Thursday, March 19, 2026

Oval orbit casts new light on black hole - neutron star mergers

Artist’s impression of an eccentric neutron star–black hole binary
© Geraint Pratten, Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Birmingham


Breakthrough discovery provides new clues about how these celestial bodies - that push the known laws of physics to their limits - find each other.

Scientists have uncovered the first robust evidence of a black hole and neutron star crashing together but orbiting in an oval path rather than a perfect circle just before they merged. This discovery challenges long-standing assumptions about how these cosmic pairs form and evolve.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics published their findings in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Most neutron star-black hole pairs are expected to adopt circular orbits long before merging. But the analysis of the gravitational-wave event GW200105 shows that this system travelled on an oval orbit long before merging to form a black hole 13 times more massive than the Sun. An oval orbit is something never seen before in this kind of collision.


"This discovery gives us vital new clues about how these extreme objects come together. It tells us that our theoretical models are incomplete and raises fresh questions about where in the universe such systems are born."

Dr Patricia Schmidt
Associate Professor


Dr Patricia Schmidt, from the University of Birmingham, said: “This discovery gives us vital new clues about how these extreme objects come together. It tells us that our theoretical models are incomplete and raises fresh questions about where in the universe such systems are born.”

The researchers analysed data from LIGO and Virgo detectors using a new gravitational‑wave model developed at the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Gravitational Wave Astronomy. This allowed them to measure both how ‘oval’ the orbit was (eccentricity) and any spin‑induced wobbling (precession). This is the first time these two effects have been measured together in a neutron star–black hole event.

Geraint Pratten, a Royal Society University Research Fellow from the University of Birmingham, said: “The orbit gives the game away. Its elliptical shape just before merger shows this system did not evolve quietly in isolation but was almost certainly shaped by gravitational interactions with other stars, or a third companion.”

A Bayesian analysis comparing thousands of theoretical predictions to the real data, showed that a circular orbit is extremely unlikely, ruling it out with 99.5% confidence.

Black hole mass

Past analyses of GW200105, which assumed a circular orbit, underestimated the black hole mass and overestimated the neutron star mass. The new study corrects these values and finds no compelling evidence of precession, indicating that the eccentricity was imprinted by its formation rather than by spins.

Gonzalo Morras, from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, said: “This is convincing proof that not all neutron star–black hole pairs share the same origin. The eccentric orbit suggests a birthplace in an environment where many stars interact gravitationally.”

This discovery challenges the prevailing view that all neutron star–black hole mergers arise from a single dominant formation channel and highlights the need for more advanced waveform models capable of capturing the full complexity of these systems.

The study helps to explain the growing diversity seen in compact-binary mergers and opens the door to identifying even more unusual pathways as the number of gravitational-wave detections continues to grow.



Notes for editors

For more information, please contact the press office on +44 (0) 121 414 2772

‘Orbital eccentricity in a neutron star – black hole merger’ - Gonzalo Morras, Geraint Pratten, and Patricia Schmidt is published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

As well as being ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions, the University of Birmingham is the most targeted UK university by top graduate employers. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, educators and more than 40,000 students from over 150 countries.

About the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics

The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) based in Potsdam and Hannover, Germany, is a leading international research centre. The research program covers the entire spectrum of gravitational physics: from the giant dimensions of the Universe to the tiny scales of strings. The unification of all these important research branches under one roof is unique in the world.

About Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) is a public university with an outstanding international reputation for its high-quality teaching and research. Founded in 1968, it is recognized as one of the best Spanish universities in both national and international rankings. UAM has 8 Faculties/Schools -Science, Economics and Business Studies, Law, Arts and Humanities, Medicine, Psychology, Teachers Training and Education and a School of Engineering, and several affiliated centres, offering a wide range of studies in humanities and scientific and technical fields. Currently it has about 30,000 students, 2,800 professors and researchers and nearly 1,000 administrative staff.

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Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Conditions suitable for life on distant moons

Artistic view of an exomoon orbiting a free-floating planet.
Generated by the authors using ChatGPT / DALL·E.
Credit: D.Dahlbüdding / ChatGPT / DALL·E


Hydrogen atmosphere could keep exomoons habitable for billions of years

Liquid water is considered essential for life. Surprisingly, however, stable conditions that are conducive to life could exist far from any sun. A research team from the Excellence Cluster ORIGINS at LMU and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) has shown that moons around free-floating planets can keep their water oceans liquid for up to 4.3 billion years by virtue of dense hydrogen atmospheres and tidal heating – that is to say, for almost as long as the Earth has existed and sufficient time for complex life to develop.

Planetary systems often form under unstable conditions. If young planets come too close, they can fling each other out of their orbits. This creates free-floating planets (FFPs), which wander through the galaxy without a parent star. An earlier study by LMU physicist Dr. Giulia Roccetti had shown that gas giants ejected in this way do not necessarily lose all of their moons in the process.

Tidal heating keeps oceans liquid

The ejection does, however, alter the orbits of the moons. They become highly elliptical, such that their distance from the planet constantly changes. The resulting tidal forces rhythmically deform the lunar body, compress its interior, and generate heat through friction. This tidal heating can be sufficient to maintain oceans of liquid water on the surface – even without the energy of a star, and in the cold of interstellar space.

Hydrogen as stable heat trap

The atmosphere determines whether this heat is retained at the surface. On Earth, carbon dioxide functions as an effective greenhouse gas. Earlier studies had demonstrated that carbon dioxide could stabilize life-friendly conditions on exomoons for periods of up to 1.6 billion years. Under the extremely low temperatures of free-floating systems, however, carbon dioxide would condense, causing the atmosphere to lose its protective effect and allowing heat to escape.

And so the research team from the fields of astrophysics, biophysics, and astrochemistry investigated hydrogen-rich atmospheres as alternative heat traps. Although molecular hydrogen is largely transparent to infrared radiation, a crucial physical effect arises under high pressures: collision-induced absorption. In this process, colliding hydrogen molecules form transient complexes that can absorb thermal radiation and retain it in the atmosphere. At the same time, hydrogen remains stable even at very low temperatures.

Parallels to early Earth

The findings also furnish new clues to the origin of life. “Our collaboration with the team of Prof. Braun helped us recognize that the cradle of life does not necessarily require a sun,” says David Dahlbüdding, doctoral researcher at LMU and lead author of the study. “We discovered a clear connection between these distant moons and the early Earth, where high concentrations of hydrogen through asteroid impacts could have created the conditions for life.”

Tidal forces could not only supply heat, but also drive processes of chemical development. Periodic deformation gives rise to local wet-dry cycles, in which water evaporates and then condenses again. Such cycles are considered an important mechanism for the formation of complex molecules and could facilitate crucial steps on the path to the emergence of life.

