Gemini North Reveals Pearl-Like Knots in the Remnant of a Supernova Witnessed in the Year 1181

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Supernova remnant Pa 30

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Gemini North’s laser shines through airglow

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Pan on supernova remnant Pa 30


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Zooming into supernova remnant Pa 30

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Cascading knot structure of historic supernova remnant are uncovered in new observations from the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i

The Gemini North telescope located on Maunakea in Hawai‘i has revealed the most detailed view yet of Pa 30, the likely remnant of the historic supernova seen in the year 1181. The new observations reveal that its famous “firework” filaments are not smooth streaks, but chains of tiny knots.

No, this is not a firework display. This is Pa 30 — the likely remnant of the historic supernova witnessed in the year 1181, now captured here in unprecedented detail by the Gemini North telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, partly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and operated by NSF NOIRLab. This image was captured with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS), and it shows that the remnant’s unmistakable firework-shaped ejecta take a cascading knot-like structure.

The historic supernova, named SN 1181, is one of only five supernovae in the Milky Way that were observed from Earth before the invention of the telescope. Eight separate texts show that Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic astronomers first observed the supernova between 4 and 6 August 1181. The supernova remained visible in the constellation Cassiopeia for 185 days. According to what we know about how stars end their lives, the colossal explosion would have left something behind. Pa 30, a system composed of a blue central star and surrounding firework-shaped shell, is the top candidate for this supernova remnant.

Pa 30 was only discovered in 2013 through a citizen science campaign to find planetary nebulae in Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) data. It was the 30th nebula found by American amateur astronomer Dana Patchick. Follow-up imaging on the KPNO 2.1-meter Telescope and the Hiltner 2.4-meter Telescope, both located at NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF NOIRLab, revealed faint, diffuse nebular emission and remarkable radial filaments threading the nebula in a nearly perfect sphere. Based on its estimated age and brightness, scientists consider Pa 30 to be the likely remnant of SN 1181.

Analysis of the new observations from Gemini North, which was led by Timothy Cunningham (Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian) and Ilaria Caiazzo (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), reveals about ten times more filamentary structure in Pa 30 than previously seen. It also shows that the radial filaments are made of consistent chains of tiny knots of gas, rather than smooth streaks as previously thought. This knotty structure suggests that there may have been thermal or density variations in the circumstellar medium that shaped the supernova ejecta as it expanded radially away from the explosion.

Pa 30 is unique among all known supernova remnants. The central star remaining after the explosion, IRAS 00500+6713, is extremely hot, with a temperature of about 200,000°C (~360,000°F). It also possesses very fast stellar winds that move at around 16,000 kilometers per second (~10,000 miles per second).

Surviving remnant stars are expected to be “kicked” away during the powerful supernova explosion. However, the central star of Pa 30 appears almost exactly centered in the remnant. This curious configuration implies that the explosion was quite symmetrical, and it rules out a large kick that could have knocked the star off-center. From this, the researchers conclude that SN 1181 was an extremely rare Type Iax supernova. Unlike the standard high-energy explosions of Type Ia supernovae that wipe out their stars, Type Iax supernovae are lower-energy, incomplete explosions that leave behind a surviving remnant star. Pa 30 is the only known Type Iax remnant in the Milky Way.

The story of SN 1181 is one of humans working together, across time and space, to understand the changing Universe. As new astronomical questions arrive every day, SN 1181 invites us to wonder what mysteries remain unsolved from the distant past.

Source: NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)/News

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More information

Analysis of this data is presented in a paper titled “Detection of knots in the supernova type Iax remnant Pa 30” appearing in The Astrophysical Journal. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ae9cb2

The team is composed of T. Cunningham (Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian [CfA]; now University of Warwick), I. Caiazzo (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), J. C. Raymond (CfA), and S. J. Kenyon (CfA).

NSF NOIRLab, the U.S. National Science Foundation center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the International Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), NSF Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.

The scientific community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on I’oligam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence of I’oligam Du’ag to the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Maunakea to the Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) community.

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Links

• Explore Pa 30 in more detail
• Read the paper: Detection of knots in the supernova type Iax remnant Pa 30
• ISTA press release
• CfA press release
• Photos of the Gemini North telescope
• Videos of the Gemini North telescope
• Check out other NOIRLab Photo Releases

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Contacts:

Timothy Cunnigham
Center for Astrophysics — Harvard & Smithsonian
Email: timothy.cunningham@cfa.harvard.edu

Ilaria Caiazzo
Institute of Science and Technology Austria
Email: ilaria.caiazzo@ist.ac.at

Josie Fenske
Public Information Officer
NSF NOIRLab
Email: josie.fenske@noirlab.edu

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NASA’s Webb Captures Commotion From Nebula’s Stellar Jets

NGC 7129 (NIRCam Image)

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed many protostars and stars within the glowing gases of  NGC 7129. Hot, atomic hydrogen gas is shown here in the golden region, while cooler, molecular hydrogen gas, shocked by embedded protostars, is represented in red. Credit Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NGC 7129 Side-by-Side (Spitzer and Webb Image)

NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope observed the gas and dust within NGC 7129; however, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s improved resolution shows more detailed gas and dust filaments, along with many background galaxies. Credit Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, NASA-JPL; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

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A cauldron of cosmic creation is being revealed in a new image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has unveiled numerous stars formerly hidden by clouds of dust in a stellar nursery known as NGC 7129, which resides about 3,300 light-years from Earth.

Stars, the engines of elemental creation, have life cycles that begin with their birth in molecular clouds – cold, dense regions of dust and gas. Because of these dusty cocoons, young stars are often impossible to view by many telescopes, particularly those incapable of capturing infrared light. Webb, however, has a high degree of infrared sensitivity, allowing astronomers to peer through that dust and study the beginning of the star life cycle.

The stars from this cluster are in different stages of their development, as the more massive stars form and evolve the fastest. The most massive (and the most mature) is the region’s luminous central star, LkH(alpha) 234 (pronounced Lick-H-alpha). This star, which sports the image’s most prominent diffraction pattern, is a pre-main-sequence star weighing around 5 to 8 times the mass of our Sun. Pre-main-sequence stars like these have mostly finished gathering mass and are contracting under the force of gravity, causing their temperatures to rise. In time, this star will fuse its own hydrogen like our Sun.

