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Astronomers witness supermassive black hole gorge on a cosmic meal before ‘burping’ radio jets 300 days later

Using the NASA X-ray spacecraft Swift combined with radio observations, astronomers have observed a supermassive black hole burping radio jets 300 days after a heavy cosmic meal. The team was also able to roughly estimate the mass of this feeding cosmic titan, which sits at the heart of the Perseus Cluster, a massive collection of thousands of galaxies.

The black hole sits at the center of the galaxy NGC 1275, located around 225 light-years away, and is the brightest galaxy of the Perseus Cluster. The supermassive black hole first flared in X-rays, which indicated an increase in the rate at which it was accreting matter. Actively feeding supermassive black holes sit in regions called active galactic nuclei (AGNs), with their immense gravity heating surrounding matter, causing them to glow brightly. These emissions are boosted by material channeled to the poles of the central black hole, from where it is blasted out as powerful twin jets that shine across the electromagnetic spectrum, particularly in radio waves.

The observation of the following radio jet from the AGN at the heart of NGC 1275 via flaring in radio waves is crucial for understanding the relationship between the disk of matter that surrounds and feeds the black hole, called an accretion disk, and the jets it launches. This so-called disk-jet coupling is key to developing a better picture of how black holes influence star formation in the galaxies in which they sit, and thus the growth of those galaxies.

Making these observations is no mean feat. The ideal spacecraft for observing X-ray emissions is Chandra, but it doesn't observe NGC 1275 frequently enough to observe its long-term behaviour. NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory may lack the power of Chandra, but having launched in 2004, it has collected a vast amount of data regarding NGC 1275 and its central supermassive black hole.

"It is fairly difficult to see the inner region of this AGN because NGC 1275 is at the center of the massive Perseus cluster of galaxies, which adds additional light to our observations," team leader Sarah Ketchum of the University of Michigan told Space.com. "We developed a model that allowed us to remove the cluster emission from archival Swift data, and in doing so, we were able to see the changes in the X-ray flux from gas accreting onto the black hole in NGC 1275, from 2007 to 2025."

Ketchum added that the capabilities of Swift were key to this investigation of NGC 1275, which is the ideal laboratory for the study of disk-jet coupling.

"There have been studies on other galaxies with AGN that show evidence of coupling between gas accretion traced in X-ray light and gas ejection in jets, traced in radio light. But NGC 1275 reveals the impact of black hole jets on large spatial scales better than any other system," the University of Michigan researcher continued.

This black hole didn't eat a star

Ketchum and colleagues saw the strongest ever X-ray flare from NGC 1275 in Feb. 2023. Lasting less than 60 days and consisting of two 5-day blasts, this episode saw a doubling of the X-ray brightness of the AGN at the heart of NGC 1275.

The flaring was so extreme that the team had to rule out a tidal disruption event (TDE) as the cause. These occur when an unfortunate star's orbit brings it too close to the immense gravitational influence of a supermassive black hole. This influence generates intense tidal forces that simultaneously squash and squeeze the star, "speghettifying" it and allowing the black hole to snack on some plasma pasta.

"We were able to rule out TDEs as a cause," Ketchum said. "Thus, the flaring was likely caused by a spike in the rate at which matter accreted onto the black hole."

Using Swift data, the team was able to infer the radius over which the AGN emits radiation. Because the size of a black hole is directly correlated with its mass, this meant that the researchers were able to constrain the mass of the black hole at the heart of NGC 1275. They determined that this supermassive black hole has a mass somewhere between 100 million times the mass of the sun and 1 billion solar masses.

The team then compared their data to known radio data to better understand the relationship between the X-ray emission and the radio jets that disrupt gas in NGC 1275.

A large purple spiral against a black background

The Perseus Cluster and its central supermassive black hole in white as seen by the Chandra telescope and the VLT. (Image credit:  X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/V. Olivares et al.; Optical/IR: DSS; H-alpha: CFHT/SITELLE; Centaurus Cluster: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/V. Olivaresi et al.)

Ketchum added that she and her colleagues found tentative evidence of around a 300-day delay between the X-ray flaring and the radio wave emission. This indicates the time it takes plasma to travel from the base of the jet to a knot or shock created when it hits surrounding gas or dust.

"This should be tested further in the future. Our X-ray data only sparsely sample the changes in NGC 1275," Ketchum said. "This makes it difficult to determine an exact relationship between the X-ray and radio radiation for large portions of our light curve, so we would need more X-ray data to further study this connection."

