SPACE/COSMOS
UMD astronomer co-leads creation of first 3D temperature map of distant exoplanet
This new technique lays the groundwork for more detailed future explorations of faraway planets
image:
An artist's concept of the exoplanet WASP-18b.
view moreCredit: Credits: NASA/GSFC
Astronomers have generated the first three-dimensional map of a planet orbiting another star, revealing an atmosphere with distinct temperature zones—one so scorching that it breaks down water vapor, according to a new paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy on October 28, 2025.
Co-led by the University of Maryland and Cornell University, the research details the team’s effort to create a temperature map of WASP-18b—a gas giant known as an “ultra-hot Jupiter,” located 400 light-years from Earth. The group’s map is the first to apply a technique called 3D eclipse mapping, also known as spectroscopic eclipse mapping. This study builds on a 2D model that members of the same team published in 2023, which demonstrated eclipse mapping’s potential to tap into highly sensitive observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
“This technique is really the only one that can probe all three dimensions at once: latitude, longitude and altitude,” said the paper’s co-lead author Megan Weiner Mansfield, an assistant professor of astronomy at UMD. “This gives us a higher level of detail than we’ve ever had to study these celestial bodies.”
Using this technique, the researchers say they can now begin mapping atmospheric variations for many similar types of exoplanets observable by JWST, just as Earth-based telescopes long ago observed Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and banded cloud structure.
“Eclipse mapping allows us to image exoplanets that we can’t see directly, because their host stars are too bright,” said the paper’s co-lead author Ryan Challener, a postdoctoral associate in Cornell University’s Department of Astronomy. “With this telescope and this new technique, we can start to understand exoplanets along the same lines as our solar system neighbors.”
Detecting exoplanets has always been difficult—they typically emit much less than 1% of a host star's brightness. Eclipse mapping involves measuring small fractions of that total as a planet circles behind its star, obscuring and revealing parts of it along the way. Scientists can link minute changes in light to an exoplanet’s specific regions to produce a brightness map that, when rendered in multiple colors, can map out temperatures in latitude, longitude and altitude.
WASP-18b, which has roughly the mass of 10 Jupiters, orbits in just 23 hours and has temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit—providing a relatively strong signal that made it a good test case for the new mapping technique.
While the team’s earlier 2D map of WASP-18b utilized a single light wavelength, or color, the new 3D map reanalyzed the same observations from JWST’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument in many wavelengths. Each color on the map corresponded to different temperatures and altitudes within WASP-18b’s gaseous atmosphere, which could then be pieced together to create the new, more detailed three-dimensional map.
“If you build a map at a wavelength that water absorbs, you’ll see the water deck in the atmosphere, whereas a wavelength that water does not absorb will probe deeper,” Challener explained. “If you put those together, you can get a 3D map of the temperatures in this atmosphere.”
The new 3D view confirmed spectroscopically distinct regions—differing in temperature and possibly in chemical composition—in WASP-18b's visible “dayside,” the side that always faces the star due to its tidally locked orbit. The planet features a circular “hot spot” where the most direct starlight lands and where winds apparently aren't strong enough to redistribute the heat. Surrounding the hot spot is a colder “ring” nearer the planet's outer visible edges, or limbs. Notably, measurements showed lower levels of water vapor in the hot spot than WASP-18b's average.
“We’ve seen this happen on a population level, where you can see a cooler planet that has water and then a hotter planet that doesn’t have water,” Weiner Mansfield explained. “But this is the first time we’ve seen this be broken across one planet instead. It’s one atmosphere, but we see cooler regions that have water and hotter regions where the water’s being broken apart. That had been predicted by theory, but it's really exciting to actually see this with real observations.”
