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Astronomy and space

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Spectacular image of the Shark Nebula wins Royal Observatory Greenwich prize

Uncertainty and the random universe: a slide puzzle

Can you reconstruct the astrophysics illustration in our interactive slide puzzle?

Moon’s water reserves insufficient to sustain a lunar city, astronomers find

While energy usage could be met, water would cause some issues

Latest news

NASA launches Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope to shed light on the dark universe

Launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope

Astronomers express outrage after regulators approve ‘space mirror’ permit

Vera C Rubin Observatory kicks off 10-year quest to map the cosmos

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Research headlines

Could quantum information theory explain universe evolution?

The first JWST deep-field image showing lots of galaxies

Mercury may not need an ancient dynamo to explain its magnetic crust

Artist's impression of MESSENGER orbiting Mercury

Magnetism likely played a key role in early solar system formation

‘Lid’ of asteroid dust smothered and burned the dinosaurs, say scientists

Heat and fire may have caused the mass extinction of Cretaceous creatures

Radiation shielding vest could reduce cancer risk for astronauts on deep space missions

A new personal radiation shielding vest tested during the Artemis I flight could significantly reduce the radiation dose that future astronauts might receive

Betelgeuse is not alone

Orion constellation's red supergiant has a companion star, say astronomers

‘Little red dots’ could herald the birth of supermassive black holes

Did cocoons of dense gas shine brightly in the early universe?

Fast radio bursts reveal that the universe’s ‘missing matter’ is found far from galaxies

Counterintuitive finding could help us better understand how highly energetic galactic activities impact the formation of cosmological structures

Has vacuum birefringence been seen at long last?

Polarized X-rays from magnetar could be first direct observation of quantum effect

Explore more in astronomy and space

Astronomers discover unusual 10-sided atmospheric wave on Saturn

Astronomers estimate the decagon-shaped wave may still be evolving

Image of a decagon atmospheric wave on Saturn

With e-MERLIN facing the axe, what next for Jodrell Bank and UK astronomy?

Exploring the fallout from STFC funding cuts that have left one of the UK’s most iconic scientific facilities facing an uncertain future

Aerial view of Jodrell Bank Observatory, surrounded by fields and hedges

The 12 August 2026 partial solar eclipse as seen from the Isle of Wight

Sean G Ryan snaps an astronomical spectacle that captured the public imagination

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Careers at the frontier of space technology

The European Space Agency recruits from all over Europe (and beyond) to further its mission of peacefully exploring and using space for the benefit of everyone

Frame-dragging measurement around the Earth sets new precision record

Laser-ranging technique proves Einstein right again

New image captures glowing shock waves in the Helix Nebula

Data were taken with the MOTHRA telescope, which is still under construction

Knowing through uncertainty: probability and the evolution of our cosmos

Chrysi Malouchou Kanellopoulou reviews The Random Universe: How Models and Probability Help us Make Sense of the Cosmos by Andrew H Jaffe

Physicists extend Hawking’s black hole laws to dynamical objects

Thermodynamics can describe the mechanics of black holes that change over time

Artist's image of a black hole growing in response to an influx of energy. This influx is represented by orange lines and particles streaming in towards the black hole's event horizon, which is represented by an orange boundary

Transit-based exoplanet survey finds its first microlensing exoplanet

Additional planetary signals may be hidden in TESS data, say astronomers

Artist's impression of a planet orbiting a distant star. The planet is in the foreground and has orange and yellow stripes reminiscent of Jupiter's. The star is pale yellow and distant.

Thermal imaging technique helps overcome a major problem for gravitational-wave astronomy

Correcting heat-induced distortions in interferometer mirrors will dramatically increase the sensitivity of gravitational-wave detectors

Researchers test a novel adaptive optics device

Astronomers capture highest-resolution image ever of the Sun’s surface

Picture reveals tiny plasma whirlpool-like patterns that have never been seen before

Physicists find unexpected connection between black hole mergers and thermodynamics

Properties of a merger remnant can be predicted using a simple entropy-maximization principle

Artist's impression of two black holes merging, sending out gravitational waves

Bringing physics down to Earth through rocket science

Keith Cooper reviews It’s (Just) Rocket Science: Exploring Physics Through Spaceflight Missions by Trisha Muro

GPS particle detectors track space radiation over two decades

Cross calibration combines data from 25 satellites

Discovery of giant ‘exosatellite’ challenges our notion of what makes a moon

In a novel three-tiered hierarchical system, the star CD-35 2722 is orbited by a brown dwarf that, in turn, is orbited by a newly discovered exosatellite candidate

Scientists discover sugar in interstellar space

The first detection of sugar in the interstellar medium could shed more light on how life began on Earth

Composite image showing erythrulose in an interstellar gas cloud

Super-loud gravitational waves offer a new way to study black hole event horizons

Region near the "surface of no return" was previously only accessible with theoretical models

Artist's impression of the region of space around a black hole's event horizon. A doughnut-shaped region of space warps and blurs the starry black background

First medical X-ray images taken in space achieve diagnostic quality

Diagnostic X-ray images recorded during an orbital spaceflight exhibited similar contrast and spatial resolution to those taken preflight on Earth

Hand radiographs recorded in space and on Earth

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Related events

Particle and nuclear | Workshop 26th Hellenic School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity 19 April — 21 September 2026 | Corfu, Greece
Materials | Conference European Conference on Thermoelectrics 14—18 September 2026 | Edinburgh, UK
Astronomy and space | Conference 12th International Conference DICE2026 Spacetime - Matter - Quantum Mechanics 5—9 October 2026 | Castiglioncello, Italy

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