The researcher added that if the X-ray flares are produced close to the black hole, an echo of these flares should be seen coming from the accretion disk.

"An emission line from neutral iron is seen in data from NGC 1275, and this may be the echo. However, we likely need many observations with XMM-Newton and XRISM ( X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) to really establish that connection," Ketchum concluded.

The team's research has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, with a pre-peer-review version available on the repository site arXiv.

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The moon could turn astronauts into ‘walking, high voltage capacitors’ that accidentally zap spacecraft

NASA is asking for ideas to stop static electricity from zapping astronauts or critical hardware during moon missions.

The agency opened a "Lunar Grounding Challenge" to avoid situations where an astronaut on the moon could become "a walking, high voltage capacitor." Submissions for the $150,000 competition are due Jan. 15 and you can see the requirements here.

NASA is hoping to put astronaut boots at the lunar south pole in 2028 during the Artemis 4 or 5 missions, on the first landing mission since NASA's Apollo 17 in 1972. But simulations suggest that both "tribocharging" (electric-charge transfer between two objects) and plasma charging (from ambient gas in the region) could build up electric charge on spacesuits. "This problem is severely compounded when entering lunar shadows and permanently shadowed regions," the agency wrote, referring to deeply cratered areas where the sun does not touch the lunar surface.

The concern is that astronauts' spacesuits could become electrically charged, as there would be an excess of electrons (negatively charged particles) compared with ions (positively charged) in these areas.

"The risk occurs when an astronaut returns to the spacecraft," the agency added. The lander would have a slight positive charge, producing an issue once the "highly negatively-charged astronaut approaches the vehicle."

NASA has asked industry partners for ideas that can help an astronaut avoid "becoming a walking, high voltage capacitor", including issues such as an electrical arc that could damage spacesuits, spark fires in the oxygen atmosphere of a spacecraft, or create electrical shocks. (A Mars simulation in 2018 was reportedly derailed due to a crew experiencing electrical issues, so this problem is not unprecedented.)

The challenge aims to create designs that would safely discharge the astronaut and their spacesuit before an astronaut touches the lander. Among the technical requirements, NASA is looking for something small (in terms of mass, volume and power) that would be able to operate even in the extreme temperature swings of the lunar surface. The technology must also be able to help as many as four extra-vehicular activities (moonwalks) that take place over as long as 10 days.

"In addition, the suspended lunar dust and heavy dust buildup on a suit in these environments significantly increases arcing lengths, allowing sparks to jump across larger gaps than they would in a clean vacuum. Therefore, the solution must aim to avoid a sudden arc that may come into contact with the outer pressure garment — suit — or the lander," NASA wrote in the challenge description.

The challenge will include multiple phases, including a concept design, concept refinement after chatting with reviewers, and then a final selection. NASA did not release a target date in its press release for when the tech would be available for astronauts, but the agency is planning on a long-term moon base for astronaut missions that would be largely ready to go in the 2030s if schedules hold.

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Namibian salt flats look like an alien planet | Space photo of the day for Oct. 12, 2026

The Etosha Pan, Namibia's largest salt pan, seen from space. (Image credit: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2026), processed by ESA)

A neon blue pool swirls amongst what look like clouds, all surrounded by a bright red stretch of land. This might look like the surface of an alien planet, but it's actually a salt flat right here on Earth, seen from space.

What is it?

Etosha National Park in northern Namibia hosts the largest salt pan, or piece of land covered with salt and other minerals, in the country.

This image of the Etosha Pan was captured on April 5 of this year by Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which consists of two identical satellites in the same orbit.

The Sentinel-2 pair observe and capture imagery of our planet in different wavelengths using a high-resolution multispectral imager that can see 13 different spectral bands, or ranges of wavelengths.

By looking at our planet from space, and observing it through different wavelengths and colors, we can better understand Earth's topography and how it changes over time. With this image, researchers can better understand this landmark in Namibia, a nation in southwestern Africa.

Why is it incredible?

While this image is strikingly beautiful, the Etosha Pan doesn't exactly look like this in real life. If you were standing close to the pan in the national park, it would look bright white.

While this is a real image, false color has been added, which allows scientists to separate different types of vegetation and topography.

With the false color, the vegetation surrounding the salt pan appears in shades of red, while the salt pan itself looks like a mix of bright, light and dark blues with cloudy sediment floating around.

