gravitational microlensing and it’s one of the most elegant predictions of Einstein's general theory of relativity. When a massive compact object passes between us and a distant star, its gravity acts like a lens, briefly magnifying the star's light in a very characteristic way. The shape of the brightening is distinctive and entirely unlike anything produced by a variable star, a flare, or an asteroid.
 
Weighing newborn planets using their dusty fingerprints

A team of astronomers, led by University of Warwick in collaboration with researchers at MIT and McMaster, have developed a novel method to use the properties of dust rings around stars to estimate the masses of newborn planets. Published in The Astrophysical Journal, this research offers astronomers a new way to find and characterise planets that are too deeply embedded in their birth environment to be seen directly.
Scientists show how baby stars’ cradles get their radial shape

The universe is full of fascinating structures, and some of the most striking take shape inside the giant clouds where stars are born. There, streams of gas appear to converge from all directions toward a dense central hub, like spokes meeting at the center of a wheel.

Now, researchers from Kyushu University and Nagoya University have used 3D computer simulations to reveal the physics behind these elegant structures. The study was published in March 2026 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
 
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View: https://twitter.com/NASASpaceAlerts/status/2060854183155106193


#MeteorSighting: Eyewitnesses in New England and @NOAA’s GOES-19 satellite reported a bright fireball on Saturday, May 30, at 2:06 p.m EDT accompanied by a loud noise. The meteor appears to have fragmented at an altitude of 40 miles over northeast MA and southeast NH. The energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 300 tons of TNT, which accounts for the loud noise.

Eyewitness accounts supplied by the American Meteor Society.

View: https://youtu.be/r0KkMEWlEgg
 
'Mini-Neptune' exoplanets may have smoggy atmospheres similar to diesel exhaust

The astronauts circling Earth on the Artemis mission sent back beautiful clear photos of the continents, clouds, and oceans. But we might be the exception. Many planets in the universe may be hazed in clouds of soot, according to a new study by University of Chicago scientists. Their analysis explains a curious trend seen by astronomers training telescopes on distant planets beyond our own solar system. Many of these worlds had atmospheres that returned strangely featureless readings.
 
Daytime fireball captured over Mechanicville, New York

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV64n7QA7h8


Jun 1, 2026
A fireball was captured by a home camera system streaking over Mechanicville, New York on May 30, 2026.

UPDATE:
@NASA can confirm a fireball over New England at 2:06 p.m. EDT on Saturday, May 30, 2026. The meteor was about 5 feet (1.6 meters) in diameter with a mass of 5.6 metric tons and entered Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 42,000 mph.

The meteor traveled through the atmosphere from northwest to southeast for 26 miles before breaking up at an altitude of 31 miles and producing a meteorite fall into Cape Cod Bay.

Based on the latest data, the energy released at breakup is estimated to be equivalent to about 230 tons of TNT, which accounts for the sonic boom.

View: https://twitter.com/NASASpaceAlerts/status/2061542998844887048
 
A Surprising Phenomenon Found In NASA Data From Mars

Data beamed back from Mars by the NASA spacecraft MAVEN provides the first evidence that a phenomenon protecting planets from solar winds can occur in the atmospheres of worlds that lack strong magnetic fields, according to research led by West Virginia University planetary scientist Christopher Fowler.
 
Can space-time crystallise? From Anton Petrov:


0:00 Can spacetime crystallize?
0:35 So what is this then?
1:55 Let's define the main terms and phenomena: spacetime
2:30 Crystals
2:55 Spacetime crystal
3:50 Previous challenges and propositions
5:10 Main achievement in the study
6:10 What does any of this mean for us?
7:10 Solving singularity and quantum gravity?
8:05 Explaining dark matter?
8:45 JWST observations
9:28 Any proof? Gravitational waves!
11:55 Conclusions
 
A high-altitude 0.3KT meteor explosion over Massachusetts:


