Madrid, Spain (SPX) Jan 29, 2026
Astronomers have carried out the most extensive observational study so far of massive runaway stars in the Milky Way, combining detailed measurements of how fast these stars move, how rapidly they spin, and whether they live alone or in binary systems. Researchers from the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC),

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 29, 2026
A team of astronomers has used a new artificial intelligence assisted technique to uncover rare astronomical phenomena in archived data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. They sifted through nearly 100 million small image cutouts from the Hubble Legacy Archive, each only a few dozen pixels across, and identified more than 1,300 unusually shaped objects in just two and a half days, including ove

Menlo Park CA (SPX) Jan 23, 2026
Cosmologists Josh Frieman and Risa Wechsler look back on the Dark Energy Survey, sharing how it is paving the way for the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory to dig deeper into some of the universe's darkest mysteries. As the Dark Energy Survey (DES) releases its final results, we caught up with two physicists who have been involved in the project from its early days. In this Q&A, Josh Friem

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 29, 2026
A research team has developed a method to reduce uncertainties in measurements of cosmic birefringence, a subtle rotation in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background that may hold clues to new physics beyond the standard model. The work, published January 27 in Physical Review Letters, provides the first quantitative treatment of uncertainty in the birefringence angle, a key observabl

Two days of intense discussions and exchanges came to an end at the 18th European Space Conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has topped itself once again, delivering on its promise to push the boundaries of its observations closer to cosmic dawn with the confirmation of a bright galaxy that existed 280 million years after the Big Bang.