Moons hospitable to life in interstellar space

Free-floating planets are thought to be common. According to estimates, there could be as many of these ‘nomadic’ planets in the Milky Way as there are stars. Their moons could provide stable habitats for long periods of time. The new findings could thus significantly broaden the spectrum of possible environments that could harbor life – and show that life could arise and endure even in the darkest regions of the galaxy.

"These environments are interesting to model because they push planetary modelling into unusual regimes, but they also serve to understand the environments in which potential life precursors emerged on Earth" - Tommaso Grassi, MPE Scientist



Contact:

David Dahlbüdding
PhD-Student
ddahlb@mpe.mpg.de
Max Planck Institute for extraterrestrial Physics

Tommaso Grassi
Scientist
Tel: +49 89 30000-3639
tgrassi@mpe.mpg.de


Original publication

 Dahlbüdding, Grassi, Molaverdikhani, Roccetti, Ercolano, Braun, Caselli,
Habitability of Tidally Heated H2-Dominated Exomoons around Free-Floating Planets
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)
24.02.2026

Source


Further information

Life on distant moons
ORIGINS Cluster Press Release

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Tuesday, March 17, 2026

NASA Discovers Crash of Extreme Stars in Unexpected Site

GRB 230906A
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./S. Dichiara; IR: NASA/ESA/STScI; Illustration: ERC BHianca 2026 / Fortuna and Dichiara, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds



  • Astronomers have spotted a collision between two neutron stars in an environment unlike any other seen before.

  • This event called GRB 230906A is likely seen in a tiny galaxy in a stream of gas located about 4.7 billion light-years from Earth.

  • The discovery of this neutron star collision may explain the presence of gold and platinum in intergalactic space.

  • To find this event and identify its true nature, astronomers used multiple telescopes including Chandra, Fermi, Swift, and Hubble.


This graphic depicts the likely discovery of a collision between two neutron stars, made by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, in a tiny galaxy buried in a huge stream of gas, as described in our latest press release. This is the first time that a neutron star collision has been spotted in such a setting.

Neutron stars are the ultra-dense remnants left behind after massive stars collapse. When neutron stars occasionally collide with one another, they can produce important elements like gold and platinum and generate gravitational waves that ripple across space. This latest discovery may help solve open questions as to how those precious elements are sometimes outside galaxies as well as how some gamma-ray bursts mysteriously do not appear to be associated with a known galaxy.

Two artist’s illustrations — one in the main panel and the other on the bottom left — depict what astronomers think is happening in the event. Known as GRB 230906A, this event was first picked up by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in September 2023. Astronomers then used the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory to provide a more accurate position followed by observations with Chandra and the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Chandra data, shown in the inset to the upper left of the graphic, gave the researchers an even more accurate position for the GRB, and once Chandra told them exactly where to look, the researchers then used Hubble to reveal a tiny, extremely faint galaxy at that position.

The tiny galaxy that hosted this neutron star collision is located about 4.7 billion light-years away, embedded within a stream of gas that stretches some 600,000 light-years long. (For context, our Milky Way galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across.) This stream was likely created when a group of galaxies collided hundreds of millions of years ago, stripping gas and dust from the galaxies and tossing it into intergalactic space. The artist’s illustration in the main panel shows members of the galaxy group in yellow and orange and tidal streams around the galaxies in blue.

Once these galaxies collided, it likely triggered a wave of star formation that, over hundreds of millions of years, led to the birth and eventual collision of these neutron stars. The artist’s illustration in the inset to the lower left shows a view from the side of what the aftermath of a neutron star collision might look like. The GRB was detected by viewing it down the barrel of the jet.

The unusual location of GRB 230906A may also help explain how astronomers have spotted elements like gold and platinum in stars at relatively large distances from the centers of galaxies. Such stars are generally expected to be older and to have formed from gas that had less time to be enriched in heavy elements from supernova explosions.

Through a chain of nuclear reactions, a collision between two neutron stars can produce heavy elements like gold and platinum, which astronomers witnessed in a much closer collision seen in 2017. Events like GRB 230906A could generate elements like these and spread them throughout the outskirts of galaxies, eventually appearing in future generations of stars.

An alternative identity for the explosion is that it is in a much more distant galaxy that is behind the galaxy group. The team considers this to be a less likely explanation than the tiny galaxy idea.

A paper describing these results has been accepted in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The authors of the paper are Simone Dichiara (Penn State University), Elena Troja (University of Rome, Italy), Brendan O’Connor (Carnegie Mellon University), Yu-Han Yang (University of Rome), Paz Beniamini (University of Israel), Antonio Galvan-Gamez (National Autonomous University of Mexico), Takanori Sakamoto (Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan), Yuta Kawakubo (Aoyama Gakuin), and Jane Charlton (Penn State).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chan.dra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, M,brassachusetts.




Visual Description:
This release features two artist's concepts and a composite image depicting two cosmic collisions that began hundreds of millions of years ago.

At the center of the large artist's concept is a brilliant glowing ball with a nearly white core, and golden orange outer layers. This brilliant ball represents the brightest galaxy in a collision between two groups of galaxies, which began hundreds of millions of years ago. Gas and dust from that collision were tossed into intergalactic space in long tidal streams. In the illustration, the tidal streams resemble swooping blue streaks shooting off the brilliant ball. Near the end of each swooping tidal stream is a glowing orange streak, or ellipse. These glowing shapes are smaller individual galaxies, some of which are revealed to have spiraling arms when examined closely.

One of the tidal streams shoots toward our upper left, then begins to hook back down, passing two glowing orange galaxies along its path. Near the end of this tidal stream is a tiny galaxy and an X-ray source presented in the middle of a close-up insert. In the center of the composite insert, Hubble observations in orange reveal the tiny, faint galaxy buried in the tidal stream. A pool of neon blue haze shows X-rays detected by Chandra from the collision of two ultra-dense neutron stars.

Astronomers believe that the tiny galaxy was born from gas and dust along the 600,000 light-year-long tidal stream, created by the initial collision of the galaxy groups. Over hundreds of millions of years, that material contributed to the birth of many stars within the tiny galaxy. Two of those stars collapsed into neutron stars, and ultimately collided, producing important elements like gold and platinum, and gravitational waves that rippled across space.

The artist's concept in the other insert shows a close-up view from the side of what the aftermath of a neutron star collision might look like. A burst of gamma rays was originally detected by viewing it down the barrel of the jet, which triggered follow-up X-ray observations with Chandra and other X-ray telescopes.


