SPACE/COSMOS
Northrop Grumman cargo ship reaches space station after software fix
William Harwood
Thu, September 18, 2025
CBS
Running a day late because of software issues, Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship caught up with the International Space Station early Thursday and then stood by while the lab's robot arm latched on to a grapple fixture to wrap up a successful, if extended, rendezvous.
The capture came after Northrop Grumman engineers adjusted the sensitivity of the main engine fault detection software that prematurely triggered shutdowns during two rendezvous thruster firings Tuesday.
Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship is seen on final approach to the International Space Station early Thursday. / Credit: NASA
As it turned out, the main engine was healthy all along and once the software was adjusted, the spacecraft was able to press ahead with the rendezvous, pulling up to a point just below the station so robot arm operator Jonny Kim, assisted by Zena Cardman, could capture the ship.
"A big congratulations to the NASA and Cygnus teams for a successful Cygnus launch, rendezvous and capture," Kim radioed mission control. "Adapting and overcoming unforeseen challenges is something we do at NASA, and I'm very proud to be a part of this team."
Unlike SpaceX's cargo Dragon and Russian Progress freighters, which carry out autonomous dockings at their respective ports, the Cygnus was designed to be captured by the station's arm and pulled in for berthing.
After locking onto the Cygnus XL at 7:24 a.m. EDT, Kim handed off arm operations to flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston so the ship could be pulled in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the central Unity module.
Astronaut Jonny Kim, operating the space station's robot arm from a work station inside the lab, latched onto the Cygnus XL cargo ship to wrap up an extended rendezvous. / Credit: NASA
Northrop Grumman names its cargo ships after notable figures in the space community. The Cygnus XL was named in honor of shuttle pilot William "Willie" McCool, who lost his life in the 2003 Columbia disaster.
Space station astronaut Mike Fincke, a member of the 1996 astronaut class along with McCool, said he was "a gifted pilot, a devoted crewmate and a man of deep humility, his life continues to inspire us."
"To see a ship bearing his name safely arrive at the station is a reminder that his courage and kindness are still circling our beautiful planet Earth," he said.
On board: more than 5 tons of needed spare parts, research material and crew supplies, including holiday treats for the station crew.
"The (Cygnus) is packed with consumables, like nitrogen, oxygen, food and toilet parts, and it has a large number of spare parts that are required for systems like, for example, our urine processor," said Dina Contella, deputy manager of the space station program at the Johnson Space Center
"We're stocking up on these items since we were short over the past year, and we'd like to have a good reserve for the future," she said.
That shortfall was caused, in part, by damage an earlier Cygnus suffered during shipment from a subcontractor in Europe to Cape Canaveral, Florida. That vehicle is still grounded pending analysis and repairs.
Sunday's launch of the Cygnus XL marked the maiden flight of an upgraded version of the cargo ship, which is about 5 feet longer than the original, allowing it to carry about 2,600 pounds of additional cargo.
NASA pays for cargo delivery flights using Cygnus and Dragon spacecraft. To date, SpaceX has successfully carried out 32 Dragon resupply missions while Northrop Grumman has executed 21 successful flights, including the current mission.
Bill Spetch, operations integration manager for the space station, said the resupply flights "and especially this great capability that Cygnus brings and the amount of cargo that it brings to us, is critical for us to ke
Northrop Grumman's 'Cygnus XL' cargo spacecraft suffers thruster issue on way to the International Space Station
Mike Wall
Tue, September 16, 2025
SPACE.COM
Northrop Grumman’s 21st Cygnus cargo craft, with its prominent cymbal-shaped UltraFlex solar arrays, is pictured in the grips of the Canadarm2 robotic arm shortly after its capture on Aug. 6, 2024. | Credit: NASAMore
The debut mission of Northrop Grumman's new jumbo cargo spacecraft didn't go off without a hitch.
The company's first "Cygnus XL" freighter suffered a thruster issue in orbit early Tuesday morning (Sept. 16), two days after launching toward the International Space Station (ISS) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
As a result, "the Cygnus XL will not arrive to the space station on Wednesday, Sept. 17, as originally planned, with a new arrival date and time under review," NASA officials announced in an update on Tuesday afternoon.
The Cygnus XL's "main engine stopped earlier than planned during two burns designed to raise the orbit of the spacecraft for rendezvous with the space station, where it will deliver 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to the orbiting laboratory for NASA," agency officials added in the update. "All other Cygnus XL systems are performing normally."
Cygnus XL is the latest version of Virginia-based Northrop Grumman's Cygnus freighter. Previous iterations hauled about 8,500 pounds (3,856 kg) to the ISS.
The current mission is known as NG-23, because it was supposed to be the 23rd cargo effort that Northrop Grumman flies to the ISS for NASA. But the 22nd was canceled after the Cygnus was damaged during transport to the launch site.
Cygnus is one of three freighters that resupply the ISS, along with SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Russia's Progress vehicle.
Cygnus and Progress are expendable, while Dragon is reusable. The NG-23 Cygnus XL — named S.S. William "Willie" McCool, after one of the astronauts who died in the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster — is slated to stay attached to the ISS until March 2026, when it will depart to burn up in Earth's atmosphere
We've officially found 6,000 exoplanets, NASA says: 'We're entering the next great chapter of exploration''
Monisha Ravisetti
Wed, September 17, 2025
SPACE.COM
An artist's illustration of the exoplanets NASA has found. | Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
It might sound hard to believe, but NASA's exoplanet count just reached 6,000 — and that's with only about 30 years of hunting worlds beyond our solar system. In fact, only three years ago, that figure was at 5,000. At least at face value, the rate of discovery appears to be exponential — which is good, because, theoretically, there should be billions more worlds out there for us to locate.
"We're entering the next great chapter of exploration — worlds beyond our imagination," a narrator says in a NASA video about the milestone. "To look for planets that could support life, to find our cosmic neighbors and to remind us the universe still holds worlds waiting to be found."
The news was announced on Wednesday (Sept. 17), which is serendipitously close to the anniversary of when scientists confirmed the existence of the first exoplanet around a sun-like star: 51 Pegasi b. Discovered on Oct. 6, 1995 by astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, 51 Pegasi b is a gas giant 0.64 times as massive as Jupiter that sits approximately 50 light-years from where you're sitting. (To be clear, the very first exoplanet discovery fell in 1992, but that one was around a spinning neutron star, or pulsar. And pulsars are pretty wild. 51 Pegasi b was the first more "normal" exoplanet to be identified.) The right thing to do would be to end this paragraph with the 6,000 exoplanet discovery counterpart to 51 Pegasi b, but that's unfortunately not possible.