The varied vegetation captured in this false-color image includes grassland, savannas and mopane trees, which appear bright red. These trees are not only a dominant type of vegetation in areas of this park, they also provide essential shelter and habitats for local wildlife, including elephants, giraffe and leopards.

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UAE unveils lander for bold 7-asteroid mission set to launch in 2028 (photos)

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has moved a step closer to launching its second-ever interplanetary mission — an ambitious, eight-year exploration of seven asteroids between Mars and Jupiter that will culminate with a landing on the mysteriously red asteroid 269 Justitia.

The mission team unveiled a half-scale model of the homegrown probe that will make that landing during an Oct. 1 press conference in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. The autonomous craft will ride attached to the main spacecraft MBR Explorer, named after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the UAE's prime minister.

The flight-ready lander is being kept pristine in a vacuum chamber in the capital before being transported to Colorado by Etihad Airways, officials said, where it will be integrated with the main spacecraft, which was developed by the UAE Space Agency.

two men in long, flowing robes sign a model of a small golden spacecraft in a well-lit room

Faisal Al Bannai, secretary-general of the Advanced Technology Research Council, and Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi (left), chairman of the UAE Space Agency, sign a model of the lander that will fly on the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt, which is scheduled to launch in March 2028. (Image credit: TII)

If all goes to plan, the mission will lift off from Japan in March 2028, kicking off the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA). The project is an ambitious follow-up to the UAE Space Agency's Hope Mars orbiter, which has been studying the Red Planet since 2021.

"It's a proud moment for us here at the UAE," said Faisal al-Bannai, the secretary general of the Advanced Technology Research Council in Abu Dhabi.

'We don't know what we're going to find'

EMA will conduct high-speed flybys of six asteroids before reaching and orbiting 269 Justitia. It will travel a total of about 3 billion miles (5 billion kilometers), which is equivalent to circling Earth roughly 125,000 times, said Najwa Aaraj, the CEO of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi, which designed, built and tested the mission's lander.

Along the way, the MBR Explorer will utilize gravity assists from Venus and then Earth to swing deeper into space, zipping past its first three asteroid targets: 10253 Westerwald, 623 Chimaera and 13294 Rockox. A subsequent gravity assist from Mars will fling the spacecraft even farther out, guiding it past three more space rocks: 88055 Ghaf, 23871 Ousha and 59980 Moza.

By 2036, the spacecraft is scheduled to rendezvous with its final and most intriguing target, 269 Justitia. A roughly 30-mile-wide (50 km) object in the middle of the asteroid belt, 269 Justitia is unusual for its remarkably crimson hue.

Its distinct color more closely resembles icy objects in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune than its immediate main-belt neighbors. This unique trait has led planetary scientists to hypothesize that the asteroid formed in the frigid outer solar system and migrated inward early in the solar system's history. If true, visiting 269 Justitia would offer a rare, close-up look at pristine material from the distant outer solar system via a much shorter journey.

Scientists are particularly excited that the asteroid may still hold water-related minerals and organic compounds preserved from its origins. Studying its surface could therefore offer clues to how water and organic material were distributed as planets began to form, Elias Tsoutsanis, a chief researcher at TII's propulsion and space research center, said during the press briefing.

"We don't know what we're going to find — that's exploration," Tsoutsanis told reporters. "We're really excited."

closeup of a rectangular golden spacecraft with lots of wires running from it

Another look at the lander for the Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt. (Image credit: TII)

According to the mission plan, the MBR Explorer will spend roughly seven months studying 269 Justitia from orbit. Beginning at an altitude of 155 miles (250 km), the spacecraft will gradually lower its path before releasing the lander. The smaller probe will then head toward the asteroid's surface, a descent that should take two to three hours depending on 269 Justitia's precise gravity, which remains unknown.

Although TII describes the mission ending with a landing on the surface of 269 Justitia, the engineering details suggest a more violent endgame. Cruising toward the asteroid's surface at 15 to 27 meters per second (34 to 60 mph) with no meaningful way to slow down, the probe will function less like a traditional lander and more like a planned impactor.

"We don't expect that the probe will survive the touchdown," said Mariam Alhammadi, a researcher in TII leading the mission's electric propulsion.

To ensure its two onboard cameras capture essential imagery during the descent, the probe will rely on an attitude-control system to counteract any post-separation spin, Alhammadi said. Should the probe unexpectedly survive the hard landing, she added, its battery is built to last 20 to 50 minutes, providing a narrow but crucial window for it to beam close-ups of the asteroid's surface back to Earth.