On Saturday, a 0.3 kiloton equivalent explosion in the atmosphere offshore of Massachusetts created a powerful shockwave that was heard and felt by millions. This was not human caused, but rather due to a small asteroid exploding in the mesosphere. Today's video discusses the meteor/bolide, and if it has any relation to similar recent events in New York and South Carolina last week.​
Estimates on asteroid diameter, frequency of similar or larger magnitude events in terms of energy release, and tnt energy equivalent were sourced using the calculator at https://impact.ese.ic.ac.uk/ImpactEar..., which was used with permission.​
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...s.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode&v=wEz5DhiVzD4
Sources/Citations:
[1] NASA
[2] Planetary Science
[3] NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
[4] U.S. Geological Survey
[5] Collins, Gareth & Lynch, Elliot & McAdam, Ronan & Davison, Thomas. (2017). A numerical assessment of simple airblast models of impact airbursts. Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 52. 10.1111/maps.12873., CC BY 4.0.
0:00 0.3 Kiloton Explosion
0:51 Meteor Speed
1:21 Meteor Composition
2:02 Meteor Size
2:31 Apparent Magnitude
2:51 Event Rarity
3:25 South Carolina & New York Events
 
Rare meteorite provides evidence of giant early planet

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, a massive world, possibly as big as the moon or even Mars, orbited our sun before crashing into another celestial body and shattering into rubble.

Now, in a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists report the first definitive evidence that this lost planetary embryo, or protoplanet, existed. Its unique geological makeup challenges long-held assumptions about how planets evolve.
 
More meteorite impacts in Cape Cod:


On Saturday, a 0.23 kiloton equivalent explosion occurred offshore and far above Masscahusetts, as a meteorite exploded and fragmented. Well, it turns out that radar tracked multiple of these fragments, many of which actually impacted Cape Cod Bay. Today's video discusses where they might have landed, and discusses the updated details regarding the likely iron meteor.​
Thumbnail Photo Credit: Google Earth, Image Landsat / Copernicus. This image was overlaid with text, and then overlaid with GeologyHub made graphics (the image border & the GeologyHub logo).​
Note: / geologyhub is of the opinion that only trained experts should search for the meteorites, and not random citizens since it could be dangerous to look for meteorite fragments in the ocean. That way, planetary geologists might be able to get their hands on them.​
NASA article with location information on the meteorite fall on May 30th 2026: https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/meteorite-f...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...te-falls/events/cape-cod-bay-ma&v=mzkpt7LQP6U
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...s.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode&v=mzkpt7LQP6U
Sources/Citations:
[1] NASA
[2] Planetary Science
[3] NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
[4] U.S. Geological Survey
[5] Collins, Gareth & Lynch, Elliot & McAdam, Ronan & Davison, Thomas. (2017). A numerical assessment of simple airblast models of impact airbursts. Meteoritics & Planetary Science. 52. 10.1111/maps.12873., CC BY 4.0.
[6] NASA Astromaterials Research & Exploration Science







0:00 Massachusetts Meteor
1:26 Meteorite Fall Locations
2:46 Updated Values
3:48 Updated Meteor Size
4:28 Iron Meteorite Types

Anton Petrov has a video out about some recent unusual discoveries concerning Earth's interior:


0:00 Earth's core discoveries
1:00 Previous assumptions
1:55 New study - outer core reversal
3:35 Correlated to day length change
4:20 Geomagnetic glitches
4:50 Shape change
5:50 Not just iron and nickel?
7:05 Explains why inner core even exists
8:05 Leaking core?
9:00 Conclusions
#earth #geology #earthscience
 
Researchers weigh the most distant dormant black hole

The most distant, nearly invisible dormant black hole has been detected and ‘weighed’ by an international team of astronomers that includes researchers from UCL.

The study, published in Science, identified a dormant black hole at the heart of a galaxy known as MRG-M0138 located over 10 billion light years away. It is the most distant dormant black hole yet detected, 15 times farther away than the previous record.
 