Researchers believe that additional JWST observations could help improve the spatial resolution of this first 3D eclipse map. Weiner Mansfield noted that the technique has opened up many new avenues of research for similar “hot Jupiters,” which make up hundreds of the more than 6,000 exoplanets confirmed to date. In the future, she also hopes to apply 3D eclipse mapping to smaller, rocky planets beyond hot, gassy planets like WASP-18b
“It’s very exciting to finally have the tools to see and map out the temperatures of a different planet in this much detail. It’s set us up to possibly use the technique on other types of exoplanets. For example, if a planet doesn’t have an atmosphere, we can still use the technique to map the temperature of the surface itself to possibly understand its composition,” Mansfield said. “Although WASP-18b was more predictable, I believe we will have the chance to see things that we could never have expected before.”
###
This article was adapted from text provided by Cornell University.
The paper, “Horizontal and Vertical Exoplanet Thermal Structure from a JWST Spectroscopic Eclipse Map,” was published in Nature Astronomy on October 28, 2025.
This research was supported by the James Webb Space Telescope’s Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program.
Journal
Nature Astronomy
Article Title
Horizontal and Vertical Exoplanet Thermal Structure from a JWST Spectroscopic Eclipse Map
Article Publication Date
28-Oct-2025
A new, expansive view of the Milky Way reveals our Galaxy in unprecedented radio colour
Astronomers from the International Centre of Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have created the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way ever assembled.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
image:
The GLEAM-X view of the Milky Way, as seen from the southern hemisphere, in radio colour.
view moreCredit: Silvia Mantovanini & the GLEAM-X Team
Journal
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
Article Title
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia (PASA).
Article Publication Date
29-Oct-2025
Overhead artists' impression of the Milky Way.
Credit: NASA
Top: The GLEAM/GLEAM-X view of the Milky Way galaxy.
Bottom: The same area of the Milky Way in visible light.
Comparsion between radio and optical image of the Milky Way [VIDEO]
Left: The centre of our Milky Way in radio colour. Right: The same area of sky as seen in visible light.
Credit
Silvia Mantovanini & the GLEAM-X Team / Axel Mellinger, milkywaysky.com
ICRAR Astronomers explain the new Milky Way image [VIDEO]
Antennas from the MWA telescope, on Wajarri Country in Western Australia
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SETI Institute accelerates the search for life beyond earth with NVIDIA IGX Thor
The new enterprise-ready NVIDIA IGX Thor platform brings real-time AI processing to the Allen Telescope Array, helping scientists detect signals from space faster than ever.
image:
The Allen Telescope Array is integrating the new NVIDIA IGX Thor platform to power real-time AI signal detection.
view moreCredit: SETI Institute
SETI Institute Accelerates the Search for Life Beyond Earth with NVIDIA IGX Thor
The new enterprise-ready NVIDIA IGX Thor platform brings real-time AI processing to the Allen Telescope Array, helping scientists detect signals from space faster than ever.
October 28, 2025, Mountain View, CA – The SETI Institute announced that it will incorporate the new NVIDIA IGX Thor platform to enhance its real-time search for signals from space at the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in Northern California. The collaboration brings cutting-edge AI technology—built for demanding real-world environments—into radio astronomy for the first time at this scale.
The ATA’s 42 antennas scan the sky for radio signals that may reveal cosmic events or, one day, evidence of intelligent life. Using the NVIDIA IGX Thor platform, the SETI Institute will be able to process and interpret these signals directly at the telescope, dramatically reducing the time it takes to recognize unusual or promising data.
“NVIDIA IGX Thor enables us to run AI inference and GPU-accelerated signal processing workloads closer to the edge,” said Luigi Cruz, Staff Engineer at the SETI Institute. “Its compact form factor and power efficiency makes it an ideal development platform for our next-generation pipeline, which is based on NVIDIA Holoscan.”
Bringing Real-Time AI to the Edge of Discovery
This new collaboration builds on the SETI Institute’s earlier success with NVIDIA IGX Orin, which powered the world’s first real-time AI search for fast radio bursts (FRBs)— flashes of radio energy that last milliseconds. The move to IGX Thor will expand those capabilities, allowing researchers to analyze more of the sky, more quickly, and with greater precision.