The cavity to its left, which appears in gold and spans about 3.5 light-years, is the largest demonstration of the central star’s impact. Outflows from an earlier stage of the star’s life cycle carve into the dense molecular cloud of hydrogen. Both the outflows and the star’s light energize the gas, causing it to glow. While much of this hydrogen gas is blown away, a large amount is also compressed, creating the conditions for even more stars to form.

A few of these stars are visible within the cavity. Several of them are also pre-main-sequence and emit stellar winds. The nearby bow shocks, the curved compressed gas that appears near the stars, are created as those winds push into the energetic gas and create their own, smaller cavities.

Together, the central and embedded stars also create the sharp ridge seen at the top of the golden cavity. Their light generates a hot environment that pushes against the colder and denser molecular gas outside the cavity, and creates a boundary known as a photodissociation region. In this region, the molecules of hydrogen break down into atoms. By influencing the temperature and chemistry of the region, this collection of stars offers insight into how these molecular clouds will gradually erode over millions of years.

The region to the right of the central star narrates a different, but equally chaotic tale. This clumpy matter represented in red hides much younger objects than those on the left: protostars. The protostar stage is earlier than the pre-main-sequence stage and occurs after molecular clouds of gas and dust initially compress and fragment.

As the protostars accumulate matter and increase their mass, they eject outflows of superheated material. These outflows interact with the dense, gray, translucent matter the protostars are wrapped within, creating shocks that cause a textured appearance. The red glow is also the result of the interaction. Multiple outflows from multiple stars overlap from our point of view, leading to the scene’s chaotic look.

More of these protostellar outflows can be seen at the upper left of the image, near a blue-colored nebula. The center of this blue region hosts a protostar surrounded by a donut-shaped disk of material. This disk casts a shadow against the surrounding nebula, reminiscent of a similar structure known as the “Bat Shadow” that was observed by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

Webb’s high spatial resolution reveals many rich structures in the region’s gas, building on research done previously by NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers will continue to use this Webb data to study how the stars and protostars in this region influence the surrounding gas and dust.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Source: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope/Latest News

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Details:

Last Updated: Oct 06, 2026
Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact Media:

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Matthew Brown
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

Hannah Braun
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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Suspected Second-generation Planet Solves NASA Hubble Cold Case

HS 0209+0832 System (Artist’s Concept)

This artist’s concept depicts a possible explanation for the unusual chemical abundances NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope detected in the HS 0209+0832 system: a second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf star. Credit Artwork: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

Hubble Spectrum of White Dwarf HS 0209+0832

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope spectrum shows the unusual abundances of certain elements it found in the HS 0209+0832 system. Dips indicate where niobium, nickel, and calcium are absorbing light, so less light in that part of the spectrum reached Hubble. Credit Illustration: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

White Dwarf HS 0209+0832 over Time (Artist’s Concept)

This artist’s concept, not to scale, imagines the evolution of a Sun-like star (1) into an aging red giant (2) and then a small, bright white dwarf surrounded by a disk of its expelled outer layers (3), from which a second-generation planet forms (4). Credit Illustration: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI)

Dying Star Creates Brand New Planet
(Video)

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Diligent sleuthing by astronomers has broken open a cold case in the data archive of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. In a study published Monday in Nature Astronomy, researchers report uncovering a surprising chemical clue that indicates the white dwarf star HS 0209+0832 may host a second-generation planet.

A white dwarf is the remnant core of a low-mass star that has burned through all its nuclear fuel and lost its outer envelope of gas and dust to space. A second-generation planet is a world that forms around the stellar remnant from its cast-off material.

“Rather than the white dwarf stage being a kind of epilogue to the story of a star and its planets, this research points to the systems we are familiar with only being the first chapter of a potentially much longer tale, with some new characters showing up. That’s a really exciting prospect to pursue,” said Jamie Williams, astronomer and lead author, a doctoral candidate at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.

Earth and the other planets in our solar system are first-generation planets, which form from material left over from a star’s birth.

“What Hubble is showing us in this white dwarf system is something we haven’t seen before: a high abundance of the element niobium, the signature of which I was unfamiliar with when I first found it in the archival data,” Williams said.

When Hubble first observed the star in 1999, the data contained roughly 100 chemical features that could not be identified. Williams went back to those records armed with an updated chemical database and found that niobium matched many of the mystery features.

Williams explained that, while niobium is found in our solar system and has multiple uses on Earth, including in jewelry and medical imaging devices, the amount Hubble found in the HS 0209+0832 system points to a planet forming not from a star’s birth, but from the material ejected as it dies.

"Niobium and other elements heavier than iron are astronomically special because, unlike many common elements, they are not formed in the cores of stars by thermonuclear fusion,” said Nicholas Stone, a theoretical astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison and member of the research team. “Instead, these heavy elements can only be synthesized in the exotic conditions that briefly emerge inside dying stars. The presence of niobium is a signpost of these ‘death’ throes, and the expulsion of the dying star's innards into space.”

Once the star ejected this chemically enriched material, the team theorizes that some of it coalesced into a gas giant planet. The remainder of the ejecta dispersed long ago, but the planet remains.

“When Jamie asked me about niobium in relation to this study I was truly gobsmacked, as that element had not been reported in any other white dwarf analyzed to date. Once we realized it was there, everything fell into place,” said astronomer and study co-author Boris Gaensicke, also at the University of Warwick.

The research team confirmed the Hubble observations with data from NASA's retired FUSE (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer) mission, which also showed strong signatures of niobium in the HS 0209+0832 system.

NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) also observed the white dwarf for four months, allowing it to detect periodic brightness variations that indicate that a planet orbits at a distance of about 3.7 million miles (6 million kilometers), much closer than Mercury orbits the Sun.

The research team estimates the candidate planet is a gas giant about the size of Jupiter that is rapidly losing atmosphere. Because the white dwarf star is relatively new, it is still very hot and likely blasting this planet with energy that is stripping its outer material. This could result in the planet having a comet-like tail of material that would form a disk around the white dwarf star and fall back on to its surface, leading to Hubble detecting the niobium when studying the star. Despite this mass loss, Williams said that the planet is likely not a temporary blip on the cosmic radar.

