SpaceInfo

26/08/2026

The black hole that wasn’t a black hole. 🌌

For years, an extraordinarily bright X-ray source in the galaxy M82 appeared to be a strong candidate for a black hole.

Then astronomers discovered something unexpected.

The object, known as M82 X-2, belongs to a class called ultraluminous X-ray sources, or ULXs. These objects produce vastly more X-rays than typical X-ray binary systems, where a star orbits a neutron star or stellar-mass black hole.

Using NASA’s NuSTAR telescope, astronomers detected something that changed the story: regular variations in the X-ray emission known as pulsations.

Pulsations are a telltale signature of a rotating neutron star, or pulsar.

But there was a problem. M82 contains another nearby ULX, and NuSTAR couldn’t completely separate the two sources. So astronomers turned to NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, whose sharper vision could isolate M82 X-2 from its neighbor.

The combined observations revealed that the extreme X-ray emission really was coming from M82 X-2.

The supposed black hole was actually a pulsar, a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star.

And not just any pulsar.

At the time of its discovery, M82 X-2 was the brightest pulsar ever recorded, challenging astronomers’ understanding of how neutron stars can produce such enormous amounts of radiation.

This is one of the reasons multi-telescope astronomy is so powerful. One observatory can reveal something extraordinary, while another provides the resolution or wavelength coverage needed to determine what it actually is.

Sometimes, the universe doesn’t just surprise us.

It makes us completely rethink what we’re looking at. 🔭

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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Toulouse/M. Bachetti et al.; Optical: NOAO/AURA/NSF

25/08/2026

The Lion Nebula roars to life. 🦁✨

Meet NGC 2392, better known as the Lion Nebula, a planetary nebula whose intricate structure has now been revealed in remarkable new detail by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Hubble first captured this cosmic lion in 2000, revealing its distinctive face-like appearance and the hazy, comet-shaped structures forming its “mane.” More than two decades later, Webb has returned to the same target, looking at it in infrared light.

Using both NIRCam and MIRI, Webb can reveal structures that are difficult to see at visible wavelengths, including compact clumps of dust and delicate clouds of ionized gas.

Although the nebula looks almost frozen in time, its appearance is the result of thousands of years of stellar evolution. Gas and dust expelled by the dying star have been sculpted into increasingly complex structures, and the nebula continues to change.

And at the center is the source of it all.

The tiny object resembling the lion’s nose is the remnant of the star that created the nebula. Its intense radiation continues to energize the surrounding gas, illuminating and shaping the intricate patterns Webb sees today.

Planetary nebulae are therefore not just beautiful cosmic sculptures. They are snapshots of a star in the final stages of its life, showing us what can happen when a star like our Sun eventually sheds its outer layers.

The Lion Nebula may look peaceful, but it’s still evolving. 🌌

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Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

21/08/2026

The ancient merger that helped build the Milky Way.

Our Milky Way wasn’t always the galaxy we see today.

Over billions of years, it grew by absorbing smaller galaxies. Astronomers already know about major events involving the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus, but Hubble observations have now provided evidence for an even more ancient merger.

By studying 39 globular clusters in the inner Milky Way, astronomers found clues pointing to a massive collision that occurred around 11.8 billion years ago.

During this ancient encounter, the young Milky Way appears to have absorbed another dwarf galaxy, now nicknamed Low-energy-Kraken-Heracles, or LKH. 🦑

Globular clusters are incredibly useful cosmic fossils. They contain some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, preserving clues about where and when they formed. By studying their properties and motions, astronomers can reconstruct parts of the Milky Way’s violent early history.

The result is a picture of our galaxy as something far more dynamic than a tranquil spiral floating through space.

The Milky Way was built through billions of years of mergers, accretion, and gravitational encounters. And the process isn’t necessarily over.

When we look at the night sky and see the Milky Way stretching overhead, we’re looking at the result of an enormous cosmic construction project that has been underway for most of the universe’s history.

Our galaxy is, in many ways, a living archaeological record of the galaxies it once consumed. 🌠

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Credits and artist’s impression: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

20/08/2026

A cosmic hourglass sculpted by a dying star. 🌌

Meet NGC 2899, a spectacular planetary nebula located about 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Vela.

Despite its name, a planetary nebula has nothing to do with planets. It is the glowing aftermath of a Sun-like star that has shed its outer layers near the end of its life.

At the heart of NGC 2899 sits a scorching white dwarf with a temperature of nearly 22,000°C. Its intense radiation and powerful stellar winds are driving gas outward, creating the nebula’s dramatic diagonal structures.

But the star may not be working alone.

Astronomers suspect that two companion stars could be interacting at the center and helping sculpt the nebula. Their gravitational influence may have produced the unusual pinched structure around the middle, including a fragmented ring or torus that looks almost like a cosmic donut with a bite taken out of it. 🍩

Look closely at the gaseous pillars throughout the nebula and you’ll notice that many appear to point back toward the central source of radiation and stellar winds.

What looks like a delicate cosmic flower is actually an environment being shaped by immense stellar forces.

And in roughly 5 billion years, our own Sun may create a planetary nebula of its own before becoming a white dwarf.