This brings us to the complexity of NASA's announcement. "Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling basis by scientists from around the world, so no single planet is considered the 6,000th entry," the agency said in a statement. "There are more than 8,000 additional candidate planets awaiting confirmation."
In fact, as of writing this article, we're technically at 6,007 exoplanets in NASA's alien world tally. The "new discovery" featured by NASA is the heftily named KMT-2023-BLG-1896L b, a Neptune-like world with a mass equal to about 16.35 Earths. NASA is also responsible for the bulk of those exoplanet finds, with its TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) count being at 693 and now-retired Kepler Space Telescope having found over 2,600.
And even though it can be written with just a few keystrokes, each member of that 6,007-strong club represents an entire world comparable to the planets of our solar system, which scientists have been scrutinizing for centuries.
There are 2,035 Neptune-like worlds in that count, in reference to exoplanets with similar sizes to our solar system's very own Neptune and Uranus. These tend to have "hydrogen and helium-dominated atmospheres with cores of rock and heavier metals," according to NASA. ("Metals" doesn't necessarily mean metallic elements. Somewhat confusingly, in astronomy, that just refers to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium).
There are 1,984 gas giants (think Jupiter relatives) and 1,761 super-Earths in the court — the latter group is not to be confused with Earth 2.0 candidates. Super-Earths simply refer to exoplanets that are a little larger than Earth but still lighter than planets like Neptune and Uranus.
NASA's exoplanet count further includes 700 "terrestrial planets," or rocky worlds, and maybe most fascinatingly, seven of "unknown" types.
Indeed, breaking those categories down even further would require stretching your brain to a place where you can imagine a two-faced world half-covered in lava, an orb made of diamond that can regrow its atmosphere, one zipping through space at over 1 million mph (1.6 million kph) and the physical embodiment of hell.
"Each of the different types of planets we discover gives us information about the conditions under which planets can form and, ultimately, how common planets like Earth might be, and where we should be looking for them," Dawn Gelino, head of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program, located at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, said in a statement. "If we want to find out if we’re alone in the universe, all of this knowledge is essential."
Still, in the agency's video about the milestone, an existential aspect of exoplanet-hunting is mentioned. "There's one we haven't found — a planet just like ours."
At least, not yet."
Emma Bussey
Wed, September 17, 2025
FOX NEWS
Massive asteroid bigger than a skyscraper heading toward Earth at 24,000 mph
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A massive asteroid nearly the size of a New York skyscraper will make a close approach, or pass, by Earth in the early hours of Sept. 18, according to scientists.
They say the asteroid, officially dubbed "2025 FA22," is set to race past the planet at more than 24,000 mph, and will do so again in 2089 and 2173.
The asteroid measures between 427 and 951 feet across, similar in size to a large skyscraper.
UFO Mania Grips Small Town After Mysterious Glowing Object Sighting Goes Viral
NASA announced that a skyscraper-sized asteroid would be passing "relatively close" to Earth on Tuesday.
Nasa and the European Space Agency (ESA) have confirmed it poses no immediate threat because updated measurements have ruled out a collision and the asteroid has now been taken off the risk table.
"Impacts on this scale are rare, but the consequences would be catastrophic," ESA researchers said, with the pass Thursday morning offering a rare opportunity to study a skyscraper-sized asteroid up close.
Astronomers first detected 2025 FA22 in March using a special telescope in Hawaii. It was then added to ESA’s watch list of possible dangerous asteroids.
Harvard Physicist Says Mysterious Interstellar Object Could Be Nuclear-powered Spaceship
Bennu could collide with Earth in the late 2100's.
Because of its size and speed, if 2025 FA22 did strike Earth, it could crush a major city and other areas, setting off fires and tsunamis.
People won’t be able to see 2025 FA22, but astronomers with strong telescopes or binoculars could spot it as a faint dot against the stars around 3:40 a.m. ET Sept. 18.
Meteorite Fragment That Slammed Through Homeowner's Roof Is Billions Of Years Old, Predates Earth: Professor
Asteroid moonlet Dimorphos as seen by the DART spacecraft 11 seconds before impact in this image taken by DART’s on board DRACO imager from a distance of 68 kilometers, and released Sept. 26, 2022.
Asteroids are rocky formations of the solar system from billions of years ago that are seen orbiting the sun and can be different sizes.
NASA estimates more than 1.3 million asteroids are in the solar system, with over 30,000 classified as near-Earth objects.
NASA's Asteroid Watch always monitors asteroids that could come within 4.6 million miles of Earth.
Any object larger than 492 feet passing within 4.6 million miles of Earth earns a "potentially hazardous" label.
Fox News Digital has reached out to NASA for comment.
Original article source: Massive asteroid bigger than a skyscraper heading toward Earth at 24,000 mph
Something Weird Is Going on With the Sun, Scientists Find
Sharon Adarlo
Wed, September 17, 2025
The Sun — usually so predictable — is exhibiting some surprising behavior and that has scientists very intrigued.
Astronomers had predicted that our host star was entering a period of relative quiet back in 2008, but NASA scientists have published a new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that found that the Sun has instead defied expectations by becoming more active, with increased sunspots and solar flares.
"All signs were pointing to the Sun going into a prolonged phase of low activity," said the study lead author and NASA physicist Jamie Jasinski in a statement about the paper. "So it was a surprise to see that trend reversed. The Sun is slowly waking up."
Back in the 1980s, scientists had noticed the Sun's surface was steadily quieting down until approximately the 2008 financial crash.
That was the year that the celestial ball of plasma notched its "weakest on record" solar activity — which prompted scientists to predict that this relative state of quietude would keep on extending.
But like a tame camp fire that suddenly crackles into flames and sparks, the Sun abruptly reversed course during the Obama administration with "various plasma and magnetic field parameters" jumping up and the number of sunspots outstripping predictions.
The Sun has long been known to go through periodic cycles of activity every 11 years, called a solar cycle, when it becomes more active — eventually reaching a "solar maximum," in astronomy parlance — before powering down to a "solar minimum."
The 11-year period is part of a longer cycle, dubbed the Extended Solar Cycle or Hale cycle, that averages around 22 years, and in which the Sun's magnetic poles reverse.