“If the second-generation planet is there, I think it is likely to survive. Eventually the white dwarf will cool and then maintain a consistent temperature, with the planet in its stable habitable zone for millions of years,” Williams said.

Williams added that there is still a lot of work to do to understand these types of systems — how second-generation planets form, how common or rare they are, and how they evolve in orbit around a “dead” star. He’ll use Hubble to explore these questions for the next several years, hoping to build up substantial data and statistics about these new types of celestial bodies.

“I think this research is an important example of the fact that scientific discovery is not a straight path,” Gaensicke said. “It often needs that magical moment when people discuss big questions on their minds and realize that together they can find unexpected answers.”

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for more than three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.

Source: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope/News

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Details:

Last Updated: Oct 05, 2026
Editor: Andrea Gianopoulos
Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

Leah Ramsay, Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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Galaxies in a cosmic house of mirrors

MACS J0454.1-0300

A massive galaxy cluster, made of many golden elliptical galaxies with the largest, brightest one in the centre. Heavily distorted orange galaxies appear all around the cluster, the largest concentrated in a large arc around the cluster's centre; these are images of very distant galaxies, created by gravitational lensing. A few galaxies are large and bluish-white in colour; bright, nearby stars are the same colour. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, L. Furtak, S. Fujimoto

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This NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month features galaxies in incredible detail that have been warped and multiplied like they’ve stepped into a house of mirrors. The brilliant golden galaxies splashed across this image belong to a galaxy cluster called MACS J0454.1-0300. The orange galaxies concentrated on one side of the cluster are not actually part of the cluster; these galaxies are much farther away from us than the galaxies that make up MACS J0454.1-0300.

MACS J0454.1-0300 is itself incredibly distant: the light from these galaxies has been travelling to us for so long that we’re seeing the cluster as it was when the Universe was about 8 billion years old. While this galaxy cluster is a valuable scientific target in its own right, the real stars of this image are the galaxies that appear warped and stretched, like a painting that has been smeared by a giant hand.

These strange-looking galaxies are of immense interest to astronomers. The way these galaxies look is the result of gravitational lensing, in which the enormous mass of a foreground object such as a galaxy cluster bends and magnifies the light from a more distant object in the background. Gravitational lensing allows astronomers to observe galaxies, star clusters and even individual stars that are too far away for our telescopes to see under normal conditions. While the large, orange galaxies appear obviously distorted, look carefully at some of the small reddish background galaxies throughout this picture: even at the very edges of the frame, there are galaxies whose images have been bent into tiny arcs by MACS J0454.1-0300’s gravity.

In addition to making galaxies look stretched out or bent, gravitational lensing can also make us see double — or quadruple. Under certain conditions, multiple images of the same galaxy can appear. It’s rare to see four or more images of the same galaxy, as this requires the position of the background object and the shape of the massive foreground object to be just so. Because the requirements are so particular, this phenomenon is only seen in 10–20% of galaxy clusters.

Researchers spotted this rare configuration twice in the Webb observations of MACS J0454.1-0300, marking the first time this phenomenon has been seen more than once in the same galaxy cluster. The gravitationally lensed areas show multiple images of galaxies from when the Universe was young: a group of galaxies 2 billion years after the Big Bang, and a single galaxy just 800 million years old after the Big Bang. The galaxy group appears to be going through a merger, resulting in an enormous burst of star formation.

Astronomers have also identified individual bright ‘knots’ within these gravitationally lensed areas, corresponding to regions as small as 5 light-years across. These tiny clumps appear magnified by a factor of more than 300, in some cases.

A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of this same cluster was released in 2014. Take a moment to compare the two images; the difference between them is dramatic. Start by finding the similarities: the two bright stars from within our own galaxy that happened to make it into the picture, and the fuzzy white galaxy near the centre of the cluster. The new Webb image reveals hundreds of galaxies missing from the earlier image. These galaxies were there all along, but Webb is much more sensitive to their much redder light.

The data behind this image come from two observing programmes (#5058, PI: Furtak; #6882, PI: Fujimoto) that leverage the ability of massive galaxy clusters to bring distant objects into view. One programme searches for individual gravitationally lensed stars in the first billion years of the Universe. This programme will monitor a particular gravitationally lensed galaxy in the MACS J0454.1-0300 field of view for signs of hugely magnified single stars. The second programme aims to observe a large sample of galaxy clusters at many wavelengths, helping researchers study the onset star formation and the evolution of early galaxies.

Links

• Image on ESA website
• Pan video: MACS J0454.1-0300

Source: ESA/Webb/potm

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Hidden X-ray phase revealed in likely neutron star merger

Artist's impression of satellites observing high-energy prompt emission from a binary neutron star merger. SVOM and HXMT detected the short gamma-ray burst, while Einstein Probe captured the accompanying long-lasting X-ray emission. Credit: Yi-Han Iris Yin; reference images: EPSC, SVOM collaboration, NSSDC.

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An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the Department of Physics and the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), has discovered a previously hidden phase of high-energy activity following the merger of compact stars.

This fleeting cosmic explosion, known as EP250704a in X-rays and GRB 250704B in gamma rays, was jointly captured by the China-led Einstein Probe (EP), the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) and the Insight-Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT)..

EP's wide-field X-ray telescope detected the event from its onset and continued to observe several episodes of soft X-ray emission after the gamma-ray signal disappeared. While the gamma-ray burst lasted only about 0.4 seconds, the source continued to shine in soft X-rays for nearly 10 minutes, revealing a phase of activity that conventional gamma-ray observations would likely have missed. These findings have been published as a cover article in Science Bulletin..

How Einstein Probe revealed the hidden X-ray phase.

Short gamma-ray bursts are commonly associated with the merger of compact objects such as neutron stars. As the two objects spiral together and collide, they release an intense burst of high-energy radiation. Traditionally, astronomers have identified these events mainly through gamma rays. Most X-ray telescopes can only turn to a burst after a gamma-ray detector has first located it, meaning the earliest X-ray emission may already be over by the time observations begin..

Einstein Probe changes this picture by continuously monitoring a wide area of the sky at soft X-ray energies. In this case, it revealed that what appeared to be a brief gamma-ray event was accompanied by much longer-lasting X-ray activity.