The high-velocity impact is also expected to dig a small crater on 269 Justitia, possibly exposing pristine subsurface material. Because this material cannot be imaged from orbit, the team expects the probe's final images to be among the most valuable of the entire mission.

Zero margin for error

Back on Earth, the team faces an unforgiving timeline. To execute the planned flybys, the mission must launch during a narrow three-week window that opens in early March 2028.

"God forbid we miss that — we basically don't have a mission," Mohsen al-Awadhi, the mission director at the UAE Space Agency, told reporters at the press conference. The orbital mechanics are so rigid that another comparable opportunity will not arise for at least 100 years, prompting al-Awadhi to add that he is devoting no time and energy to a backup plan.

Meeting the launch window is just the first hurdle, however. Once deployed in deep space, the lander must operate with absolute autonomy, receiving no commands from Earth or the main MBR Explorer spacecraft, the team says.

"In these eight years, I have no control to call it back — so nothing can go wrong," said Aaraj.

The team is confident that rigorous engineering and testing have produced a probe that can essentially "think for itself." Equipped with AI, it is designed to decide on its own when to capture images and how to filter and rank the most valuable data. Rather than waiting until it reaches its destination, the lander will take images throughout its eight-year cruise and send the best ones back to Earth roughly every six months, according to a TII statement.

Officials declined to disclose the mission's overall cost or say whether it has stayed on budget. The United States' ongoing war in Iran has sparked missile and drone attacks across the UAE, but the mission team has persevered: WIRED reported that they pressed on even as missiles were intercepted overhead.

Looking ahead

Beyond the immediate scientific return, officials said a central pillar of this mission is accelerating the UAE's sovereign deep-space capabilities and fostering its domestic space economy.

The UAE Space Agency, established in 2014, has steadily expanded its portfolio from satellite launches to a Martian orbiter and sending two astronauts to the International Space Station. The EMA probe represents a developmental leap, designed and built in just under two years by a team of roughly 50 local engineers and scientists, many of whom began their careers as entry-level technicians on the Hope Mars mission.

"I don't want to call them my kids — there's a lot of them — but that's how attached I feel to them," al-Awadhi said during the briefing.

The UAE aims to position itself among the world's 10 largest space economies by 2031, targeting a massive expansion of a sector currently valued at about $12 billion. According to al-Bannai, the EMA project is designed to be one of many programs to come. By the time the lander impacts 269 Justitia in 2036, the technology matured during this journey will already be driving the next generation of Emirati spacecraft, he said.

"That's the journey we're on today."

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Mysterious 10-minute X-ray burst from a distant galaxy may have come from 2 dead stars colliding

Astronomers investigating mysterious flashes of X-rays believe that these blasts could stem from collisions between neutron stars, the events that forge elements like gold, silver, and platinum.

The event designated EP250704a, was first seen on July 4, 2025, as a blast of gamma rays lasting half a second followed by a bright X-ray emission lasting 10 minutes. After receiving an alert from the joint European-Chinese Einstein probe that witnessed the blast, a team of astronomers started to hunt for its cause by studying the aftermath of the explosion using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT), the Very Large Array (VLA), and other telescopes.

According to astronomer Niccolò Passaleva who led the observations of the X-ray flash with the VLT, this cosmic outburst was unlike any scientists had seen before. "This is the longest-lasting prompt X-ray flash ever observed from a neutron star merger," Passaleva said in a statement. "It is an opportunity to have a front-row seat to the most extreme forces of the universe and discover more of its secrets."

Neutron stars are created when massive stars die in supernova explosions, cramming one or two the mass of the sun into a width akin to a city on Earth and creating material so dense that a single teaspoon of neutron star matter brought to Earth would weigh 10 million tons. When these extreme dead stars slam together, they create environments so turbulent and violent they are capable of forging elements so heavy that even the hearts of stars can't do it. Elements like the gold on your finger.

These collision and merger events, marked by flashes of light called kilonovas, have long been associated with flashes of high-energy gamma-rays that disappear within two seconds, but new research suggests some neutron star mergers could reveal themselves via blasts of X-rays lasting minutes.

In particular, scientists have wondered if neutron star mergers could be the cause of hundreds of X-ray flashes in distant galaxies discovered by the Einstein probe since its launch in 2024. While some of these have been linked to the supernova-explosive death of massive stars that can create a neutron star or a black hole, others have defied explanation. EP250704a is one such X-ray flash.