It looks like the very last Pegasus rocket launch is coming up soon to rescue the SWIFT satellite:


Last year NASA bought the space mission equivalent of a lottery ticket, a small bet on a mission which has the odds stacked against it, but could be a win on many levels. This is the last TriStar, launching the last Pegasus, carrying a never before flown spacecraft that offers the Swift telescope's last chance to avoid destruction.​
NASA offered a small contract to attempt a mission to re-boost an old telescope which would otherwise burn up, $30million seemed too small, but Katalyst stepped up with work they'd already been doing on satellite servicing, and in the process they got a launch agreement to fly on the last Pegasus XL, which is carried by the worlds last TriStar jet.​
This is a story that's as dramatic as they come for spaceflight without humans involved.
 
NASA Finds New Way Earth May Have Received Elements Needed for Life

NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution of these elements throughout the young solar system. The study, published today in Science Advances, examines this history by looking at the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen in iron meteorites and in younger objects known as chondrites.
Magnetic field helps binary star systems form

New simulations show that interactions with a magnetic field can work to decrease the distance between still forming binary protostars. These results can help explain the characteristics of the binary star systems observed in the Milky Way. These results can also be extrapolated to binary black holes, giving insights into how super massive black holes evolve.
NASA’s Juno Reveals New Insights into Cosmic Ray Origins

Particles traveling close to the speed of light near Jupiter were captured by NASA’s Juno mission, providing new evidence for how and where high-energy particles, including cosmic rays, form.
 
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What Happens to a Star That Captures A Primordial Black Hole?

The size of these hypothetical objects is up for debate, but by some estimates, PBH are in the range of asteroids, small enough to be engulfed by stars. How would that work, and what would happen to the stars? How could this be detected?

New research examines the issue. It's titled "The Life and Death of Stars That Capture Primordial Black Holes," and it's available at arxiv.org. The lead author is Ore Gottlieb, from the Department of Physics and Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at MIT.
 
NASA’s Webb Detects Methane on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has collected its first mid-infrared chemical fingerprint of an interstellar object during a recent revisit to comet 3I/ATLAS. The team’s results published recently in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The observations were taken using Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on two separate dates as the comet traveled back out of our solar system after whipping around the Sun (post-perihelion). The first observation occurred Dec. 15 to 16, when the comet was about 205 million miles (329 million kilometers) from the Sun. This was followed by a second observation Dec. 27, when the comet was about 236 million miles (379 million kilometers) from the Sun.
 
A short video about Planemos:


There is a planet out there right now with no sun. No warmth. No light. Just a world drifting through complete darkness at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour. In no particular direction. Forever.​
In this space documentary, we explore rogue planets — worlds ejected from their solar systems or born without a star entirely. From the hundreds discovered by the James Webb Telescope in the Orion Nebula, to the terrifying possibility that some of them have internal oceans kept liquid by radioactive heat. Sealed from the void by kilometers of ice. Possibly alive. Drifting through the dark right now within a few light years of our solar system. And we would never know.​
 
A Search for Radio Technosignatures from Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS with the Allen Telescope Array

Abstract
In 2025 July, the third-ever interstellar object, 3I/ATLAS, was discovered on its ingress into the solar system. Similar to the NASA Voyager missions sent in 1977, science probes by extraterrestrial life (“artifact technosignatures”) could be sent to explore other stellar systems like our own. In this campaign, we used the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array to observe 3I/ATLAS from 1–9 GHz. We detected nearly 74 million narrowband hits in 7.25 hr of data using the newly developed search pipeline bliss. We then blanked hits by frequency and drift rate to mitigate radio frequency interference in our dataset, narrowing the dataset down to ∼2 million hits. These hits were further filtered by the localization code NBeamAnalysis, and the remaining 211 hits were visually inspected in the time-frequency domain. We did not find any signals worthy of additional follow-up. Accounting for the Doppler drift correction and given the nondetection, we are able to set an effective isotropic radiated power upper limit of 10–110 W on radio technosignatures from 3I/ATLAS across the frequency and drift rate ranges covered by our survey.
 