But the Sun also goes through longer spans of quiet, such as from 1645 to 1715, and 1790 to 1830, when sunspots basically disappeared. Given the Sun's long quieting period since the 1980s, scientists had anticipated that was due to happen again — but instead, it seems to be flaring back up.
"We don’t really know why the Sun went through a 40-year minimum starting in 1790,"said Jasinski. "The longer-term trends are a lot less predictable and are something we don’t completely understand yet."
Why should anybody on Earth care? Increased solar activity impacts our planet by messing up radio communications, power grids, and navigation systems.
And with the United States and China competing in exploring space, monitoring solar activity is important to make sure space travel is safe from any surprising solar conditions that can damage spacecraft and harm astronauts.
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Plus, it's just cool. Ultimately, the Sun is what keeps all life on our planet going, instead of being a frozen husk in space — so its riddles are a matter of existential curiosity.
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Strange blobs found inside Mars could be remnants of something ancient, astronomers say
Vishwam Sankaran
Wed, September 17, 2025
Strange blobs found inside Mars by Nasa’s InSight lander may be remnants of the ancient “embryo” that eventually developed into the planet we see today, according to a new study.
The findings, published in the journal Science, may change what we know about the formation of rocky planets like Mars, Venus and the Earth.
The first four planets from the Sun are often depicted in textbooks as having smooth, layered interiors, with crust, mantle and core stacked like a millionaire’s shortbread.
However, seismic anomalies detected on Mars by the InSight mission reveal that the mantle is far from smooth and contains rough lumps of ancient fragments up to 4km wide, preserving the planet’s violent early history like geological fossils.
The solar system’s rocky planets formed about 4.5 billion years ago when dust and rock orbiting the young Sun clumped together under gravity.
As Mars took shape, it was struck by giant objects the size of entire planets in cataclysmic collisions similar to the kind thought to have formed our Moon.
“These colossal impacts unleashed enough energy to melt large parts of the young planet into vast magma oceans,” Constantinos Charalambous, an author of the study from Imperial College London, said. “As those magma oceans cooled and crystallised, they left behind compositionally distinct chunks of material, and we believe it’s these we’re now detecting deep inside Mars.”
Cutaway view of Mars in artist’s concept shows debris from ancient impacts scattered through planet’s mantle (Nasa)
These cataclysmic collisions mixed fragments of the planet's crust and mantle from its “embryo” with debris from the impacting objects.
Then, as Mars cooled, these diverse chunks were trapped in a sluggishly churning mantle, “like ingredients folded into a Rocky Road brownie mix”, the study said. However, the mixing of these “ingredients” was too weak to fully smooth things out.
Unlike the Earth, where plate tectonics constantly recycle the crust and mantle, the interior of Mars is sealed up beneath a stagnant outer crust, preserving a geological time capsule.
Watch an asteroid the size of the Washington Monument zoom past Earth live on Sept. 18 (video)
Space
“The fact that we can still detect its traces after four and a half billion years shows just how sluggishly Mars’s interior has been churning ever since,” Dr Charalambous said.
Astronomers uncovered these lumps by analysing data from eight marsquakes detected by the InSight lander, including two triggered by recent meteorite impacts that left almost 150m-wide craters on the planet.
The lander is equipped with instruments to detect seismic waves on Mars travelling through the mantle.
The researchers found that seismic waves of higher frequencies took longer to reach the lander sensors from the impact site. This revealed that the interior was chunky rather than smooth.
“These signals showed clear signs of interference as they travelled through Mars’s deep interior,” Dr Charalambous said.
“That’s consistent with a mantle full of structures of different compositional origins – leftovers from Mars's early days.”
The latest findings, the study notes, have implications for our understanding of the histories of other rocky planets as well.
Yes, NASA announced evidence of "life on Mars." Here's what to know about the recent discovery
"Clearest sign yet" of life on the Red Planet.
Jacqueline Kehoe•
Updated Tue, September 16, 2025
NASA just hinted at an answer to David Bowie's question: Is there life on Mars? Thanks to a recent discovery, the answer is probably "yes." Or, at the very least, perhaps there was life on Mars.
The space agency's Perseverance rover has been playing detective on the Red Planet, and it's uncovered something that has scientists practically bouncing off the walls. A rock sample called "Sapphire Canyon" contains the clearest evidence yet that tiny Martian microbes once called Mars home.
The rock that showcases life on Mars
Meet Cheyava Falls — not your typical Mars rock. This arrowhead-shaped rock (the "Sapphire Canyon" sample was carved from it) has been hanging out in an ancient river valley, minding its own business for over 3 billion years. But when Perseverance came knocking in July 2024, this rock became the center of astronomical attention.
What makes Cheyava Falls so remarkable? It's covered in what scientists lovingly call "leopard spots" and "poppy seeds" — tiny black markings that could be the fossilized calling cards of ancient Martian bacteria. Think of them as really, really old graffiti that says "Mars microbes were here!"
Here's where it gets really fascinating: Perseverance didn't just snap a quick photo and call it a day. The rover went full CSI on this rock, using fancy instruments with names like SHERLOC (yes, after that Sherlock) to detect organic compounds, the building blocks of life as we know it.
The evidence is stacking up like a cosmic mystery novel. The rock shows signs of rusty red mud mixed with organic matter, white veins proving water once flowed through it, and those telltale leopard spots containing iron and phosphate. On Earth, when we see similar patterns, they're often the result of microbes having a feast on organic matter billions of years ago.
Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy put it perfectly: after a year of scientists trying to find any other explanation, they keep coming back to the same thrilling possibility — that this could be life, Jim, but not as we know it.
The "life on Mars" plot twist
Of course, science loves a good plot twist. The researchers aren't ready to throw a "We Found Aliens!" party just yet. They're carefully considering whether these features could have formed through purely chemical processes without any biological help. It's like being a detective who's 90% sure they've solved the case but needs just a little more evidence before taking it to a judge.
The ultimate goal? Getting these samples back to Earth where scientists can analyze them with equipment that makes Perseverance's instruments look like a magnifying glass. Unfortunately, budget constraints might make this cosmic delivery service a bit complicated.
Whether or not these leopard spots turn out to be ancient Martian life, we're living through an incredible moment in human history. We're literally reaching across millions of miles of space to ask one of our most profound questions: Are we alone in the universe?
As scientist Nicky Fox noted, we're one step closer to answering that age-old question. And even if we're still not sure about life on Mars, the fact that we're seriously investigating leopard-spotted rocks on another planet is pretty amazing in itself.