"When I saw the X-ray data from this new event, I realized something was up," team member Eleonora Troja, part of the Einstein Probe European collaboration, said in the statement.

The team believes that there is something special in the neutron star merger mix that results in these X-ray bursts.

A glowing purple sphere in white crosshairs

EP250704a, an X-ray event suspected to be neutron merger. (Image credit: Niccolò Passaleva, Eleonora Troja (ERC BHianca), ESO/VLT)

Merging with a magnetar

All neutron stars are created the same way from the collapsing core of a massive star, but not all neutron stars are equal.

Just as an ice skater pulls in their arms to increase the speed of a spin, the rapid reduction in radius of a collapsing stellar core can "spin up" the rotation of a neutron star to 'over 700 times per second. This collapse can have another consequence too.

It turns out that magnetic fields get stronger when magnetic field lines are pushed closer together. That means the collapse of a stellar core with an already powerful magnetic field can create a neutron star with the strongest magnetic field in the universe. Those neutron stars have a special name: magnetars.

A blue sphere surrounded by green field lines and a ring of orange fire

An illustration shows a magnetar surrounded by green magnetic field lines (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva))

The team behind this research thinks that the neutron star merger in question involved at least one magnetar.

"If the remnant of the collision is a magnetar, it could keep bursting for longer," Troja said. "Magnetars are rapidly spinning neutron stars with huge magnetic fields. When they dump their magnetic power into the surroundings, they can make any explosion brighter and longer-lasting."

The progression of colliding neutron stars as seen by a gold and blue spacecraft

An illustration of the Einstein probe detecting a cosmic explosion caused by two colliding neutron stars (Image credit: Science Bulletin (2026))

The researchers ruled out a supernova as the cause of the X-ray burst and were also able to determine that the light from this collision has been travelling to Earth for 6 billion years.

Discovering more of these extreme X-ray flashes could help astronomers determine how often magnetars are formed through these neutron star mergers, Passaleva said in the statement.

The team's research was published in the journal Science Bulletin.

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NASA’s hunting for a secret underground cave on the moon

Are there secret underground caves on the moon? NASA has a new program that aims to find out.

Though we see it in the sky most nights, the moon still holds an incredible amount of mystery. One such mystery is a large underground cave, or a cavernous tube carved out by ancient lava, that scientists think extends past a particular pit on the moon's surface. And to get to the bottom of it, NASA has selected a project known as GIMLI (the Geophysical Instruments for Marius Lunar pit Investigation, not the character from Lord of the Rings). GIMLI was selected along with two other programs that are all intended to expand our understanding of the moon to better support a future moon base, which NASA aims to build near the south pole.

"NASA Science is building the ultimate interplanetary survival guide to ensure that science goes first to the lunar surface to provide our future astronaut crews with the vital information, resources, and safety precautions needed ahead of time to survive the night on the moon," Nicky Fox, NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said in a statement.

Lunar mysteries

The site of this investigation will be the Marius Hill Pit, which was discovered in 2009 by Japan's Kaguya moon orbiter. You can see the pit clearly in the probe's images. But researchers think that there's more there than just a large hole in the lunar surface.

They think it's possible that the pit is connected to a vast, underground cave likely created by lava flowing in the ancient past. If true, this could shed light on the history of volcanic activity on the moon.

"Confirming a substantial lava tube would give us an insight into how volcanism operated on the moon," GIMLI deputy principal investigator Gareth Morgan said in a different statement. "Lava tubes are a common feature of basaltic volcanism on Earth, so identifying them on the moon means we could use knowledge of such terrestrial caves to better understand lunar history."

Even more, if researchers confirm the presence of this lava tube, astronauts could potentially use it as a natural shelter on the lunar surface. These lava-made caves would provide general shelter as well as protection from the extreme temperatures and radiation exposure experienced on the moon's surface. Lava tubes could also be a safe "bunker" of sorts where future astronauts could be shielded from micrometeorites. While a future moon base will probably have human-made shelters included, natural caves could be an incredible, existing resource that astronauts could tap into.

How to find a moon cave

GIMLI will work directly on the lunar surface, scanning beneath to look for signs of the lava tube. This investigation comes from a proposal led by the nonprofit Planetary Science Institute (PSI) and will be funded through NASA's Payloads and Research Investigations on the Surface of the Moon (PRISM) program.

