What NASA, ESA, JPL and astronomers around the world have discovered
Last updated: October 19, 2026
FRESHNASA / Hubble Space Telescope
Hubble Reveals Edge-On Spiral Galaxy NGC 1827
NASA originally published this material on October 16, 2026. TeoKosmos published this news article on October 19, 2026.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured NGC 1827, an intermediate spiral galaxy seen almost exactly edge-on. It lies roughly 37 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Columba, the Dove. Rusty-brown dust lanes run lengthwise through its disk, while bright-blue regions are likely associated with new star formation. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured the image.
NGC 1827 is part of a large survey of 260 satellite galaxies around 22 Milky Way-like host galaxies. NASA is examining systems within a radius of about 32 million light-years from Earth. Hubble has already observed 111 of these satellite galaxies, while the remaining targets will require another 149 Hubble orbits.
The bright star near NGC 1827’s central region is actually a foreground star between us and the galaxy. Its four diffraction spikes are produced when light bends around the internal supports that hold Hubble’s secondary mirror.
Low-mass galaxies such as these provide a way to test cosmological model predictions on small scales. The new observations will help astronomers better characterize low-mass galaxies in systems similar to the Milky Way.
Source: NASA / Hubble Space Telescope. Original article: “NASA’s Hubble Spies Spiral’s Edge”. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Michael Jones (California Institute of Technology); Image Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America). Read the original on NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-spies-spirals-edge/
NASA Explains the Cosmic ‘Treble Clef’ in a Galaxy Cluster Collision
On October 14, 2026, NASA explained the origin of a remarkable radio-wave structure nicknamed the “Treble Clef” because it resembles a musical symbol. It is not a musical object or a scientific classification, but an example of pareidolia — the tendency to see familiar shapes in random forms.
The structure was difficult to study because it lies almost directly behind the plane of the Milky Way, where stars, gas, and dust in our Galaxy obstruct the view. A team led by Andrea Botteon of INAF in Italy combined observations from several telescopes to work out what produced it. NASA says the paper describing these findings was published Wednesday in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
The Treble Clef most likely formed in two stages. First, an earlier outburst from a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy cluster drove clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields outward at close to the speed of light. This produced bright radio emission that later faded.
Next, a collision between two galaxy clusters compressed or reenergized the cloud, making it bright again at radio wavelengths. Shock waves from the collision may have helped. Chandra and eROSITA detected hot diffuse gas and showed that the source is associated with two merging clusters rather than one; the collision likely happened a few hundred million years ago.
LOFAR revealed the radio structure itself, while infrared data from the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope / UKIDSS-GPS helped complete the composite view. The study gives astronomers a clearer picture of how black-hole outbursts and collisions between the largest structures in the universe can work together to create complex radio objects.
Source: NASA / Chandra X-ray Observatory. Original article: “NASA’s Chandra Breaks Down ‘Treble Clef’s’ Galaxy Cluster Collision”. Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/INAF-IRA/A. Botteon et al.; Infrared: UKIDSS-GPS; Radio: ASTRON/LOFAR; Image processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk. Read the original on NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/chandra/nasas-chandra-breaks-down-treble-clefs-galaxy-cluster-collision/
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia / Cambridge Core
Have Astronomers Found Planet Nine? A Candidate Emerges
Have astronomers really found Planet Nine? No — there is still no confirmed discovery. The study being discussed again now was published online on 23 May 2025. TeoKosmos is publishing this article on 10 October 2026, but this is not a newly confirmed discovery of a planet.
The researchers analysed archival far-infrared surveys from IRAS and AKARI, separated by approximately 23 years. They searched for a very slowly moving distant object that could match some expectations for the hypothetical Planet Nine.
After the initial selection criteria, 13 candidate pairs remained. Image inspection left one strong candidate pair: the IRAS source was absent at the same position in the later AKARI image, and the AKARI source was absent at the same position in the IRAS image. That pattern can be consistent with a moving object.
The search model considered a distance of about 500–700 astronomical units and a mass of roughly 7–17 Earth masses. These are search and modelling ranges used by the study, not confirmed measured properties of a discovered planet.
However, IRAS and AKARI provide only two observational epochs. That is not enough to determine a complete Keplerian orbit, so follow-up observations are needed to show whether the object follows an orbit compatible with a distant planet.
NASA Science also states clearly that Planet Nine / Planet X has not yet been discovered and remains theoretical. This is therefore only a possible candidate that requires confirmation. NASA’s “Artist’s illustration of Hypothetical Planet X” is an artist’s rendering of a hypothetical object, not a photograph of the candidate. Credit: Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC).
Primary source: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia / Cambridge University Press, DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2025.10024.
Context: NASA Science, “Is Planet X Real?” — https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/planet-x/
Webb Identifies Host Galaxy of the Farthest Known Fast Radio Burst
On October 8, 2026, NASA reported that the James Webb Space Telescope had identified the host galaxy of FRB 20240304B — the most distant fast radio burst for which a host galaxy has been confirmed. The burst was detected on March 4, 2024.
Webb’s NIRSpec measured a redshift of 2.148. This places the event about 3 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was still much younger than it is today. The host turned out to be a small dwarf galaxy with active star formation.
Fast radio bursts are extremely brief, powerful flashes of radio emission that last only milliseconds. Identifying a host galaxy lets astronomers compare the burst with the environment where it occurred, although the overall origin of FRBs remains unresolved.
Using NIRCam, Webb located a faint galaxy at the precise position of the burst, while NIRSpec confirmed its distance. The host is roughly one thousand times less massive than researchers expected and belongs to a young population of galaxies undergoing active star formation.
For this particular FRB, a neutron-star merger is considered very unlikely. One possible explanation is a young magnetar, an intensely magnetized neutron star, but that remains a hypothesis rather than a proven answer. The result narrows the possibilities and gives scientists a clearer way to study these mysterious radio flashes.
Source: NASA / James Webb Space Telescope. Original publication: Webb Measures Distance to Farthest Fast Radio Burst, Suggesting Origin. Read the original on NASA: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-measures-distance-to-farthest-fast-radio-burst-suggesting-origin/
Image Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Themiya Nanayakkara (USYD); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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