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Khabre desk
Recent reporting, analysis and explainers from the Astronomy desk.
science
ESO says observations with the Very Large Telescope have revealed plausible evidence for a Jupiter-mass object orbiting a brown dwarf in the CD-35 2722 system. If confirmed, it could be the first moon-like object detected beyond the Solar System.
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NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has completed its observatory checkout and entered science commissioning. Teams are now testing performance, calibrating the instruments and refining image quality before science operations.
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NASA says the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Wide Field Instrument reached an optical error of 63 nanometers RMS after commissioning adjustments, against an image-quality requirement of about 90 nanometers RMS. The team describes the instrument’s performance as nearly 30% better than predicted.
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JWST observations show that the distant cluster XLSSC 122 strongly lenses light from more distant galaxies, making it the most distant known galaxy cluster with this effect. The team also found an unusually concentrated mass distribution, a result that challenges predictions from conventional cosmological models.
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An unusual mix of elements in the white dwarf HS 0209+0832, together with a repeating brightness signal, points to an evaporating giant-planet candidate. Researchers say its material may have formed from gas expelled by the star during an earlier giant phase.
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A preprint analysing the Rubin Observatory’s Data Preview 2 asteroid catalogue reports two asteroids larger than 2 km completing a rotation in about five minutes. Its method adjusts the complexity of each asteroid’s light-curve model and can retain multiple possible periods when one cannot be selected reliably.
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ESA says BepiColombo is scheduled to separate its Mercury Transfer Module on 3 September 2026, beginning the mission’s Mercury arrival phase. Mercury orbit insertion is planned for November, followed by separation of the ESA and JAXA science orbiters in December.
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An analysis of SPHEREx observations of 37 nearby brown dwarfs found atmospheric signatures of water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. The spectra also show differences among objects that current models struggle to explain during cloudy transitions.
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A study of 37 nearby brown dwarfs used NASA’s SPHEREx observations to identify water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane in their atmospheres. The findings also show that existing models struggle to match spectra during some cloudy atmospheric transitions.
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An analysis of JWST and Spitzer spectra from 21 extreme debris disks found abundant tiny, thermally altered dust. The researchers interpret its mineral signatures as evidence of large collisions during planetary-system evolution.
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The MEGATRON simulations connect pair-instability supernovae from the first stars with a flat iron-abundance trend in the smallest dwarf galaxies. They also predict that about 20% of the simulated dwarfs are extremely iron-poor.
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NASA says the Roman Space Telescope passed fine-guidance stability tests and captured its first coronagraph images during commissioning in September 2026. The initial coronagraph observations tested focus and pointing rather than reporting a planet detection.
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NASA says Hubble completed its 200,000th orbit around Earth on Sept. 19, 2026, the same day it imaged galaxy cluster MACS J0417. The observatory is making repeated observations as astronomers anticipate a lensed reappearance of supernova Athena.
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ESO says observations with the Very Large Telescope reveal a long-lived bow shock around the white dwarf RXJ0528+2838, despite the system having no disc to drive the outflow. Its strong magnetic field may help explain the shock, but the observed field appears insufficient to account for its full inferred lifetime.
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A Nature Astronomy study finds that tidal disruption events produce a second outflow when accretion falls to about 2% of the Eddington limit. The result points to a scale-invariant link between accretion and jet formation in stellar-mass and supermassive black holes.
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A numerical study finds that a hypothetical Venusian moon could have been destroyed by tidal evolution, depending on Venus’s early spin, the moon’s mass and the planet’s tidal response.
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Researchers have found that supermassive black hole winds are roughly 100 times more powerful than previously estimated, carrying energy across distances of about 300,000 light-years. The discovery, based on X-ray observations of a quasar 3.4 billion light-years away, shows these outflows extend far beyond their host galaxies.
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NASA’s Perseverance rover captured Earth passing behind Phobos from the surface of Mars on July 2, 2026. The observation is the first of its kind, showing Earth briefly disappearing behind an object as seen from another planet.
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NASA and SpaceX are targeting no earlier than Aug. 30, 2026, for the launch of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket. The observatory will study dark energy, dark matter and planetary systems.