solsticeuniversity.com – Dark matter is one of the greatest mysteries in modern cosmology and physics. It is a form of matter that does not interact with light or electromagnetic radiation, making it invisible to telescopes and detectors that rely on light. Yet, its existence is inferred from gravitational effects onContinue Reading
Astronomers made a breakthrough in 2025 with the detection of the brightest and nearest Fast Radio Burst (FRB) ever observed — located just 130 million light-years away in the galaxy NGC 4141. What makes this discovery extraordinary is not just the brightness, but that scientists managed to precisely pinpoint theContinue Reading
The Gaia spacecraft, operated by the European Space Agency, has fundamentally transformed our understanding of the Milky Way through its decade-long precision mapping of stellar positions, motions, and distances. By tracking more than two billion celestial objects, Gaia has built the most detailed 3D map of our galaxy to dateContinue Reading
Among the many celestial bodies in our solar system, Europa — one of Jupiter’s largest moons — has emerged as a prime candidate for extraterrestrial life. Beneath its thick crust of ice lies a vast, global ocean estimated to contain twice as much water as all of Earth’s oceans combined.Continue Reading
Astronomers recently announced the discovery of the exoplanet GJ 251 c, located just 18 light-years from Earth and orbiting its red-dwarf host star every 54 days. What makes this find so significant is that GJ 251 c falls within what’s known as the habitable zone—where liquid water might exist—and isContinue Reading
Astronomers have recently detected an astonishing new cosmic structure: RAD J131346.9+500320, the most powerful and distant Odd Radio Circle (ORC) discovered to date. This entity boasts two enormous, intersecting rings—each roughly 300,000 light-years across—embedded in a vast radio cloud extending over 3 million light-years. The interplay between these rings, especiallyContinue Reading
Astronomers have achieved a landmark moment: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has directly imaged a previously unknown exoplanet, TWA 7 b, marking one of the most significant advances in observational astronomy. Located about 34 light-years away, TWA 7 b is a young, cold gas giant roughly the size ofContinue Reading
K2-18b has captivated the scientific world as one of the most compelling Hycean planet candidates—exoplanets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres and subsurface liquid oceans. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope detected prominent molecules like water vapor, methane, carbon dioxide, and, notably, dimethyl sulfide (DMS)—a compound produced by marine algae on EarthContinue Reading
Astronomers, led by teams working with the James Webb Space Telescope, have detected silica-based ‘sand clouds’ in the atmosphere of two young gas giants—YSES‑1 b and YSES‑1 c—in the Musca constellation. At just 16.7 million years old, this planetary system presents a rare opportunity to observe planetary weather in its formative epoch.Continue Reading
Among the many enigmas of modern cosmology, “dark flow” stands as one of the most intriguing. Discovered through observations of galaxy clusters using NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), dark flow refers to the unexpected and consistent motion of galaxy clusters in one direction—toward a specific point in the sky—atContinue Reading