Evan Gough

An Adolescent Growth Spurt In Young Stars Helps Giant Planets Form

December 04, 2025

Intermediate mass stars experience periods of rapid growth in their late stages of formation. The growing young star emits more radiation that encourages greater accretion. Rather than depleting their protoplanetary disks and preventing gas giants from forming, the opposite is true.

A Blueprint For Visiting An Interstellar Comet

December 03, 2025

arXiv:2512.00492v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We describe how the ESA Comet Interceptor mission, which is due to launch in 2028/29 to a yet-to-be-discovered target, can provide a conceptual basis for a future mission to visit an Interstellar Object. Comet Interceptor will wait in space until a suitable long period comet is discovered, allowing rapid response to perform a fast flyby of an object that will be in the inner Solar System for only a few years; an enhanced version of this concept ...

The JWST Discovered Another Perplexing Early Galaxy

December 03, 2025

The JWST has made a name for itself by discovering mature galaxies in the Universe's early times. This time, a pair of Indian astronomers working with the JWST found a fully-formed spiral galaxy much like the Milky Way only 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. The discovery, and others like it, are forcing scientists to reconsider their understanding of the cosmic timeline.

These Two Galaxies Are Tying The Knot And Producing Stars

December 03, 2025

The European Space Agency has release its ESA/Webb Picture of the Month and it features a pair of dwarf galaxies engaged in a tentative dance, like nervous partners at a social. The pair are a staggering 24 million light-years away. But even at that great distance, the pair of galaxies is the closest-known interacting pair of dwarfs, other than the Milky Way's Magellanic Clouds, where both the stellar populations and the gas bridge linking the galaxies have been observed.

To Celebrate 25 Years In Service, The Gemini Observatory Imaged The Butterfly Nebula

December 02, 2025

To celebrate 25 years since the completion of the International Gemini Observatory, students in Chile voted for the Gemini South telescope to image NGC 6302 — a billowing planetary nebula that resembles a cosmic butterfly. The International Gemini Observatory is partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab.

Galaxies Struggle To Grow In Crowded Environments

November 27, 2025

New research shows how a galaxy's surroundings influence its development. Its size, shape, and growth rate are all affected. It's all based on "the finer details of the cosmic landscape."

A Natural Laboratory Of Spiralling Dust Shells

November 26, 2025

The JWST has done it again. It's revealed new details hidden from lesser telescopes. The space telescope has detected four spiral dust shells around Apep, a triple star system about 15,000 light-years away.

Some Exoplanets Can Create Their Own Water Through Crust-Atmosphere Reactions

November 20, 2025

Exoplanets need not acquire their water from external sources like asteroids and comets. New experiments show that at least one common type of exoplanet can generate its own water. Interactions between hydrogen and silicates on sub-Neptunes can create water that could make some of the habitable.

A Star Blew A "Diamond Ring" Bubble In Space

November 20, 2025

A gaseous, dusty structure in the Cygnus X star formation region is reminiscent of a glowing diamond ring. There are others that are similar, but they're spherical and this one is flat. A team of researchers have figured out why.

The JWST Makes Some Headway Understanding Little Red Dots

November 19, 2025

Researchers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed an actively growing supermassive black hole within a galaxy just 570 million years after the Big Bang. Part of a class of small, very distant galaxies that have mystified astronomers, CANUCS-LRD-z8.6 represents a vital piece of this puzzle that challenges existing theories about the formation of galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. The discovery connects early black holes with the luminous quasars we observe today.

The Andromeda Galaxy Quenches Its Satellite Galaxies Long Before They Fall In

November 18, 2025

Galaxies grow massive through mergers with other galaxies. Massive galaxies like the Milky Way and Andromeda not only merge with other large galaxies, they also absorb their much smaller satellite dwarf galaxies. But these smaller galaxies can become quenched long before they're absorbed, and new research examines this process at Andromeda (M31).

Capturing A Supernova Explosion Only Hours After It Began

November 17, 2025

Observations of a supernova explosion have revealed its shape only one day after it was first detected. The exact nature of supernovae explosions are unclear and the subject of ongoing, detailed debate. These new observations with the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope will advance the debate.

Searching For Exoplanets In The Remnants Of A Dwarf Galaxy

November 17, 2025

Astronomers have found more than 6,000 exoplanets in the Milky Way. They've even begun to characterize the atmospheres of some of them. But the Milky Way has consumed many of its dwarf satellites. How have exoplanets fared in these remnants? How are they different? To answer those questions, astronomers have to find some of these planets, and a new survey is poised to do just that.

An Explanation For The JWST's Puzzling Early Galaxies

November 14, 2025

The JWST surprised when it detected very early galaxies that were extremely luminous. This suggested that they were more massive than researchers thought they could be. Not enough time had passed for them to grow so large. New research has an explanation.

More Research Shows That Enceladus Has A Stable Ocean That Could Host Life

November 13, 2025

Is Saturn's moon Enceladus habitable? There's ample evidence that the moon holds a warm ocean underneath its frozen surface, and that the building blocks of life are present in that ocean. But for life to arise and persist, the ocean needs to sustain itself for a long time, and new research shows that's exactly what's happening.

Never Mind Rogue Planets. Their Rogue Moons Could Support Life

November 10, 2025

When massive stars explode as supernovae, the powerful blast can send planets off into space where they drift as rogue or free-floating planets. But what happens to their moons? Can their natural satellites stay bound to these planets, and could tidal heating be a viable source of energy to fuel life on these moons?

Do Interstellar Objects Pose A Threat To Earth?

November 07, 2025

We're only starting to awaken to the passage of interstellar objects through our inner Solar System. So far we know of three, but there are bound to be many more. Do they pose an impact threat to Earth?

Habitable Zone Planets Around Red Dwarfs Aren't Likely To Host Exomoons

November 07, 2025

The planets in our Solar System host hundreds of moons, so it seems likely that planets in other solar systems do, too. New research examines the likelihood of rocky planets around M dwarfs having exomoons, and it doesn't look good. They don't last long enough for them to give life a helping hand like Earth's moon has.

It Looks Like All Mini-Neptunes Aren't Magma Oceans After All

November 06, 2025

There are no mini-Neptunes in our Solar System, yet they seem to be one of the most common types of exoplanets out there. Previous research shows that these planets are magma oceans. But new research based on JWST data shows that many of them may actually have solid surfaces.

Thick Dust Can't Stop Euclid From Doing Its Job

November 05, 2025

The Euclid Space Telescope found some stars hiding in thick gas and dust in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. They're inside a so-called dark cloud named LDN 1641.

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