Yi-Han Iris Yin, a Ph.D. student at HKU's Department of Physics and the Hong Kong Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (HKIAA), is a co-corresponding author of the study. She led the analysis of the high-energy prompt emission and contributed to the physical interpretation of the event.

Yin's analysis of the X-ray signal revealed key insights into the merger's aftermath:

• The source remained active long after the gamma-ray burst. The soft X-ray emission continued for nearly 10 minutes after the brief gamma-ray flash.


• The X-rays point to continued central engine activity. Their rapid variability and changing spectrum indicate that the central engine created by the merger continued to release energy.


• The remnant may be a magnetar. One possible explanation is a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron star that continued to power the X-ray emission.


• Similar X-ray activity may have been missed before. This suggests prolonged soft X-ray emission could be more common in compact-object mergers than previously recognized and may provide another way to study gravitational-wave sources.

Working with an international team led by An Li of Beijing Normal University (BNU) and Bin-Bin Zhang of Nanjing University (NJU), the researchers found that similar soft X-ray emission may have been present in previous short gamma-ray bursts but remained undetected because it was too soft and faint for conventional gamma-ray instruments.

"Einstein Probe is allowing us to uncover a part of compact star mergers that was hidden from previous gamma-ray observations," said Yin. "The short gamma-ray flash may represent only the beginning of the high-energy activity. By observing the universe at soft X-ray energies, we can now follow these systems for much longer and obtain a more complete view of what happens during and after the merger."

Fostering young scientific leadership

Bing Zhang, founding director of HKIAA and chair of astrophysics at HKU's Department of Physics, co-authored the study and contributed to the physical interpretation of the event. He has long proposed that binary neutron star mergers could produce fast X-ray transients detectable by missions such as Einstein Probe. Beyond the scientific findings, Zhang highlighted the significance of the study in nurturing young researchers and strengthening international collaboration.

"One of our goals at HKIAA is to create an environment where talented young researchers can take on scientific leadership and work at the forefront of international astronomy," Zhang said. "It is particularly encouraging to see our Ph.D. student Yin taking a leading role as one of the corresponding authors in this international collaboration."

"Her contribution reflects the quality and potential of the young researchers we are training at HKIAA, and this collaboration also demonstrates how Hong Kong can connect with major scientific facilities and research teams in mainland China and around the world."

International collaboration

The study brought together researchers from HKU, Nanjing University, the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and many other institutions worldwide.

The co-first authors include BNU's Li and colleagues from the Institute of High Energy Physics, the University of Rome "Sapienza" and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. The corresponding authors include NJU's Bin-Bin Zhang, Eleonora Troja from the University of Rome "Tor Vergata," HKU's Ph.D. student Yin and colleagues from NAOC.

Source: Phys.org/news

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More information

An Li et al, Minutes-long soft X-ray prompt emission from a compact object merger, Science Bulletin (2026).
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2026.08.021

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Gaby Clark

MA in English, copy editor since 2021 with experience in higher education and health content. Dedicated to trustworthy science news. Full profile →

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Bachelor's in mathematical biology, Master's in creative writing. Well-traveled with unique perspectives on science and language. Full profile →

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A possible first-ever Einstein probe observation of a black hole tearing apart a white dwarf

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Stratospheric Observatory Sunrise-III Reveals Intricate Solar Magnetic Structures

Magnetic fields in the chromosphere above a quiet-Sun region observed by the SCIP instrument onboard Sunrise-III (right box), and magnetic structures reproduced by a numerical simulation (left box). The thin, thread-like magnetic structures detected by SCIP are reproduced in the simulation as twisted magnetic field lines (enlarged view inside the circle at the lower left). （Credit: NAOJ / MPS / Sunrise-III/SCIP） Image (1.3MB)

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A team of researchers led by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan discovered unexpectedly intricate magnetic structures above quiet-Sun regions by observing the Sun with the balloon-borne solar observatory Sunrise-III during its 2024 flight in Earth’s stratosphere.

Sunrise-III observations revealed thin, elongated, thread-like magnetic structures embedded within the magnetic canopy above a quiet-Sun region. The magnetic canopy forms in the solar atmosphere (chromosphere) as magnetic fields concentrated at the solar surface (photosphere) arc outwards with increasing altitude above the photosphere, creating an arch of magnetic structures. The new observations show that this canopy is not a simple, uniformly expanding structure, but instead contains numerous thin elongated magnetic substructures. A numerical simulation reproduced the thread-like structures seen by Sunrise-III and showed that they are associated with magnetic field lines twisted by motions at the solar surface.

In separate observations of a quiet-Sun region near the solar limb (visible edge of the Sun), Sunrise-III mapped the magnetic fields of spicules, jet-like structures extending upward from the solar surface, and revealed how the distribution of the magnetic field varies with height above the limb.

Regions of the Sun without activity such as sunspots are referred to as “quiet.” Quiet-Sun regions cover most of the solar surface. The magnetic fields in the quiet-Sun regions are weaker than in active regions, making detailed measurements difficult for ground-based telescopes because of blurring due to Earth’s atmosphere.

Sunrise-III is an international collaborative project that observes the Sun with a 1-meter telescope carried by a balloon floating in the stratosphere at an altitude of 35 km. At this altitude, the Sun can be observed with very little atmospheric blurring. The gondola carried three instruments developed by different countries. Among them, the near-infrared spectropolarimeter SCIP (Sunrise Chromospheric Infrared spectroPolarimeter), developed under NAOJ's leadership, can continuously observe the magnetic field from the photosphere up through the chromosphere. The high-precision observations from the stratosphere made it possible to map the structure of the chromospheric magnetic field above quiet-Sun regions in fine detail. These findings provide important clues to understanding how energy is transported up from the solar surface to heat the solar atmosphere.