Yahoo CreatorJacqueline KehoeJacqueline is a travel, nature, and science writer based in Wisconsin. Follow her work on Yahoo Creators—or find it in the wild at publications like National Geographic, Smithsonian, Travel + Leisure, and more.
Elizabeth Howell
Tue, September 16, 2025
Artistic depiction of NASA astronauts at the lunar south pole carrying out early work to establish an Artemis Base Camp. . | Credit: NASA
As NASA prepares to put astronauts on the moon in the next few years, the agency is thinking about "how to live and operate away from the Earth, on other planets" — especially Mars.
Those comments were delivered during a virtual Artemis 4 landing site science workshop on Sept. 10 by Jacob Bleacher, chief exploration scientist at NASA. Bleacher, a planetary geologist by training, has a mandate from NASA for "technology and architecture development to enable human exploration of the moon and Mars," his agency biography states.
Bleacher said the greater Artemis program will eventually be aiming for far longer stays on the moon than the short two- or three-day Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s achieved. "We have learned from going to the moon in the past with Apollo, but we're really on a different trajectory here," he said. "We want to begin to learn how to live away from the Earth."
The workshop was meant to ask scientists and other community participants for "science figures of merit" to help "evaluate and prioritize candidate landing sites with the highest science potential," the agency added. Some of the factors being considered include learning about evolution of planets, the processes that influence lunar regolith or dust, as well as objectives in fields like sun science or physical sciences.
NASA didn't conduct the workshop in isolation. Over the last decade, scientists have gained a better understanding of the South Pole-Aitken basin in which Artemis astronauts will land. That science was said to be one of the highest priorities of both the 2013 and 2023 planetary decadal surveys, which are essentially agreements by that community about which space missions to prioritize for science objectives, among other documents.
Artemis 4 is officially slated to launch no earlier than 2028, although that is pending progress of other missions of the Artemis program. (For perspective, NASA has not yet launched any astronauts on the program, although one crew — for the moon-circling Artemis 2 mission — is readying for a launch as soon as April 2026.)
Artemis 4 astronauts will spend six days on the moon's surface, return lunar soil samples to Earth, collect data using astronaut observations and mission instruments, and execute up to four extravehicular activities (moonwalks) ranging as far as 1.2 miles (2 km) from the mission's lander, NASA materials state.
Picking an exact landing site will take some time, although NASA will place the mission in the south pole region of the moon where ice and other critical minerals may be available for astronauts to use for future excursions.
And part of what Bleacher would like to see is not only infrastructure for longer lunar missions, but incentive for commercial industry to work alongside the agency for the long haul. He emphasized that the expense and complication of lunar missions means NASA will continue to seek partners, meaning both U.S. commercial partners and international agencies.
"What we're trying to understand is, what do we — NASA, the United States government — need to put in place that welcomes and encourages that partnership so that we really can develop that longer term presence on the moon, maybe even permanent presence on the moon? And what really drives the development of that lunar economy? Who wants to be there, who wants to be working there, and what can we provide to get that foothold?"
As the name implies, Artemis 4 will be the fourth mission of the larger Artemis program, including dozens of other nations working together under the Artemis Accords, that seeks to put astronaut boots on the moon again while establishing an American-led framework for deep space exploration.
An uncrewed mission called Artemis 1 flew around the moon and back again in 2022. Four astronauts aim to do the same next year aboard Artemis 2: NASA's Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, as well as Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
The next mission would be Artemis 3, currently aiming for a moon landing. NASA's official schedule has a target date of 2027, but that is pending readiness of SpaceX's Starship Human Landing System (HLS) to carry humans for a landing. Artemis 4 would be the next mission after that.
Artemis 2 astronauts will double as human science experiments on their trip around the moon
Josh Dinner
Wed, September 17, 2025
The crew of NASA's Artemis 2 mission speak to members of the media on July 30, 2025 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. | Credit: Space.com / Brett Tingley
Artemis 2 astronauts will be studied for how sleep, stress and radiation shape human health in deep space during their moon mission next year.
The second installment of NASA's Artemis program to return to the moon and establish a sustained human presence in deep space is set to be the first crewed flight test of its Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The four-person crew is tasked with putting the vessel through its paces in the cislunar environment, and performing several science experiments during their mission.
Some of that research involves the astronauts themselves, who will turn into a quartet of biomedical subjects to help NASA gather in-flight data on the human body beyond low Earth orbit for the first time in more than 50 years. As they have with hundreds of physiological tests conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA will add the research to its growing understanding of the biological repercussions of life in microgravity, according to a recent release.
Standard measures
One of the experiments the Artemis 2 astronauts will undertake will see them join a long-running NASA effort to build a comprehensive understanding of how spaceflight affects human health. Samples of blood, urine and saliva are being collected in the months before launch, and the astronauts will undergo regular checks during their 10-day mission and follow-ups after their return.
NASA hopes to use the samples to track changes in cardiovascular health, nutrition, immunity and stress across multiple stages of training, flight and recovery.
ARCHeR: Sleep and stress tracking
The Artemis Research for Crew Health and Readiness (ARCHeR) project will investigate how crew performance might be affected by time spent as such a far distance from Earth while inside Orion's confined space, combined with the astronauts' demanding schedule.
Each Artemis 2 astronaut will wear wrist sensors to log movement and sleep throughout the mission. Pre- and post-mission evaluations will be compared to in-flight data to better understand how the deep space mission influences the crew's alertness, stress and ability to work together cohesively.
Immune system monitoring
Samples provided by the crew before, during and after their mission will also be used to study their immune systems. In this case, immune system markers in their saliva samples will help researchers evaluate how the body reacts to space radiation.
To save space and power aboard Orion during their mission, the crew is foregoing refrigeration of their in-flight saliva samples, and will instead make their deposits on specially designed dab papers, which will absorb the samples for simpler storage. Once they return, scientists will test the papers for dormant viruses triggered by the microgravity environment — a phenomenon seen aboard the ISS, where stress has been documented as a trigger to reactivate illnesses like chickenpox and shingles.
The crew of NASA's Artemis 2 mission. From left: mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover, commander Reid Wiseman, and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen. | Credit: NASA/Josh Valcarcel
Artemis 2 astronauts will also be accompanied by thumb-sized "avatars" of themselves, in the form of blood samples grown to simulate bone marrow on organ-on-a-chip devices.