“By combining scientific curiosity with advanced technology, we’re transforming how we explore the universe,” said Dr. Andrew Siemion, Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI at the SETI Institute. “The new NVIDIA platform gives us the reliability and performance to run complex AI models right at the telescope. It’s an incredible step forward for our mission.”
Part of a Growing AI Ecosystem
The NVIDIA IGX Thor platform is being adopted by innovators across multiple fields—from industrial safety to medical technology—demonstrating its versatility and reliability. The SETI Institute’s work shows how the same breakthrough technology driving safer factories and smarter hospitals can also power scientific discovery at the frontiers of space.
About the SETI Institute
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity's quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the universe and to share that knowledge with the world. Our research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF.
LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA observed “second generation” black holes
European Gravitational Observatory
image:
GW241011 and GW241110 infographics by Shanika Galaudage / Northwestern University / Adler Planetarium
view moreCredit: Shanika Galaudage / Northwestern University / Adler Planetarium
In a new paper published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration reports on the detection of two gravitational wave events in October and November of last year with unusual black hole spins. An observation that adds an important new piece to our understanding of the most elusive phenomena in the universe.
Gravitational waves are “ripples” in space-time that result from cataclysmic events in deep space, with the strongest waves produced by the collision of black holes.
Using sophisticated algorithmic techniques and mathematical models, researchers are able to reconstruct many physical features of the detected black holes from the analysis of gravitational signals, such as their masses and the distance of the event from Earth, and even the speed and direction of their rotation around their axis, called spin.
The first merger detected on Oct. 11, 2024 (GW241011), occurred roughly 700 million light years away and resulted from the collision of two black holes weighing in at around 17 and 7 times the mass of our sun. The larger of the two black holes in GW241011 was measured to be one of the fastest rotating black holes observed to date.
Almost one month later, GW241110 was detected on Nov. 10, 2024, coming from around 2.4 billion light years away and involving the merger of black holes roughly 16 and 8 times the mass of our sun. While most observed black holes spin in the same direction as their orbit, the primary black hole of GW241110 was noted to be spinning in a direction opposite its orbit – a first of its kind.
“Each new detection provides important insights about the universe, reminding us that each observed merger is both an astrophysical discovery but also an invaluable laboratory for probing the fundamental laws of physics,” says paper co-author Carl-Johan Haster, assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). “Binaries like these had been predicted given earlier observations, but this is the first direct evidence for their existence.”
Both detections, interestingly, point toward the possibility of “second-generation” black holes.
"GW241011 and GW241110 are among the most novel events among the several hundred that the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network has observed,” says Stephen Fairhurst, professor at Cardiff University and spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “With both events having one black hole which is both significantly more massive than the other and rapidly spinning, they provide tantalizing evidence that these black holes were formed from previous black hole mergers."
Scientists point to certain clues, including the size differential between the black holes in each merger – the larger was nearly double the size of the smaller – and the spin orientations of the larger of the black holes in each event. A natural explanation for these peculiarities is that the black holes are the result of earlier coalescences. This process, called a hierarchical merger, suggests that these systems formed in dense environments, in regions like star clusters, where black holes are more likely to run into each other and merge again and again.
“These detections highlight the extraordinary capabilities of our global gravitational wave observatories,” says Gianluca Gemme, spokesperson of the Virgo Collaboration. “The unusual spin configurations observed in GW241011 and GW241110 not only challenge our understanding of black hole formation but also offer compelling evidence for hierarchical mergers in dense cosmic environments: they teach us that some black holes exist not just as isolated partners but likely as members of a dense and dynamic crowd. These discoveries underscore the importance of international collaboration in unveiling the most elusive phenomena in the universe.”