Source: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)/News

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Detailed Article(s)

Balloon-Borne Solar Observatory Sunrise-III Reveals Intricate Magnetic Structures above the Quiet Sun
Solar Science Observatory

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Release Information

Researcher(s) Involved in this Release

Masahito Kubo (NAOJ SOLAR-C Project)
Yoshihiro Naito (The Graduate University for Advanced Studies)
Yukio Katsukawa (NAOJ Solar Science Observatory)

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Coordinated Release Organization(s)

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, NINS

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Paper(s)

Masahito Kubo et al. “Three-dimensional Magnetic Field Structure of a Quiet-Sun Region Revealed by Sunrise III/SCIP”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ae909b

Yoshihiro Naito et al. “Magnetic Field Distribution along Spicules Revealed with SUNRISE III/SCIP”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters DOI:10.3847/2041-8213/ae8f38

Patrick A. Ondratschek et al. “Cause of Chromospheric Opposite Polarity Intrusions Discovered in Sunrise III/SCIP Data: MURaM-ChE Simulations Point to Twisted Flux Ropes”, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae9607

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Related Link(s)

First Solar Images from Sunrise-Ⅲ (January 16, 2025)

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Clouds in turbulence: How do cold clouds survive turbulent galactic winds?

A typical absorption profile produced by a cloud embedded in a turbulent wind along a quasar sightline. Including turbulence in the wind (purple curve) leads to multiple kinematic components and a larger equivalent width compared to its laminar-wind counterpart (yellow curve). © MPA

Visualising the difference in the evolution of the projected column densities of clouds in laminar (top) and turbulent winds (bottom). Turbulent winds result in shorter, clumpier, and much more laterally extended clouds, in contrast to the filamentary clouds found in laminar winds. Video here

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Turbulent outflows can strip away cold gas from galactic disks – yet, some cold clouds survive and travel tens of kiloparsecs, challenging the notion that turbulence inevitably destroys them. Using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, MPA researchers reveal that turbulence can actually enhance cloud survival by increasing the surface area for radiative cooling, enabling hot gas to condense onto the cold phase and boost its mass by up to an order of magnitude. This also leads to clumpier, laterally extended structures instead of long comet-like tails. These findings reshape our understanding of cloud evolution in galactic outflows, not only reshaping and sustaining cold gas but also enriching spectral signatures with multiple kinematic components.

Galactic winds are powerful, turbulent outflows of hot gas that sweep cooler, denser clouds away from galactic disks. Despite being immersed in these harsh environments, some cold clouds manage to survive and travel vast distances of several kiloparsecs — that is to say, further than the thickness of a typical galaxy disk. This raises the interesting question of how cold clouds survive their journey through a hot, fast-moving galactic wind.

Simulations to explain this observation have so far been limited to idealised 'wind-tunnel' scenarios, where the surrounding wind is treated as a smooth, laminar flow. However, in reality, galactic winds are turbulent and are driven by processes such as stellar feedback and AGN activity. In a recent study, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching and the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore explored this question using three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations. They examined how a cold cloud evolves when moving through a hot wind in which turbulence is continuously driven.

The results are surprising. Turbulence does not necessarily destroy the cold cloud; in regimes where radiative cooling is efficient, turbulence can actually help the cloud to grow. Turbulent motions stretch and deform the cold gas, dramatically increasing the surface area of interaction between the cold and hot phases. This creates more areas where radiative cooling can be efficient, allowing more hot gas to condense onto the cold phase. Consequently, the mass of the cold gas can increase by up to an order of magnitude compared to a laminar wind..

Turbulence also alters the motion of the cloud. As newly cooled gas from the wind joins the cold phase, it transfers momentum to the cloud, enabling it to become entrained in the wind much more rapidly. In other words, the turbulence that reshapes the cloud also helps to accelerate it..

The visual difference is striking, too. Instead of the long, narrow, comet-like tails produced by laminar winds, turbulent winds produce shorter, clumpier, and much more laterally extended clouds. The cold gas is stretched and dispersed over a much larger area, which could potentially change how we interpret observations of cold atomic and molecular phases in galactic outflows. From different viewing angles, this more complex, spatially extended gas could produce richer spectral features, with multiple kinematic components in quasar spectra indicating gas moving at different velocities..

Together, these results demonstrate that turbulence is not merely a force that tears cold clouds apart. It can also reshape them, help them grow and carry them along with the wind. Therefore, the fate of a cloud depends on a delicate balance between turbulent driving, hydrodynamic mixing, and radiative cooling..

The team is now looking to simulate the cooler molecular phase and dust, as such observations are becoming increasingly abundant with JWST. This will involve understanding the influence of additional physical processes, particularly magnetic fields and thermal conduction, on the evolution of cold gas in these turbulent galactic outflows. Exploring these effects will help to build a more complete picture of the broader role played by galactic outflows in shaping their host galaxies.

Source: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics/Research Highlights

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Author:

Alankar Dutta
Tel: 2254
alankard@mpa-garching.mpg.de

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Original publication

Ritali Ghosh, Max Gronke, Prateek Sharma, Alankar Dutta
Woven by the whirls: the growth and entrainment of cold clouds in turbulent hot winds
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 550, Issue 1, July 2026

DOI

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NASA’s Webb Provides Crash Course on Planet-Shattering Collisions

Extreme Debris Disk (Artist’s Concept)

The types of collisions within young stellar systems known as extreme debris disks are relevant to scientists’ understanding of our own solar system, which is thought to have undergone similar impact events that created our Moon and shaped Earth’s initial state.Credit Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Composition of Extreme Debris Disks Across Time

By investigating the compositions of extreme debris disks, scientists inferred that silica-rich disks are produced by high-energy impacts of Mars-sized objects, while silica-poor disks are created by less energetic events from Moon-sized bodies. Credit Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

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The environment surrounding a star changes as it ages, beginning with a juvenile, gas-rich protoplanetary disk where forming planets can reside, before evolving to a gas-poor debris disk. During its mission lifetime, NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope examined the debris disk stage and discovered a subclass termed extreme debris disks. These systems harbor unusually large amounts of warm dust close to the star, in the region comparable to where rocky planets orbit in our solar system. A team of astronomers led by Kate Su of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado investigated these intriguing objects with Webb.

Contrary to theoretical predictions, which suggest we should observe many extreme debris disks, observations indicate that these environments are rare. Scientists estimate roughly only 1% of young stars show observable signatures of this phase based on the data collected so far, including possibly our own solar system during its formation. Despite their rarity, the team was able to compile a sample of 21 extreme debris disks, including five from Spitzer’s archival data and 16 from Webb, with 12 newly observed disks and follow-up observations on four of Spitzer’s.

