Evan Gough

Powerful Solar Storms Can Change Precipitation for Parts of North America

June 26, 2026

For decades, scientists have searched for a clear link between the Sun’s explosive storms and the weather that occurs on Earth. A breakthrough study from the University of New Hampshire reveals that in the hours and days following a solar storm, parts of North America can see sharp changes in the weather — such as declines in precipitation — and the more powerful the storm, the more dramatic the shift. However, the exact mechanism behind the effects is still waiting for an explanation.

Euclid's New Portrait of the Milky Way's Crowded Bulge

June 25, 2026

The ESA's Euclid space telescope took 26 hours to capture this portrait of the Milky Way's central bulge. This isn't part of its primary mission; instead it's kind of like bonus science. It'll be used in the Roman Space Telescope's gravitational microlensing search for exoplanets. Regardless of the science, it's an impressive image.

Magnetic Fields Channel Gas Through Filaments into Star Formation Sites

June 25, 2026

Stars form inside molecular clouds where cold gas collapses gravitationally on itself. But there's more to this process than gravity. New research shows how magnetic field lines funnel gas through sub-filaments into star formation sites.

The Universe's First Stars Were Shaped By Turbulence and Were Not As Massive as Thought

June 25, 2026

For a long time, astrophysicists thought that the Universe's first stars, called Population III stars, were uniformly massive. It seemed like the conditions they formed in were calm and serene, which favoured massive stars. But new research based on high-resolution simulations show that conditions were more chaotic than thought, and gas cloud turbulence means that Population III stars were not all massive. This affected the metallicity of the next stars to form.

The JWST Spies Six Galaxies Becoming One

June 24, 2026

The JWST looked back in time and saw 6 galaxies merging into one. At the heart of the assembly, a supermassive black hole is lurking. It all happened when the Universe was only about 1.5 billion years old, and the red-shifted light is just reaching us now.

The Long-Lived Chicxulub Hydrothermal System Lasted 8 Million Years

June 23, 2026

The asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs also created an underground environment suited to supporting new life, and new research suggests it lasted for millions of years longer than previously suspected. While previous research showed the buried hydrothermal system of porous rock, hot water, and chemical nutrients may have lasted 2 million years, new research says it lasted for 8 million years.

Did Gravitational Tides Cause Earth's Extinctions?

June 23, 2026

Many of Earth's mass extinctions await clear explanations. We know an impact wiped out the dinosaurs, but what about the planet's other extinction events? New research says flybys of planetary mass objects could've been responsible.

This is the First Pair of Sibling Supernova Remnants

June 23, 2026

Astrophysicists have found what is likely the very first pair of sibling supernova remnants. One is the well-known Jellyfish Nebula, and the other was long thought to be hidden in the bright glare from the Jellyfish. The pair are connected by a bright filament of gas.

Another Early Universe Surprise from the JWST: A Mature Galaxy Cluster

June 22, 2026

The JWST found a galaxy cluster from 10 billion years ago that's far more developed than it should be, according to cosmological models. The cluster is also the most distant strong gravitational lens that we know of. Detailed observations across the spectrum show that the cluster is still undergoing mergers.

Did Life Start When Impacts Created Vast Hydrothermal Systems in Earth's Crust?

June 11, 2026

Earth was bombarded by impactors in its first couple billion years. These impacts created a vast network of hydrothermal systems in the crust that could've spawned life. New research examines their extent.

This is How Supermassive Black Holes Feed Themselves

June 10, 2026

Astronomers may have found the missing link in the SMBH feeding process. New observations with the JWST show that a galaxy's circumnuclear disk, which feeds gas into its black hole, is connected to a much larger network of filaments. Cool gas flows through these filaments into the SMBH's sphere of influence.

Magnetic Fields Help Binary Stars Form and Black Holes Merge

June 09, 2026

New simulations show that interactions with a magnetic field can work to decrease the distance between still forming binary protostars. These results can help explain the characteristics of the binary star systems observed in the Milky Way. These results can also be extrapolated to binary black holes, giving insights into how super massive black holes evolve.

They've Been Searching for the Milky Way's Black Hole Wind for 50 Years and Finally Found It

June 05, 2026

According to theory, all active black holes should produce winds or jets. Astronomers have long searched for wind around the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. New images reveal a vacant, cone-shaped region pointing to the black hole. According to new research, only a supermassive black hole could've created this region.

What Happens to a Star That Captures A Primordial Black Hole?

June 05, 2026

Stephen Hawking predicted that stars can capture primordial black holes (PBH). The PBH find their way to the stellar core, creating a Hawking star. There are two possible outcomes, both deadly for the star. Either it explodes rapidly, or it's slowly consumed by the parasitic PBH.

Even Without A Magnetosphere, Mars Can Still Deflect Some Solar Wind

June 04, 2026

New research shows how unmagnetized worlds like Mars can still deflect some of the Sun's solar wind. Unlike magnetospheres that form around planet's like Earth, this effect takes place in Mars' ionosphere. It's called the Zwan-Wolf effect, and it's not clear how deep into the atmosphere it operates.

The Unexpected Brightness 'Gap' in an Ancient Globular Cluster

June 04, 2026

Scientists using the Euclid space telescope found a red-dwarf brightness “gap” in the population of a globular cluster—an ancient, crowded collection of stars. A similar gap was detected by the Gaia observatory in nearby stellar populations, but it has never before been seen in a globular cluster.

A New Map of Stars Shows That the Small Magellanic Cloud is Expanding

June 03, 2026

A multi-year survey of millions of stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud shows that the dwarf galaxy is expanding rather than rotating. This is due to the influence of its larger neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Here's Why So Many Massive Galaxies in the Early Universe Stop Forming Stars

June 03, 2026

The early Universe is full of massive galaxies that stopped forming stars very early. They're called massive quenchers (MQ) and they're challenging to explain. New research shows that another type of galaxy, dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) can explain why. It's all about mergers, starbursts, and AGN feedback.

How Early Earth's Unlikely Chemical Hero Appeared

June 02, 2026

Though it's a toxic chemical, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is also important for the development of life. It's a precursor to things like amino acids and nucleic acids and plays a central role in theories of the origin of life on Earth. Recently, difficult questions have been asked about how it could have formed on the early Earth. But the authors of new research in PNAS seemed to have figured it out.

Are the JWST's Early Overrmassive Black Holes Just Normal-Range Outliers?

June 01, 2026

The JWST found an abundance of overmassive black holes at high redshifts, pushing the limits of black hole (BH) science in the early Universe. Results have claimed that these BHs are significantly more massive than expected from the BH mass-host galaxy stellar mass relation derived from the local Universe. But new research shows they were just outliers in the normal range of masses that don't require any special causes.

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