Press Releases

New observations reveal the challenges of detecting planetary atmospheres. more

Using the space telescope JWST, astronomers have examined one of the most distant known black holes in the universe. Their observations provide a glimpse of the growth of black holes in the early universe, less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Surprisingly, the early black hole in question seems to be “feeding” in much the same manner as its more recent kin. Astronomers have been struggling for a while now to explain how the earliest black holes gained their considerable masses. The new results all but rule out unusually efficient feeding mechanisms at early times as a possible solution. The results have been published in the journal Nature Astronomy.
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JWST discovers a large variety of carbon-rich gases that serve as ingredients for future planets around a very low-mass star more

Simulations provide a potential explanation for the mysterious gap in the size distribution of super-Earths. more

The important role of multiple star births has been confirmed for the first time by systematic observations. A detailed study with the ALMA radio observatory, in which four binary protostars, a triple, a quadruple and a quintuple system were found in a massive star cluster, confirms our understanding of the formation of massive stars. more