Carnegie’s Andrew Newman led a team of astronomers that used JWST to make  the first direct mass measurement of a dormant black hole at the center of a galaxy from the early universe. Previously, this technique had only been used to study black holes in the local universe. But JWST and a phenomenon called gravitational lensing enabled the researchers to use it on a galaxy that's light is reaching us from when the universe was just 3 billion years old. 

According to theory, all active black holes should produce winds or jets. Astronomers have long searched for wind around the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole. New images reveal a vacant, cone-shaped region pointing to the black hole. Amount of energy needed to sweep the region’s gas away could only be generated from black hole wind.

A team led by York University researchers has discovered the fastest wind near a supermassive black hole ever found at ultraviolet wavelengths, driven by the disc of matter, or quasar, surrounding the black hole. “This quasar has a black hole of 1.7 billion times the mass of the Sun. That’s typical. What’s not typical is that it has gas moving towards us at 30 per cent of the speed of light,” says York Professor Patrick Hall of the Faculty of Science.

You have gone without food for days, and the temperature drops to near freezing. What do you do? For some animals, the answer is influenced by the brain’s circadian clock. Hummingbirds, bats, and mice are among the animals that can enter torpor, which reduces body temperature and metabolism. Scientists suspected that the brain’s circadian clock controls the timing of torpor, but until now the exact mechanism was not known. Researchers at Nagoya University in Japan have identified the specific neural circuit responsible for this survival strategy. They have shown that the brain’s circadian clock, a small cluster of neurons located in the hypothalamus at the base of the brain, sends silencing signals through this circuit to a nearby temperature-regulating region, suppressing torpor during the day. The findings were published in Nature Communications. 

Hard carbons are emerging as the most viable anodes for the commercialization of Na-ion batteries. However, their performance limits are far from being disclosed because of ambiguous Na-storage mechanism. Here, we report that nano-space confinement regulates heterogeneous nucleation of quasi-metallic Na clusters in closed pores, uncovering a coupled “intercalation-pore filling” and stage-wise storage mechanism for high capacities. Theoretical studies reveal that the energy barrier for Na-cluster growth decreases as the nanocavity size decreases; however, it remains energetically unfavorable at potentials (V vs. Na/Na⁺) > 0. Interestingly, in the coupled storage, Na-ion intercalation in nanoconfined orifices triggers stepwise pre-nucleation, reducing energy barriers for spontaneous Na-cluster growth in progressively larger cavities at positive potentials, thus enabling Na-cluster deposition into previously unused closed pores. This understanding guides the rational design of stage-wise closed pores, resulting in superior performance of 500 mAh g⁻¹ at 50 mA g⁻¹ and 344 mAh g⁻¹ at 2000 mA g⁻¹. Mechanistic studies further identify a new stage, where confined nano-spaces at 0.4–0.6 nm facilitate pre-desolvation and enhance Na-ion transport kinetics for high-rate capabilities. This work identifies the origin governing Na-storage behavior in the closed pores of hard carbons, boosting their overall performance beyond prior expectations.

Scientists at the SETI Institute searched for technological signals from 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar object observed in our Solar System. Using the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in Northern California, the team scanned a wide range of radio frequencies for signs of extraterrestrial technology and found none, as expected based on other astronomical observations showing that the object exhibits natural comet-like composition and behavior.

“Eventually, our own Voyager spacecraft will be extraterrestrial artifacts in other stellar systems,” said Dr. Sofia Sheikh, lead author on the paper. “Given that, it is important that we understand the natural distribution of interstellar objects so that we will be able to identify any anomalies that could one day be signs of an artificial interstellar object.”

The team observed 3I/ATLAS for more than seven hours with the ATA, covering 1 to 9 gigahertz. This broad range allows scientists to search for narrowband radio signals, which are not produced by in nature and would be evidence of technology.

A new Dartmouth study shows octopuses can use mirrors to find food out of sight, demonstrating spatial cognitive abilities. The results are published in Current Biology.

SAN ANTONIO — June 3, 2026 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) is studying impact flashes generated by high-speed collisions. One application of understanding impact flashes is to remotely identify what materials are involved in the collisions. Advances in understanding the optical impact flashes can be highly beneficial for missile defense, making it possible to determine the composition of an intercepted missile and its payload. The work could also aid scientists in identifying the origins of meteorites or asteroids impacting surfaces, based on their composition.