These chips will ride inside Orion as it passes through the Van Allen belts — zones of charged particles between the Earth and moon — testing how marrow responds to deep space radiation and microgravity. Results will be compared to ISS experiments to see if the chip technology can accurately predict how tissues react outside Earth's radiation-hardened magnetosphere.
An organ chip for conducting bone marrow experiments in space.
During Artemis 1, Orion carried 5,600 passive and 34 active radiation sensors. For Artemis 2, the spacecraft has been reduced to a modest six active sensors inside the cabin. Additionally, astronauts will wear personal dosimeters.
The Conversation
Space61SpaceX moves next Starship spacecraft to launch pad for testing (photos)
Mike Wall
Wed, September 17, 2025
SpaceX moves a Starship upper stage to the launch pad as part of preparations for the megarocket's upcoming 11th test flight. SpaceX posted this photo on X on Sept. 17, 2025. | Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX has moved its newest Starship spacecraft to the launch pad for testing ahead of the megarocket's upcoming 11th test flight.
The company documented the milestone today (Sept. 17) via X, in a post that shared three photos of the shiny silver Starship upper stage.
In one of those images, the 171-foot-tall (52-meter-tall) spacecraft — known as Starship, or just "Ship" — is rolling down a road at SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas at nighttime. In the other two, Ship is at the pad, nestled in the grasp of the launch tower's "chopstick" arms.
Ship on the move toward the pad at Starbase. | Credit: SpaceX
The likely next steps are pressurization and engine tests, which will ensure Ship is ready to fly. The same prep work will also be done with Super Heavy, the huge booster that makes up the bottom half of the fully reusable, stainless-steel Starship.
The upcoming test flight, whose target date has not yet been announced, will be the 11th for Starship.
Flight 10, which launched on Aug. 26, was a complete success, according to SpaceX; both Super Heavy and Ship hit their splashdown targets (Super Heavy in the Gulf of Mexico and Ship in the Indian Ocean), and the upper stage deployed eight dummy versions of SpaceX's Starlink satellites — a first for a Starship flight.
It was a welcome bounceback for SpaceX, which had lost Ship prematurely on the previous three test launches.
Ship on the pad at Starbase, on South Texas' Gulf coast. | Credit: SpaceX
Flight 11 will be the final mission of Starship Version 2, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said. The company will then shift to testing Version 3 of the vehicle, which will stand about 408 feet (124.4 meters) tall — roughly 10 feet (3 m) taller than Version 2.
Researchers uncover how galaxies and their black holes grew 12.9 billion light years ago
Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
image:
A massive galaxy transitioning to a quiescent phase (left) while hosting an active supermassive black hole at its center (artist’s conception, right).
view moreCredit: Kavli IPMU
An international of researchers including the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI) have used the James Webb Space Telescope to uncover 12 black holes from 12.9 billion years ago, shedding light on how black holes and galaxies evolved in the early universe, reports a new study in Nature Astronomy.
Since the release of its first data in 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made it possible for researchers to study extremely distant galaxies, reshaping our understanding of the formation and evolution of the first galaxies in the universe.
At the center of a galaxy is a supermassive blackhole weighing between a hundred-thousand to several hundred billion times the mass of the Sun. When a black hole shines brightly, it is called a quasar because it is emitting the energy of matter falling into the black hole. Quasars allow researchers to identify galaxies in the vast night sky, which they study to learn about how galaxies have evolved into the shapes and behavior we see today.
Observations of galaxies close to the Earth have shown a strong link between the mass of the galaxy and its central black hole, indicating that the two grow in tandem and influence each other over cosmic time—a process known as co-evolution. However, it is unclear how this relationship between the two, whose sizes differ by orders of magnitude, has been shaped. The only way to know for sure is to study galaxies far in the distant universe when the universe was young.
A team, led by Kavli IPMU Visiting Associate Scientist and Waseda University Waseda Institute for Advanced Study Lecturer Masafusa Onoue, who was a Kavli IPMU Project Researcher and Kavli IPMU-KIAA Kavli astrophysics fellow at the time of the study, Professor John Silverman, and Wuhan University Professor Xuheng Ding, and including the University of Tokyo School of Science, Ehime University, Ritsumeikan University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, studied quasars J2236+0032 and J1512+4422 using JWST’s Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec). These quasars had been discovered through the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP), a wide-field imaging survey at the Subaru Telescope, and were among the targets followed up in JWST’s first year of science operations.
It turns out the parent galaxies had already grown to massive sizes, roughly 40-60 billion solar masses, hundreds of millions of years ago and were now in a phase where star formation activity was rapidly ceasing. Researchers say the change in properties could have been triggered by intense radiation emitted by the central black holes earlier. J2236+0032 and J1512+4422 are among the farthest known such galaxies.
Their results (Figure 1) took the researchers by surprise.
“It was totally unexpected to find such mature galaxies in the Universe less than a billion years after the Big Bang. What is even more remarkable is that these ‘dying’ galaxies still host active supermassive black holes,” said Onoue.
Previous research had suggested that the activity of these massive black holes suppresses the growth of their host galaxies, accelerating their transition from star formation to quiescence.
The team’s findings provide valuable evidence that the activity of supermassive black holes may have played a significant role in the evolutionary process of the earliest and fastest-growing galaxies in the early universe. This discovery captures that process in action, providing a new clue to understanding the complex growth history of galaxies and black holes in the early Universe. It is also a uniquely Japanese achievement, made possible by combining the Subaru Telescope’s powerful survey capability with JWST’s exceptional sensitivity.
Building on this discovery, the research team is continuing detailed analyses of the JWST data and planning future observations to further investigate the mysterious relationship between galaxies and black holes.
Details of this study were published in Nature Astronomy on August 11, 2025.
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Article Title
A post-starburst pathway for the formation of massive galaxies and black holes at z > 6
James Webb Space Telescope(JWST)
Credit
NASA/Chris Gunn
Subaru Telescope on top of Maunakea
Credit
Sebastian Egner/NAOJ
Can Hayabusa2 touchdown? New study reveals space mission’s target asteroid is tinier and faster than thought
image:
An artist's impression of Japan’s Hayabusa2 space mission touching down on the surface of the asteroid 1998 KY26. New observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have revealed that 1998 KY26 is just 11 m wide, almost three times smaller than previously thought, and is spinning once every 5 minutes, which is much faster than expected. The image above shows an updated size comparison between the asteroid and spacecraft.
view moreCredit: ESO/M. Kornmesser. Asteroid: T. Santana-Ros et al. Hayabusa2 model: SuperTKG (CC-BY-SA).
