The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) Collaboration has today released its latest catalog of gravitational-wave detections. The data analysed for this update were collected by the twin Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors and the Virgo detectors. They are the world’s premier observatory of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime. 

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope observed a large group of galaxies which had been discovered in the early Universe by the Subaru Telescope. The observations show that even as early as 1.2 billion years after the birth of the Universe, the local environment was already influencing galaxy growth. These results provide new insights into the development of galaxies throughout the history of the Universe.

A study has captured, in real time and in three dimensions, how a single piece of biomass changes as it is heated into biochar, offering fresh clues for designing more effective carbon materials for water cleanup, soil improvement, catalysis, and climate-related applications.

In the early days of the Solar System, the region just beyond Jupiter’s orbit was a breeding ground for planetesimals, the precursors of planets, asteroids, and comets. As new simulations show, over a period of two million years bodies with very different compositions formed there. The results provide a comprehensive explanation for the diversity of carbonaceous chondrites. These meteorites formed relatively late. For the first time, the new study precisely aligns computer simulations of the early Solar System with laboratory analyses of meteorites.

Astronomers have developed a technique that allows them to detect cloud cycles on distant exoplanets. Using data from the James Webb Sapce Telescope (JWST), the astronomers found that mornings and evenings on the gas giant WASP-94A b have extremely different weather patterns: mornings are riddled with sand clouds, while the skies are clear in the early evenings. By isolating the clouds, researchers can more accurately measure a planet’s atmosphere and provide a clearer picture of the planet’s composition. WASP-94A b, for example, has much less oxygen and carbon than astronomers perviously calculated, making its atmosphere much more like Jupiter than they had originally thought. 

Using observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers have identified cloudy “mornings” and clear “evenings” on a distant gas giant exoplanet. The findings suggest that the planet’s atmospheric aerosols are dominated by condensation-driven clouds that form, circulate, and evaporate as they move through extreme temperature contrasts across the planet. Aerosols play an important role in shaping the appearance, chemistry, and temperature of exoplanet atmospheres. However, there is limited information about the nature of these particles, including their atmospheric distribution or the physical processes that determine their properties. In hot Jupiters – a class of gas giant exoplanets that are physically similar to Jupiter – it has long been debated whether atmospheric aerosols are primarily mineral clouds formed through condensation or photochemical hazes generated by intense stellar radiation. Because they can obscure or distort spectral signals, they also complicate efforts to determine the chemical composition of distant worlds.

 

Here, Sagnick Mukherjee and colleagues used the Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument on the JWST to observe the tidally locked, hot Jupiter exoplanet, WASP-94A b, and analyzed the light passing separately through the planet’s “morning” and “evening” atmospheric horizons. The findings revealed stark differences between the two hemispheres: the cooler morning side appeared heavily shrouded in high-mineral clouds that obscure gaseous signatures, while the hotter evening side is comparatively clear and shows strong water vapor absorption. According to Mukherjee et al., this pattern suggests that the planet’s aerosols are dominated by clouds formed through condensation rather than photochemical processes. Moreover, further analysis using a 3D general circulation model indicates a dynamic cloud cycle driven by extreme temperature contrasts of roughly 450 degrees Kelvin between the planet’s two hemispheres. Clouds appear to form on the cooler night side of the planet, circulate toward the morning side, and then evaporate as they move into the intensely heated day side. According to Mukherjee et al., the findings warn that treating an exoplanet’s atmosphere as uniform, which is a common simplifying assumption, can significantly distort or bias estimates of their chemistry and physical properties, and suggest that previous measurements of exoplanet atmospheres may need to be reconsidered to account for complex, asymmetric weather systems.