Large gas inflow driven by a matured galactic bar in the early Universe
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08914-2
Gas distribution and motion patterns driven by a galactic bar of the J0107a dusty star-forming galaxy have analogues in local bars, indicating that similar processes of active star formation were already operating 11.1 billion years ago.Unexpected clustering pattern in dwarf galaxies challenges formation models
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08965-5
Unexpected large-scale clustering of isolated, diffuse and blue dwarf galaxies, comparable to that seen for massive galaxy groups, challenges current models of cosmology and galaxy evolution.Dying stars give a second wind to exoplanet formation
Nature, Published online: 21 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01445-w
The binary star system ν Octantis has long been considered hostile to planet formation. The discovery of a white dwarf in the system offers an alternative view.Discovery Alert: A Possible Perpendicular Planet
- Exoplanets Home
- Exoplanets Overview
- Search for Life
- Discoveries
- Immersive
- News
- Resources
- More
A newly discovered planetary system, informally known as 2M1510, is among the strangest ever found. An apparent planet traces out an orbit that carries it far over the poles of two brown dwarfs. This pair of mysterious objects – too massive to be planets, not massive enough to be stars – also orbit each other. Yet a third brown dwarf orbits the other two at an extreme distance.
Key FactsIn a typical arrangement, as in our solar system, families of planets orbit their parent stars in more-or-less a flat plane – the orbital plane – that matches the star’s equator. The rotation of the star, too, aligns with this plane. Everyone is “coplanar:” flat, placid, stately.
Not so for possible planet 2M1510 b (considered a “candidate planet” pending further measurements). If confirmed, the planet would be in a “polar orbit” around the two central brown dwarfs – in other words, its orbital plane would be perpendicular to the plane in which the two brown dwarfs orbit each other. Take two flat disks, merge them together at an angle in the shape of an X, and you have the essence of this orbital configuration.
“Circumbinary” planets, those orbiting two stars at once, are rare enough. A circumbinary orbiting at a 90-degree tilt was, until now, unheard of. But new measurements of this system, using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Very Large Telescope in Chile, appear to reveal what scientists previously only imagined.
DetailsThe method by which the study’s science team teased out the planet’s vertiginous existence is itself a bit of a wild ride. The candidate planet cannot be detected the way most exoplanets – planets around other stars – are found today: the “transit” method, a kind of mini-eclipse, a tiny dip in starlight when the planet crosses the face of its star.
Instead they used the next most prolific method, “radial velocity” measurements. Orbiting planets cause their stars to rock back and forth ever so slightly, as the planets’ gravity pulls the stars one way and another; that pull causes subtle, but measurable, shifts in the star’s light spectrum. Add one more twist to the detection in this case: the push-me-pull-you effect of the planet on the two brown dwarfs’ orbit around each other. The path of the brown dwarf pair’s 21-day mutual orbit is being subtly altered in a way that can only be explained, the study’s authors conclude, by a polar-orbiting planet.
Fun FactsOnly 16 circumbinary planets – out of more than 5,800 confirmed exoplanets – have been found by scientists so far, most by the transit method. Twelve of those were found using NASA’s now-retired Kepler Space Telescope, the mission that takes the prize for the most transit detections (nearly 2,800). Scientists have observed a small number of debris disks and “protoplanetary” disks in polar orbits, and suspected that polar-orbiting planets might be out there as well. They seem at last to have turned one up.
The DiscoverersAn international science team led by Thomas A. Baycroft, a Ph.D. student in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Birmingham, U.K., published a paper describing their discovery in the journal “Science Advances” in April 2025. The planet was entered into NASA’s Exoplanet Archive on May 1, 2025. The system’s full name is 2MASS J15104786-281874 (2M1510 for short).