Anton Petrov discusses strong evidence that suggests the existence of a planet that was destroyed early in the Solar System's existence:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about a missing destroyed planet in the solar system
Links:
https://www.colorado.edu/today/2026/0...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...des-evidence-giant-early-planet&v=UahG5W1YLqY
DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2026.120029
Other videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpTfXn-ff8Y
• One Planet Disappeared, Another Appeared? ...

• Uh Oh, New Dwarf Planet Just Killed Planet...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y8uFwm677k
#science #astronomy #solarsystem



0:00 Destroyed planet in the early solar system
1:25 Meteorite that reveals all of this
3:20 Strange crystals inside
4:20 What sort of a planet this was
5:40 Implications for planetary formation and other star systems
7:15 Hypothetical planets in the solar system: Phaethon, Planet Nine and Planet Five
8:40 Conclusions and implications
10:50 Einstein and Vulcan
 
Hematite is a mineralogical marker of ancient climate change on Mars

Ancient river channels on Mars demonstrate that it once had a wetter and warmer climate. The Curiosity rover has been investigating the sedimentary rocks in Gale crater, and a mineralogical marker could relate that stratigraphy to the ancient climate. Szczerba et al. analyzed microscopic iron oxide crystals in rocks examined by the rover and compared the crystallographic properties with laboratory experiments. The shape of the crystals indicates the formation mechanism, and the presence or absence of a related mineral depends on the subsequent subsurface temperature. The authors argue that a measured transition in the crystal properties coincides with the ancient climate change.
 
SETI Panel Revises Recommendations for Dealing With 'Disclosure Day'

An international committee of experts says it has updated its rules for evaluating and revealing the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence.

The revisions to the decades-old Declaration of Principles, created and maintained by the International Academy of Astronautics' SETI Committee, come just days before the release of "Disclosure Day," a movie about alien visitation directed by Steven Spielberg.

This is the first major update to the committee's protocols in more than 15 years. "The information environment we operate in today is vastly more complex than it was in 2010," committee chair Michael Garrett, an astrophysics professor at the University of Manchester, said in a news release. "In an era of deepfakes, automated misinformation and instant global connectivity, a single unverified claim could trigger confusion or panic. These new protocols ensure that scientists maintain the highest standards of evidence before making announcements to the world."
 
Robotic Spacecraft for Swift Boost Mission Arrives at NASA Wallops
June 5, 2026

The LINK robotic servicing spacecraft, built by Katalyst Space and designed to capture and boost NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory arrived at the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia on Friday, June 5.

Inside NASA Wallops’ Horizontal Integration Facility, Northrop Grumman engineers will install the satellite into one of the company’s Pegasus XL rockets ahead of launch.

[...]

After loading LINK into the Pegasus XL, Northrop Grumman will attach the rocket to the bottom of Stargazer, the company’s modified L-1011 aircraft.

Stargazer will deploy Pegasus XL from above Kwajalein Atoll, part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean, later this month. The rocket will deliver the LINK spacecraft to an orbit where it can reach Swift.

As activities on the ground have raced to get LINK to Swift, the observatory team has been continuously making Swift’s orientation more aerodynamic to preserve altitude.

View: https://twitter.com/NASAUniverse/status/2062998147027083765
 
Evidence for a pair-instability supernova, from Anton Petrov:


0:00 Special type of a supernova discovered SN 2023vbw
1:10 How this was found
2:05 Why it was so strange
3:30 Pair instability supernova theory
6:10 How this explained black hole masses
7:35 Here's what we know about this event
9:25 Implications for astronomy
11:35 Conclusions and what's next?
 
Galaxy-killing wind discovered in the early universe

Astronomers have discovered a 'galaxy-killing wind' that may explain why there are far more massive 'dead' galaxies than expected in the early universe.

