The Copernican Principle, named in honor of Nicolaus Copernicus (who proposed the heliocentric model of the Universe), states that Earth and humans do not occupy a special or privileged place in the Universe. In cosmological terms, this essentially means that Earth is representative of the norm, and life is likely to exist throughout the cosmos. While our efforts to find …
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The best smart telescopes make viewing the night sky super easy and, if you’ve ever wished for a compact telescope you could fit in your backpack without sacrificing skywatching power, the DWARF 3 might be the one for you. But don’t let its small size fool you — it’s packed with AI-powered tracking, dual cameras and fully automated astrophotography features …
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Scientists armed with the immense observing power of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have detected faint traces of fluorescent flatulence leaking out from the dwarf planet Makemake, which lurks in the outer reaches of the solar system. This is only the second time that a gas has been detected on an object this far from Earth, and hints that …
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Scientists have detected methane gas on the dwarf planet Makemake, indicating that the distant body is a dynamic icy world. The discovery was made by a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Makemake is one of the largest and brightest worlds beyond Neptune, and becomes only the second trans-Neptunian object, after …
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Scientists have detected methane gas on the dwarf planet Makemake, indicating that the distant body is a dynamic icy world. The discovery was made by a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Makemake is one of the largest and brightest worlds beyond Neptune, and becomes only the second trans-Neptunian object, after …
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Two small, misshapen galaxies are wandering together on the outskirts of the Virgo Cluster, a huge city of galaxies. Astronomers have been watching this galaxy pair, NGC 4532 and DDO 137, for years because their gas looks messy and stretched. Fresh radio maps now show why. Using a survey that traces invisible, cold hydrogen gas, researchers mapped a massive bridge …
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An SwRI-led team used Webb telescope observations (white) to detect methane gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake. Sharp emission peaks near 3.3 microns reveal methane in the gas phase above Makemake’s surface. A continuum model (cyan) is overlaid for comparison; the gas emission peaks are identified where the observed spectrum rises above the continuum. An artistic rendering of Makemake’s …
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heic2511 — Science Release 18 September 2025 In our nearby stellar neighbourhood, a burned-out star is snacking on a fragment of a Pluto-like object. With its unique ultraviolet capability, only the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope could identify that this meal is taking place. The stellar remnant is a white dwarf about half the mass of our Sun, but that is …
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Makemake, one of the brightest icy bodies beyond Neptune, just joined an exclusive club. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, experts have detected gas above its surface. This is the second confirmed case of a trans-Neptunian object with gaseous material after Pluto. The culprit is methane, the same molecule that dominates Makemake’s frozen surface. Study lead author Sylvia …
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New research suggests that not all feeding massive black holes sit stably at the heart of their home galaxies. A team of astronomers has discovered a black hole wandering through its home dwarf galaxy, taking its active region with it. Making this discovery even more remarkable is the fact that this is an intermediate-mass black hole, a type of object …
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