Researchers at Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) are proposing a new way to observe tightly bound supermassive black hole binaries. Formed naturally when galaxies merge, only widely separated systems have confidently been observed to date. In a paper published today in Physical Review Letters, the researchers suggest hunting down the hidden systems by searching for repeating flashes of light from individual stars lying behind the black holes as they are temporarily magnified by gravitational lensing as the binary orbits. 

Recent experiments on twisted MoTe₂ have observed the fractional quantum anomalous Hall effect in the absence of an external magnetic field. Now, a theoretical study employing a real-space lattice model and precision many-body calculations presents a comprehensive ground-state phase diagram and elucidates the finite-temperature and dynamical behaviors of the system. The work reveals competing phases, including fractional Chern insulators and quantum anomalous Hall crystals, and identifies experimentally testable energy scales.

One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or 'super-Jupiter' blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades the star – which sits 3,200 light-years from Earth and is about twice as big as our Sun – had been observed as stable, but at the end of 2024 it faded dramatically. It then remained this way for more than nine months, far longer than is normal for an event like this, sparking confusion among researchers and prompting speculation as to what could have caused such an "extremely rare" phenomenon. Now, in a new study published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, a team of international researchers believe they may have solved the riddle of this mysterious star in the Monoceros constellation.

Amino acids, the building blocks necessary for life, were previously found in samples of 4.6-billion-year-old rocks from an asteroid called Bennu, delivered to Earth in 2023 by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. How those amino acids — the molecules that create proteins and peptides in DNA — formed in space was a mystery, but new research led by Penn State scientists shows they could have originated in an icy-cold, radioactive environment at the dawn of Earth’s solar system.

A team of researchers have used spectral data from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to probe the HR 8799 star system and show that one of its giant Jupiter-like planets contains sulfur, a sign it formed like a planet not a star. 

Enceladus, a tiny moon of Saturn, trails a wake of electromagnetic ripples that extends over half a million kilometres. A major study by an international team of researchers using data from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has revealed a lattice-like structure of crisscrossing reflected waves that flow downstream behind the moon in Saturn's equatorial plane, but also reach up to very high northern and southern latitudes. The analysis of data from four instruments aboard Cassini, collected over the mission's 13-year duration, demonstrates the crucial role that Enceladus plays in circulating energy and momentum around Saturn’s space environment.

Astronomers have captured some of the most detailed images of debris discs from fully formed, ‘teenage’ planetary systems. Those images are expected to help astronomers locate new planets.

The University of Trento has demonstrated the existence of an empty lava tube even in the depths of Venus, a planet whose surface and geology have been largely shaped by volcanic processes. The cave was identified through radar data analysis as part of a project funded by the Italian Space Agency. "Our knowledge of Venus is still limited, and until now we have never had the opportunity to directly observe processes occurring beneath the surface of Earth’s twin planet. The identification of a volcanic cavity is therefore of particular importance, as it allows us to validate theories that for many years have only hypothesized their existence," explains Lorenzo Bruzzone, the coordinator of the research, full professor of the University of Trento. "This discovery contributes to a deeper understanding of the processes that have shaped Venus’s evolution and opens new perspectives for the study of the planet," he adds.