The investigation is partnering with Honeybee Robotics to help build the equipment and instrumentation that will be necessary for the study. This gear will get to the moon aboard a lander and rover via NASA's Commercial Lunar Payloads Services program, and the data collected will be studied by a team led by PSI associate director and senior scientist Than Putzig. The work done by PSI will be in partnership with the Norwegian Space Agency.

From the lunar surface, GIMLI will gather data using ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a gravimeter to better understand what's really happening underneath the surface. These measurements will allow GIMLI to determine if there is a subsurface lava tube and, if so, how big it is. Could it fit an entire astronaut crew? We will have to wait and see.

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James Webb Space Telescope helps detect the most distant Fast Radio Burst ever seen — and scientists are surprised by its source

Astronomers have discovered the most distant Fast Radio Burst (FRB) ever detected. Not only could this help untangle the mystery of what causes these powerful but brief explosions of radio waves, but because FRBs are incredible celestial messengers, it could also reveal details of 11 billion years of cosmic evolution.

This FRB, designated FRB 20240304B, was first observed by astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. Then, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers tracked it back to its home galaxy, located around 11 billion light-years away. This revealed that FRB 20240304B has been travelling to Earth since the universe was just 3 billion years old or so.

That doesn't just make this FRB 20240304B the most distant and earliest FRB ever detected; it more than doubles the distance of the previous record holder!

"This is an extraordinary glimpse into the distant universe," team co-leader Manisha Caleb from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy said in a statement sent to Space.com. "We have caught a fast radio burst from a time when the universe was only about three billion years old, and we have used that brief flash of radio light to learn about the matter it has travelled through over billions of years."

The team's research was published on Thursday (Oct. 8) in the journal Science.

A record breaking cosmic messenger

Fast Radio Bursts are mysterious blasts of radio waves that usually flare just once, and in the mere milliseconds they last, emit many times more energy than the sun can radiate in a year.

As these powerful millisecond-long blasts of radio waves travel billions of light-years to reach Earth, they pass through gas and dust in galaxies and through the "cosmic fog" lying between these galaxies, the so-called intergalactic medium. By measuring how much the signal slows down, scientists can effectively weigh this fog of gas to map the distribution of matter in galaxies.

That makes them crucial tools for understanding how galaxies use gas and dust to form stars and grow. Thus, FRBs are a metaphorical cosmic 'fossil record' blasting through space at light speed with the energy of a multitude of stars.

An animation shows the random appearance of fast radio bursts (FRBs) across the sky. Astronomers have discovered about 85 since 2007, and pinpointed two of them.

An animation shows the random appearance of fast radio bursts (FRBs) across the sky. (Image credit: NRAO Outreach/T. Jarrett (IPAC/Caltech); B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF))

With that in mind, it is little wonder that as a record-breaking example of a fast radio burst, FRB 20240304B has already shocked astronomers. It did this by delivering a surprise about its home galaxy.

"The galaxy hosting this burst is surprisingly small, metal-poor and undergoing a very active episode of star formation," team member Laura Driessen, of the University of Sydney, said. "That gives us an important clue about the environments in which FRBs are born and shows that these brief radio flashes can tell us not only about the distant universe, but also about how galaxies and their stellar populations evolve."

A light blue sphere from which a jagged green line is emerging

An illustration shows a magnetar blasting out fast radio burst (Image credit: Robert Lea (created with Canva)/NASA)

One of the leading suspects in the creation of FRBs are magnetars, a type of neutron star created when a massive star collapses and dies in a supernova explosion. Unlike "standard" neutron stars, magnetars have fearsomely strong magnetic fields  — the strongest magnetic fields in the known universe, in fact.

There are different theories about how magnetars are born: one involving existing older neutron stars colliding and merging, the other involving environments with burgeoning star formation.

The galaxy from which FRB 20240304B originates seems to support that latter formation route, as it is young in the midst of "starburst," a period of extreme star formation.

Concentric pink circles over an orange and red honeycomb of red hexagons

An illustration of the MeerKAT radio telescope detecting the most distant FRB ever seen. (Image credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology)

Scientists will work on the mystery of the FRB/magnetar connection. In the meantime, this newly detected and tracked blast of radio waves definitely has expanded the boundaries of the cosmos that can be probed with FRBs.

"In principle, sufficiently powerful bursts could be detectable from the very early universe," team member Kavya Shaji said.

