During the week of 22–26 September 2025, the SKA Observatory (SKAO) showcased its scientific and societal impact at G20-related events under South Africa’s presidency. For the first time, SKAO addressed the G20 Research and Innovation Ministerial Meeting, highlighting how its global collaboration is driving discovery, innovation, and socio-economic benefits. The week also saw the first [...]
Astronomers have observed the earliest stages of planet formation around the baby star HOPS-315, 1,300 light-years away. The international team, including scientists from Chalmers University of Technology and Onsala Space Observatory, analyzed chemical signals that reveal the first building blocks of rocky planets. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope and the ALMA observatory, [...]
Astronomers have observed a rare Einstein Cross with a bright central fifth image, produced by gravitational lensing of the distant galaxy HerS-3 (11.6 billion light-years away). Observations with NOEMA (IRAM, France), ALMA, VLA, and Hubble show that the five-image configuration can only be explained by a massive dark matter halo in the foreground galaxy group. [...]
September 16, 2025 — The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, with major contributions from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), has unveiled new images of the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87. For the first time, the EHT detects faint emission from the base of M87’s relativistic jet, while multi-year [...]
An international team of astronomers has traced one of the brightest one-off fast radio bursts (FRBs) ever observed - FRB 20250316A - to a galaxy 130 million light-years away. Using the Canadian CHIME radio telescope and its newly completed outrigger stations, the team localized the burst to a region just 45 light-years wide, the most [...]
For the first time, astronomers have directly tracked the transformation of a dying star over more than a century - revealing that it is heating up faster than any other typical star ever observed. The study, led by Professor Albert Zijlstra (The University of Manchester) and published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, examines 130 years [...]
Astronomers using ALMA have discovered a vast bubble of gas and dust surrounding the red supergiant star DFK 52 — the largest structure of its kind ever seen in the Milky Way. Containing as much mass as the Sun and stretching 1.4 light years across, the bubble was created by a dramatic stellar eruption about [...]
An international team of astronomers has unveiled a stunning image of a cosmic jet aimed directly at Earth, revealing the long-sought explanation for the extraordinary brightness of the blazar PKS 1424+240. The discovery, published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters, shows the blazar’s jet as a glowing “Eye of Sauron” in deep space - its [...]
An international team of astronomers, led by Dr Efthalia Traianou of Heidelberg University, has captured the most detailed image yet of the galaxy OJ 287, located five billion light years away. The groundbreaking observation reveals a sharply curved, ribbon-like plasma jet emerging from the galaxy’s core - a phenomenon never before seen in OJ 287. [...]
Astronomers have identified a baffling new cosmic radio source - ILT J163430+445010 - emitting bright radio pulses every 14 minutes with unexpected shifts between circular and linear polarization. The source is linked to a white dwarf binary exhibiting a unique companion-triggered radio burst mechanism. This discovery challenges existing models of stellar radio emissions and may open a new window [...]