Uncovering Hidden Properties of Black Hole Mergers
Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein as part of his general theory of relativity in 1916, but their presence – though proven in the 1970s – wasn’t directly observed by scientists until just 10 years ago, when the LIGO and Virgo scientific collaborations announced the detection of the waves as the result of a black hole merger.
Today, LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA is a worldwide network of advanced gravitational-wave detectors and is close to the end of its fourth observing run, O4. The current run started in late May 2023 and is expected to continue through mid-November of this year. To date, approximately 300 black hole mergers have been observed through gravitational waves, including candidates identified in the ongoing O4 run that are awaiting final validation.
Furthermore, in the case of the observation announced today, the precision with which GW241011 was measured also allowed key predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity to be tested under extreme conditions.
Actually this event can be compared to predictions from Einstein’s theory and mathematician Roy Kerr’s solution for rotating black holes. The black hole’s rapid rotation slightly deforms it, leaving a characteristic fingerprint in the gravitational waves it emits. By analyzing GW241011, the research team found excellent agreement with Kerr’s solution and verified, once again, Einstein’s prediction, but with unprecedented accuracy.
Additionally, because the masses of the individual black holes differ significantly, the gravitational-wave signal contains the “hum” of a higher harmonic – similar to the overtones of musical instruments, seen only for the third time ever in GW241011. One of these harmonics was observed with superb clarity and confirms another prediction from Einstein’s theory.
“This discovery also means that we're more sensitive than ever to any new physics that might lie beyond Einstein's theory.” says Haster.
Advanced Search for Elementary Particles
Rapidly rotating black holes like those observed in this study have yet another application – in particle physics. Scientists can use them to test whether certain hypothesized light-weight elementary particles exist and how massive they are.
These particles, called ultralight bosons, are predicted by some theories that go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes and classifies all known elementary particles. If ultralight bosons exist, they can extract rotational energy from black holes. How much energy is extracted and how much the rotation of the black holes slows down over time depends on the mass of these particles, which is still unknown.
The observation that the massive black hole in the binary system that emitted GW241011 continues to rotate rapidly even millions or billions of years after it formed rules out a wide range of ultralight boson masses.
“The detection and inspection of these two events demonstrate how important it is to operate our detectors in synergy and to strive to improve their sensitivities,” says Francesco Pannarale, professor at Sapienza – University of Rome and co-chair of the Observational Science Division of the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaborations. "The LIGO and Virgo instruments taught us yet some more about how black hole binaries can form in our Universe,” he adds, "as well as about the fundamental physics that regulates them at the very essence. By upgrading our instruments, we will be able to dive deeper into these and other aspects with the increased precision of our measurements.”
Publication Details
“GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-Spin Black Hole Coalescences” was published Oct. 28th in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration
LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived and built the project. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,600 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration. Additional member institutions are listed at https://my.ligo.org/census.php.
The Virgo Collaboration is currently composed of approximately 1000 members from over 150 institutions in 15 different (mainly European) countries. The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) hosts the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, and is funded by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Italy, the National Institute of Subatomic Physics (Nikhef) in the Netherlands, The Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) and the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.–FNRS) in Belgium. More information is available on the Virgo website at https ://www.virgo-gw.eu.
KAGRA is the laser interferometer with a 3 km arm-length in Kamioka, Gifu, Japan. The host institute is Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), the University of Tokyo, and the project is co-hosted by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). KAGRA collaboration is composed of over 400 members from 128 institutes in 17 countries/regions. KAGRA’s information for general audiences is available at https://gwcenter.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/. Resources for researchers are accessible from
http://gwwiki.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/JGWwiki/KAGRA.