Share Details Last Updated May 21, 2025 Related Terms Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From NASAChina is readying a mission to two rocky bodies in our solar system
Weird planet is orbiting backwards between two stars
Hubble Images Galaxies Near and Far
- Hubble Home
- Overview
- Impact & Benefits
- Science
- Observatory
- Team
- Multimedia
- News
- More
2 min read
Hubble Images Galaxies Near and Far This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the remote galaxy HerS 020941.1+001557, which appears as a red arc that partially encircles a foreground elliptical galaxy. ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Nayyeri, L. Marchetti, J. LowenthalThis NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image offers us the chance to see a distant galaxy now some 19.5 billion light-years from Earth (but appearing as it did around 11 billion years ago, when the galaxy was 5.5 billion light-years away and began its trek to us through expanding space). Known as HerS 020941.1+001557, this remote galaxy appears as a red arc partially encircling a foreground elliptical galaxy located some 2.7 billion light-years away. Called SDSS J020941.27+001558.4, the elliptical galaxy appears as a bright dot at the center of the image with a broad haze of stars outward from its core. A third galaxy, called SDSS J020941.23+001600.7, seems to be intersecting part of the curving, red crescent of light created by the distant galaxy.
The alignment of this trio of galaxies creates a type of gravitational lens called an Einstein ring. Gravitational lenses occur when light from a very distant object bends (or is ‘lensed’) around a massive (or ‘lensing’) object located between us and the distant lensed galaxy. When the lensed object and the lensing object align, they create an Einstein ring. Einstein rings can appear as a full or partial circle of light around the foreground lensing object, depending on how precise the alignment is. The effects of this phenomenon are much too subtle to see on a local level but can become clearly observable when dealing with curvatures of light on enormous, astronomical scales.
Gravitational lenses not only bend and distort light from distant objects but magnify it as well. Here we see light from a distant galaxy following the curve of spacetime created by the elliptical galaxy’s mass. As the distant galaxy’s light passes through the gravitational lens, it is magnified and bent into a partial ring around the foreground galaxy, creating a distinctive Einstein ring shape.
The partial Einstein ring in this image is not only beautiful, but noteworthy. A citizen scientist identified this Einstein ring as part of the SPACE WARPS project that asked citizen scientists to search for gravitational lenses in images.
Text Credit: ESA/Hubble
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubbleMedia Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Astrophysics
- Astrophysics Division
- Galaxies
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Gravitational Lensing
Focusing in on Gravitational Lenses
Telescope team reads the fine print — from more than a kilometre away
Nature, Published online: 20 May 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01536-8
A pair of telescopes picking up reflected light achieve a performance 14 times better than a single telescope can manage alone.Astronomers double down on claim of strongest evidence for alien life
Ancient Maltese temples may have been schools for celestial navigation
Earliest galaxy ever seen offers glimpse of the nascent universe
Nancy Grace Roman’s 100th Birthday
Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first Chief of Astronomy and namesake of the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, briefs astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin on celestial objects in 1965 in Washington, D.C. Nancy Grace Roman passed away on December 25, 2018, in Germantown, Maryland at the age of 93. May 16, 2025, would have been her 100th birthday.
Prior to joining NASA in 1959, Dr. Roman was a well-respected and influential astronomer, publishing some of the most cited papers in the mid-20th century, one included in a list of 100 most influential papers in 100 years. At the agency, Roman worked to gain science support for space-based observatories. She established NASA’s scientific ballooning and airborne science, oversaw the start of the Great Observatory program with the first decade of Hubble Space Telescope development, and invested early in charge-coupled devices technology development used on Hubble – and now in digital cameras everywhere.
She was also key to the decision to link the development of the Large Space Telescope (that became Hubble) and the Space Transportation System – more commonly known as the Space Shuttle. Finally, after retiring from NASA, Dr. Roman often worked with young students in underserved communities, hoping her story and mentoring could inspire them to join humanity’s quest for knowledge in a STEM field.
Text credit: NASA/Jackie Townsend
Image credit: NASA
Webb Finds Icy Disk
This artist’s concept illustration, released on May 14, 2025, shows a Sun-like star encircled by a disk of dusty debris containing crystalline water ice. Astronomers long expected that frozen water was scattered in systems around stars. By using detailed data known as spectra from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers confirmed the presence of crystalline water ice — definitive evidence of what astronomers expected. Water ice is a vital ingredient in disks around young stars — it heavily influences the formation of giant planets and may also be delivered by small bodies like comets and asteroids to fully formed rocky planets.
