Buildings today typically rely on separate systems to provide electricity, heating and cooling. A research team at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has now developed a hybrid energy system that delivers all three simultaneously from the same surface by combining solar energy with the coldness of outer space. At the heart of the system is a transparent cooling layer that radiates heat into outer space as infrared radiation while allowing sunlight to pass through. The researchers successfully demonstrated the concept with a prototype under outdoor conditions and see it as a potential building block for multifunctional building envelopes. Results in Cell Reports Physical Science. (DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2026.103492)

A popular myth about black holes is that they act like giant cosmic vacuum cleaners sucking in everything around them, but Wladimir Lyra’s research found a new mechanism around supermassive black holes that is more like a cosmic nursery, giving birth to planets bigger than Jupiter.

Astronomers used new MOTHRA telescope in Chile to image famous eye-shaped nebula. Team found 22 glowing shock waves where stellar debris collided with interstellar gas. After colliding with gas, stellar fragments remain intact for just 10,000 years, the team estimates. Finding reveals how dying stars return material to space to form new stars and planets.

Discovery was hidden in the Hubble Space Telescope’s archival data. Astronomers used stream as a tool for mapping dark matter in a low-mass galaxy. Team expects future telescopes will find many more stellar streams, expanding the ability to probe dark matter across the universe.

For the first time, researchers have discovered a globular cluster stellar stream in a galaxy beyond the Milky Way – specifically in an ultra-diffuse galaxy. The discovery opens up new possibilities for studying dark matter, one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in modern astrophysics. The finding was made by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and has just been published in Nature.

Astronomers have discovered a “black hole star,” an extremely bright red spot in the early universe that appears to be a new type of astrophysical object. It resembles an enormous star, but its energy production is closer to what a black hole might generate.