A newly discovered distant object that astronomers have dubbed “The Cliff” could solve a riddle posed by some of the first observations of the distant universe with the James Webb Space Telescope, related to the discovery of a population of objects dubbed “little red dots.” Those objects were thought to be young galaxies, but with such considerable mass as would have been difficult to explain in current models of cosmic evolution. “The Cliff” has led to a proposal that could resolve this problem: Little red dots are not galaxies, but instead supermassive black holes that are embedded in a thick envelope of gas. The researchers call this new class of object a “black hole star.”

While the early Mars climate remains an open question, a new study suggests its atmosphere may have been hospitable to life due to volcanic activity which emitted sulfur gases that contributed to a greenhouse warming effect.

The European Space Agency’s Plato spacecraft has safely arrived at ESTEC, ESA’s technical heart in the Netherlands. There, engineers will complete the spacecraft by connecting its solar panels and sunshield, and carry out a series of critical tests to confirm that Plato is fit for launch and ready for its planet-hunting mission in space.

As atmospheric observations of exoplanets become increasingly precise, it is more important than ever to correctly account for the effect of starspots on host stars. An ideal opportunity to study starspots arises when a transiting planet passes directly across them—a phenomenon known as a spot-crossing transit. An international research team led by scientists at the Astrobiology Center (Tokyo, Japan) has combined ground-based observations to reveal the detailed properties of the starspots and the orbital geometry of the planetary system TOI-3884.

A European consortium, which includes the Space Robotics Laboratory at the University of Malaga, has designed an innovative lava tunnel exploration mission concept. It comprises a team of three heterogeneous robots that collaborate autonomously to explore and map these extreme environments efficiently, and they are being tested in caves of Lanzarote (Spain) with a view to the Moon.