Read more about what this discovery means.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Moon dust 'rarer than gold' arrives in UK from China
Already know the Big Dipper? There's more to this group of stars
Hubble Captures Cotton Candy Clouds
- Hubble Home
- Overview
- Impact & Benefits
- Science
- Observatory
- Team
- Multimedia
- News
- More
2 min read
Hubble Captures Cotton Candy Clouds This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a cloudscape in the Large Magellanic Cloud., a dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Murray
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a sparkling cloudscape from one of the Milky Way’s galactic neighbors, a dwarf galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Located 160,000 light-years away in the constellations Dorado and Mensa, the Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of the Milky Way’s many small satellite galaxies.
This view of dusty gas clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud is possible thanks to Hubble’s cameras, such as the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) that collected the observations for this image. WFC3 holds a variety of filters, and each lets through specific wavelengths, or colors, of light. This image combines observations made with five different filters, including some that capture ultraviolet and infrared light that the human eye cannot see.
The wispy gas clouds in this image resemble brightly colored cotton candy. When viewing such a vividly colored cosmic scene, it is natural to wonder whether the colors are ‘real’. After all, Hubble, with its 7.8-foot-wide (2.4 m) mirror and advanced scientific instruments, doesn’t bear resemblance to a typical camera! When image-processing specialists combine raw filtered data into a multi-colored image like this one, they assign a color to each filter. Visible-light observations typically correspond to the color that the filter allows through. Shorter wavelengths of light such as ultraviolet are usually assigned blue or purple, while longer wavelengths like infrared are typically red.
This color scheme closely represents reality while adding new information from the portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see. However, there are endless possible color combinations that can be employed to achieve an especially aesthetically pleasing or scientifically insightful image.
Watch “How Hubble Images are Made” on YouTube
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli (claire.andreoli@nasa.gov)
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Astrophysics
- Astrophysics Division
- Emission Nebulae
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Nebulae
- The Universe
Science Behind the Discoveries
Risk of a star destroying the solar system is higher than expected
Deimos Before Dawn
NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this view of Deimos, the smaller of Mars’ two moons, shining in the sky at 4:27 a.m. local time on March 1, 2025, the 1,433rd Martian day, or sol, of the mission. In the dark before dawn, the rover’s left navigation camera used its maximum long-exposure time of 3.28 seconds for each of 16 individual shots, all of which were combined onboard the camera into a single image that was later sent to Earth. In total, the image represents an exposure time of about 52 seconds.
The low light and long exposures add digital noise, making the image hazy. Many of the white specks seen in the sky are likely noise; some may be cosmic rays. Two of the brighter white specks are Regulus and Algieba, stars that are part of the constellation Leo.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
How dark energy findings may inspire a new generation of physics nerds
NASA Awards Launch Service Task Order for Aspera’s Galaxy Mission
NASA has selected Rocket Lab USA Inc. of Long Beach, California, to launch the agency’s Aspera mission, a SmallSat to study galaxy formation and evolution, providing new insights into how the universe works.
The selection is part of NASA’s Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) launch services contract. This contract allows the agency to make fixed-price indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity launch service task order awards during VADR’s five-year ordering period, with a maximum total contract value of $300 million.
Through the observation of ultraviolet light, Aspera will examine hot gas in the space between galaxies, called the intergalactic medium. The mission will study the inflow and outflow of gas from galaxies, a process thought to contribute to star formation.
Aspera is part of NASA’s Pioneers Program in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, which funds compelling astrophysics science at a lower cost using small hardware and modest payloads. The principal investigator for Aspera is Carlos Vargas at the University of Arizona in Tucson. NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, manages the VADR contract.
To learn more about NASA’s Aspera mission and the Pioneers Program, visit:
-end-
Joshua Finch / Tiernan Doyle
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / tiernan.doyle@nasa.gov
Patti Bielling
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-501-7575
patricia.a.bielling@nasa.gov