Astrobites

Dust Deal with It

Astrobites reports on why we might need a cosmic feather duster to see life on other worlds.

logo of the American Astronomical Society

We’re excited to welcome Alexia Kubas and Lucas Brown to the team as AAS Media Fellows for 2026–2027!

Uranus close-up

A recent study has used spectroscopy from JWST to decipher the source of carbon oxides on the four largest moons of Uranus.

solar faculae and sunspots imaged at 1400 Angstroms
Features

When Bright Spots Go Dark

New modeling tests a common assumption that’s important for interpreting exoplanet spectra: that stars of all spectral types exhibit bright magnetized regions called faculae.

illustration of a tidal disruption event

Astrobites reports on how synchrotron emission from thermal electrons could help to explain the behavior of certain tidal disruption events.

A photograph of Uranus against a black background.
Features

Who Needs Jupiter?

The original plan for an upcoming flagship mission to Uranus called for a slingshot around Jupiter. Now that the planet won’t be in the right position at launch time, the spacecraft will need to follow a different path.

Protoplanetary Disk

How early did planets form in the universe? A recent study used simulations to find that planetesimals could have formed significantly earlier than previously thought.

IC 5332

Astrobites reports on JWST observations of dust that has survived being expelled from a galaxy into the circumgalactic medium.

Researchers have discovered a comet-shaped nebula surrounding a pulsar speeding through the remains of its progenitor star.