Binary Black Hole Merger
Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology
Binary Black Hole Merger
Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology
Binary Black Hole Merger
Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology
Article Title
GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-Spin Black Hole Coalescences
Article Publication Date
28-Oct-2025
Pair of distinct black hole mergers reveals details on how they form and evolve
The mergers, measured one month apart in 2024 by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration, advance scientific understanding of the nature of black hole formation and fundamental physics
image:
Artist Conception of Binary Black Hole Merger
view moreCredit: Carl Knox, OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology
A pair of distant cosmic black hole mergers, measured just one month apart in late 2024, is improving how scientists understand the nature and evolution of the most violent deep-space collisions in our universe. Data collected from the mergers also validates, with unprecedented accuracy, fundamental laws of physics that were predicted more than 100 years ago by Albert Einstein and furthers the search for new and still unknown elementary particles with the potential to extract energy from black holes.
In a new paper published Oct. 28 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, the international LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration reports on the detection of two gravitational wave events in October and November of last year with unusual black hole spins.
Gravitational waves are “ripples” in space-time that result from cataclysmic events in deep space, with the strongest waves produced by the collision of black holes. The first merger described in this paper, GW241011 (Oct. 11, 2024), occurred roughly 700 million light years away and resulted from the collision of two black holes weighing in at around 20 and 6 times the mass of our sun. The larger of the black holes in GW241011 was measured to be one of the fastest rotating black holes observed to date.
Almost one month later, GW241110 (Nov. 10, 2024) was detected around 2.4 billion light years away and involved the merger of black holes roughly 17 and 8 times the mass of our sun. While most observed black holes spin in the same direction as their orbit, the primary black hole of GW241110 was noted to be spinning in a direction opposite its orbit – a first of its kind.
“Each new detection provides important insights about the universe, reminding us that each observed merger is both an astrophysical discovery but also an invaluable laboratory for probing the fundamental laws of physics,” says paper co-author Carl-Johan Haster, assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). “Binaries like these had been predicted given earlier observations, but this is the first direct evidence for their existence.”
Uncovering Hidden Properties of Black Hole Mergers
Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein as part of his general theory of relativity in 1916, but their presence – though proven in the 1970s – wasn’t directly observed by scientists until just 10 years ago when the LIGO observatory confirmed detection of the waves as the result of a black hole merger.
Today, LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA is a worldwide network of advanced gravitational-wave detectors and is in the midst of its fourth observing run, O4. The current run started in late May 2023 and is expected to continue through mid-November of this year. To date, approximately 300 black hole mergers have been observed through gravitational waves, including candidates identified in the ongoing O4 run.
Together, the detection of GW241011 and GW241110 highlight the remarkable progress of gravitational-wave astronomy in uncovering the properties of merging black holes. Interestingly, both detected mergers point toward the possibility of “second-generation” black holes.
"GW241011 and GW241110 are among the most novel events among the several hundred that the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA network has observed,” says Stephen Fairhurst, professor at Cardiff University and spokesperson of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. “With both events having one black hole which is both significantly more massive than the other and rapidly spinning, they provide tantalizing evidence that these black holes were formed from previous black hole mergers."
Scientists point to certain clues, including the size differential between the black holes in each merger – the larger was nearly double the size of the smaller – and the spin orientations of the larger of the black holes in each event. A natural explanation for these peculiarities is that the black holes are the result of earlier coalescences. This process, called a hierarchical merger, suggests that these systems formed in dense environments, in regions like star clusters, where black holes are more likely to run into each other and merge again and again.
"These two binary black hole mergers offer us some of the most exciting insights yet about the earlier lives of black holes,” said Thomas Callister, co-author and assistant professor at Williams College. ”They teach us that some black holes exist not just as isolated partners but likely as members of a dense and dynamic crowd. Moving forward, the hope is that these events and other observations will teach us more and more about the astrophysical environments that host these crowds."
Implications for Fundamental Physics
The precision with which GW241011 was measured also allowed key predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity to be tested under extreme conditions.
Because GW241011 was detected so clearly, it can be compared to predictions from Einstein’s theory and mathematician Roy Kerr’s solution for rotating black holes. The black hole’s rapid rotation slightly deforms it, leaving a characteristic fingerprint in the gravitational waves it emits. By analyzing GW241011, the research team found excellent agreement with Kerr’s solution and verified Einstein’s prediction with unprecedented accuracy.
