Astronomers have struggled with finding ultra-faint dwarf galaxies far enough from the Milky Way's influence, making these faintest galaxies in the cosmos difficult to study. Three newly discovered dwarf galaxies in an isolated region of space show evidence of star formation being cut short by events in the early universe. 

Using NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, scientists have identified flickering loops in the solar atmosphere, or corona, that seem to signal when the Sun is about to unleash a large solar flare.

SAN ANTONIO — January 15, 2025 —Southwest Research Institute’s Dr. Lisa Upton has received the 2025 Karen Harvey Prize from the American Astronomical Society’s Solar Physics Division, which recognizes the outstanding contributions made by early career solar scientists. Upton was honored for advancing our understanding of the Sun and exceptional leadership in the solar science community.

For humans, the most important star in the universe is our Sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don't go looking for it — the flickering star is 2.2 million light-years away, and is 1/100,000th the brightness of the faintest star visible to the human eye.

Yet, a century ago, its discovery by Edwin Hubble, then an astronomer at Carnegie Observatories, opened humanity's eyes as to how large the universe really is, and revealed that our Milky Way galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe ushered in the coming-of-age for humans as a curious species that could scientifically ponder our own creation through the message of starlight. Carnegie Science and NASA are celebrating this centennial at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

By combining data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys and the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have investigated three ultra-faint dwarf galaxies that reside in a region of space isolated from the environmental influence of larger objects. The galaxies, located in the direction of NGC 300, were found to contain only very old stars, supporting the theory that events in the early Universe cut star formation short in the smallest galaxies.