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JWST reveals most distant red galaxy yet at redshift 11.45

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers have discovered a new red galaxy at a redshift of approximately 11.45. The newfound galaxy, which received designation EGS-z11-R0, turns out to be the most distant red galaxy detected to date. The discovery was detailed in a paper published March 18 on the arXiv pre-print server.

High-redshift galaxies (with redshifts above 10.0) identified by JWST, therefore when the universe was only a few hundred million years old, are predominantly characterized by extremely blue rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) slopes. This is due to the fact that they are composed of very young, massive stars that emit intense UV light, with minimal dust attenuation.

However, recent observations have revealed the existence of a small population of high-redshift red galaxies, therefore exhibiting significantly redder UV continua. It is assumed that these galaxies are already full of dust and mature stars.

Webb and Hubble share the most comprehensive view of Saturn to date

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have teamed up to capture new views of Saturn, revealing the planet in strikingly different ways. Observing in complementary wavelengths of light, the two space observatories provide scientists with a richer, more layered understanding of the gas giant’s atmosphere.

Both sense sunlight reflected from Saturn’s banded clouds and hazes, but where Hubble reveals subtle color variations across the planet, Webb’s infrared view senses clouds and chemicals at many different depths in the atmosphere, from the deep clouds to the tenuous upper atmosphere.

Together, scientists can effectively “slice” through Saturn’s atmosphere at multiple altitudes, like peeling back the layers of an onion. Each telescope tells a different part of Saturn’s story, and the observations together help researchers understand how Saturn’s atmosphere works as a connected three-dimensional system. Both complement previous observations done by NASA’s Cassini orbiter during its time studying the Saturnian system from 1997 to 2017.

Astronomers Spot Twin Planets Growing in Early Star System

“WISPIT 2 gives us a critical laboratory not just to observe the formation of a single planet but an entire planetary system,” said Dr. Christian Ginski. [ https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30349/astronomers-sp…r-system-2](https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/30349/astronomers-sp…r-system-2)

What can young planets in a far away star system teach astronomers about planetary formation and evolution? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of scientists announced the discovery of two young planets orbiting a young star. This study has the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of planets, along with how solar systems like ours formed and evolved.

For the study, the researchers used the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Very Large Telescope (VLT) to confirm the existence of a second planet within the WISPIT 2 system, which is located approximately 440 light-years from Earth. The first planet, WISPIT 2b, was identified and confirmed in August 2025, and this new planet has been dubbed WISPIT 2c.

While both planets have been identified as gas giants, WISPIT 2b was confirmed to be approximately five times the mass of Jupiter and orbits at 60 astronomical units (AU) from its star and WISPIT 2c is estimated to be 15 AU from its star and is estimated to be twice the mass as WISPIT 2b. For context, Earth orbits 1 AU from our Sun while Jupiter and Saturn orbit 5.20 AU and 9.58 AU, respectively. Along with the two confirmed planets, the researchers have postulated that a third planet could exist in the system and is estimated to be approximately the mass of Saturn.

A Bright Star Hid a Massive Secret for 50 Years: Mystery of Gamma Cassiopeiae Finally Solved

A naked-eye star’s 50-year mystery is solved—its bizarre X-rays come from a hidden, feeding white dwarf.

Easily visible in the night sky within the constellation Cassiopeia, the star γ Cas has puzzled astronomers for more than 50 years. It produces X-rays with energies and temperatures far beyond what is expected from a typical massive star. New observations using the Resolve instrument aboard Japan’s XRISM space telescope have now traced this unusual emission to a white dwarf orbiting the star. This finding also confirms a long-theorized class of binary systems that had never been clearly identified. The study, led by researchers at the University of Liège, was published today (March 24) in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

What makes be stars like gamma cassiopeiae unique.

The major societal consequences of finding alien life | Sara Seager

This interview is an episode from ‪The Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the ‪John Templeton Foundation.

