Science Daily

Astronomers have detected carbon dioxide and hydrogen peroxide on the frozen surface of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope. These discoveries add to Charon's known chemical inventory, previously identified by ground- and space-based observations, that includes water ice, ammonia-bearing species and the organic materials responsible for Charon's gray and red coloration.

Data from an international space mission is confirming decades worth of speculation about the galactic neighborhoods of supermassive black holes.

The Cosmicflows team has been studying the movements of 56,000 galaxies, revealing a potential shift in the scale of our galactic basin of attraction.

Asteroid Ryugu possibly did not travel as far from its place of origin to its current near-Earth orbit as previously assumed. New research suggests that Ryugu was formed near Jupiter. Earlier studies had pointed to an origin beyond the orbit of Saturn.

A crater-rich dwarf planet named Ceres located in the main asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter was long thought to be composed of a materials mixture not dominated by water ice. Researchers at Purdue used data from NASA's Dawn mission to show that Ceres' crust could be over 90 percent ice.

A 2020 microlensing event was caused by a planetary system with an Earth-like planet and brown dwarf. The star type was uncertain. The team has determined that the star is a white dwarf, a system resembling what our sun-Earth system will look like in 8 billion years. The good news: the planet survived its star's red giant phase, so maybe Earth will too. The bad news: it's still uninhabitable.

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects -- the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory's VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

In a surprise finding, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered that the blowtorch-like jet from a supermassive black hole at the core of a huge galaxy seems to cause stars to erupt along its trajectory. The stars, called novae, are not caught inside the jet, but apparently in a dangerous neighborhood nearby.

The SAGA Survey just published three new research articles that provide us with new insights into the uniqueness of our own Milky Way Galaxy after completing the census of 101 satellite systems similar to the Milky Way's.

The discovery of a 'weird' and unprecedented galaxy in the early Universe could 'help us understand how the cosmic story began', astronomers say. GS-NDG-9422 (9422) was found approximately one billion years after the Big Bang and stood out because it has an odd, never-before-seen light signature -- indicating that its gas is outshining its stars. The 'totally new phenomena' is significant, researchers say, because it could be the missing-link phase of galactic evolution between the Universe's first stars and familiar, well-established galaxies.

Astronomers have observed the atmosphere of a hot and uniquely inflated exoplanet using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Researchers find certain biosignature molecules may not indicate life is present, contrary to popular thought.

Observations confirm astronomers' expectation that early-Universe quasars formed in regions of space densely populated with companion galaxies. DECam's exceptionally wide field of view and special filters played a crucial role in reaching this conclusion, and the observations reveal why previous studies seeking to characterize the density of early-Universe quasar neighborhoods have yielded conflicting results.

By staring into the hellish landscape of Jupiter's moon Io -- the most volcanically active location in the solar system -- astronomers have been able to study a fundamental process in planetary formation and evolution: tidal heating.

Researchers have developed a Martian atmospheric evolution model to propose a new theory about Mars's past.

A newly discovered cluster-scale strong gravitational lens, with a rare alignment of seven background lensed galaxies, provides a unique opportunity to study cosmology.

Astronomers have spotted the biggest pair of black hole jets ever seen, spanning 23 million light-years in total length. That's equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back.

Astronomers examined galaxy Arp 107 which has revealed a wealth of information about star-formation and how two galaxies collided hundreds of million years ago. Arp 107 is located 465 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor.

Watching for changes in Mars' orbit over time could be new way to detect passing dark matter, according to researchers.

With the help of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of scientists has found more black holes in the early universe than has previously been reported. The new result can help scientists understand how supermassive black holes were created.