With the ability to scan the entire southern night sky every three days, the huge Vera Rubin Observatory could be about to start solving the mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to Planet Nine. Our US editor Chelsea Whyte travelled to the top of Cerro Pachón, a Chilean mountain, to visit the observatory as it came online.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A cosmic particle detector in Antarctica has emitted a series of bizarre signals that defy the current understanding of particle physics, according to an international research group that includes scientists from Penn State. The unusual radio pulses were detected by the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment, a range of instruments flown on balloons high above Antarctica that are designed to detect radio waves from cosmic rays hitting the atmosphere.The goal of the experiment is to gain insight into distant cosmic events by analyzing signals that reach the Earth. Rather than reflecting off the ice, the signals — a form of radio waves — appeared to be coming from below the horizon, an orientation that cannot be explained by the current understanding of particle physics and may hint at new types of particles or interactions previously unknown to science, the team said.
Dark matter clumps could act as stellar lampshades, drifting between Earth and distant stars, dimming them by an almost imperceptible amount, a new study suggests.
Scientists have found an intriguing discrepancy in the way electrons behave in different calcium atoms. The difference between the observations and actual theoretical calculation is subtle; however, the team believes the peculiar effect comes down to a single factor. Whether this factor is something known and missed, or something new, is yet to be determined, but researchers suggest it as tentative evidence for a fifth force of nature.
The origin of the discrepancy is unknown. It is possible that there are some Standard Model effects and that the calculations have not included them. A similar challenge to the Standard Model was solved just like that after years of data collection. Or it might be the first hint of a fifth force.If it is a fifth force, it is very weak. It is also mediated by a boson particle that could be lighter than a neutrino or much heavier than a top quark. While that range is huge for a particle, it is the most stringent limit yet for such a hypothetical interaction.
While asteroid 2024 YR4 is currently too distant to detect withtelescopes from Earth, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope collected one more observation of the asteroid before it escaped from view in its orbit around the Sun. With the additional data, experts from NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California further refined the asteroid’s orbit. The Webb data improved our knowledge of where the asteroid will be on Dec. 22, 2032, by nearly 20%. As a result, the asteroid’s probability of impacting the Moon has slightly increased from 3.8% to 4.3%.In the small chance that the asteroid were to impact, it would not alter the Moon’s orbit.
NASA’s Webb Observations Update Asteroid 2024 YR4’s Lunar Impact Odds<snip>https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/planetary-defense/2025/06/05/nasas-webb-observations-update-asteroid-2024-yr4s-lunar-impact-odds/
The Potential Danger to Satellites due to Ejecta from a 2032 Lunar Impact by Asteroid 2024 YR4Paul Wiegert, Peter Brown, Jack Lopes, Martin ConnorsOn 2032 December 22 the 60 m diameter asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4% chance of impacting the Moon. Such an impact would release 6.5 MT TNT equivalent energy and produce a ~1 km diameter crater. We estimate that up to 10^8 kg of lunar material could be liberated in such an impact by exceeding lunar escape speed. Depending on the actual impact location on the Moon as much as 10% of this material may accrete to the Earth on timescales of a few days. The lunar ejecta-associated particle fluence at 0.1 - 10 mm sizes could produce upwards of years to of order a decade of equivalent background meteoroid impact exposure to satellites in near-Earth space late in 2032. Our results demonstrate that planetary defense considerations should be more broadly extended to cis-lunar space and not confined solely to near-Earth space.
🚨THIS IS NOT A DRILL🚨We are 6 days away from the world's First Look at images from Rubin! #RubinFirstLook@nsf-@doescience Rubin Observatory will take a new 3200-megapixel image every ~40s, yielding ~20 terabytes of data every night! The deluge of data is about to begin 🌊
A team of astronomers has made a groundbreaking discovery by detecting molecular activity in comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein)—the largest and second most distantly active comet ever observed from the Oort Cloud. Using the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, researchers observed this giant comet while it was more than halfway to Neptune, at an astonishing distance of 16.6 times the distance between the Sun and Earth.C/2014 UN271 is a true behemoth, measuring nearly 85 miles (140 km) across—more than 10 times the size of most known comets. Until now, little was known about how such cold, distant objects behave. The new observations revealed complex and evolving jets of carbon monoxide gas erupting from the comet’s nucleus, providing the first direct evidence of what drives its activity so far from the Sun.
In the cold, dark outskirts of planetary systems far beyond the reach of the known planets, mysterious gas giants and planetary masses silently orbit their stars — sometimes thousands of astronomical units (AU) away. For years, scientists have puzzled over how these “wide-orbit” planets, including the elusive Planet Nine theorized in our own solar system, could have formed. Now, a team of astronomers may have finally found the answer.In a new study published in Nature Astronomy, researchers from Rice University and the Planetary Science Institute used complex simulations to show that wide-orbit planets are not anomalies but rather natural by-products of a chaotic early phase in planetary system development. This phase occurs while stars are still packed tightly in their birth clusters and planets are jostling for space in turbulent, crowded systems.
The researchers also noted that if Planet Nine exists, it could be discovered soon after the Vera C. Rubin Observatory becomes fully operational. With its unparalleled ability to survey the sky in depth and detail, the observatory is expected to significantly advance the search for distant solar system objects, increasing the likelihood of either detecting Planet Nine or providing the evidence needed to rule out its existence.
Exciting news! On June 12th (June 12.9 UT), the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN) discovered a new 8.7-magnitude stellar object in Lupus. Not long after, Yusuke Tampo, with the South African Astronomical Observatory (University of Cape Town), obtained a spectrum of the "new star" and identified it as a classical nova based on its spectral features and dramatic increase in brightness.
Join the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory team on June 23, 2025 at 11am US EDT as they reveal the first incredible images from the world’s newest and most powerful survey telescope, equipped with the largest digital camera ever built.
Introducing...your sneak peek at the cosmos captured by @NSF–@doescience Vera C. Rubin Observatory!