Astronomers have used observatories around the world, including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), to study the asteroid 1998 KY26, revealing it to be almost three times smaller and spinning much faster than previously thought. The asteroid is the 2031 target for Japan’s Hayabusa2 extended mission. The new observations offer key information for the mission’s operations at the asteroid, just six years out from the spacecraft’s encounter with 1998 KY26.
“We found that the reality of the object is completely different from what it was previously described as,” says astronomer Toni Santana-Ros, a researcher from the University of Alicante, Spain, who led a study on 1998 KY26 published today in Nature Communications. The new observations, combined with previous radar data, have revealed that the asteroid is just 11 metres wide, meaning it could easily fit inside the dome of the VLT unit telescope used to observe it. It is also spinning about twice as fast as previously thought: “One day on this asteroid lasts only five minutes!" he says. Previous data indicated that the asteroid was around 30 metres in diameter and completed a rotation in 10 minutes or so.
"The smaller size and faster rotation now measured will make Hayabusa2’s visit even more interesting, but also even more challenging,” says co-author Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer at ESO in Germany. This is because a touchdown manoeuvre, where the spacecraft ‘kisses’ the asteroid, will be more difficult to perform than anticipated.
1998 KY26 is set to be the final target asteroid for the Japanese Aerospace eXploration Agency (JAXA)'s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. In its original mission, Hayabusa2 explored the 900-metre-diameter asteroid 162173 Ryugu in 2018, returning asteroid samples to Earth in 2020. With fuel remaining, the spacecraft was sent on an extended mission until 2031, when it’s set to encounter 1998 KY26, aiming to learn more about the smallest asteroids. This will be the first time a space mission encounters a tiny asteroid — all previous missions visited asteroids with diameters in the hundreds or even thousands of metres.
Santana-Ros and his team observed 1998 KY26 from the ground to support the preparation of the mission. Because the asteroid is very small and, hence, very faint, studying it required waiting for a close encounter with Earth and using large telescopes, like ESO’s VLT in Chile’s Atacama Desert.
The observations revealed that the asteroid has a bright surface and likely consists of a solid chunk of rock, which may have originated from a piece of a planet or another asteroid. However, the team could not completely rule out the possibility that the asteroid is made up of rubble piles loosely sticking together. “We have never seen a ten-metre-size asteroid in situ, so we don't really know what to expect and how it will look,” says Santana-Ros, who is also affiliated with the University of Barcelona.
“The amazing story here is that we found that the size of the asteroid is comparable to the size of the spacecraft that is going to visit it! And we were able to characterise such a small object using our telescopes, which means that we can do it for other objects in the future,” says Santana-Ros. “Our methods could have an impact on the plans for future near-Earth asteroid exploration or even asteroid mining.”
“Moreover, we now know we can characterise even the smallest hazardous asteroids that could impact Earth, such as the one that hit near Chelyabinsk, in Russia in 2013, which was barely larger than KY26,” concludes Hainaut.
More information
This research was presented in a paper titled “Hayabusa2♯ mission target 1998 KY26 preview: decametre size, high albedo and rotating twice as fast” to appear in Nature Communications (doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-63697-4).
The team is composed of T. Santana-Ros (Departamento de FÃsica, IngenierÃa de Sistemas y TeorÃa de la Señal, Universidad de Alicante, and Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB), Spain), P. Bartczak (Instituto Universitario de FÃsica Aplicada a las Ciencias y a las TecnologÃas, Universidad de Alicante, Spain and Astronomical Observatory Institute, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy, A. Mickiewicz University, Poland [AOI AMU]), K. Muinonen (Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Finland [Physics UH]), A. Rożek (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, UK [IfA UoE]), T. Müller (Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Germany), M. Hirabayashi (Georgia Institute of Technology, United States), D. Farnocchia (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA [JPL]), D. Oszkiewicz (AOI AMU), M. Micheli (ESA ESRIN / PDO / NEO Coordination Centre, Italy), R. E. Cannon (IfA UoE), M. Brozovic (JPL), O. Hainaut (European Southern Observatory, Germany), A. K. Virkki [Physics UH], L. A. M. Benner (JPL), A. Cabrera-Lavers (GRANTECAN and Instituto de AstrofÃsica de Canarias, Spain), C. E. MartÃnez-Vázquez (International Gemini Observatory/NSF NOIRLab, USA), K. Vivas (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NSF NOIRLab, Chile).
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.
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Journal
Nature Communications
DOI
A mission to a distant asteroid just got an
unexpected surprise
Elisha Sauers
Thu, September 18, 2025
MASHABLE
Japan's Hayabusa 2 mission to asteroid 1998 KY26 might have unexpected challenges following new data on the rock's size, spin, and structure. - ESO / M. Kornmesser / T. Santana-Ros et al. / SuperTKG illustration
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not
A distant asteroid that a Japanese spacecraft is en route to visit could be a much harder target to reach than previously thought, according to new telescope data.
The asteroid, known as 1998 KY26, is about one-third the size of earlier estimates and spins about twice as fast in space as predicted, with each rotation taking just over five minutes. At about 36 feet wide, the asteroid is roughly the length of a school bus. It also reflects more sunlight than expected. Together these traits will likely make touching down on its surface more difficult.
The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, expects its spacecraft to rendezvous with the asteroid in July 2031. The destination is part of an extended mission, called Hayabusa 2, following the spacecraft's successful return of samples from another asteroid, Ryugu, in 2020.
Astronomers had a rare chance to study the little asteroid with several telescopes during its close approach to Earth last summer, which provided the new measurements. The results are now published in Nature Communications.
"The smaller size and faster rotation now measured will make Hayabusa2’s visit even more interesting," said co-author Olivier Hainaut, a European Southern Observatory astronomer, in a statement, "but also even more challenging."
The new findings suggest the asteroid could either be a single solid rock or a "rubble pile" loosely held together by weak forces.
Astronomers believe asteroids are the rocky leftovers from the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Most of that ancient material orbits far from Earth. But occasionally pieces get nudged into the inner solar system, which is why NASA and other organizations try to track them.
To better understand these objects, JAXA has visited asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu. NASA performed its own sample collection from asteroid Bennu through the OSIRIS-Rex mission, which successfully dropped off the specimen in a Utah desert in 2023. Another NASA mission, Psyche, is on its way to a metal-rich asteroid in 2029
Regarding the newly published insight into the asteroid, Lauretta doubted the new measurements would significantly alter JAXA's extended mission.