Additionally, because the masses of the individual black holes differ significantly, the gravitational-wave signal contains the “hum” of a higher harmonic – similar to the overtones of musical instruments, seen only for the third time ever in GW241011. One of these harmonics was observed with superb clarity and confirms another prediction from Einstein’s theory.
“The strength of GW241011, combined with the extreme properties of its black hole components provide unprecedented means for testing our understanding of black holes themselves,” says Haster. “We now know that black holes are shaped like Einstein and Kerr predicted, and general relativity can add two more checkmarks in its list of many successes. This discovery also means that we're more sensitive than ever to any new physics that might lie beyond Einstein's theory.”
Advanced Search for Elementary Particles
Rapidly rotating black holes like those observed in this study now have yet another application – in particle physics. Scientists can use them to test whether certain hypothesized light-weight elementary particles exist and how massive they are.
These particles, called ultralight bosons, are predicted by some theories that go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes and classifies all known elementary particles. If ultralight bosons exist, they can extract rotational energy from black holes. How much energy is extracted and how much the rotation of the black holes slows down over time depends on the mass of these particles, which is still unknown.
The observation that the massive black hole in the binary system that emitted GW241011 continues to rotate rapidly even millions or billions of years after it formed rules out a wide range of ultralight boson masses.
"Planned upgrades to the LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA detectors will enable further observations of similar systems, enabling us to better understand both the fundamental physics governing these black hole binaries and the astrophysical mechanisms that lead to their formation,” said Fairhurst.
Joe Giaime, site head for the LIGO Livingston Observatory, noted that LIGO scientists and engineers have made improvements to the detectors in recent years, which has resulted in precision measurements of merger waveforms that allow for the kind of subtle observations that were needed for GW241011 and GW241110.
“Better sensitivity not only allows LIGO to detect many more signals, but also permits deeper understanding of the ones we detect,” he said.
Publication Details
“GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-Spin Black Hole Coalescences” was published Oct. 28 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration
LIGO is funded by the NSF, and operated by Caltech and MIT, which conceived and built the project. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,600 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration. Additional member institutions are listed at https://my.ligo.org/census.php.
The Virgo Collaboration is currently composed of approximately 880 members from 152 institutions in 17 different (mainly European) countries. The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) hosts the Virgo detector near Pisa in Italy, and is funded by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France, the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Italy, and the National Institute for Subatomic Physics (Nikhef) in the Netherlands. More information is available on the Virgo website at https://www.virgo-gw.eu.
KAGRA is the laser interferometer with a 3 km arm-length in Kamioka, Gifu, Japan. The host institute is Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR), the University of Tokyo, and the project is co-hosted by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK). KAGRA collaboration is composed of over 400 members from 128 institutes in 17 countries/regions. KAGRA’s information for general audiences is available at https://gwcenter.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/. Resources for researchers are accessible from http://gwwiki.icrr.u-tokyo.ac.jp/JGWwiki/KAGRA.
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
GW241011 and GW241110: Exploring Binary Formation and Fundamental Physics with Asymmetric, High-spin Black Hole Coalescences
Article Publication Date
28-Oct-2025
Game-changing heat shield to revolutionize aerospace manufacturing with long-life engines
The proposed sequential B–Si coating technology provides dual-layer protection that could transform high-temperature alloy performance for aviation
Hanbat National University Industry–University Cooperation Foundation
image:
Researchers demonstrate the importance of using suitable coatings to extend the applicability of high-temperature alloys to extremely high temperatures.
view moreCredit: Joonsik Park from Hanbat National University
Aerospace industry has undergone tremendous developments over the last century, with materials science engineers playing a significant role in this transformation. It is well known that as the operating temperature of metallic materials increases, the speed of aircraft can be enhanced and fuel consumption can be reduced. Therefore, research on high-temperature materials has been directly linked to the improvement of aircraft performance and has been actively conducted worldwide since the 1940s.
