Journal News

The newly-discovered giant radio galaxy ‘Inkathazo’. The glowing plasma jets, as seen by the MeerKAT telescope, are shown in red and yellow. The starlight from other surrounding galaxies can be seen in the background.
'Troublesome' radio galaxy 32 times size of Milky Way spotted
Astronomers have discovered an extraordinary new giant radio galaxy with plasma jets 32 times the size of our Milky Way. Measuring 3.3 million light-years from end-to-end, the cosmic megastructure was spotted by South Africa's MeerKAT telescope and…
Image of Arp220 from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the large scale structure of the merging system.
Clever trick to cook stars like Christmas puds detected for first time
drupal-media[data-view-mode=half_page_width] { display: inline-block; width: 50%; } The missing ingredient for cooking up stars in the same way you might steam your Christmas pudding has been spotted for the first time by astronomers. Mu…
This graphic offers a glimpse of the history of the Universe, as we currently understand it.
Dark energy 'doesn’t exist' so can't be pushing 'lumpy' Universe apart – study
One of the biggest mysteries in science – dark energy – doesn't actually exist, according to researchers looking to solve the riddle of how the Universe is expanding. For the past 100 years, physicists have generally assumed that the cosmos is…
The two prize winners.
GJI Student Paper Award Winners 2024
drupal-media[data-view-mode=half_page_width] { display: inline-block; width: 50%; } Geophysical Journal International (GJI) is delighted to announce the two winners of the 2024 Student Paper Award. They are Théo Santos for his first autho…
Earth-bound asteroids ‘could be tracked more precisely’ with new equation
drupal-media[data-view-mode=half_page_width] { display: inline-block; width: 50%; } Identifying asteroids on a potential collision course with Earth could be made easier thanks to an advancement in how to track their orbits more precisely…
WEAVE data overlaid on a James Webb Space Telescope image of Stephan's Quintet, with green contours showing radio data from LOFAR.
2 MILLION mph galaxy smash-up seen in unprecedented detail
A massive collision of galaxies sparked by one travelling at a scarcely-believable 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h) has been seen in unprecedented detail by one of Earth's most powerful telescopes. The dramatic impact was observed in Stephan's Quint…
Amount of stars (white) produced in universes with different dark energy densities. Clockwise, from top left, no dark energy, same dark energy density as in our Universe, 10 and 30 times the dark energy density in our Universe.
A formula for life? New model calculates chances of intelligent beings in our Universe and beyond
The chances of intelligent life emerging in our Universe – and in any hypothetical ones beyond it – can be estimated by a new theoretical model which has echoes of the famous Drake Equation. This was the formula that American astronomer Dr Frank Dra…
Radio image of Sagittarius A* in the centre of the Milky Way galaxy.
First picture of Milky Way black hole ‘may not be accurate’
drupal-media[data-view-mode=half_page_width] { display: inline-block; width: 50%; } The first picture of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our Milky Way galaxy may not be a true reflection of its appearance, new research suggest…
The newly-discovered GS-NDG-9422 galaxy appears as a faint blur in this James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image.
Webb discovers 'weird' galaxy with gas outshining its stars
The discovery of a "weird" and unprecedented galaxy in the early Universe could "help us understand how the cosmic story began", astronomers say. GS-NDG-9422 (9422) was found approximately one billion years after the Big Bang and stood out because…
Gamma-ray bursts (like the one depicted in this artist’s impression) are the most violent explosions in the Universe, releasing more energy than the Sun would in 10 billion years.
Huge gamma-ray burst collection ‘rivals 250-year-old Messier catalogue’
Hundreds of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) have been recorded as part of an enormous global effort so extensive it "rivals the catalogue of deep-sky objects created by Messier 250 years ago", astronomers say. GRBs are the most violent explosions in the U…
An artist’s impression of the nearest brown dwarf to Earth.
Scorching storms on distant worlds revealed in new detail
Astronomers have created the most detailed weather report so far for two distant worlds beyond our own solar system. The international study – the first of its kind – reveals the extreme atmospheric conditions on the celestial objects, which are swa…
Simulation of a galaxy’s ‘heart and lungs’ at work inset on an artist's impression of bi-polar jets of gas originating from a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy.
How the 'heart and lungs' of a galaxy extend its life
Galaxies avoid an early death because they have a "heart and lungs" which effectively regulate their "breathing" and prevent them growing out of control, a new study suggests. If they didn't, the Universe would have aged much faster than it has and…