NGC 2899 could therefore offer us a glimpse of one possible future for our star. ☀️

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📷 NASA, ESA, STScI

19/08/2026

A young Sun with its own cosmic bubble. ☀️✨

Astronomers have discovered the first known astrosphere surrounding a Sun-like star younger than our Sun, offering a rare glimpse into what our own solar system may have looked like billions of years ago.

The star is HD 61005, located about 120 light-years from Earth. It has roughly the same mass and temperature as the Sun, but there’s a huge difference in age.

HD 61005 is only about 100 million years old, while our Sun is around 5 billion years old.

Like the Sun, HD 61005 produces a powerful outflow of charged particles known as a stellar wind. Over time, that wind carves out a vast bubble around the star, known as an astrosphere.

Our own Sun has a similar structure: the heliosphere, the enormous bubble created by the solar wind that surrounds the planets and extends far beyond them.

Studying HD 61005 therefore gives astronomers an opportunity to investigate a younger version of something remarkably familiar.

The composite image combines X-ray observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with infrared data from Hubble. The star’s brilliant core is surrounded by a glowing purple shell marking the astrosphere.

But there’s another striking feature.

A wedge-shaped tail of dusty material trails behind the rapidly moving star, ending in bright blue tips. Its distinctive shape has earned HD 61005 the nickname “the Moth.”

Looking at this young star may ultimately help us understand the environment surrounding our own Sun during the early history of the solar system, when Earth and the other planets were still taking shape.

Sometimes, to understand our cosmic past, we have to find a younger version of ourselves. 🌌

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Credits: NASA

18/08/2026

A galaxy pulled out of shape. 🌌

Meet Messier 66, the largest member of the famous Leo Triplet, a group of interacting galaxies locked in a long gravitational dance.

M66 is about 100,000 light-years across, but its impressive size isn’t the most unusual thing about it.

Its spiral arms are noticeably asymmetric, while the galaxy’s bright core appears slightly displaced from the center. In most spiral galaxies, waves of gas, dust, and newly formed stars follow a more orderly pattern around the nucleus.

So what happened to M66?

Astronomers believe its distorted anatomy is the result of gravitational interactions with its two neighboring galaxies. As the members of the Leo Triplet pass close to one another, their immense gravity pulls on stars and gas, gradually reshaping their structures.

These encounters can also compress gas and trigger new episodes of star formation, meaning that galactic interactions don’t simply destroy galaxies. They can fundamentally change how they evolve.

The Leo Triplet is a reminder that galaxies aren’t isolated islands. They’re constantly interacting with the cosmic environment around them, sometimes over billions of years.

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📷 NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler

16/08/2026

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16/08/2026

A galaxy with a double ring. ✨

Meet Messier 94, also known as NGC 4736, a nearby spiral galaxy with a structure that is anything but ordinary.

M94 is surrounded by two distinct ring structures, including a bright inner ring where much of the galaxy’s recent star formation is concentrated. At its center, astronomers have identified a LINER, or low-ionization nuclear emission region, producing radiation from elements such as oxygen and nitrogen.

But what powers this activity?

This composite view combines X-ray observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory with infrared data from Spitzer and optical observations from Hubble and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Chandra detected a large number of X-ray point sources concentrated near the galaxy’s center, providing evidence that intense, relatively recent star formation is responsible for much of the X-ray emission.

That’s particularly interesting because LINERs are often associated with supermassive black holes in other galaxies.

M94 suggests the story may be more complicated: similar-looking nuclear activity can arise from completely different physical processes.

By combining different wavelengths, astronomers can separate these possibilities and build a much more complete picture of what is happening inside galaxies.

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Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Universita di Bologna/S. Pellegrini et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: SDSS & NASA/STScI

10/08/2026

Today a very special guest talking about the eclipse occurring in two days. What if an astrophysicist who’s discovered more than 60 planets in her career could tell you something about the upcoming eclipse? Read more about Dr Francesca Faedi article here:

On 12 August 2026, millions of people across Europe will look to the sky.

07/08/2026

118 million light-years away… and still breathtaking. ✨

Meet NGC 1015, a beautiful barred spiral galaxy whose elegant structure has helped astronomers tackle one of the biggest questions in modern cosmology: How fast is the universe expanding?

A bright bar of stars stretches across the galaxy’s core, with tightly wound spiral arms curling outward. These arms are sprinkled with young, blue stars, while the yellowish central region is dominated by older stellar populations.

But NGC 1015 is more than just a beautiful galaxy.

It is one of 19 galaxies observed by the Hubble Space Telescope as part of efforts to refine the value of the Hubble constant—the rate at which the universe is expanding. By studying objects with well-known distances inside galaxies like NGC 1015, astronomers can improve the accuracy of the cosmic distance ladder and better measure how quickly galaxies are moving away from one another.

Interestingly, different techniques for measuring the Hubble constant currently produce slightly different results. This discrepancy, known as the Hubble tension, is one of the most intriguing puzzles in astronomy today and could even hint at new physics beyond our current understanding of the universe.

Every galaxy observed by Hubble brings us one step closer to solving that mystery.

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Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Riess (STScI/JHU)