Astronomy

Of the countless stars and planets that must exist in the cosmos, we know of life on only one — our Earth. But the emerging scientific knowledge of the last generation teaches is that life must be spread all over the universe. So, as the so-called Fermi Paradox states, if they’re out there, why haven’t we found them? The answers are many. Let’s start with the odds. We know of nearly 6,000 planets orbiting stars other than ours in the Milky Way. And we are in the early days of technologically discovering and cataloging planets so far away. We know the Milky Way contains several hundred billion stars — the exact number is hard to decipher because the most numerous stars, M dwarfs, are hard to detect over long distances…

SNAPSHOT BURSTING WITH STARBIRTH JWST’s colorful view shows a molecular cloud complex in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), N79 South is part of a vast 1,630-light-year-wide region filled with molecular clouds and burgeoning stars. In this image, JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals blue wisps made of ionized hydrogen gas and cooler dust. The spikes extending from the top-center portion of the image are an artifact that results from JWST’s 18 hexagonal mirrors. JWST found that N79 hosts a so-called super star cluster of forming suns just 100,000 years old. It is the second such cluster found in the LMC, matching the Milky Way’s own count. These clusters, abundant billions of years ago, offer glimpses of how stars formed in a younger universe. The MIRI…

On Jan. 14, at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in National Harbor, Maryland, astronomers revisited some recent mysteries. Dale Kocevski of Colby College in Maine, spoke about the “little red dots” (LRDs) found by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These are the same as the “universe-breaking” galaxies first reported roughly two years ago, so called because they are larger than scientists can explain at so early a point in cosmic time — less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Scientists simply don’t understand how so many stars and so much material could accumulate in so little time. When the news first broke, there were six of these objects. Now, JWST has revealed 341 of them. Kocevski’s update to the LRD investigation has been accepted…

THE FIELD OF ASTRONOMY was gripped by chaos and uncertainty in the weeks following Donald J. Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency on Jan. 20, as he and advisor Elon Musk launched a full-scale assault on federal spending, purged the civil services of diversity initiatives, and executed mass layoffs. The blitz included a flurry of executive orders and efforts by Musk and allies at the Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE), an organization under the presidential executive office. Affected agencies included NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF), which underwrite nearly all publicly funded astronomy in the U.S. Both agencies have halted key review and advisory processes. On Jan. 27, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a memo freezing all federal loans and grants, halting paychecks for NSF-funded researchers.…

PARIS LIMIT BREACHED Earth’s average temperature in 2024 was more than 1.5 C (2.7 F) warmer than in the preindustrial period, international climate-science groups announced Jan. 10. It is the first time Earth has surpassed the 1.5 C limit of warming set as a goal in the 2016 Paris Agreement. LOS ANGELES ABLAZE The Eaton fire, sparked Jan. 7 in the Altadena hills, crept within blocks of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and, 5 miles (8 km) to the east, up to the doorstep of historic Mount Wilson Observatory. Firefighters saved both institutions, but over 200 JPL employees lost their homes. MEET CUTE Pluto may have acquired its largest moon, Charon, after a grazing collision, suggests a modeling study published Jan. 6. In this “kiss and capture” scenario, the pair…

AMONG THE MENAGERIE of galaxies, astronomers have found an example of an unusual breed: a quasar with spiral arms. Quasars are galaxies whose central black holes produce jets that shine brighter than the rest of the galaxy itself. Typically, these galaxies are old and elliptical, having lost their spiral structure through mergers with other galaxies. But when astronomer and U.S. Naval Academy midshipman Olivia Achenbach analyzed Hubble Space Telescope data of the quasar J0742+2704, she saw clear spiral arms — suggesting it hasn’t experienced a major merger. A check of archival data revealed the jets have turned on within the past 20 years. This doesn’t jibe with the dominant theory that black holes begin feeding and launching jets when their host galaxies merge, which causes stars, gas, and dust to fall…