Fast Facts for GRB 230906A:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Penn State Univ./S. Dichiara; IR: NASA/ESA/STScI; Illustration: ERC BHianca 2026 / Fortuna and Dichiara, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds
Release Date: March 10, 2026
 Scale: Image is about 5 arcsec (95,000 light-years) across.
 Category: Neutron Stars/X-ray Binaries
Coordinates (J2000): RA 5h 19m 1.8s | Dec -47° 53´ 34.9"
 Constellation: Pictor
Observation Dates: September 11, 2023
 Observation Time: 18 hours 30 minutes
 Obs. ID: 26630
 Instrument: ACIS
References: Dichiara, S. et al., 2025, ApJ Letters, Accepted
Color Code: X-ray: blue; Infrared: red
 Distance Estimate: About 4.7 billion light-years (z~0.453) from Earth.

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Monday, March 16, 2026

Nearby red dwarf star hosts at least four planets—with one in the habitable zone

sBGLS periodograms of all planet candidates and the rotation period of the star. The apparent fringe pattern in all panels is caused by the sampling of the data in two chunks separated by approximately 13 y. Credit: Astronomy & Astrophysics (2026). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554984


In 2020, a study confirmed that two planets orbited the nearby red dwarf, GJ 887. Now, astronomers have confirmed the existence of two additional planets orbiting GJ 887 in a new study published in Astronomy and Astrophysics. The new study suggests that one of these newly confirmed planets is in the habitable zone.

The GJ 887 red dwarf system

GJ 887 is a bright red dwarf star about 10.7 light years away from our solar system—a relatively short distance compared to other star systems. The previous study showed two non-transiting exoplanets with short orbital periods of 9 and 21 days and a potential third planet with a period of 50 days. At the time, available data could not differentiate whether the signal that was interpreted as potentially being from the third planet was coming from a planet or magnetic activity from the star.

Red dwarf stars are prime targets for finding low-mass planets in the habitable zone (HZ)—a region within a particular distance from a star where a planet's surface temperature allows for the existence of liquid water. The team involved in the new study aimed to determine whether this potential third planet could be confirmed and whether there might be any additional planets.

"The combination of the quiet, nearby star, confirmed planets close to the inner edge of the HZ, and the possibility of a third planet within the HZ means GJ 887 is particularly interesting for further characterization. If the 50 d signal is due to a planet, the system would be a prime candidate for atmospheric characterization, with such proposed imaging missions such as the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) or interferometry missions such as Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE) due to its brightness and proximity to the sun," the study authors write.

 New data confirms additional planets

The researchers combined new radial velocity (RV) measurements from the new High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) and Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) spectral data and archival data. They also used photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and All-Sky Automated Survey (ASAS) to determine transits and stellar rotation.

The results confirmed that four planets orbit GJ 887 with periods of 4.4, 9.2, 21.8, and 50.8 days. They also confirmed that the 50.8-day planet (GJ 887 d) is in the HZ, making it the second closest HZ planet after Proxima Centauri b. The team says that the planet appears to be a "super-Earth" with a minimum mass of over six Earth masses.

"Without an independent radius estimate, the density and hence the composition of the planet cannot be determined. According to Luque and Pallé, planets in this mass range have either a rocky, a water-world or a puffy sub-Neptune composition," the study authors explain.

A fifth signal at 2.2 days was detected in the study, but could not be confirmed. The team says that, if confirmed, this may be a sub-Earth-mass planet. Future studies may confirm the existence of this potential planet with additional high-precision radial velocity data.

An ideal target for future study

The GJ 887 system is likely to remain in the crosshairs of astronomical instruments for years to come. GJ 887 d is a prime target for future direct imaging missions studying atmospheres and searching for biosignatures, such as the HWO and LIFE missions. There will likely be continued interest in determining the composition of GJ 887 d to see if it can support life.

"GJ 887 is a compelling system for further study. It is a nearby and, hence, bright, M dwarf, hosting a minimum of four planets, including a super-Earth-mass, Earth-mass, and potentially sub-Earth-mass planets. At least one of the planets is in the habitable zone," the study authors write.



Written for you by our author Krystal Kasal, edited by Gaby Clark, and fact-checked and reviewed by Robert Egan—this article is the result of careful human work. We rely on readers like you to keep independent science journalism alive. If this reporting matters to you, please consider a donation (especially monthly). You'll get an ad-free account as a thank-you.


Publication details

C. Hartogh et al, RedDots: Multiplanet system around M dwarf GJ 887 in the solar neighborhood, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2026). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202554984

Journal information:

Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Sunday, March 15, 2026

Gravitational-wave observatories release new catalog of detections

Binary Black Hole Merger


When the densest objects in the universe collide and merge, the violence sets off gravitational waves that reverberate across space and time over hundreds of millions and even billions of years. By the time they pass through Earth, such cosmic ripples are barely discernible.

Thanks to a global network of gravitational-wave observatories—the US-based National Science Foundation-funded Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), the Virgo interferometer in Italy, and the Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA) in Japan—scientists can "listen" for faint wobbles in the gravitational field that could have come from far-off astrophysical smashups.

Now, the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration is publishing its fourth major update to a catalog of detections since gravitational waves were first observed by LIGO in 2015. The latest findings, published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, indicate that the universe is echoing all over with a kaleidoscope of cosmic collisions

"Each new gravitational-wave detection allows us to unlock another piece of the universe's puzzle in ways we couldn't just a decade ago," says Lucy Thomas, who led part of the analysis of the catalog and is a postdoc in the Caltech LIGO lab.

The LVK's Gravitational-wave Transient Catalog-4.0 (GWTC-4) comprises detections of gravitational waves from a portion of the observatories' fourth and most recent observing run. The observatories detected 128 new gravitational-wave events, meaning signals that are likely from exotic, far-off astrophysical sources. This newest crop more than doubles the size of the gravitational-wave catalog, which previously contained 90 events compiled from all three previous observing runs.

"The GWTC-4 catalog is a real benchmark for gravitational-wave astronomy," says David Reitze, the executive director of LIGO and a research professor at Caltech. "The abundance of black holes that LIGO and its partners have detected is beginning to have a real impact on our understanding of stellar evolution and black hole formation."

The merger of a pair of black holes was the source of the very first gravitational-wave detection and colliding black holes are the source of most of the gravitational waves detected since then. In addition to the black hole binaries, the updated catalog includes the heaviest black hole binary, a binary with black holes having asymmetric masses, and a binary where both black holes have exceptionally high spins. The catalog also holds two examples of black hole–neutron star mergers.

