EurekAlert! In the Spotlight - Space & Astronomy

Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

This May brings a rare celestial treat, two full moons in one month! We’re exploring the science of space and how astronomy connects us through curiosity, discovery, and a shared wonder for what lies beyond.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-Jun-2026 00:16 ET (13-Jun-2026 04:16 GMT/UTC)

5-Jun-2026

Beyond Disclosure Day: The real-world protocols

SETI Institute
Business Announcement

The IAA SETI Committee announced today updated rules for evaluating and revealing the detection of extraterrestrial intelligence.

The revised Declaration of Principles marks the first major update to the protocols in more than 15 years and reflects a media landscape transformed by social media, artificial intelligence and the 24-hour news cycle.

“The release of these updated rules and protocols marks an important step in acknowledging both the radically different media landscape that science functions within today, and the vastly expanded efforts in terms of technology and resources being deployed in the search for intelligent life beyond Earth” said Bill Diamond, President and CEO of the SETI Institute and IAA SETI Committee member.

5-Jun-2026

Exploding stars: Physicist earns NSF CAREER award to study stellar explosions, element formation

Mississippi State University
Grant and Award Announcement

Jaspreet Singh Randhawa, a Mississippi State assistant professor of physics, has received a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation to support a $700,000 research project on the nuclear reactions that power stellar explosions and other extreme cosmic events.

5-Jun-2026

Beyond Disclosure Day: The real-world protocols

University of Manchester
Reports and Proceedings

A University of Manchester astronomer has led a major international overhaul of the rules that would govern how scientists announce evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence to the world.

4-Jun-2026

Magnetic field helps binary star systems form

National Institutes of Natural Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New simulations show that interactions with a magnetic field can work to decrease the distance between still forming binary protostars. These results can help explain the characteristics of the binary star systems observed in the Milky Way. These results can also be extrapolated to binary black holes, giving insights into how super massive black holes evolve.

Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Funder: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Beijing Natural Science Foundation, China Manned Space Program

4-Jun-2026

Call for papers: Thematic issue on shock metamorphism

Higher Education Press
Business Announcement

To address these challenges, this Thematic Issue highlights the current state of knowledge in shock metamorphism and aims to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue among experimentalists, sample analysts, modellers, and planetary geologists. Contributions that integrate multiple approaches are particularly encouraged—for example, studies that couple shock-recovery experiments with numerical simulations, or investigations that link meteorite shock features with remote-sensing data of parent-body surfaces. The intention is to refine petrological recorders of shock, improve the fidelity of impact models, and extend the applicability of shock metamorphism as a tool for understanding planetary evolution, resource distribution, and impact processing, and planetary surface modification.

4-Jun-2026

Title: A stellar dynamical mass measurement of an inactive black hole at redshift 2

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

N/A

Journal: Science