For more than 80 years, Ni-based alloys have been the primary materials used for high-temperature applications. To enable their use at even higher temperatures, ceramic coatings have been applied to the Ni alloys. However, due to the intrinsic softening of Ni-based alloys, their operating temperature cannot exceed approximately 1100 °C. In recent years, high-entropy alloys—a concoction of various metallic and other elements with desirable properties—have emerged as a highly promising alternative for use in such extreme scenarios. Notably, applying novel coatings to the newly developed high-entropy alloys is expected to allow these materials to be used at significantly higher temperatures.
In a new development, a team of researchers from the Republic of Korea, led by Joonsik Park, a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Hanbat National University, has demonstrated the superior oxidation behaviors of stable nano-grain-sized coating layers produced via sequential two-step B and Si pack cementation coatings of TiTaNbMoZr high-entropy alloys. Their novel findings were made available online on 30 August 2025 and have been published in Volume 38 of the Journal of Materials Research and Technology in September–October 2025.
In this study, the researchers compared the application of Si-pack cementation coating and sequential B–Si-pack cementation coating to the TiTaNbMoZr alloy. They found that not only did the as-cast untreated alloy experience extreme oxidation at 1300 °C, but the Si-pack cementation-coated high-entropy alloy also showed crack formation due to the oxidation of Zr-rich XSi2 to ZrO2, comprising coating integrity. Interestingly, the B–Si-pack cementation-coated TiTaNbMoZr alloy developed a structurally stable surface layer comprising XB2, XSi2, and X5SiB2, demonstrating superior oxidation resistance even at very high temperatures.
Moreover, while the as-cast alloy and the Si-pack cementation-coated alloy demonstrated high mass gains after oxidation at 1300 °C for 10 hours, their B–Si-pack cementation-coated counterpart exhibited significantly lower mass gain under the same conditions. Furthermore, the parabolic rate constant was found to be quite small after the protective oxide layer formation.
The key point of this study is that even after being exposed to a remarkably high temperature of 1300 °C, the coating layer of the recently developed high-entropy alloys maintains its nanostructure while effectively protecting the substrate. This is the first study to demonstrate such a behavior.
“Currently, the Ni-based alloys used in missiles can operate at around 1100 °C, but the results of our study show that the newly developed material can withstand temperatures far exceeding that limit,” highlights Prof. Park.
This material can be applied to components exposed to high-temperature flames, such as those in fighter jets and missiles. Utilizing the coating on various high-temperature structural materials it offers broad applicability for defense purposes as well as other high-temperature engineering fields.
“Overall, our results confirm the potential of high-entropy alloys for use in high-temperature environments and emphasize the critical role of selecting suitable coating strategies tailored to the alloy composition,” concludes Prof. Park.
***
Reference
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2025.08.263
About the institute
Established in 1927, Hanbat National University (HBNU) is a university in Daejeon, South Korea. As a leading national university in the region, HBNU strives to take the lead in solving problems in the local community and solidifying its cooperation with industries. The university’s vision is to become “an Innovation Platform University integrating local community, industry, academia, and research.” With its focus on practical education and regional impact, HBNU continually advances technological solutions grounded in creative thinking and real-world relevance.
Website: https://www.hanbat.ac.kr/eng/index.do
About the author
Joonsik Park is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and currently serves as Dean in the College of Engineering at Hanbat National University. His group is developing approaches to control in-situ coatings for high-temperature materials so that the materials can sustain under high temperature exposure in an air atmosphere. Before coming to Hanbat National University, he worked at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology. Prof. Park received a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Journal
Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Method of Research
Experimental study
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Superior oxidation behaviors of stable nano-grain-sized coating layers produced via sequential two-step pack cementation coatings by B and Si of TiTaNbMoZr high-entropy alloys
Now in 3D, maps begin to bring exoplanets into focus
ITHACA, N.Y. – Astronomers have generated the first three-dimensional map of a planet orbiting another star, revealing an atmosphere with distinct temperature zones – one so scorching that it breaks down water vapor, a team co-led by a Cornell expert reports in new research.