"The message from this catalog is: We are expanding into new parts of what we call 'parameter space' and a whole new variety of black holes," says paper co-author Daniel Williams, a research fellow at the University of Glasgow and a member of the LVK Collaboration. "We are really pushing the edges and are seeing things that are more massive, spinning faster, and are more astrophysically interesting and unusual."

Among the more unusual signals that LIGO detected in the first phase of the fourth observing run was an event called GW231123_135430. As previously reported, it is the heaviest black hole binary detected to date. Scientists estimate that the signal arose from the collision of two heavier-than-normal black holes, each roughly 130 times as massive as the Sun.

Another standout is GW231028_153006, which is a black hole binary with the highest recorded inspiral spin: Both black holes appear to be spinning at about 40 percent the speed of light. "This dataset has increased our belief that black holes that collided earlier in the history of the universe could more easily have had larger spins than the ones that collided later," says LVK member Salvatore Vitale, associate professor of physics at MIT and member of the MIT LIGO Lab.

The new detections have also allowed scientists to test Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, which describes gravity as a geometric property of space and time, using an event called GW230814_230901, which is one of the "loudest" gravitational-wave signals observed to date. The surprisingly clear signal pushed the limits of scientists' tests of general relativity, passing most with flying colors.

In addition, the updated catalog is helping scientists to nail down a key mystery in cosmology: How fast is the universe expanding today? "It's incredibly exciting to think about what astrophysical mysteries and surprises we can uncover with future observing runs," Thomas says.

"Black holes are one of the most iconic and mind-bending predictions of general relativity," says co-author and LVK member Aaron Zimmerman (PhD '13), associate professor of physics at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that when black holes collide, they "shake up space and time more intensely than almost any other process we can imagine observing. When testing our physical theories, it's good to look at the most extreme situations we can, since this is where our theories are most likely to break down, and where we have the best chance of discovery."

Read the full version of this story from the LVK Collaboration.

The paper is titled "GWTC-4.0: An Introduction to Version 4.0 of the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog." LIGO is funded by the NSF and is operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived and built the project. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the UK (Science and Technology Facilities Council), and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,600 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration.

Additional studies describing the GWTC-4.0 methods and results are online.

Source: Caltech/News


Contact:

Whitney Clavin
(626) 395‑1944
wclavin@caltech.edu


Related Links

LIGO Lab website

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Saturday, March 14, 2026

Astronomers Using MeerKAT Spot a Cosmic Laser Halfway Across the Universe

A megamaser acts as an astronomical laser that beams out microwave emission rather than visible light.
Credit: ESA/Hubble

The Universe is full of surprises, including a fascinating type of "space laser" known as Mega-Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (megamasers). More specifically, hydroxyl megamasers (OHMs) are extremely bright radio-wavelength emissions produced when gas-rich galaxies collide. This compresses the gas and stimulates large reservoirs of hydroxyl molecules (-OH) to amplify radio emissions. Using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, astronomers discovered a hydroxyl megamaser located in a violent galactic merger more than 8 billion light-years away.

Whereas previous OHM surveys have been limited to redshift values of z = 0.25 (about 3.5 billion light years), the MeerKAT team pushed the limits of detection to z = 1.027. As the team notes in their study, which was accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters, the detection was due in part to MeerKAT's high sensitivity at centimeter wavelengths and sophisticated algorithms and computing platform. It was further enabled by a massive galaxy in the foreground that amplified the light source - a phenomenon known as gravitational lensing.

Dr. Thato Manamela, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pretoria and lead author of the new study, explained in a South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) press release:

"This system is truly extraordinary. We are seeing the radio equivalent of a laser halfway across the universe. Not only that, during its journey to Earth, the radio waves are further amplified by a perfectly aligned, yet unrelated foreground galaxy. This galaxy acts as a lens, the way a water droplet on a window pane would, because its mass curves the local space-time. So we have a radio laser passing through a cosmic telescope before being detected by the powerful MeerKAT radio telescope – all together enabling a wonderfully serendipitous discovery"

Illustration of the distant galaxy 8 billion light-years away (red), magnified by an unrelated foreground disk galaxy, resulting in a red ring. Credit: Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA)

While the physical mechanism behind OHMs is very similar to that used on Earth, megamasers operate at much longer wavelengths (18 cm), placing them in the radio spectrum rather than visible light. When a signature is exceptionally bright, it is termed a megamaser because of the immense energy it emits and its visibility over great cosmic distances. In fact, the laser in this newly-discovered system (HATLAS J142935.3–002836) is so luminous that the MeerKAT team has named it a "gigalaser," which existed when the Universe was 6 billion years old - less than half its current age.

This makes the gigalaser the most distant and energetic example of this phenomenon ever witnessed. "This result is a powerful demonstration of what MeerKAT can do when paired with advanced computational infrastructure, fit-for-purpose data processing pipelines, and highly-trained software support personnel," said co-author Prof Roger Deane, the Director of the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA). "This synergistic combination empowers young South African scientists, like Dr. Manamela, to lead cutting-edge science and compete with the best in the world."

In the same dataset, the team also detected a previously unknown neutral atomic hydrogen (Hi) absorption line. These results, and the high signal-to-noise ratio obtained with just 4.7 hours of observation time, highlight the potential of MeerKAT and the future Square Kilometer Array (SKA). This international collaboration includes 16 participating countries and will rely on the combined power of the MeerKAT array and the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. As Dr Manamela indicated:

"This is just the beginning. We don’t want to find just one system – we want to find hundreds to thousands. Here at the University of Pretoria, we are carrying out systematic surveys of the universe, building the required computational pipelines and algorithms to open this observational frontier ahead of, and ultimately with the Square Kilometre Array."

Further Reading: SARAO, Royal Astronomical Society Letters

By Matthew Williams - March 05, 2026 10:22 PM UTC



Matthew Williams

Matt Williams is a space journalist, science communicator, and author with several published titles and studies. His work is featured in The Ross 248 Project and Interstellar Travel edited by NASA alumni Les Johnson and Ken Roy. He also hosts the podcast series Stories from Space at ITSP Magazine. He lives in beautiful British Columbia with his wife and family. For more information, check out his website.

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Friday, March 13, 2026

ALMA Detects Extremely Abundant Alcohol in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

An artist's impression of 3I/ATLAS is shown as it passes near the Sun, illuminating one side of the comet. On the side of the comet closer to the sun, the methanol gas is shown in blue, with icy dust grains still present in the gas. On the dark side of the comet, the hydrogen cyanide is shown in orange. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss


Astronomers capture a chemical snapshot of planet formation beyond our solar system

Comet 3I/ATLAS continues to make astonishing headlines, thanks to new findings from astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), of which the U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NSF NRAO) is a partner. This new research reveals that 3I/ATLAS is packed with an unusually large amount of the organic molecule methanol – more than almost all known comets in our own solar system.

