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An international research team including Stefan Kimeswenger, astrophysicist at the University of Innsbruck, has tested a new approach to studying Earth-like exoplanets. The idea is to combine a large, earth-based telescope with a "sunshade" orbiting in space. How likely are habitable exoplanets, i.e. Earth-like planets outside our solar system? This is the question behind large-scale feasibility study , a project in which Nobel Prize winners Michel Mayor and John Mather were among those involved.

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.

Scientists reveal that even small differences in solar magnetic activity produce detectable changes inside the Sun. Scientists have analysed more than 40 years of astronomical data to uncover evidence that the Sun's internal structure subtly changes from one solar cycle minimum to the next. Publishing their findings in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , researchers from the University of Birmingham and Yale University reveal that even small differences in solar magnetic activity produce detectable changes inside the Sun.

Just a few days in simulated microgravity can subtly change the way women's blood clots, sparking bigger questions about health monitoring protocols for astronauts who can spend six months or more in orbit, say Simon Fraser researchers. First reported in 2020, an International Space Station mission detected an unexpected blood clot in a female astronaut's jugular vein.

Observing exoplanets poses a number of challenges. In particular, planets that resemble the Earth are very difficult to study, as they only shine faintly and are outshone by their associated star. Now an international research team including Stefan Kimeswenger, astrophysicist at the University of Innsbruck, has investigated a new approach: a large, Earth-based telescope is to be combined with a "sunshade" orbiting in space that specifically blocks out the star's light.

Particles in the atmosphere, known as aerosols, cool the climate by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. The more cloud droplets form around these particles, the less sunlight penetrates a cloud. This cools the climate, although this process is outweighed by the much stronger greenhouse effect. Until now, it has been difficult to provide a reliable global assessment of this impact on the climate and to measure the number of cloud condensation nuclei.

An international team of scientists led by the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona (ICCUB) and the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC) has presented REGALADE, an unprecedented catalogue covering the entire sky and bringing together nearly eighty million galaxies. The work, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics , marks a turning point for astronomy and opens up a new scenario that allows researchers to explore cosmic events with a degree of precision never before achieved.

New astronomical find is 8.5 billion years old and reshapes our understanding of early cosmic evolution Astrophysicists from the University of Waterloo have observed a new jellyfish galaxy, the most distant one of its kind ever captured. Jellyfish galaxies are named for the long, tentacle-like streams that trail behind them.

New research reveals that, in space, certain heart muscles are put to the test by weightlessness. In just a few months, they atrophy. The consequences of this process, which takes decades on Earth, on astronauts' health remain to be assessed. On a positive note, these results could advance our understanding of certain mechanisms behind mitral valve insufficiency.

For decades, scientists have searched the skies for signs of extraterrestrial technology. A study from EPFL asks a sharp question: if alien signals have already reached Earth without us noticing, what should we realistically expect to detect today? Since the first SETI experiment in 1960, astronomers have scanned the Milky Way for signs of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

New method: Researchers at Oxford University and the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute) in the Potsdam Science Park propose a new way to detect supermassive black hole binaries using gravitational lensing. Gravitational lensing: Black holes act as natural telescopes, bending light with their gravity.

First the rocky planets, very close to their star, then the gas giants: this is the order in which scientists have hitherto conceived of the hierarchy of planets. A conception that corresponds to our Solar System but also to most of the planetary systems identified to date. However, the recent discovery of a new planet around the star LHS 1903 by the CHEOPS space telescope is now challenging this theory.

New radio observations of molecular gas reveal how dozens of galaxies rapidly merge together in the early universe. An international team led by MPIfR researchers used data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to shed light on a central question of galaxy formation. They discovered shock-heated gas in one of the most spectacular aggregations of galaxies in the distant Universe.

Under the leadership of the University of Bonn, a research team led Pavel Kroupa from the Helmholtz Institute for Radiation and Nuclear Physics has discovered that galaxy clusters are about twice as heavy as previously assumed. The additional mass comes mainly from neutron stars and stellar black holes and also explains the observed quantities of heavy elements.

Researchers have demonstrated why only a small number of planets have the chemical requirements for life - and why the Earth is so fortunate.

The planets in our solar system grew out of a disk of material that swirled around our Sun. Inner rocky planets formed as tiny grains stuck together, becoming pebbles, then boulders, and, ultimately, full-grown planets. The outer gas and ice giant planets also accumulated cores of rocky material, which then attracted halos of cooler gas and ice around them.

The cosmic particle that struck Earth in 2021 with the second-highest energy ever measured may have originated in the nearby galaxy M82 -Amaterasuis the second most energetic cosmic astroparticle ever recorded (discovered in 2021 by the Telescope Array). *Current analyses show that the particle could originate from a nearby galaxy.

Metallic glasses are novel materials with applications in space technology, but also in medicine and the watch industry. To better understand their properties and improve their production, researchers are conducting various experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS) in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Two new studies reveal structural complexity in the galaxy For centuries, astronomers have been observing celestial bodies and trying to understand the mysteries of the night sky. Dr. Jo-Anne Brown , PhD'02, wants to map an invisible force of the Milky Way galaxy: its magnetic field. "Without a magnetic field, the galaxy would collapse in on itself due to gravity," says Brown, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Calgary.

Astronomers at The University of Manchester have played a leading role in the discovery of a new cosmic object that is much larger than anything astronomers have seen before in the distant universe. This new discovery captures the cosmic moment when a galaxy cluster - among the largest structures in the universe - started to assemble only about a billion years after the big bang, one or two billion years earlier than previously thought possible.