How Two Mismatched Telescopes Can Train Better Planet Hunters
Kepler and TESS see different slices of the sky. Joint machine-learning training turns their mismatch into a better way to rank planet candidates.
Space
Could Earth’s Axion Detectors Become a Telescope for Dark Matter?
A proposed network of axion detectors could use signal timing and coherence to map the hidden motion of dark matter near Earth.
A Tailored Infrared Camera Could Map Enceladus Pole to Pole
A proposed infrared mapper would tailor its filters to Enceladus’s thermal extremes, tracing heat, ice and possible surface salt.
TESS Turned Old Exoplanet Images Into a Dwarf-Planet Search
A clever star-subtraction and image-stacking method pulls a distant dwarf-planet candidate out of TESS data recorded years before its discovery.
A Tiny Satellite Is Testing a New Way to Catch Solar Neutrinos
A small CubeSat is testing whether a timed pair of light flashes can separate solar neutrinos from cosmic-ray noise in space.
A New Search Tool Lets Astronomers Find the Figure, Not Just the Paper
A new astronomy search tool finds published figures from plain-language descriptions, tackling a blind spot in paper-focused literature searches.
Four Peaks Around a Dead Star Hide a Two-Ring Planetary Riddle
A white dwarf’s four-peaked spectral lines may reveal two gas rings—and perhaps surviving planetary bodies—circling the star’s remains.
The Main-Belt Asteroid Growing a Tail in an Unlikely Place
A machine-learning alert revealed a tail around asteroid 6993, where sunlight may be too weak for the usual icy explanation.
Why Is This Near-Sun Asteroid So Much Darker Than Expected?
A nearly 5-kilometer asteroid orbiting inside Earth reflects only about 2% of visible light, leaving its birthplace an open question.
The Hidden Halo That Can Make a Galaxy Look X-Ray Bright
Simulations suggest a galaxy’s hot halo can shine differently depending on its temperature and heavy-element content, not just its gas mass.
Can a Language Model Spot the Galaxy Worth a Closer Look?
A vision-language model ranked Hubble galaxies by scientific promise, surfacing known anomalies and candidates while exposing the limits of a rare-object test.
The X-ray Halo That Could Reveal a Galaxy’s Hidden Past
A galaxy’s hot halo can glow brighter because it is metal-rich, not simply because it holds more gas—a clue and a challenge for tracing cosmic feedback.
Why a Planet-Sized Collision Could Help Save a Planet’s Sky
A new model suggests giant impacts may help growing rocky planets retain hydrogen-rich atmospheres, reshaping the story of planet formation.
A Cosmic Gas Cocoon Could Grow Black Holes Faster Than Expected
Could Little Red Dots hide black holes inside giant gas envelopes? New models suggest a fast-growth path—and winds that may end it.
The Brown Dwarf Whose Radio Bursts Defy the Usual Pattern
A frigid T8 brown dwarf sends radio bursts every 1.149 hours—but their weak, shifting polarization hints at hidden complexity.
Hubble Found a Clever Way to Outrun Its Aging UV Detector
Hubble’s aging ultraviolet detector has a software-table limit. LP-Infinity sidesteps it to extend the spectrograph’s working life.
The Strange Brightening Before a Stripped Star’s Explosion
A supernova’s early X-ray flash and years of precursor flares suggest its stripped star shed dense gas before collapse.
Two Faint Galaxies Emerge Near a Cloud Barely Touched by Metals
Keck observations reveal two faint galaxies near an exceptionally metal-poor hydrogen cloud, offering a cautious new route to ancient star formation.
Could a New X-Ray Telescope Reveal How the First Black Holes Began?
A proposed X-ray observatory could test how the first supermassive black holes formed—if its precision mirrors can be built.
The Supernova That Passed for a Galaxy From Cosmic Dawn
A Webb source mistaken for a galaxy at redshift 16 is a lensed supernova whose future images may help measure cosmic expansion.