Gas and dust flowing from stars can, under the right conditions, clash with a star’s surroundings and create a shock wave. Now, astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have imaged a beautiful shock wave around a dead star — a discovery that has left them puzzled. According to all known mechanisms, the small, dead star RXJ0528+2838 should not have such structure around it. This discovery, as enigmatic as it’s stunning, challenges our understanding of how dead stars interact with their surroundings.

Astronomers have spotted one of the oldest ‘dead’ galaxies yet identified, and found that a growing supermassive black hole can slowly starve a galaxy rather than tear it apart.

New research into JWST images provides possible answers to three seemingly disparate, yet pressing, cosmic dawn puzzles. Specifically, the authors show how Dark Stars could help explain the unexpected discovery of Blue Monster galaxies, the numerous early overmassive black hole galaxies, and the little red dots” in images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).