Robert Lea

It may be one of the most iconic sights in the night sky, but astronomers have never seen the Helix Nebula like this before.

"Dark matter can be red hot when it is born, but still have time to cool down before galaxies begin to form."

"I don't think anyone's made this connection between the surface fluid pattern and the interior properties of these planets."

"The knowledge of these will ultimately help us understand the formation of the first stars and planets and how our own Milky Way came into being."

"It's like watching a cosmic volcano erupt again after ages of calm — except this one is big enough to carve out structures stretching nearly a million light-years across space."

"One thing popped out as clear as anything, this previously unknown 'bar' of ionized iron atoms, in the middle of the familiar and iconic ring."

The protostar is launching the longest outburst ever seen at 32 light-years long.

"This is a structure we've never seen before, so it could be a new class of dark object."

"Our study provides a new direction to understand the whole evolutionary history of massive stars toward the formation of black hole binaries."

"We're seeing what could be described as an energetic tug-of-war inside the black hole's accretion flow."

"It points to a slow starvation rather than a single dramatic death blow."

"This result shows that the Event Horizon Telescope is not only useful for producing spectacular images, but can also be used to understand the physics that govern black hole jets."

"The surprise that a supposedly quiet, discless system could drive such a spectacular nebula was one of those rare 'wow' moments."

"The combination of extreme disk size, strong asymmetries, winds, and potential planet formation makes it the perfect laboratory for understanding how giant planets can form."

"This is a structure we've never seen before, so it could be a new class of dark object."

"WIMPs are still the leading candidate for dark matter, but billions of dollars of experiments have been done, only getting stronger and stronger upper limits, so alternative scenarios have to be considered."

"Nothing in my professional training as an X-ray astronomer had prepared me for something like this."

"This was many times more energetic than any similar event and more than any known explosion powered by the collapse of a star."

"This is a tale of a failed galaxy."

Bad news for those hoping interstellar invader 3I/ATLAS is an alien spacecraft as technosignature search turns up empty.

"If this interaction between dark matter and neutrinos is confirmed, it would be a fundamental breakthrough."

Using the Hubble space telescope, astronomers have imaged "'Dracula’s Chivito" the largest site of planetary birth ever seen.

2025 was another big year for black holes, and here's our pick of the top black hole stories from the last twelve months.