“This is the first time we have gathered enough systems to truly understand this subclass that we call extreme debris disks,” said Su, lead author of the paper. “Before Webb, we had limited information. We knew that they are weird and very different from the typical cold debris disks that we know, like Vega and Fomalhaut. Now that we have more data, we can pin down what these disks represent for planet formation and evolution.”

The team confirmed that extreme debris disks share three key properties: smaller dust grains than those in protoplanetary or classic debris disks, a high concentration of warm dust, and irregular brightness variations, all revealed by mid-infrared spectra from Webb and Spitzer.

To determine the driving factor for these qualities, the team studied the mineralogical makeup of the disks. They found that their sample could be categorized into silica-rich and silica-poor disks. Volcanic glass like obsidian is one example of silica-rich material found on Earth, whereas the silica-poor mineral forsterite appears as green sand grains on some beaches in Hawaii. An extreme debris disk’s category relays information on the type of collisions producing the impact debris and may help account for its variability in infrared brightness.

“To just see their mid-infrared emission and beautiful spectral features with Webb, which allowed us to identify their compositions, was the most exciting thing for me,” said Agnes Kospal of Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary, and a coauthor of the study. “We have no other way to study these planetary embryos directly because they are too small.”

Of their sample, about one-third is silica-rich, suggesting these disks are produced by high-energy impacts between Mars-sized bodies where a significant portion of the material is vaporized. The remaining two-thirds of their sample is silica-poor, indicating that the collisions are occurring on smaller scales, like grazing, between Moon-sized objects. Silica-rich disks are found only around stars younger than 300 million years, while silica-poor disks persist across a broad range of ages and often show greater brightness variability. The team proposes that this variability is driven by the rapid evolution of fresh debris through orbital changes and additional impacts.

Their findings can be applied to our own solar system, which may have experienced more than one extreme debris disk phase.

“How rocky planets formed and giant planets evolved are part of the broader story of the solar system’s formation. It’s all one story,” said Su. “Our work on extreme debris disks helps us bring together the big picture of what we currently understand.”

Simulations suggest that terrestrial planets, such as Earth, should form within the first few hundred million years of a solar system’s formation. This period fits with the ages of silica-rich extreme debris disks observed so far and aligns with the estimation that Earth and the Moon formed around 100 million years after the Sun formed, with the Moon likely being the result of a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized object.

As for whether our Sun underwent a silica-poor extreme disk phase, if older silica-poor disks and their random intervals of infrared brightness do reflect orbital instability, this would be broadly consistent with the Late Heavy Bombardment hypothesis for our solar system. In that scenario, the gas giant planets migrated significant distances, gravitationally disrupting the orbits of smaller bodies and triggering catastrophic collisions that generated the short-lived, dust-rich phases observed in extreme debris disks.

“Of course, there’s many things we still don’t know about these disks,” said Attila Moor of Konkoly Observatory, a coauthor of the study. “We expect no silica-rich systems among older extreme debris disks. We only have three disks in our sample that fit that age criteria, so it’ll be nice to observe more of these systems to confirm our hypothesis.”

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).

Source: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope/Latest News

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Details

Last Updated: Oct 01, 2026
Location: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Contact Media:

Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
laura.e.betz@nasa.gov

Abigail Major
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

Christine Pulliam
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland

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A Cleaner Look at Our Galactic Center's Hot Mess

Sagittarius A East (Labeled)
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/McGill Univ./M. Balakrishnan et al.;
Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Sub-mm: EAO/James Clerk Maxwell Telecope;
Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds, N. Wolk

JPEG (352.3 kb) - Large JPEG (2 MB) - Tiff (74.1 MB) -More Images

Tour: NASA Connects Little Red Dots With Chandra, Webb (Video)

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The center of the Milky Way galaxy is a chaotic place. In addition to the 4-million-solar mass black hole, known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the region is full of gas, dust, strong magnetic fields, and stars in various stages of life — from birth to death.

Now, astronomers have released the clearest view yet of the remains of an exploded star that sits amid this cluttered galactic environment. The supernova remnant is named Sagittarius A East, or Sgr A East, and it is the closest remnant to Sgr A* that astronomers know about.

Sgr A East emits light in many wavelengths, including X-rays that NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory can see. Supernova remnants like Sgr A East give off X-rays because powerful shock waves rumble outward into space after the explosion and the stellar debris is superheated to millions of degrees.

In this packed galactic landscape, it is difficult to tease out what light is coming from the Sgr A East supernova remnant and what emanates from other objects. Astronomers previously have identified the primary contributors. The two main sources of X-rays in this image, besides the supernova remnant itself, are colliding winds from a cluster of hot, massive stars and a diffuse commingled glow from many fainter overlapping X-ray sources. (This latter category is composed mainly of double star systems including stars like our Sun orbiting white dwarf stars.)

This new composite image of Sgr A East and the region around it contains X-rays from Chandra that are not — for the first time — contaminated by X-rays from other sources in this crowded field. A team of astronomers used a special technique to separate the three main sources of X-rays and create this new cleaner view of Sgr A East. This analysis also allowed the authors to make maps of the elements within the supernova remnant, including iron, sulfur, argon, and calcium.

The new image of Sgr A East shows lower-energy X-rays detected by Chandra in green and high-energy ones in light blue, which appear purple in the middle of the supernova remnant. The researchers removed the point-like sources of X-rays so they could study the diffuse emission in more detail. The X-ray data have been combined with radio data from the NSF’s Very Large Array in red and submillimeter-wavelength data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in dark blue to complete this new composite view.

The bright radio emission surrounds X-rays from Sgr A East as well as the region around Sgr A*. The supermassive black hole is located at the center of the yellow spiral structure to the right of the purple X-rays from Sgr A East.

This new image will also allow scientists to examine how the winds from the stars in the nearby cluster have shaped the supernova remnant’s evolution. This could help reveal the identity of the star that exploded to create Sgr A East and whether the supernova remnant has triggered outbursts from Sgr A* in the past.

