Chebucto Regional Softball Club

In the early Universe, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang, the cosmos was filled with a dense fog of neutral hydrogen gas. At some point, this gas became ionized, stripped of its electrons. Thanks to JWST, astronomers have identified the culprit: low-mass starburst galaxies emitting huge amounts of ultraviolet light. Astronomers found 83 of these small starburst galaxies in one part of the sky at a time when the Universe was only 800 million years old.

NASA’s Webb ‘UNCOVERs’ Galaxy Population Driving Cosmic Renovation - NASA Science

Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified dozens of small galaxies that played a starring role in a cosmic makeover that

NASA Science (science.nasa.gov)

Solar sails get their propulsion from the Sun, so they don't need to carry propellant, but they come with their own challenges. A sail has a large surface area but a low mass, which creates a huge moment of inertia and makes it difficult to control, especially with reaction wheels. A team of engineers has developed a reflectivity control device, where thin membranes on the sail change their reflectivity, producing less force and allowing the sail to change direction.

Attitude Control of Solar Sail with Reflectivity Control Devices

Abstract page for arXiv paper 2505.19865: Attitude Control of Solar Sail with Reflectivity Control Devices

arXiv.org (arxiv.org)

A recent study claimed that passing stars could have a serious effect on the Earth's climate, specifically with one about 56 million years ago. In a new paper, researchers disagree with that theory, examining other factors that could have influenced Earth's climate, such as the Moon and Sun. They find that even close encounters don't affect Earth's orbit on rapid timescales and shouldn't mess up our climate reconstructions over millions of years of Earth history.

No influence of passing stars on paleoclimate reconstructions over the past 56 million years

Abstract page for arXiv paper 2506.10158: No influence of passing stars on paleoclimate reconstructions over the past 56 million years

arXiv.org (arxiv.org)

The Hubble Deep Field spent thousands of hours looking at a tiny patch of sky, revealing countless galaxies. But there's an earlier epoch, when the first stars formed, known as Cosmic Dawn, and it's beyond reach with today's telescopes. When the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) comes online in a few years, it could finally be the instrument to see that early time in the Universe. Researchers simulated 1000 hours of SKA observations, its own deep field, and hope to reveal it.

SKA-Low simulations for a cosmic dawn/epoch of reionisation deep field

Abstract page for arXiv paper 2506.09533: SKA-Low simulations for a cosmic dawn/epoch of reionisation deep field

arXiv.org (arxiv.org)

When the Apollo astronauts landed on the Moon, they discovered drifts of tiny orange glass beads, each less than 1 mm across, and formed about 3.6 billion years ago. Their origin was a mystery, but new research instruments have revealed their secrets. According to researchers, the beads are capsules of the lunar interior, when tiny lava particles in an eruption solidified instantly in the lunar vacuum environment. They show how lunar volcanoes changed over time.

Why the moon shimmers with shiny glass beads

Using a variety of microscopic analysis techniques not available when the Apollo astronauts first returned samples from the moon, physicist Ryan Ogliore, at Washington University in St. Louis, helped unlock the secrets of tiny lunar beads.

The Source (source.washu.edu)

The gravity of galaxies can act as natural telescope lenses, magnifying our view to a more distant object. Astronomers rely on this cosmic hack to see almost back to the beginning of the Universe, so they're searching for as many as they can. When the Roman Telescope launches in 2027, it's expected to find thousands of these gravitational lenses, and will be able to use them to study the cosmos; not only the galaxies we see, but the influence of the dark matter we can't.

Cosmic ‘lenses’ will better define dark matter

Physicists Bryce Wedig and Tansu Daylan, in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, calculated how many gravitational lenses will be uncovered by NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope when it begins science operations in 2027. By examining a large population of these lenses, the researchers hope to learn a lot more about the mysterious nature of dark matter.

The Source (source.washu.edu)

Satellites in low-Earth orbit are still passing through a tiny amount of the Earth's atmosphere, which increases their drag, eventually pulling them into a fiery re-entry. But serious solar storms can cause the Earth's atmosphere to puff out, causing more drag on satellites and increasing their rate of orbital decay. A new paper discovered that a powerful solar storm in 2018 caused 25 m of orbital decay on a satellite. They propose how to decrease susceptibility to drag.

Geomagnetic Storms and Satellite Orbital Decay

Abstract page for arXiv paper 2506.03305: Geomagnetic Storms and Satellite Orbital Decay

arXiv.org (arxiv.org)

As worldwide temperatures continue to rise, governments may turn to geoengineering projects to try to decrease global temperatures until carbon capture methods can catch up. One idea is to place a giant sunshade between the Earth and the Sun to block some of the sunlight that reaches the planet. Will it work? Are there unintended consequences? A new mission proposes sending an 81 m² sail to Earth-Sun L1 to measure the effect of blocking a tiny fraction of solar energy.

