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    Two blazing quasars caught waltzing into a merger

    April 27, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Two blazing quasars caught waltzing into a merger
    Artist’s concept of two quasars in the process of merging. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Garlick

    Astronomers, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), have confirmed the existence of a close quasar pair housed in a pair of merging galaxies seen when the universe was less than a billion years old, at a redshift of 5.7. The system, designated J2037–4537, is one of only two confirmed quasar pairs at redshift greater than 5 ever found. A paper outlining this work was submitted to the preprint server arXiv on April 7.

    Quasars are among the most luminous objects in the universe. They belong to the family of active galactic nuclei (AGN)—galaxies that are powered by supermassive black holes at their centers...

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    3I/ATLAS contains 30 times more semi-heavy water than comets in our solar system

    April 24, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist’s impression compares the semi-heavy water content of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (left) and Earth (right). Insets illustrate the relative abundance of deuterated water (HDO) molecules, showing that 3I/ATLAS contains over 30 times more HDO than is found in Earth’s oceans. This elevated ratio suggests the comet formed in an extremely cold environment, very different from the conditions that shaped our Solar System.
    Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss

    New observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS include the first measurement of the abundance of deuterated water relative to ordinary water in an interstellar object...

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    ALMA and JWST investigate giant disk galaxy’s formation and evolution

    April 19, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Astronomers investigate the formation and evolution of a giant disc galaxy
    ALMA and JWST imaging of ADF22.1. Credit: arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2604.07440

    European astronomers have used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe a recently discovered giant disk galaxy known as ADF22.1. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv preprint server, shed more light on the formation and evolution of this galaxy.

    A unique laboratory
    ADF22.1, also known as ADF22.A1, is a giant disk barred spiral galaxy residing in a protocluster known as SSA22 at a redshift of 3.09. It has an effective radius of some 22,800 light years and a stellar mass of about 100 billion solar masses...

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    Protostars ‘sneeze’ and produce rings of gas and magnetic flux as they grow

    April 4, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Star light, star bright, baby stars blow rings alight
    An artist’s rendering of the molecular cloud core of MC 27 based on observations from the ALMA telescope. The protostar and the disk surrounding it are shown in the lower right, with warm gas extending outward in a ring-like structure, with magnetic field lines penetrating the interior of the ring. Credit:The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2026). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ae47ec

    Researchers have uncovered new insights into the early development of baby stars...

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