The temperature map of WASP-18b – a gas giant known as an “ultra-hot Jupiter,” located 400 light years from Earth – is the first applying a technique called 3D eclipse mapping, or spectroscopic eclipse mapping. The effort builds on a 2D model that members of the same team published in 2023, which demonstrated eclipse mapping’s potential to leverage highly sensitive observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
The researchers say that for many similar types of exoplanets observable by JWST, they can now begin mapping atmospheric variations just as, for example, Earth-based telescopes long ago observed Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and banded cloud structure.
“Eclipse mapping allows us to image exoplanets that we can’t see directly, because their host stars are too bright,” said Ryan Challener, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Astronomy. “With this telescope and this new technique, we can start to understand exoplanets along the same lines as our solar system neighbors.”
Challener is the first author of “Horizontal and Vertical Exoplanet Thermal Structure from a JWST Spectroscopic Eclipse Map,” scheduled to be published Oct. 28 in Nature Astronomy. More than 30 co-authors include Megan Wiener Mansfield, assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, who co-led the project, and Jake Turner, a research associate in the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science.
Detecting exoplanets at all is difficult – they typically emit much less than 1% of a host star’s brightness. Eclipse mapping requires measuring small fractions of that total as a planet circles behind its star, obscuring and revealing parts of it along the way. Scientists can link minute changes in light to specific regions to produce a brightness map that, when done in multiple colors, can be converted to temperatures in three dimensions: latitude, longitude and altitude.
“You’re looking for changes in tiny portions of the planet as they disappear and reappear into view,” Challener said, “so it’s extraordinarily challenging.”
WASP-18b, which has roughly the mass of 10 Jupiters, orbits in just 23 hours and has temperatures approaching 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit – provided a relatively strong signal, making it a good test case for the new mapping technique.
While the earlier 2D map utilized a single light wavelength, or color, the 3D map re-analyzed the same observations from JWST’s Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) instrument in many wavelengths. Challener said each color corresponded to different temperatures and altitudes within WASP-18b’s gaseous atmosphere that could be pieced together to create the 3D map.
“If you build a map at a wavelength that water absorbs, you’ll see the water deck in the atmosphere, whereas a wavelength that water does not absorb will probe deeper,” Challener said. “If you put those together, you can get a 3D map of the temperatures in this atmosphere.”
The new view confirmed spectroscopically distinct regions – differing in temperature and possibly in chemical composition – in WASP-18b’s visible “dayside,” the side always facing the star due to its tidally locked orbit. The planet features a circular “hotspot” where the most direct starlight lands, and where winds apparently aren’t strong enough to redistribute the heat. Surrounding the hotspot is a colder “ring” nearer the planet’s outer visible edges, or limbs. Notably, Challener said, measurements showed lower levels of water vapor in the hotspot than WASP-18b’s average.
“We think that’s evidence that the planet is so hot in this region that it’s starting to break down the water,” Challener said. “That had been predicted by theory, but it’s really exciting to actually see this with real observations.”
Challener said additional JWST observations could help improve the first 3D eclipse map’s spatial resolution. Already the technique can help illuminate the temperature maps of other hot Jupiters, which make up hundreds of the more than 6,000 exoplanets confirmed to date.
“This new technique is going to be applicable to many, many other planets that we can observe with the James Webb Space Telescope,” Challener said. “We can start to understand exoplanets in 3D as a population, which is very exciting.”
The research was supported by JWST’s Transiting Exoplanet Community Early Release Science Program.
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Journal
Nature Astronomy
Article Title
Horizontal and vertical exoplanet thermal structure from a JWST spectroscopic eclipse map
Article Publication Date
28-Oct-2025
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