ScienceDirect

(www.sciencedirect.com)

Astronomers have discovered the site of a newly forming exoplanet, probably with several times the mass of Jupiter. The image was captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope, seeing the young star system 2MASS 1612 in infrared light. The disk extends about 130 astronomical units from the star, but you can see a bright ring followed by a gap at about 50 AU. It's believed there's a new planet forming in that gap, pulling in material from the disk of gas and dust around it.

Researchers discover likely site of new planet in formation

An international team of astronomers led by University of Galway, has discovered the likely site of a new planet in formation, most likely a gas giant planet up to a few times the mass of Jupiter. Using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile, the researchers captured spectacular images around a distant young star for the first time in the form of scattered near-infrared light that revealed an exceptionally structured disk.

EurekAlert! (www.eurekalert.org)

Most exoplanets have been detected indirectly through the transit or radial velocity method. But here's an image of the exoplanet 14 Herculis c captured by Webb. It has about 7 Jupiter masses, but with a surface temperature of only -3°C. There's another planet in the system that's much closer and not directly observed. The two planets are inclined relative to each other at an angle of 40 degrees. 14 Herculis c would orbit between Saturn and Uranus in the Solar System.

Frigid Exoplanet in Strange Orbit Imaged by NASA’s Webb - NASA Science

A planetary system described as abnormal, chaotic, and strange by researchers has come into clearer view with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Using Webb’s

NASA Science (science.nasa.gov)

About 3 billion years after the Big Bang, star formation rates peaked across the Universe. Astronomers called this time "cosmic noon," and it was also when galaxies and supermassive black holes were growing faster than at any other time in the history of the Universe. Now, astronomers have found a supermassive black hole with jets reaching out into space for over 300,000 light-years, indicating that the black hole is ferociously consuming material.

Chandra Press Room :: NASA's Chandra Sees Surprisingly Strong Black Hole Jet at Cosmic "Noon" :: 9 June 2025

(chandra.harvard.edu)

Several hundred rockets are launched every year from around the world, and that number is increasing year after year. According to a new study, once rocket launch rates reach about 2,000 launches a year, the exhaust gases will start having a damaging effect on the ozone layer. At that point, ozone-depleting chemicals in rocket exhaust will thin the ozone layer by up to 3% per year. Good news, there's almost no damage at around 900 launches a year.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-025-01098-6

Cosmic rays are high-energy particles moving at close to the speed of light. They can strike our bodies with so much damage that they shatter DNA, especially when we're away from the Earth's protective magnetosphere. But their source has always been a mystery. Now, astronomers think they might have located where they're coming from: pulsar wind nebulae. These are expanding bubbles around neutron stars that have been energized with radiation from the dead star.

Where did cosmic rays come from? Astrophysicists are closer to finding out

New research published by Michigan State University astrophysicists could help scientists answer a century-old question: Where did galactic cosmic rays come from?

(phys.org)

Astronomers have used JWST to study a fascinating planetary system that's only 16.7 million years old, with two bizarre giant exoplanets. Designated YSES-1, its closer planet, YSES-1b seems to be surrounded by a disk of material that could be the birthplace of moons, similar to what might have happened at Jupiter billions of years ago. The other, YSES-1c, has a layer of silicate particles in its upper atmosphere—clouds of sand.

404 - | Trinity College Dublin

(www.tcd.ie)

New data from JWST reveal icy dust in a galaxy far away, seen at a time when it was 5 billion years younger than it is now. This dust is surprisingly similar to dust we see in the Milky Way, which gives a tantalizing hint about what star and planetary formation could have been like much earlier in the Universe. When you consider that the Solar System started forming about 4.5 billion years ago, it indicates that similar planetary systems could be forming there too.

Peeking Through Space Dust to See How the Ancient Universe Formed

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope discover composition of ice on dust particles from the ancient universe, helping to understand formation of galaxies

Tufts Now (now.tufts.edu)

NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter captured this incredible image of the giant shield volcano Arsia Mons, poking through the cloud tops at Martian dawn. Arsia and the other megavolcanoes on Mars are so tall they're often surrounded by water ice clouds in the early morning. Odyssey is normally staring straight down, so to capture this unique angle, it had to rotate 90 degrees while in orbit so that it could capture a side perspective view of the volcano.

NASA Mars Orbiter Captures Volcano Peeking Above Morning Cloud Tops

The 2001 Odyssey spacecraft captured a first-of-its-kind look at Arsia Mons, which dwarfs Earth’s tallest volcanoes.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (www.jpl.nasa.gov)