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First atmosphere detected on a habitable-zone rocky world

In a major milestone in the search for life on other planets, astronomers have detected, for the first time, an atmosphere surrounding an Earth-like, rocky planet orbiting within the habitable zone of ...
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Sharpest map yet of a galaxy’s heavy elements shows how black holes shape galaxies

Astronomers have mapped the distribution of heavy elements around a supermassive black hole in unprecedented detail, and the results show that metal‑rich gas is closely linked to the black hole’s ...
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Raveena Khan wins honourable mention Ph.D. prize from the International Astronomical Union

Cambridge, MA (July 2026) — The International Astronomical Union has awarded the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory’s visiting scientist, Raveena Khan, the 2025 IAU Division E (Sun and Heliosphere) ...
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Cosmic Eruption Caught in the Act by Submillimeter Array’s New Fastest Response System

Cambridge, MA (June 30, 2026) — On January 26, 2026, the Submillimeter Array (SMA) on Maunakea crossed an important threshold for time‑domain astronomy. For the first time, scientists from the Center ...
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Smithsonian Starstruck Makes Its World Premiere in Washington, D.C., Launching an Immersive Journey to the Cosmos

Built from real astronomical data, the fully immersive experience brings stars, galaxies and black holes within reach. Washington, D.C., May 28--The Smithsonian launches a gateway to the cosmos with ...
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The Solar Wind’s Secret Hammerheads and What They Tell Us About Heat in Space

Cambridge, MA (May 27, 2026) —The proton sharks showed up on a Friday. In a routine data calibration meeting for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe in 2020, a small group of scientists were scrolling through ...
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Astronomers Uncover Why Some Solar Eruptions Die

New multi-telescope observations show why a powerful blast never became a true mass ejection. Cambridge, MA (May, 20, 2026) — A team of scientists has recorded one of the most detailed views ever of a ...
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Astronomers Directly Detect How Turbulence Between Stars Distorts Light

Using a distant quasar as a beacon, researchers identified the tiny, turbulence-driven ripples imprinted on the quasar’s radio signal as it passed through a particularly chaotic region of the Milky ...
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Harvard astronomy seniors kick off careers with thesis presentations at the CfA

The students’ presentations ranged from astrochemistry and Earth-like planet atmosphere formation to unusual movement patterns by red supergiant star Betelgeuse. Cambridge, MA (April 27, 2026) — Six ...
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'Interstellar Glaciers': NASA’s SPHEREx Maps Vast Galactic Ice Regions

In observations led by CfA scientists, NASA’s SPHEREx has mapped water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide ices attached to the surface of tiny dust particles in clouds spanning hundreds of ...
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'Space Archaeology' Reveals First Dynamic History of a Giant Spiral Galaxy

For the first time, astronomers used galactic archaeology techniques to trace the chemical "fossil record" of a galaxy outside the Milky Way Cambridge, MA (March 23, 2026) — A team of astronomers led ...
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NASA's Hubble Reveals Largest Found Chaotic Birthplace of Planets

Nearly 300 years after Immanuel Kant proposed that our solar system’s family of planets condensed from a flattened disk of gas and dust, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed that such planetary ...