• Astronomers uncover Earth-sized planets in a compact binary system

    ByReet Kaur

    Astronomers have confirmed two Earth-sized planets and a third candidate orbiting both stars of the binary system TOI-2267 in the constellation Canis Minor, according to observations analyzed from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and ground telescopes between 2019 and 2025. The finding, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, reveals that rocky worlds can form and persist in gravitational environments once thought too unstable for complex planetary systems.

  • Astronomers detect rare ammonia signal from comet 12P/Pons-Brooks

    ByReet Kaur

    Scientists at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory used the Tianma 65 m Radio Telescope in China to detect hydroxyl and ammonia radio emissions from comet 12P/Pons-Brooks between December 2023 and March 2024, marking the most distant ammonia detection ever recorded in a Halley-type comet and revealing how volatile gases drive its powerful outbursts.

  • How ancient heavy water in a distant star’s disk explains Earth’s oceans

    ByReet Kaur

    Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) detected heavy water in the planet-forming disk around V883 Ori, a young star 400 parsecs (1 300 light years) away in Orion. This first-ever discovery of doubly deuterated water (D₂O) shows that some planetary water predates the stars themselves.

  • Meteorite relics in Chang’e-6 samples rewrite story of how water reached the Moon

    ByReet Kaur

    Scientists in China have identified rare meteorite fragments inside lunar samples returned by the Chang’e-6 mission, the first from the Moon’s far side, according to a study published on October 20, 2025, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

  • ESA proposes Ramses mission to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis ahead of 2029 Earth flyby

    ByReet Kaur

    Asteroid 99942 Apophis will sweep within about 32 000 km (19 900 miles) of Earth’s surface on April 13, 2029, passing inside the orbit of many geostationary satellites. ESA’s proposed Ramses spacecraft aims to fly alongside it and observe this near miss up close.

  • What a runaway black hole did to a galaxy 31 million light-years away

    ByReet Kaur

    Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and ALMA have identified a 20 000 light-year (6 kiloparsec) scar of gas and dust slicing through the spiral galaxy NGC 3627. The feature was likely created by a massive black hole or the nucleus of a dwarf galaxy that passed through the galactic disk about 20 million years ago.