“Observing 3I/ATLAS is like taking a fingerprint from another solar system,” shares Nathan Roth, lead author on this research, and a professor with American University, “The details reveal what it’s made of, and it’s bursting with methanol in a way we just don’t usually see in comets in our own solar system.”

Using ALMA’s Atacama Compact Array in Chile, on multiple dates in late 2025, the team observed 3I/ATLAS as it approached our Sun. As sunlight warmed its icy surface, 3I/ATLAS released gas and dust, forming a glowing halo (or coma) around its core. By analyzing this coma, astronomers revealed the chemical fingerprints of the material it is composed of, allowing them to study how objects might be made in another planet,ary system, without leaving our own.

The team focused on the faint submillimeter fingerprints of two molecules: methanol (CH₃OH), a type of alcohol, and hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a nitrogen-bearing organic molecule commonly seen in comets. The ALMA data reveal that 3I/ATLAS is heavily enriched in methanol compared to hydrogen cyanide, far beyond what is typically seen in comets born in our own solar system. On two observing dates, the team measured methanol‑to‑HCN ratios of about 70 and 120, placing 3I/ATLAS among the most methanol‑rich solar system comets ever studied.

These measurements imply that the icy material from 3I/ATLAS was formed by (or experienced) very different conditions than those that shape most comets in our own solar system. Previous work with the James Webb Space Telescope has shown that 3I/ATLAS had a coma dominated by carbon dioxide when it was far from the Sun, and these new ALMA results add methanol as another unusual detail in its chemical inventory.

ALMA’s high resolution for imaging also allowed the team to see how different molecules move away from the comet, revealing surprising differences between methanol and hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide appears to come, for the most part, directly from the comet’s core, or nucleus, which is typical for comets in our solar system. Methanol, on the other hand, appears to come from both the nucleus AND from ice particles in the coma. These tiny, icy grains act like mini-comets: as the object moves closer to the Sun, where ice turns into gas, they also release methanol. Similar behavior has been observed in some solar system comets, but this is the first time the physics of such detailed outgassing has been traced in an interstellar object.

​Comet 3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed object ever seen passing through our solar system from interstellar space, after 1I/‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov. Observations of these objects also revealed unusual properties. As astronomers continue to discover and study more interstellar objects, our understanding of planet formation in other planetary systems continues to grow more interesting.



Press Contacts:

Jill Malusky
Sr. Public Information Group Manager and Public Information Officer
Email | Phone


About NRAO
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

About ALMA
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) in Taiwan and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).

ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

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Thursday, March 12, 2026

A Sea of Light: HETDEX Astronomers Reveal Hidden Structures in the Young Universe

Section of the Line Intensity Map created by charting the distribution and concentration of excited hydrogen (via the Lyman alpha wavelength) in the universe ten billion years ago. The stars mark where HETDEX has found galaxies. The inset simulates the structure present in this map once it is zoomed in on and background noise is removed from the data. Credit: Maja Lujan Niemeyer/Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics/HETDEX, Chris Byrohl/Stanford University/HETDEX

Example of a spectrum created by statistically combining the spectra of 50,000 Lyman alpha emitters from the first Public HETDEX Source Catalog. The wavelength associated with Lyman alpha appears as a dramatic peak, making it a particularly useful tool for identifying the location of bright galaxies in the early universe. Credit: HETDEX


An international team of astronomers has created the most detailed 3D map yet of Lyman alpha light emitted by hydrogen in the early universe. Using Line Intensity Mapping on data by the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), they identified faint galaxies and gas that were previously difficult to observe. This can now be compared to simulations of the structures in the early universe. The team processed half a petabyte of data to refine their map, revealing unseen objects and enhancing our understanding of galaxy evolution.

Astronomers with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), have used data from the project to make the largest, most accurate 3D map yet of the light emitted by excited hydrogen in the early universe, 9 billion to 11 billion years ago. This specific form of light, called Lyman alpha, is emitted in large quantities when hydrogen atoms are exposed to a star’s energy. That makes it a great tool for finding bright galaxies in this far-off time, which experienced a rash of star creation. However, the locations of fainter galaxies and gas, which also emit Lyman alpha, have remained largely unknown.

“Observing the early universe gives us an idea of how galaxies evolved into their current form, and what role intergalactic gas played in this process,” said Maja Lujan Niemeyer, a HETDEX scientist and recent graduate from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics who led the development of the map. “But because they are far away, many objects in this time are faint and difficult to observe.”

Using a technique called Line Intensity Mapping, the new map pulls these objects into view, adding shape and nuance to this formative era in our universe. Results were published on March 3 in The Astrophysical Journal.

All light can be broken apart into its various wavelengths. The result is called a spectrum. Astronomers examine spectra (the plural of “spectrum”) for peaks and valleys which correspond to the presence of different elements. Line Intensity Mapping charts the distribution and concentration of specific elements across an entire region, rather than observing objects one-by-one.”

“Imagine you're in a plane looking down. The ‘traditional’ way to do galaxy surveys is like mapping the brightest cities only: you learn where the big population centers are, but you miss everyone thatlives in the suburbs and small towns,” explained Julian Muñoz, a HETDEX scientist, assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin, and co-author on the paper. “Intensity mapping is like viewing the same scene through a smudged plane window: you get a blurrier picture, but you capture all the light and not just the brightest spots.

”Although Line Intensity Mapping isn’t a new technique, this is the first time it’s been used to chart Lyman alpha emissions in such a large set of data and with such high precision. Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory, HETDEX is charting the position of over one million bright galaxies in its quest to understand dark energy. The project is unique in gathering so much data – over 600 million spectra – for such a large swath of sky, measuring over 2,000 full Moons.

“However, we only use a small fraction of all the data we collect, around 5%,” explained Karl Gebhardt, HETDEX principal investigator, chair of UT Austin’s astronomy department, and co-author on the paper. “There’s huge potential in using that remaining data for additional research.”

“HETDEX observes everything in a patch of sky, but only a tiny amount of that data is related to the galaxies that are bright enough for the project to use,” added Lujan Niemeyer. “But those galaxies are only the tip of the iceberg. There’s a whole sea of light in the seemingly empty patches in between.”

To create its map, the team wrote custom programming and used supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to sift through roughly half a petabyte of HETDEX data. It then used the location of bright galaxies already identified by HETDEX to calculate the location of fainter galaxies and gas glowing nearby. Thanks to gravity’s propensity for making matter clump together, where there is one bright galaxy, other objects are sure to be close.”