Because Sgr A East is so close to Sgr A*, astronomers have long wondered if they influence one another. The authors’ new work supports the idea that Sgr A East has played an active role in the black hole’s environment by injecting energy into the region and keeping the gas surrounding Sgr A* hot and turbulent over its lifetime of about 10,000 years, although its exact age remains uncertain. They have shown that Sgr A East has expanded into, compressed and heated the gas surrounding it, shaping its three-dimensional asymmetrical structure. A paper describing these results with these authors appeared in The Astrophysical Journal, and was led by Mayura Balakrishnan from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

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.

Source: NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory

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Visual Description:

This release features a composite image of a supermassive black hole and supernova remnant close to each other at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. In a packed galactic landscape such as this, it is often difficult to discern what light emanates from which object. For this image, astronomers used a special technique to separate the glowing X-ray sources. The result is a picture with distinct elements, and an overall look not unlike an impressionist oil painting with patches of diffused color.

At the heart of the image is a light purple cloud and a spiraling, bright yellow tangle. The purple cloud represents X-rays from the center of the supernova remnant, Sagittarius A East. Inside the bright yellow tangle is the supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*, which has the mass of 4-million suns. Surrounding the remnants of the exploded star and its black hole neighbor, is a neon red gas cloud with trails drifting toward our upper right. Here, red represents radio data from the NSF’s Very Large Array.

A faint, dark blue cloud, barely discernible when set against the blackness of space, begins at our upper left and exits the bottom of the frame. This is submillimeter-wavelength data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Mottled, faint patches of forest green stretch across the image from our lower left to our upper right. These are lower-energy X-rays detected by Chandra that are possibly linked to past outbursts from Sagittarius A*.

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Fast Facts for Sagittarius A East

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/McGill Univ./M. Balakrishnan et al.; Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA; Sub-mm: EAO/James Clerk Maxwell Telecope; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/P. Edmonds, N. Wolk

Release Date: September 30, 2026
Scale: Image is about 7 arcmin (53 light-years) across.
Category: Black Holes, Supernovas & Supernova Remnants
Coordinates (J2000): RA 17h 45m 40.0s | Dec -20° 00´ 28.1"
Constellation: Sagittarius
Observation Dates: 35 observations from Sept 1999 to Aug 2020
Observation Time: 422 hours 51 minutes (5 days 6 hours 51 minutes)

Obs. ID: 242, 1561, 2943, 2951-2954, 3392, 3393, 3549, 3663, 3665, 4683, 4684, 5950-5954, 6363, 9169-9174, 10556, 11843, 13016, 13017, 14941, 14942, 22707, 22937, 23295

Instrument: ACIS
References: Balakrishnan, M, et al., 2026, ApJ, 1003,128.
Color Code: X-ray: green and cyan; Radio: red; Sub-mm: blue
Distance Estimate: About 26,000 light-years from Earth

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An Early Discovery by Rubin Observatory

A field of stars seen by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory
Credit: NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA; CC BY 4.0

Title: Discovery of the Distant, Ultra-Faint Milky Way Satellite Aquarius IV with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Early Data Preview 2

Authors: William Cerny et al.
First Author’s Institution: Yale University
Status: Published in RNAAS

Warming Up the World’s Largest Camera

Today’s bite covers one of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory‘s first major discoveries, which was found in testing data before the observatory began its decade of observations. Perched atop a mountain in Chile, the brand-new Rubin Observatory is just beginning a 10-year survey called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). LSST will be the deepest and widest sky survey ever conducted, taking images of the entire southern night sky every three nights. This ultra-wide, ultra-high-definition time-lapse of the universe will help answer fundamental questions about dark matter and dark energy, study objects in our solar system, find distant supernova explosions, and more.

LSST is a photometric survey, meaning its main data product is images in several filters. These images are taken with the largest digital camera ever constructed, about the size of a Mini Cooper. The LSST camera has a resolution of 3.2 gigapixels. To put that number into perspective, you would need about 13 copies of the Las Vegas Sphere to display just a single LSST image… and hundreds of these images will be taken every night!

The authors of today’s article use the first dataset from the LSST camera, called Early Data Preview 2 (EDP2). EDP2 was taken from April 2025 to January 2026, covered about 3,000 square degrees (about 7% of the entire night sky), and primarily served as a test before beginning the 10-year LSST (which began in June 2026).

Small Galaxies, Big Questions

Since LSST will survey a large area at unprecedented depths, one field of interest is to study extremely dim and small galaxies called ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs). These galaxies are so faint that we can only find them close to home, orbiting the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies as satellites. UFDs don’t have much luminous matter, meaning they are likely dominated by their dark matter halos. This makes them useful test beds for our theories of dark matter and galaxy formation, if we can spot them.

Many UFDs don’t look like normal galaxies that resemble blobs of diffuse light with stars; instead, they’re more like a handful of individual stars in an image that also contains foreground stars and background galaxies. So how do you identify them? The trick is that stars born together at the same time from the same gas follow a predictable track in color and brightness called an isochrone. The authors slide a model isochrone for an ancient, metal-poor population through the data at a range of assumed distances and ask: at any spot in EDP2, are there more stars sitting on that track than random chance would predict? Cerny and coauthors found a new spot, which they call Aquarius IV, a new UFD candidate (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Left: A Rubin image centered on Aquarius IV, combining images in the g, r, and z filters. The dashed circle marks the half-light radius, the region enclosing half the galaxy’s light. Aquarius IV is only a scattering of individual faint stars. The yellow star marks a likely blue horizontal-branch member. Right: A plot of brightness against color for the stars inside twice the half-light radius (first panel) and inside a ring of sky just outside the galaxy (second panel). Stars born at the same time from the same gas fall along the isochrone (blue line; any stars in the grey regions are deemed to follow the isochrone). All the stars follow the isochrone in the first panel but not the second, indicating that the stars are associated. Adapted from Cerny et al. 2026

Aquarius IV had not been identified previously by any other observatory. However, the authors combed through data from LSST’s predecessor (the Dark Energy Survey, which concluded taking data in 2019) and found previously missed evidence that supports their discovery, namely an excess of faint, blue, marginally resolved stars. As a sanity check, they confirm that all previously known UFDs within the EDP2 footprint (Sagittarius II, Aquarius II, Aquarius III, and Virgo III) are also detected using their methods.

