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An illustration of a magnetar with a wobbling accretion disk — Scientists witness birth of one of the universe's strongest magnets for the first time, thanks to a general relativity 'magic trick' Astronomers have detected strange "wobbles" in the light curve of a super bright supernova, hinting that a magnetar was born inside the extreme stellar explosion.

A photo of Artemis II in the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. — NASA's Artemis II rocket rolls to launch pad in final bid to meet April deadline A series of leaks means the coming launch window will be NASA's final attempt to meet its April mission deadline.
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A glistening field of stars against a black background. — Rare star spotted in its original galaxy could answer a key question about the ingredients of life: Space photo of the week The ancient and rare star PicII-503 is helping astronomers understand how carbon became so abundant in the universe.

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Photograph of a bright flash of light in the evening sky over Germany

Falling meteorite smashes hole in roof of German house after spectacular 'fireball' explosion over Europe

By Harry Baker published 10 March 26

A German town has been peppered by meteorites after a stunning "fireball" exploded in the skies over central Europe. One extraterrestrial fragment landed in a bedroom after punching a soccer ball-size hole through the building's roof.

Meteoroids

An illustration of a black hole churning spacetime around it

Exotic prime numbers could be hiding inside black holes

By Lyndie Chiou published 9 March 26

A new paper makes the strange case for prime numbers at the heart of physics.

Black Holes

An illustration of a series of brown and blue planets in a dark starry space background

Scientists tracked faint signals from the stars — and may have turned up hundreds of undiscovered planets

By Abha Jain published 8 March 26

A new study shows that stars with low magnetic activity are likely to support exoplanetary systems, making the hunt for these celestial objects less random.

Exoplanets

Two side by side images of a circular nebula, showing a cloud of golden gas surrounded by a blue bubble. The image on the left shows more background stars and a transparent bubble. The image on the right shows more of a yellow and green background with a bluer bubble

'Exposed Cranium' leaks its gory secrets in new James Webb telescope images: Space photo of the week

By Jamie Carter published 8 March 26

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope reveals new infrared images of the brain-shaped "Exposed Cranium" nebula, the final stages of a dying star.

Astronomy

A series of blobs of pink and orange against a black background with a boxout in the top right zooming in on one of the blobs showing a neural network of sorts of purple and orange and pink

Enormous 3D map of the universe shows brilliant 'sea of light' near the cosmic dawn

By Ivan Farkas published 7 March 26

A unique technique allowed astronomers to see the early universe as a "sea of light" and explore the effects of gravity and dark energy on cosmic evolution.

Astronomy

'City killer' asteroid will narrowly miss the moon, James Webb Telescope reveals

By Brandon Specktor last updated 6 March 26

The "city killer" asteroid 2024 YR4 won't hit Earth or the moon when it whizzes by in 2032, the latest James Webb Space Telescope observations confirm.

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Asteroids

Diagram showing how the megamaser was observed via gravitational lensing

'Truly extraordinary': Mega-laser shooting at us from halfway across the universe is the brightest 'cosmic beacon' we've ever seen

By Harry Baker published 4 March 26

Astronomers have discovered the brightest and most distant "megamaser" to date. The cosmic energy beam is shooting toward Earth from 8 billion light-years away and was spotted thanks to a weird space-time trick first predicted by Einstein.

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Astronomy

NASA fixes Artemis II rocket for April launch to take astronauts around moon

By Patrick Pester published 4 March 26

NASA's Artemis II is on track to shoot for the moon in April after engineers fixed the helium issue that grounded the mission's rocket last month.

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Space Exploration

A series of red bubble looking spheres over a dark, starry background with four white cutout squares in the front enlarging four of the bubbles to show glowing balls of red light in each of the bubbles.

Mysterious 'dots' discovered by Webb telescope may be the first stars in the universe on the verge of collapse

By Shreejaya Karantha published 3 March 26

A new study suggests that "little red dots" spied by the James Webb Space Telescope could be the universe's short-lived first generation of gigantic stars, challenging an existing theory.

Astronomy