"I don’t think this will change the Conops," Lauretta said, referring to the mission's goals and strategies, "the operational challenges are similar."
But according to the new paper, a smaller, faster, and brighter target will have an impact. Firing a metal projectile at the asteroid to make a crater, for instance, might not work as well because of its size. The brightness of the asteroid could "blind" navigation sensors. Its quick spin also may make it harder for instruments that need to stare at one spot for a long time.
"Importantly, these factors have been identified six years ahead of the rendezvous," the authors wrote, allowing mission planners time to consider their options.
JAXA intentionally selected tiny asteroids for the extended Hayabusa 2 mission because none have been studied up close before.
JAXA selected 1998 KY26 out of more than 350 candidates. Those candidates were all of the known celestial objects within reach of the spacecraft, which had about half of its xenon fuel left. The team then narrowed the list to the most scientifically interesting candidates.
The Japanese space agency settled on two asteroids — the other being 2001 AV43 — for the extra 11-year extension. The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft should reach 2001 AV43 first in November 2029.
The team intentionally picked tiny asteroids because none have been studied up close before — prior missions have only explored larger asteroids. Getting to know these small bodies and how they work is just as important, researchers say, because asteroids of this scale hit Earth more often than the dinosaur-killing ones.
And despite their small size, little space rocks can still have catastrophic consequences. An undetected meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013, for example, causing an airburst and shockwave that affected six cities. That rock was just 60 feet across, according to NASA.
This is one of the main reasons why scientists believe robotic missions to study asteroids are so crucial.
Exoplanets are not water worlds
image:
Illustration of exoplanet K2-18b. The planet is thought to have a thick gas envelope and no global ocean.
view moreCredit: ESA/Hubble, M. Kornmesser, CC BY 4.0
An exoplanet orbiting a dwarf star 124 light-years from Earth made headlines around the world in April 2025. Researchers at the University of Cambridge reported that planet K2-18b could be a marine world with a deep, global ocean teeming with life. However, a study now shows that so-called sub-Neptunes such as K2-18b are highly unlikely to be worlds dominated by water and that conditions there are far from conducive to life. “Water on planets is much more limited than previously believed,” notes Caroline Dorn, professor of exoplanets at ETH Zurich.
The study was conducted under the leadership of ETH Zurich, in collaboration with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and the University of California in Los Angeles. K2-18b is larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, placing it in a class of planets that do not exist in our solar system. However, observations show that they are common in outer space. Some of these sub-Neptunes were probably formed far away from their central star, beyond the so-called snow line where water freezes into ice and later migrates inwards.
Until now, it had been assumed that some of these planets were able to accumulate particularly large amounts of water during their formation and now harbour deep, global oceans beneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. Experts refer to these as Hycean planets: a combination of “hydrogen” and “ocean”.
Factoring in the chemistry
“Our calculations show that this scenario is not possible,” says Dorn. This is because a fundamental vulnerability of previous studies was that they ignored any chemical coupling between the atmosphere and the interior of the planet. “We have now factored in the interactions between the planet’s interior and its atmosphere,” explains Aaron Werlen, a researcher on Dorn’s team and lead author of the study which was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The researchers assume that, in an early stage of their formation, the sub-Neptunes went through a phase in which they were covered by a deep, hot magma ocean. A shell of hydrogen gas ensured that this phase was maintained for millions of years.
“In our study, we investigated how the chemical interactions between magma oceans and atmospheres affect the water content of young sub-Neptune exoplanets,” says Werlen.
To do this, the researchers used an existing model that describes planetary evolution over a specific period of time. They combined this with a new model that calculates the chemical processes that take place between the gas in the atmosphere, and the metals and silicates in the magma.
Water disappearing into the interior
The researchers calculated the chemical equilibrium state of 26 different components for a total of 248 model planets. The computer simulations showed that the chemical processes destroy most H2O water molecules. Hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) attach themselves to metallic compounds, and these largely disappear into the planet’s core.
Even though the accuracy of such calculations has some limitations, the researchers are convinced by the results. “We focus on the major trends and can clearly see in the simulations that the planets have much less water than they originally accumulated,” explains Werlen. “The water that actually remains on the surface as H2O is limited to a few per cent at most.”
In an earlier publication, Dorn’s group was already able to show how most of a planet’s water is hidden in the interior. “In the current study, we analysed how much water there is in total on these sub-Neptunes,” explains the researcher, “According to the calculations, there are no distant worlds with massive layers of water where water makes up around 50 percent of the planet’s mass, as was previously thought. Hycean worlds with 10-90 percent water are therefore very unlikely.”
This makes the search for extra-terrestrial life more difficult than hoped for. Conditions conducive to life, with sufficient liquid water on the surface, are likely to exist only on smaller planets, which will probably be observable only with observatories even better than the James Webb Space Telescope.
Earth not a special case
Dorn finds the role of our Earth particularly exciting in light of the new calculations which show that most distant planets have similar water content to our planet. “The Earth may not be as extraordinary as we think. In our study, at least, it appears to be a typical planet,” she says.
The researchers were also surprised by a seemingly paradoxical difference: the planets with the most water-rich atmospheres are not those that have accumulated the most ice beyond the snow line, but rather planets that formed within the snow line. On these planets, the water did not come from ice crystals, but was produced chemically when hydrogen in the planetary atmosphere reacted with oxygen from the silicates in the magma ocean to form H2O molecules.
“These findings challenge the classic link between ice-rich formation and water-rich atmospheres. Instead, they highlight the dominant role of the equilibrium between magma ocean and atmosphere in shaping planetary composition,” concludes Werlen. This will have far-reaching implications for theories of planetary formation and the interpretation of exoplanetary atmospheres in the age of the James Webb Telescope.
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Article Title
Sub-Neptunes Are Drier Than They Seem: Rethinking the Origins of Water-Rich Worlds
Article Publication Date
18-Sep-2025
Colossal collisions in space send shockwaves through the universe: Gravitational waves break records with new observations
Gravitational waves shake the fabric of the universe when black holes collide. Today we measure these events and use them to understand the cosmos. New gravitational waves may challenge fundamental understanding f black holes, gravity, and the universe.
University of Copenhagen
Now University of Copenhagen researchers and their international collaborators have published a treasure trove of new gravitational waves that may challenge our fundamental understanding of black holes, gravity, and the universe itself. Among them the strongest signal and the largest collision ever recorded.
