Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has received 13 million SEK from the Hasselblad Foundation to build a new camera for Sweden’s premier radio telescope. The new three-band camera is part of a global initiative to enable high-quality, multi-colour images of black holes and other space phenomena, using innovative technology that has excited astronomers since its first test runs in South Korea.

A strong geomagnetic storm in spring 2024 brought the northern lights unusually far south, as the auroral oval expanded well beyond its typical position. "I am surprised at how sparse the measurement network is, even though we know that the impacts of space weather can vary greatly from one area to another," says Doctoral Researcher Otto Kärhä from the University of Oulu, Finland.

An international team in which the University of the Basque Country (EHU) scientists Ricardo Hueso and Agustín Sánchez- Lavega are collaborating has discovered electrical discharges in the Mars atmosphere for the first time. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, was made by analysing sounds from the atmosphere of the red planet obtained by the Perseverance rover of the NASA Mars 2020 mission.

A team of astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) has released new data from the Deep Extragalactic Visible Legacy Survey (DEVILS), highlighting how a galaxy's environment influences its evolution. Focusing on galaxies that existed up to five billion years ago, the survey reveals that galaxies in crowded regions grow more slowly and have different structures compared to isolated ones.

Dark matter does not interact with electromagnetic force and does not absorb, emit or reflect light, making it difficult to observe directly. The presence of dark matter has only been inferred through observations of galaxies and galaxy clusters moving at higher rates of speed than should be possible based on their mass. A researcher has detected gamma rays from the central region of the Milky Way galaxy that are consistent with the energy and intensity that would be emitted by the annihilation of two weakly interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, that are proposed to make up dark matter. If the anaylsis is correct, this could signify the first time that dark matter has been directly observed since it was first proposed in 1933.

It is rare for satellites to return to Earth intact after their mission in space – one example is the European satellite EURECA. Empa researchers have studied the satellite using various non-destructive X-ray methods. These could be used in future in the development of reusable space technologies, as well as in aviation and the automotive industry.

The star’s “alpha-rich” makeup, packed with heavier elements typically found in ancient stars, was the biggest surprise for UH researchers.