The authors also infer several properties of Aquarius IV, including its centroid coordinates, half-light radius, ellipticity, distance, and absolute magnitude. They find that its radius is larger than almost all Milky Way globular clusters (tight gravitationally bound systems of old stars that don’t reside in their own dark matter halos), suggesting that Aquarius IV is a true dwarf galaxy

Currently, there are about 40 known UFDs around the Milky Way, and LSST is expected to roughly double this number (see this Astrobite), allowing us to study these tiny galaxies at a population level. This article proves that LSST has the potential to revolutionize many areas of astrophysics! If you are a researcher in the US or Chile and want to play with the EDP2 data yourself, you can access it via the Rubin Science Platform. For researchers from other countries, see more info here.

Original astrobite edited by Katya Gozman.

Source: American Astronomical Society/ASS-Nova

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Editor’s Note: Astrobites is a graduate-student-run organization that digests astrophysical literature for undergraduate students. As part of the partnership between the AAS and astrobites, we occasionally repost astrobites content here at AAS Nova. We hope you enjoy this post from astrobites; the original can be viewed at astrobites.org.

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About the author, Ben Sherwin:

I am a physics PhD student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Stanford University. I am interested in theoretical and observational cosmology, specifically in cross-correlations between the cosmic microwave background and tracers of large-scale structure. Outside of work, I enjoy seeing the latest movies in theaters and exploring the San Francisco Bay Area.

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More precise than ever before

Next-generation gravitational-waveforms from inspiraling black holes are calculated using mathematical methods from particle physics, such as Feynman diagrams, originally developed for the evaluation of quantum scattering amplitudes. This breakthrough was achieved by calculating the most complex Feynman diagrams ever. Credit: R. Patil (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), background image: James Webb Space Telescope, ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, H. Dannerbauer

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To the point:

• New detectors: Over the next decade, new gravitational-wave observatories on Earth and in space will begin operations. They will be much more sensitive than current detectors and will observe signals in much greater detail.


• New models: The waveform models used for data analysis — mathematical methods for calculating the expected signals — must be about 100 times more accurate than the current models in order to exploit the full potential of the new observatories.


• Important milestone: Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Potsdam, together with international colleagues, have now taken the most difficult step towards new, more precise analytical waveform models. They have improved methods from particle physics, enabling predictions to be made with unprecedented precision across the four fundamental forces.

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Breakthrough on the path to highly accurate prediction of gravitational-wave signals

The key to understanding black holes

Pairs of merging black holes reveal their presence only through their gravitational waves and remain invisible to other astronomical methods. The first gravitational wave, detected 11 years ago by the LIGO detectors, originated from such a merger. Even today, the vast majority of the nearly 400 published signals originate from merging black holes. Gravitational-wave astronomy has evolved into a successful method of observing and studying the dark side of the universe.

To detect and understand these signals, scientists need not only highly sensitive laser interferometers but also precisely tailored waveform models. These mathematical predictions provide the templates that researchers use to identify the signals in the observational data.

They also use these models to identify the sources of the detected gravitational waves and determine their properties. How massive were the two black holes? Where and when did they merge? Did they merely orbit each other, or did they also spin around their own axes? How fast were they rotating, and around which axes? If researchers can answer these questions using precise waveform models, they can decipher how the black holes formed. They can also put Einstein's general theory of relativity to increasingly rigorous tests.

The next generation of gravitational-wave detectors and waveform models

A new era is dawning for gravitational-wave astronomy in the coming decade. The LISA detector in space is designed for low-frequency gravitational waves that cannot be detected from the ground. At the same time, the planned 'third-generation' ground-based detectors — the Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer — will observe gravitational waves similar to those detected by current instruments. However, these detectors will be up to ten times more sensitive in their final design and will capture a large number of very long and very loud signals.

The waveform models must also become significantly more accurate so that researchers can correctly interpret the data. “Our waveform models must be around 100 times more accurate than the current models,” says Jan Steinhoff, group leader in the Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity department at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute; AEI) in the Potsdam Science Park. “Only with such precise theoretical models can we fully exploit the potential of the new observatories and gain new insights into the universe.”

Complex mathematics for a precision record

As a first step towards developing such highly precise waveform models, the researchers have focused on the initial phase of the merger. During this phase, two black holes orbit each other at a greater distance, emit gravitational waves and slowly continue to draw closer. The effects of general relativity are still very small during this phase. Therefore, their motion can be described by post-Newtonian theory: This essentially adds corrections from Einstein's general theory of relativity to Newton's theory of gravity. Complex mathematical methods originally developed in particle physics are employed to continually refine these corrections, accounting for parameters such as the black holes’ intrinsic spin.

Calculating black holes? Try particle physics!

In their study, published recently in the journal Physical Review Letters, the scientists treat black holes as particles to describe the initial phase of the merger and the resulting gravitational waves, using post-Newtonian theory.

This enabled the scientists to make predictions on the motion of black holes around each other with unprecedented accuracy across the four fundamental forces: gravity, electromagnetism, the weak interaction and the strong interaction.

Raj Patil, a doctoral student at the AEI, explains: “We had to perform highly complex calculations to take this most difficult step towards the new waveform models. Never before have researchers been able to calculate fundamental interactions with such precision.” Patil adds: 'While there is still a lot of work ahead of us before we have the final waveform templates, we are now very confident that we will achieve our goal following this breakthrough.”

Source: Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics/News

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Media contact:

Dr. Elke Müller
Press Officer AEI Potsdam, Scientific Coordinator
Tel: +49 331 567-7303
Email: elke.mueller@aei.mpg.de

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Science Contacts:

Raj Patil
PhD Student
Tel: +49 331 567-7186
Email: raj.patil@aei.mpg.de

Dr. Jan Steinhoff
Group Leader
Tel: +49 331 567-7125
Email: jan.steinhoff@aei.mpg.de

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Publication:

Brunello, G.; Mandal, M. K.; Mastrolia, P.; Patil, R.; Pegorin, M.; Ronca, J.; Smith, S.; Steinhoff, J.; Torres Bobadilla, W. J.
Six-loop gravitational interactions at the sixth post-Newtonian order. Physical Review Letters 137, 111401 (2026)
 MPG.PuRe | | DOI | pre-print

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Further information

Homepage of the “Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity” Department

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