This wind, powered by cosmic collisions of galaxies, could quickly blow away all the fuel for new stars, leaving the galaxy on the brink of death and helping to solve one of the biggest mysteries in modern astrophysics.
After empty promises, string theory finds new uses

Physicists hope back-to-basics approach could point toward alternative paths to “theory of everything”​

 
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Solar weather
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-tracers-spacecraft-solar-energy-route.html
https://sciencex.com/news/2026-06-solar-storm-scientists.html


Block Carrington II?
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-space-weather.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hidden-electric-space-quietly-earth.html

Missions
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-early-evolution-explorer-mission.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-qa-boosting-nasa-swift-observatory.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-payload-electronics-flight-software-nasa.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-texas-wine-grapes-space-mission.html

The human element
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-extraordinary-physiological-amputee-john-mcfall.html

geology
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deep-magma-oceans-ferric-iron.html

Mars
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mars-mission-simulations-reveal-key.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dozens-devils-caught-swirling-mars.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-mineral-garnet-mars-meteorite-reveal.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-future-martian-colonists-relativistic-clock.html

Astronomy news
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-galaxy-gravitational.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-qa-supermassive-black-holes.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-young-stellar-galactic-evolution-universe.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-famous-pink-planet-harbors-salty.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-alma-star-gas-early-galaxies.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astrochemical-universe-sulfur.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-webb-hubble-reveal-history-relic.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-revealing-black-hole-mighty-star.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-ripple-bullseye-galaxy-dark.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-quantum-sensor-major-obstacle-dark.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-radar-echoes-europa-reveal-secrets.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-earth-life-jupiter-moon-europa.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-charm-row-faint-galaxies-dark.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dark-gamma-ray-milky-center.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-nasa-webb-exoplanet-roasted.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-oddball-exoplanet-hot-jupiter.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-neutrino-ghost-distant-shadow-blaster.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-young-disk-wray-primitive-planetary.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-star-death-throes-involve-lot.html
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-lava-planet-hydrogen-rich-atmosphere.html
 
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NASA’s Proposed EVE Mission Aims to Solve the Radius Valley Mystery

A debate has been raging amongst planetary scientists for over a decade - why are there so few exoplanets with a radius of about 1.8 times that of the Earth? Exoplanets are currently largely grouped into two distinct groups - “super Earth” are below that size and have rocky interiors, whereas “Sub-Neptunes” are above that size limit and appear “puffier.” But we don’t really understand what about the path of planetary evolution forces this bifurcation. A new mission proposal, called the Early eVolution Explorer (EVE) wants to find out, and a draft of its concept can be found in pre-print form on arXiv.
 
Vera Rubin Observatory's Search for Planet Nine

Predicted Characteristics of Planet Nine (2026 Update)
https://oortcloudreport.github.io/news/space_article/planet9.html
Parameter Value Scientific Significance
Mass 5 to 10 Earth Masses Categorized as a Super-Earth or Mini-Neptune.
Semi-Major Axis 380 to 500 AU Exists in the "Scattered Disk" or Inner Oort Cloud.
Orbital Period 10,000 to 20,000 Years Extremely slow apparent motion across the sky.
Inclination 15 to 25 Degrees Highly tilted relative to the planetary plane.
Apparent Magnitude 22 to 25 (V-band) Extremely faint; near the limit of current surveys.
Once the orbit of Planet Nine is precisely known, the scientific community will immediately begin planning for future exploration. Even with current propulsion technology, a robotic probe would take at least fifty years to reach such a distant target. However, the data collected from the Rubin Observatory will immediately provide information about the planet's atmosphere and potential moon systems. High resolution spectroscopy from the James Webb Space Telescope could then be used to determine the chemical composition of its clouds. By the late 2020s, the maps of our local neighborhood will likely include a massive, icy world that was hidden in the darkness for billions of years.
 
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Big Bang inside a star: How a gravastar forms

It is therefore possible that black holes are in fact entirely different objects, such as ultra-compact stars, which cannot be seen because of their intense gravity and are therefore also called gravastars. In addition to ordinary matter present in their outer layers, they would be filled with dark energy, which exerts an outward pressure and stabilizes their mass, which wants instead to collapse. Gravastars are easier for physicists to accept than black holes because they do not possess a singularity nor an event horizon and, yet are almost as massive and compact as black holes. What had remained unclear, however, was how such gravastars could form in practice.
 

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