“So, we can use the location of known galaxies as a signpost to identify the distance of the fainter objects,” said Eiichiro Komatsu, a HETDEX scientist, scientific director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and co-author on the paper. The resulting map brings the regions around bright galaxies into greater focus and adds detail to the stretches in between.

“We have computer simulations of this period,” continued Komatsu. “But those are just simulations, not the real universe. Now we have a foundation which can let us know if some of the astrophysics underpinning those simulations is correct.”

Moving forward, the team hopes to compare their map with others that overlap the same region of the universe and focus on different elements. For example, a Line Intensity Map of carbon monoxide - which is associated with the dense, cold clouds where stars form - could add insight to the conditions surrounding the young stars emitting Lyman alpha wavelengths.

“This study is a first detection, which is exciting on its own, and it opens the door to a new era of intensity-mapping the universe,” said Muñoz. “The Hobby-Eberly is a pioneering telescope. And with new, complementary instruments coming online, we're entering a golden age for mapping the cosmos.”



Contacts:

Lujan Niemeyer
Postdoc
Tel: 2357
maja@mpa-garching.mpg.de

Eiichiro Komatsu
Director
Tel: 2208
komatsu@mpa-garching.mpg.de


Original publication

Maja Lujan Niemeyer, Eiichiro Komatsu, José Luis Bernal et al.
Lyα Intensity Mapping in HETDEX: Galaxy-Lyα Intensity Cross-Power Spectrum
published on March 3 in The Astrophysical Journal.

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Wednesday, March 11, 2026

ESA’s Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Planet

How charged solar particles, blasted out on 20 May 2024, spread through the Solar System and reached planets including Mars.


What happens when a solar superstorm hits Mars? Thanks to the European Space Agency’s Mars orbiters, we now know: glitching spacecraft and a supercharged upper atmosphere.

In May 2024, Earth was hit by the biggest solar storm recorded in over 20 years. It sent our planet’s atmosphere into overdrive, triggering shimmering auroras that were seen as far south as Mexico.

This storm also hit Mars. Fortunately, ESA’s two Mars Orbiters – Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) – were in the right place at the right time, with a radiation monitor aboard TGO picking up a dose equivalent to 200 ‘normal’ days in just 64 hours.

A new study published today in Nature Communications now reveals in greater depth how this intense, stormy activity affected the Red Planet.

“The impact was remarkable: Mars’s upper atmosphere was flooded by electrons,” says ESA Research Fellow Jacob Parrott, lead author of the study. “It was the biggest response to a solar storm we’ve ever seen at Mars.”

The superstorm caused a dramatic increase in electrons in two distinct layers of Mars’s atmosphere at altitudes of around 110 and 130 km, with numbers rising by 45% and a whopping 278%, respectively. This is the most electrons we’ve ever seen in this layer of martian atmosphere.

“The storm also caused computer errors for both orbiters – a typical peril of space weather, as the particles involved are so energetic and hard to predict,” adds Jacob. “Luckily, the spacecraft were designed with this in mind, and built with radiation-resistant components and specific systems for detecting and fixing these errors. They recovered fast.”

Pioneering a new technique

To investigate the superstorm’s impact on Mars, Jacob and colleagues used a technique currently being pioneered by ESA known as radio occultation.


First, Mars Express beamed a radio signal to TGO at the very moment it was disappearing over the martian horizon. As TGO vanished, the radio signal was bent (‘refracted’) by the various layers of Mars’s atmosphere before being picked up by the orbiter, allowing scientists to glean more about each layer. The researchers also used observations from NASA’s MAVEN mission to confirm the electron densities.

“This technique has actually been used for decades to explore the Solar System, but using signals beamed from a spacecraft to Earth,” says Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and TGO, and co-author of the study. “It’s only in the past five years or so that we’ve started using it at Mars between two spacecraft, such as Mars Express and TGO, which usually use those radios to beam data between orbiters and rovers. It’s great to see it in actio.”

ESA uses orbiter-to-orbiter radio occultation routinely at Earth, and plans to use it more regularly in future planetary missions.

Different worlds, different weather

The superstorm was experienced very differently at Earth and Mars, highlighting the differences between the two worlds.

At Earth, the response of the upper atmosphere was more muted, thanks to the shielding effect of Earth’s magnetic field. As well as deflecting a lot of solar storm particles away from Earth, the magnetic field also diverted some towards Earth’s poles, where they caused the sky to light up with auroras.

“This technique has actually been used for decades to explore the Solar System, but using signals beamed from a spacecraft to Earth,” says Colin Wilson, ESA project scientist for Mars Express and TGO, and co-author of the study. “It’s only in the past five years or so that we’ve started using it at Mars between two spacecraft, such as Mars Express and TGO, which usually use those radios to beam data between orbiters and rovers. It’s great to see it in action.”

ESA uses orbiter-to-orbiter radio occultation routinely at Earth, and plans to use it more regularly in future planetary missions.

Different worlds, different weather

The superstorm was experienced very differently at Earth and Mars, highlighting the differences between the two worlds.

At Earth, the response of the upper atmosphere was more muted, thanks to the shielding effect of Earth’s magnetic field. As well as deflecting a lot of solar storm particles away from Earth, the magnetic field also diverted some towards Earth’s poles, where they caused the sky to light up with auroras.


While their differences can make it tricky to compare planets directly, understanding how solar activity impacts the residents of the Solar System – in other words, space weather forecasting – is hugely important. At Earth, solar storms can be dangerous and damaging for astronauts and equipment up in space, and can disrupt our satellites and systems (power, radio, navigation) further down.

However, studying space weather is difficult as the Sun throws out radiation and material erratically, making targeted measurements largely opportunistic. “Fortunately, we were able to use this new technique with Mars Express and TGO just 10 minutes after a large solar flare hit Mars. Currently we’re only performing two observations per week at Mars, so the timing was extremely lucky,” adds Jacob.

Jacob and colleagues captured the aftermath of three solar events – all part of the same storm, but different in terms of what they throw out into space, and how they do it: one flare of radiation, one burst of high-energy particles, and an eruption of material known as a coronal mass ejection (CME).

Together, these events sent fast-moving, energetic, magnetised plasma and X-rays flooding towards Mars. When this barrage of material hit the planet’s upper atmosphere it collided with neutral atoms and stripped away their electrons, causing the region to fill up with electrons and charged particles.

SOHO’s view of the 11 May 2024 solar storm
Access the video

“The results improve our understanding of Mars by revealing how solar storms deposit energy and particles into Mars’s atmosphere – important as we know the planet has lost both huge amounts of water and most of its atmosphere to space, most likely driven by the continual ;wind of particles streaming out from the Sun,” says Colin.

