Kyoto, Japan -- What we know of the birth of a black hole has traditionally aligned with our perception of black holes themselves: dark, mysterious, and eerily quiet, despite their mass and influence. Stellar-mass black holes are born from the final gravitational collapse of massive stars several tens of the mass of our Sun which, unlike less massive stars, do not produce bright, supernova explosions.

Or at least, this is what astronomers had previously thought, because no one had observed in real time the collapse of a massive star leading to a supernova and forming a black hole. That is, until a team of researchers at Kyoto University reported their observations of SN 2022esa.

The Kyoto team had wondered whether all massive stars -- those that are at least 30 times the mass of the Sun -- die quietly without a supernova explosion, or if in some cases they are accompanied by an energetic and bright, special type of supernova explosion. The astronomers then discovered a type Ic-CSM class supernova that appeared to be an explosion of a Wolf-Rayet star, which are so incomprehensibly massive and luminous that astronomers believe them to be the progenitors of black hole formation.

A research team led by Prof. TIAN Hengci from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) conducted extensive analysis of lunar basalts collected by Chang'e-6 (CE6) from the South Pole–Aitken (SPA) Basin. These samples exhibit significantly heavier potassium (K) isotopic compositions than all previously documented lunar basalts from the Apollo missions and lunar meteorites.

New research reveals the extent to which Mars is quietly tugging on Earth’s orbit and shaping the cycles that drive long-term climate patterns here, including ice ages.

Astronomers have spotted one of the oldest ‘dead’ galaxies yet identified, and found that a growing supermassive black hole can slowly starve a galaxy rather than tear it apart.

Astronomers have discovered that black holes don’t just consume matter — they manage it, choosing whether to blast it into space as high-speed jets or sweep it away in vast winds

A new study published in Conservation Biology examines the behavior and distributions of queen conch (Aliger gigas) to guide conservation management for the threatened sea snail. The research, which tracked adult snail movements, suggests that establishing a 330-meter spatial buffer – about the height of the Eiffel Tower by comparison – around breeding areas could help protect conch populations and serve as a practical tool for local management.

The largest structures in the universe are galaxy clusters—groups of galaxies held together by gravity. Their developmental history is now being rewritten—thanks to a student’s bachelor project.

Topological photonics promises robust light transport immune to disorder, but existing linear systems are essentially static and cannot be reconfigured after fabrication. Now, a collaboration of researchers have shown that picosecond time-scale reconfigurable topological routing can be achieved using nonlinear physics in driven-dissipative exciton–polariton lattices, and proved its topology using a real-space framework. This advance will enable adaptive and disorder-immune photonic circuitry for next-generation communication, quantum, and ultrafast optical technologies.