For millions upon millions of years, they orbited each other, bound by gravity. The distance between them grew shorter until, in a fraction of a second, they collided with velocity nearing the speed of light.
When the most compact and heavy objects in existence—black holes—merge, the forces involved are so immense that they ripple through the universe, sending waves that distort space and time.
"These are waves in spacetime itself—like ripples in water—that travel at the speed of light. They don’t move through space; they are waves of space: a rhythmic stretching and compression of the very structure of the universe," explains Jose Maria Ezquiaga from the Niels Bohr Institute, who leads NBI’s LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA group and contributed to the new scientific publications and observations.
Exactly ten years ago, Einstein’s prediction of gravitational waves was confirmed with the first measurement. Now, an almost identical black hole collision has provided gravitational wave researchers with a stronger and clearer signal than ever before: The measurement reveals two black holes, each having around 30 times the mass of the Sun.
"The properties of this merger are a type we know well from previous measurements. What makes this discovery truly exceptional is the very strong signal. It opens entirely new possibilities for testing our fundamental understanding of gravity and the nature of black holes," says Jose Maria Ezquiaga.
Already, the observation has confirmed—at more than 99% certainty—a longstanding theory by the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, which states that a black hole formed from merging black holes must have a larger area than the combined area of its progenitors. Because gravitational waves fade quickly after a merger, it has previously been difficult to confirm the theory through observations. But the strength and clarity of the new record signal has made it possible.
The spacetime disturbances caused by gravitational waves are extremely small. To detect them, researchers must measure changes that are 700 trillion times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.
The reason the signal from GW250114 - the name given to the collision - was so strong is largely due to the advancements in measurement equipment made by the LVK collaboration. This development continues and promises a bright future for the field.
The strongest measurement vs. the biggest clash
The record-breaking measurement is part of a massive package of gravitational wave observations now released by the research coalition. Not only does it double the number of gravitational wave measurements available for study, but thanks to several remarkable observations, it marks a significant leap forward for the field.
GW250114 is not the only record among the group’s new observations. They also include a measurement of the merger of two black holes weighing approximately 100 and 140 solar masses, forming a black hole of at least 225 solar masses: the largest black hole merger ever observed.
Until now, researchers have seen that binary systems—where black holes orbit each other—typically have masses up to 50 solar masses. Beyond this, the number of observations drops significantly.
GW231123, the name of this collision, breaks that pattern. The resulting black hole may weigh up to 260 solar masses, placing it outside the normal classification of “stellar” black holes formed from stars, and instead into the range known as intermediate-mass black holes—between 150 and 100,000 solar masses. This size is extremely rare and puzzling to scientists.
"The observation challenges our understanding of how black holes form. Black holes of such large mass shouldn’t arise through ordinary stellar collapse. One possibility is that the two black holes in this system were themselves formed by previous mergers of smaller black holes, but in truth, we don’t know. It’s also possible that the signal was distorted as it traveled through the universe," says Jose Maria Ezquiaga.
In addition to their extreme masses, both black holes rotate at unusually high speeds, making the observation even more remarkable. The downside, however, is that this signal is very short and weak compared to GW250114, which makes analysis and interpretations much harder.
A research field driving innovation
Einstein predicted gravitational waves nearly 100 years ago as an inevitable aspect of his famous theory of relativity. Ten years ago, the theory became empirical reality when the first gravitational waves were measured. Now, the decade is marked by a wealth of new observations, including these two spectacular ones. Both studies are milestones that demonstrate we can not only hear the universe’s deepest resonances—we can begin to decode its structure.
As often happens in physics, the fundamental research driving these discoveries can also lead to new technologies. Already, the extremely sensitive instruments used to measure gravitational waves have led to new types of lasers and optical systems in quantum computers and atomic clocks, and AI techniques are used to reduce noise and much more.
The development is expected to continue. Future waves of observations are anticipated to eventually include all gravitational wave signals from black hole collisions that the universe has to offer. This will be achieved by expanding the LVK collaboration with a new observatory in India and through planned new instruments.
"We expect this research field to be crucial for our fundamental understanding of the universe. We’ve only just reached the end of the beginning," says Jose Ezquiaga.
The research article on the observation GW231123 has not yet passed peer review but is expected to do so very soon. The article on the first mentioned observation, GW250114, can be read in the journal Physical Review Letters.
For more information about the observations read LVK's press release here
*
Facts: How do the measurements work?
When researchers measure an event that has emitted gravitational waves, it happens by the observatories in the USA, Europe, and Asia detecting the same shift in the time it takes highly precise lasers to traverse a distance. Gravitational waves stretch space and time leave a signal by passing through the detectors and making the sets of lasers go out of phase – so their waves are no longer in sync.
By comparing data from the three stations, the location in space and the distance can be calculated.
While orbiting each other, black holes disturb spacetime with powerful gravitational waves. In this part of the measurement, researchers have ample data to work with and good opportunities to assess the properties of the binary e.g. the mass and area. After the merger, the signal starts to fade. This is the so-called ringdown phase, when the new black hole vibrates like a bell that has been struck.
It is due to the unusually strong and clear signal that the mass and area in the subsequent phase could also be calculated, thereby confirming Hawking’s theory.
Facts: About LVK
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration includes more than 1,000 researchers from three gravitational wave observatories in the USA, Italy, and Japan.
The LVK collaboration will, in the coming years, improve their detectors and build a new one in India—LIGO India—which will make it easier to locate gravitational wave signals.
In the longer term, the Cosmic Explorer is planned with 40 km long arms, and Europe’s Einstein Telescope with over 10 km long underground facilities. These will be able to detect the earliest black hole mergers and provide insight into the origin of the universe.
Facts: Innovations from gravitational wave research
LIGO’s technological advancements since the 1980s have led to several groundbreaking innovations:
Laser stabilization: A new method for stabilizing lasers, called the Pound–Drever–Hall technique. It is now widely used, including in atomic clocks and quantum computers.
Mirror coatings: LIGO has developed advanced mirror coatings that almost perfectly reflect laser light, which is crucial for precise measurements.
Quantum squeezing: Using so-called "quantum squeezing," LIGO has improved sensitivity and reduced noise, which is otherwise limited by quantum mechanical laws.
Artificial intelligence: New AI methods developed in the research field can remove unwanted noise and further enhance signal processing.
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Article Title
GW250114: Testing Hawking’s Area Law and the Kerr Nature of Black Holes
Article Publication Date
18-Sep-2025
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