“But there’s another side to it: the structure and contents of a planet’s atmosphere influence how radio signals travel through space. If Mars’s upper atmosphere is packed full of electrons, this could block the signals we use to explore the planet’s surface via radar, making it a key consideration in our mission planning – and impacting our ability to investigate other worlds.”



Notes for editors

‘Martian ionospheric response during the May 2024 solar superstorm’ by J. Parrott et al. is published today in Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69468-z

Jacob Parrott began this work as an ESA Young Graduate Trainee, continued it as a postgraduate student at Imperial College London, and is now a Research Fellow at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

The May 2024 solar storm was monitored and observed after it struck Earth by numerous ESA missions and covered in a number of subsequent web stories, including:

Several ESA missions are either currently or soon-to-be keeping an eye on our star. ESA’s Solar Orbiter is continuously observing the Sun up close and tracking its activity (including the May 2024 superstorm). Solar Orbiter will soon be joined by Smile, a mission to understand how Earth’s magnetic field responds to the solar wind scheduled to launch in spring 2026, and later by Vigil (2031), which will spot potentially hazardous solar activity in near-real-time.

. The initial dose of radiation delivered to Mars orbit by the solar storm, measured by TGO in May 2025, was,hr reported in Semkova et al.: doi.org/10.1016/j.lssr.2025.02.010


For more information please contact:

ESA Media Relations
media@esa.int

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Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Two observatories, one cosmic eye

Image Description: Two images of a planetary nebula in space. The image to the left, labelled “Euclid & Hubble”, shows the whole nebula and its surroundings. A star in the very centre is surrounded by white bubbles and loops of gas, all shining with a powerful blue light. Farther away a broke.n ring of red and blue gas clouds surrounds the nebula. The background shows many stars and distant galaxies. A white box indic,brates the centre of the nebula and this region is the image to the right, labelled “Hubble”. It shows the multi-layered bubbles, poin.ted jets and circular shells of gas that make up the nebula, as well as the central star, in greater detail. Credit: ESA/Hubble ,hr& NASA, ESA Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA/Q1-2025, J.-C. Cuillandre & E. Bertin (CEA Paris-Saclay), Z. Tsvetanov


For this month’s ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, we turn our gaze to one of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat’s Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula lies in the constellation Draco and has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA’s Gaia mission place the nebula at a distance of 4 400 light years away.

Planetary nebulae, so-called because of their round shape when viewed through early telescopes, are in fact expanding gas thrown off by stars in their final stages of evolution. It was the Cat’s Eye Nebula itself where this fact was first discovered in 1864 —examining the spectrum of its light reveals the emission from individual molecules that’s characteristic of a gas, distinguishing planetary nebulae from stars and galaxies.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope also revolutionised our understanding of planetary nebulae; its detailed images showed that the simple, circular appearance of a planetary nebula seen from the ground belies a very complex morphology. This was particularly true of the Cat’s Eye Nebula, where Hubble’s images in 1995 revealed never-before-seen structures that broadened our understanding of how planetary nebulae come to be.

This time, Hubble is joined by ESA’s Euclid space telescope to create a new image of NGC 6543. The nebula is showcased through the combined eyes of Hubble and Euclid, revealing the remarkable complexity of stellar death in this object. Though primarily designed to map the distant Universe, Euclid captures the Cat’s Eye Nebula as part of its deep imaging surveys. In Euclid’s wide, near-infrared and visible light view, the arcs and filaments of the nebula’s bright central region are situated within a halo of colourful fragments of gas zooming away from the star. This ring was ejected from the star at an earlier stage, before the main nebula at the centre formed. The whole nebula stands out against a backdrop teeming with distant galaxies, demonstrating how local astrophysical beauty and the farthest reaches of the cosmos can be seen together with Euclid.

Within this broad view of the nebula and its surroundings, Hubble captures the very core of the billowing gas with high-resolution visible-light images, adding extra detail in the centre of this image. The data reveal a tapestry of concentric shells, jets of high-speed gas and dense knots sculpted by shock interactions, features that appear almost surreal in their intricacy. These structures are believed to record episodic mass loss from the dying star at the nbula’s centre, creating a kind of cosmic “fossil record” of its final evolutionary stages.

Combining the focused view of Hubble with Euclid’s deep field observations not only highlights the nebula’s exquisite structure, but also places it within the broader context of the Universe that both space telescopes explore. Together, these missions provide a rich and complementary view of NGC 6543 — revealing the delicate interplay between stellar end-of-life processes and the vast cosmic tapestry beyond.



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Monday, March 09, 2026

Listen to This Month's "Planetary Parade" with NASA's Chandra



  • Three new Chandra sonifications of data of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus have been released.

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  • Planets and other Solar System bodies can reflect X-rays given off by the Sun, which Chandra can detect.

  • Sonification is a process that translates data captured by Chandra and other telescopes into sound.

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  • In addition to X-rays from Chandra, these new sonifications contain data from Hubble, Cassini, and Keck telescopes.


In late February, people in the Northern Hemisphere can look up for a special sight: Six planets will all be visible from clear and dark night skies. New sonifications from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory released Wednesday will help commemorate this latest “planetary parade.”

Because the planets in our solar system travel around the Sun in the same plane (known as the ecliptic), they will sometimes appear bunched together in the sky when their orbits find them on the same side of the Sun at the same time. When this happens, it looks like the planets have roughly formed a line from our vantage point on Earth.

In Chandra’s sonifications, which translate astronomical data into sound, three of the planets that will be on display — Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus — can be seen and heard in ways that they cannot from Earth.

While Chandra is best known for its X-ray insight into black holes and other extreme objects, the telescope has also played an important role in the exploration of our solar system. The Sun gives off X-rays that travel out into the solar system and can be reflected by planets, moons, and other bodies. This gives astronomers a unique window into certain physics that cannot be discovered through other kinds of telescopes.

The sonification of Jupiter combines X-ray data from Chandra with an infrared image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Woodwind sounds reveal Chandra’s X-ray data, including emission from the planet’s auroras. More instruments join in to represent the planet’s complex cloud layers. Next, through the combination of an optical image from NASA’s Cassini mission and X-rays from Chandra, listeners can experience Saturn like never before. A siren-like sound follows the arc of the rings, and different tones of synthesizers play as the scan passes the planet itself. Finally, listeners can hear the ice giant Uranus through the data collected by Chandra and the W.M. Keck Observatory. The data in this sonification reflects the amount of light detected from the planet and the orientation of its ring.

