• NASA study finds near-Earth “asteroid” is actually a comet, offering new clues for planetary defense

    ByReet Kaur

    For nearly three decades, (875163) 1998 SH2 appeared to be an ordinary near-Earth asteroid, showing no visible tail, no surrounding coma and no obvious signs of cometary activity. That changed with a study published in Nature Astronomy on July 10, 2026, which revealed that the object is actually a weakly active comet. The discovery resolves a long-standing mystery surrounding its unusual motion and marks the first time astronomers predicted an object’s cometary nature from subtle orbital perturbations before confirming it through direct observations, providing a new approach for identifying hidden comets among Earth’s near-Earth object population while strengthening future planetary defense efforts.

  • Faintest exoplanet imaged from Earth hid in Beta Pictoris data for 11 years

    ByReet Kaur

    Two independent teams announced the discovery of Beta Pictoris d on July 15, 2026, a gas giant orbiting the 23-million-year-old Beta Pictoris system about 63 light-years from Earth. The planet is the faintest exoplanet ever directly imaged from Earth after correcting for distance; a VLT team traced it through observations spanning 11 years, while a JWST team independently identified it through the molecular signature of its atmosphere.

  • Webb reveals hidden history of Centaurus A with new images marking fourth year of science

    ByReet Kaur

    New observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, released on July 6, 2026, to mark the observatory’s fourth year of science operations, have revealed the nearby active galaxy Centaurus A in remarkable infrared detail, exposing dust structures, hidden stellar populations, and activity surrounding its central supermassive black hole. Combined with findings from a preprint published on arXiv on July 6, 2026, and a study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on July 18, 2025, the observations provide one of the clearest views yet of how an ancient galactic merger continues to shape star formation and the galaxy’s energetic nucleus billions of years later.

  • New Horizons awakens after longest hibernation, resumes science mission 9.5 billion km from Earth

    ByReet Kaur

    NASA announced on July 7, 2026, that its New Horizons spacecraft has resumed active operations after completing its longest hibernation period to date. The spacecraft emerged from a 321-day hibernation in good health, allowing mission controllers to begin retrieving spacecraft telemetry and science data gathered while it continued its journey through the Kuiper Belt, approximately 9.5 billion km (5.9 billion miles) from Earth.

  • Euclid uncovers 31 ancient quasars, including the most distant ever observed

    ByReet Kaur

    A study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on July 6, 2026, reports that the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 quasars dating to the Universe’s first billion years. The discoveries include the two most distant quasars ever observed and provide astronomers with their first large sample of these rare objects from the epoch of reionisation, offering new insight into how the earliest supermassive black holes and galaxies formed.

  • Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS preserves a chemical record from the Milky Way’s earliest planetary systems

    ByReet Kaur

    The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS formed in an exceptionally cold, relatively metal-poor stellar nursery as long as 10 to 12 billion years ago, according to observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and a study published in Nature on June 22, 2026. Measurements of unusually high deuterium in water and exceptionally low abundances of carbon-13 compared to carbon-12 distinguish the object from every comet measured in the Solar System, providing a rare glimpse into the chemistry of one of the Galaxy’s earliest planetary systems.

  • First indication of diffuse supernova neutrino background emerges from Super-Kamiokande

    ByReet Kaur

    Researchers with the Super-Kamiokande Collaboration have reported the first observational indication of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background (DSNB), a long-predicted flux of neutrinos produced by core-collapse supernovae throughout cosmic history. Based on approximately 5 000 days of observations, the result, presented on June 25, 2026, during the XXXII International Conference on Neutrino Physics and Astrophysics (Neutrino 2026) at the University of California, Irvine, represents the strongest observational evidence to date for one of neutrino astronomy’s most persistent experimental goals.

  • New gravitational-wave measurement brings astronomers closer to resolving the Hubble tension

    ByReet Kaur

    Researchers have produced one of the strongest independent measurements yet of the Universe’s expansion rate by revisiting the landmark neutron star merger GW170817 with improved radio observations and gravitational-wave data. The study finds a value for the Hubble constant that is more consistent with measurements of the early Universe than with those based on nearby galaxies, adding important new evidence to one of cosmology’s longest-running debates.

  • Hidden ancient magma systems reshaped Mars’ evolution

    ByReet Kaur

    Mars may have been far more geologically sophisticated than scientists once believed. A study published in Nature Astronomy on June 26, 2026 concludes that the Red Planet once sustained enormous interconnected magma plumbing systems capable of recycling and evolving molten rock throughout its crust, despite never developing Earth’s plate tectonics. The findings challenge one of the long-standing assumptions in planetary science and suggest that rocky planets may be able to build complex crust, and potentially environments favourable for life, without following Earth’s geological blueprint.

  • Loudest gravitational-wave signal yet opens first direct window onto a black hole’s event horizon

    ByReet Kaur

    Scientists have used the loudest gravitational-wave signal ever recorded to extract the first observational evidence of signatures from a newly formed black hole’s event horizon, opening a new way to probe one of the most extreme environments in the universe where general relativity and quantum physics are expected to meet. The findings, published in Nature on June 24, 2026, are based on GW250114, the strongest binary black hole merger detected to date.