That means that FRBs are emerging as a promising way to study the first stars and galaxies in the universe. This is even more exciting considering that this research validates teaming the JWST with radio telescopes to detect and track FRBs back to their points of origin.

"Our results further show the amazing capability of the JWST, where we can push boundaries beyond what was previously possible," team member Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney said.

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Dawn breaks on Mars | Space photo of the day for Oct. 8, 2026

A snapshot of Mars captured by NASA's Curiosity rover on Aug. 11, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

Imagine the sun has just risen as you wake to the soft sounds of Martian dust swirling outside. You look out and what do you see? A beautiful mountain range, bathed in golden light.

While this imaginary scenario might not be possible today, if future astronauts ever get to enjoy their morning coffee on the Red Planet, this is what they might see.

What is it?

A panorama of Mars created using six different shots captured by NASA's Curiosity rover on Aug. 11, 2026. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

NASA's Curiosity rover recently captured a stunning new panorama of dawn breaking over a Mars mountain range

The panorama, made using six different shots captured of the view, showcases Martian cliffs on the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp.

Curiosity has been exploring this 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain for over a decade. Crawling up the mountain since 2014, the rover has explored all sorts of strange and unusual terrain. And now? It has captured a beautiful, peaceful Martian morning.

Why is it incredible?

Looking at this image, it seems almost Earth-like. Despite the complete lack of plant life (or any life that we're aware of), the view is reminiscent of mountains rising out of the deserts on our very own planet.

But what might feel like a familiar sight in a national park is an entirely different planet.

And by enjoying this view (and analyzing it scientifically), researchers can better understand how features like the cliffs on Mount Sharp formed.

Mars was once home to a variety of bodies of water like lakes and rivers. But what happened to the planet once it lost its atmosphere and, subsequently, its liquid surface water? How did the minerals left behind from these streams and lakes affect the Martian topography? These are just some of the many questions researchers aim to answer with observations like this.

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Astronomers watch ‘vampire’ star feeding on the stellar equivalent of 5 trillion quarter-pounder burgers every second

Astronomers have observed a "vampire" star feeding on a brown dwarf companion for the first time. It is a slow and gruesome death that could last for billions of years, despite the fact that the star is snacking on the equivalent of 5.2 trillion quarter-pounder burgers every second.

Brown dwarfs straddle the line between planets and stars, with masses from 13 to 80 times that of Jupiter or 0.013 to 0.08 times that of the sun. They get their unfortunate nickname "failed stars" because, though they form from a collapsing cloud of dense gas, they fail to gather enough mass to trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores, the process that defines what a star is.

This newly discovered brown dwarf, found to be a snack for a small companion star, is located in the system ZTF J0440+2325, which dwells around 300 light-years from Earth. This represents the first time astronomers have seen a low-mass star acting as a stellar vampire, stealing material from a low-mass stellar companion. The slow rate at which this is occurring indicates this cosmic vampirism will last for hundreds of thousands to billions of years.

"When we think of stars interacting with planets or brown dwarfs, the picture is always that the star eventually swallows the other thing," team member Kevin Burdge of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said in a statement. "This is what will happen to the Earth when the sun becomes a red giant. But here, we've found an alternative: Instead of swallowing the thing up, the star can gradually eat it for billions of years."

A strange cosmic triangle

This new system was first observed in observations of the sky conducted by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in the form of a strange light triangle that repeatedly appeared in the data.

"I remember first looking at this and thinking: Stars don't make triangular waveforms like this," Burdge explained.

At the time, Burdge and colleagues were hunting for so-called "black widow pulsars" that contain a stellar remnant called a neutron star feasting on a companion star much like how the arachnid of the same name devours its prey. However, because these systems contain a low-mass object gravitationally tugging on a high-mass companion, there is usually a "wobble" in their light signature, and the team found no "wobble" in this particular light signature.

"We weren't seeing that whipping back and forth here," said Burdge. "It didn't make any sense. We couldn't explain what this was."

Ruled out: An illustration of a black widow pulsar. (Image credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

Ruling out a black widow pulsar as the origin of this strange repeating light signal in ZTF data, Burdge and colleagues followed another hunch; proposing that this is a more balanced system with objects of similar masses.

"If you have less mass in the system overall, things can gently orbit each other without whipping back and forth," Burdge said. "That was the idea. But we never had any proof. And this weird triangle just sat for years."