The process of creating a sonification preserves the integrity of the data, which arrives on Earth as a series of ones and zeroes (binary code), and shifts it into a form that can be processed through hearing. Sonifications expand options for people to explore what telescopes discover in space, an example of NASA’s ongoing commitment to share its data as widely as possible.



Jupiter:

In this image, the amount of diffuse X-rays from a donut-shaped ring of energetic particles around Jupiter, seen on the left and right side of the planet, has been enhanced compared to the amount of X-rays from the planet's auroras, seen at the poles. As the scan moves left to right, it encounters X-rays that bracket the planet on either side, and this plays as woodwind sounds. As we pass over the planet itself, seen in an infrared image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the sounds become fuller as the infrared data is represented by other instruments. Since Jupiter is tilted slightly, the pitch descends as the scan passes over the bright band near the equator and through the Great Red Spot. On the other side, more X-ray data from Chandra flanks the planet and can be heard as gusty wind sounds at the end.


Saturn:

The scan of Saturn begins on the right and moves to the left. As it encounters Saturn’s famous rings, seen in an optical image from the Cassini mission, listeners hear a siren effect whose frequency follows the arc of the rings. Once the scan reaches the planet itself, the sounds change, to lower tones with a dark synthetic bass sound. This distinguishes the rings from the planet. Chandra’s X-rays are heard as higher synthetic tones that mark where high-energy activity is found across the planet, rings, and poles.


Uranus:

Returning to the left to right scan, the sounds begin with a cello that traces the arcing ring — not as famous as Saturn’s but still prominent — around the ice giant Uranus. The notes change to represent the amount of reflected light and its location on Uranus as seen in an optical light image from the W.M. Keck Observatory. The X-rays detected by Chandra, which come from X-rays from the Sun that are reflected, are heard as higher frequencies as the scan passes over the pinkish region of the planet. The apparent asymmetry in the X-rays may not be a real effect because of the faint signal and the smoothing that was applied to the image.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts

For more on the Chandra sonification program, visit: https://chandra.si.edu/sound/




Visual Description:
This release features three sonifications, each focusing on a different planet in our solar system. The sonifications are presented as soundtracks to short videos. Each video features a composite image and an activation line. As the activation line sweeps across the image, it encounters visual elements. These elements are translated into sound, or sonified, according to parameters established by Chandra's sonification team.

The first sonification focuses on the planet Jupiter. At the center of the associated composite image is the gas giant itself; a seemingly perfect sphere with an atmosphere of latitudinal bands. The bands are different shades of grey, brown, and black, each with its own texture and width. Flanking Jupiter are neon pink and white clouds, representing X-rays from energetic particles in a ring around the planet. In the video, the activation line moves from our left to right. It first encounters a pink cloud, triggering whooshing woodwinds. When the activation line encounters Jupiter, dramatic low notes are triggered. Listen for the dip as the line passes over the Great Red Spot in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. The activation line continues toward our right, passing more pink X-ray clouds. The largest cloud, the last one encountered, has a bright white core, which translates to loud gusty woodwinds.

The second sonification focuses on the ringed planet, Saturn. In the composite image, the large gas giant fills the frame, its spherical outer layer a pale sandy grey. In this image, the wide bands of rings surrounding the planet are in shades of pale grey and sandy yellow. Here, Saturn is tilted away from us, making the round rings appear oval in shape. Dotting the planet are small pockets of neon blue. These represent reflected X-ray light observed by Chandra. In this video, the activation line moves from our right to left. When the line passes over the rings, a whooshing sounds spreads, conveying the widening middle of the oval shapes. Pockets of neon blue X-ray light trigger synthesizer sounds, with the pitch mapped to each pocket's vertical position in the image. When the line sweeps across Saturn's large round body, a low rumbling synth tone is triggered. The volume is linked to brightness, such that the low tone fades when the line reaches the shady side of the planet, on our left.
The third sonification features the planet Uranus. In the composite image, the icy giant is a greenish-blue cyan color, with a blush of neon pink X-rays hovering over its core. Uranus has a collection of very narrow rings, much finer than the wide disk-like rings surrounding Saturn. In this image, the fine rings are near vertical and slightly tilted, creating an oval shape with rounded points at our lower left and upper right. In this sonification, the activation line moves from our left to right. Brightness is mapped to volume and height is mapped to pitch, such that brighter objects at the top of the image sound louder and higher. Here, the curved oval shape of the rings is conveyed as a swooping cello note, with the pitch sliding up as the activation line passes the oval tilted toward our upper right.


Fast Facts for: Jupiter:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Infrared: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Major, S. Wolk; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
Release Date: February 25, 2026
 Scale: Image is about 37 arcseconds across (Jupiter's diameter is 86,900 miles) as viewed from Earth.
 Category: Solar System
Observation Date(s): Dec 18, 2000
 Observation Time: 9 hours 57 minutes
 Obs. IDs: 18929, 20108-20110
 Instrument: ACIS
References: Elsner, R.F., et al, 2002, ApJ, 572, 1077; DOI 10.1086/340434
Color Code: X-ray: purple; Infrared: red, green, and blue
 Distance Estimate: About 383 million miles from Earth (at the start of Chandra observations)


Fast Facts for: Saturn:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/MSFC/CXC/A.Bhardwaj et al.; Optical: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI; Sonification: NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida)
Release Date: February 25, 2026
 Scale: At the time of this observation, the angular diameter of the disk of Saturn was 20.5 arcsec.
 Category: Solar System
Observation Date(s): April 14, 2003; January 20, 2004; January 26, 2004
 Observation Time: 30 hours (1 day 6 hours)
 Obs. IDs: 3725, 4466, 4467
 Instrument: ACIS
References: A. Bhardwaj et al. The Astrophysical Journal, 627:L73, 2005 July 1 also astro-ph
Color Code: X-ray (Energy): blue; Optical: red, green, and blue
 Distance Estimate: An average distance of 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from Earth.


Fast Facts for Uranus:

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXO/University College London/W. Dunn et al; Optical: W.M. Keck Observatory; Sonification; NASA/CXC/SAO/K.Arcand, SYSTEM Sounds (M. Russo, A. Santaguida), Cello by Johnny Mok
Release Date: February 25, 2026
 Scale: At the time of this observation, the angular diameter of the disk of Saturn was 20.5 arcsec.
 Category: Solar System
Observation Date(s): August 7, 2002
 Observation Time: 8 hours 13 minutes
 Obs. IDs: 2518
 Instrument: ACIS
References: Dunn, W. et al. 2021, JGR (accepted)
Color Code: X-ray (Energy): blue; Optical: red, green, and blue
 Distance Estimate: An average distance of 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion kilometers) from Earth.

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