Watch Seager’s next interview ► What if intelligent life exists, but we can’t recognize it? • What if intelligent life exists, but we ca…

Sara Seager, a planetary scientist, astrophysicist, and leading researcher in the search for life beyond Earth, examines how discovering life elsewhere would represent a Copernican-level shift in human understanding.

Research into Mars, Venus, and the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn has revealed complex molecules and liquid environments that could support life. Independent origins of life would imply that the galaxy is rich with living individuals, challenging long-held cultural, religious, and philosophical assumptions. The acceptance of major scientific discoveries — and the unexpected practical contributions to pure science — impact how the search for extraterrestrial life may benefit society over time.

Read the video transcript ► https://bigthink.com/the-well/are-we–…

About Sara Seager:

Continue reading “The major societal consequences of finding alien life | Sara Seager” | >

A Lab Version of Planetary Atmospheres

Researchers recreate key features of atmospheric turbulence in a meter-sized rotating cylinder.

Atmospheric turbulence encompasses a wide range of flow patterns, from 10-m-wide eddies to 1000-km-long wind streams. Geoscientists want to understand how energy and rotational motion transfer (or “cascade”) from one length scale to another, but atmospheric observations have not provided clear answers. A new model of the atmosphere consisting of fluid in a rotating, meter-wide cylinder is able to reproduce key features of observed turbulence [1]. Using video tracking, researchers mapped out the flow velocity in this system, uncovering the dominant role of a “vorticity” transfer that distributes rotational motion from large vortices into smaller ones. This form of cascade may explain the energy distribution in large-scale turbulence on Earth as well as on other planets.

Turbulence can be characterized by a kinetic energy spectrum, which indicates the amount of energy found in fluctuations at each length scale. The typical turbulence spectrum has a mathematical form called a power law, in which the energy density steadily decreases from large to small scales. Fluid dynamics models of Earth’s atmosphere have predicted that the power law should be relatively flat at large scales (with an exponent of −5÷3) and steeper at small scales (with an exponent of −3). However, these predictions aren’t supported by observations. “The basic shape of the spectrum is all wrong,” says Peter Read from the University of Oxford in the UK. Data taken by airplanes have revealed a spectrum that starts out steep at large scales (greater than 500 km) and becomes flatter at small scales.

Stealth superstorms reveal lightning on Jupiter: Beyond the superbolt

Jupiter’s lightning has long been of interest to planetary scientists, as it marks stormy spots where researchers can look to learn more about convection in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Observing lightning from a distance can be tricky, so scientists have focused on the bolts that are easiest to study: strong flashes that strike at night. As a result, some studies have concluded that lightning bolts on Jupiter are all similar to the strongest lightning on Earth, known as “superbolts.” This conclusion was recently questioned, however, when the high-sensitivity star tracker camera on NASA’s Juno spacecraft detected faint, shallow lightning.

For a study published in AGU Advances, Michael Wong and colleagues took a closer look, focusing on a period in 2021 and 2022 when lightning in Jupiter’s North Equatorial Belt was highly localized within powerful, isolated storms the researchers labeled “stealth superstorms.” This unusual meteorology allowed researchers to pinpoint the location of lightning more accurately.

Instead of looking only at visible light, the scientists used data from the Microwave Radiometer instrument and the Waves experiment—radio wave detectors carried by Juno, which has been orbiting Jupiter for the past 10 years. Radio waves are just one form of electromagnetic radiation produced by lightning, but they’re an especially informative form because scientists can study them even when clouds or other components of the atmosphere block visual cues. The approach allowed the researchers to look beyond the strong nocturnal bolts other researchers have focused on.

One-step coating keeps fabrics superhydrophobic after tens of thousands of abrasion cycles

Developing robust water-repellent textiles is critical for outdoor, protective, and industrial applications. However, achieving long-lasting water repellency under mechanical stress has been a major challenge.

Now, a research team led by Prof. Dong Zhichao from the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a new one-step fabrication strategy—termed MARS (Molecularly Assembled Robust Superhydrophobic Shell)—for producing superhydrophobic fabrics with stable mechanical performance under harsh conditions.

The findings were published in Nature Communications on March 20.

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