That was until Burdge and colleagues revisited it, determining it originated from within the boundary of the Milky Way. Designating the source ZTF J0440+2325, the team followed up with multiple telescopes. With further observations, they found a slight wobble, less than seen for black widow pulsars but not insignificant.

"That was the real clincher for this system," team member Aaron Householder of MIT said. "When we measured that wobble, we found we were not seeing a black widow. This was a low-mass star that’s orbited by a brown dwarf. The wobble was too small in amplitude to be anything else."

What else do we know about ZTF J0440+2325

The researchers were able to figure out that the brown dwarf takes around 87 minutes to orbit the star feeding upon it. That means that this entire system could fit within the sun.

The team was also able to determine the mass of both bodies in ZTF J0440+2325. The star has a mass around 85 times the mass of Jupiter, with the brown dwarf has a mass around 25 times the mass of the gas giant.

Though the star is stripping and accreting matter like black holes sometimes do with stars, the huge difference in size between the star in ZTF J0440+2325 and a typical black hole means this proceeds differently. That is because, despite having many times more mass than the sun, black holes are smaller than the sun with radii ranging from 6 miles to 190 miles (9 kilometers to 300 kilometers).

When a black hole strips matter from a star, this stolen material forms an accretion disk around the black hole that then gradually feeds it. In the case of this system, the stolen brown dwarf matter is falling directly to the star.

"The difference here is: The thing absorbing matter is not a tiny black hole but a star, which is relatively big in size," Burdge said. "So matter just pummels directly onto the surface, at very high speeds, like an asteroid hitting the moon."

An illustration of the system ZTF J0440+2325 (Image credit: Aaron Householder)

The team estimated the rate at which matter falls from the brown dwarf to the star, finding it to be the equivalent of 1/100,000 of Earth's mass per year. That's about 5.2 billion quarter-pounder burgers every second, or maybe 1.2 trillion 1-pound burritos if burgers aren't your speed.

That seems like a lot, but it is just a tiny fraction of the brown dwarf's total mass, making this a slow and steady transfer of material that could go on for billions of years.

This neatly loops back to the initial puzzle that began the investigation into this system in the first place: that weird triangle light signature. Viewed from a distance, the steady feeding process would proceed like a triangle as the victim brown dwarf orbits the star that is eating it.

"It's like you've got this continuous fireball on one of the objects, and as one orbits the other, that hotspot comes in and out of view, and the peak of the triangle signal is when you’re looking right at the fireball," Burdge said.

The team now intends to hunt for more similar systems within the Milky Way.

"It's inspiring a lot of new searches on our part,” Householder concluded. "I think we're going to learn a lot about a different kind of way that planets and brown dwarfs interact with their host stars."

The team's findings were published on Monday (Oct. 5) in the journal Nature Astronomy.

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James Webb Space Telescope spots a ‘cauldron of cosmic creation’ | Space photo of the day for Oct. 7, 2026

The nebula NGC 7129, as seen in a brand new image from the James Webb Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

A colossal mashup of stars, protostars, gas and dust swirl brightly in this new photo captured by the James Webb Space Telescope.

What is it?

JWST captured the inner workings of the nebula NGC 7129 in this spectacular new image. The detail in this snapshot really highlights the chaos happening within the nebula, nicknamed the Flower Bud Nebula.

3,300 light-years away, the nebula is home to a variety of stars at different stages of development. But this stellar nursery is also thought to be home to over 100 stars under a million years old, which is quite young and early in their lives.

Stars begin to form from the gas and dust in molecular clouds in nebulas such as this, a region NASA refers to as a "cauldron of cosmic creation" in the statement accompanying the new image. Because their earliest years are spent shrouded in clouds of dust, these nascent stars can be hard to spot. But with JWST's ability to see into the near and mid-infrared, scientists were finally able to look through the dust to get a clear look at the stars forming inside.

Specifically, this image was captured by JWST's NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) instrument, which peers into the near-infrared, a wavelength range that encompasses the light from faint stars and galaxies.

Why is it incredible?

An image comparing the now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope's image of NGC 7129 with JWST's new image. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI))

This isn't the first time that we've looked at the Flower Bud Nebula. And by looking at the nebula in different wavelengths with different observatories, we've learned quite a bit about it.

However, with these new observations from JWST, scientists have unprecedented detailed views of the stars and protostars still forming amidst the gas and dust.

With sharper views in the near-infrared, scientists might be able to learn more about these still-forming stars, the incredible, powerful jets of superheated material they can expel and how these objects interact with their surroundings.