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astrophysics

Europa, an icy moon of Jupiter, whose subsurface ocean may harbor alien life. (Courtesy/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute)
June 14, 2026, 4:56 pm
Contact? Groundbreaking Israeli method may soon detect life in outer space
Weizmann Institute of Science researchers say their statistical toolbox will be used aboard planned Israeli Aerospace Industries spacecraft, Eureka, set to reach Jupiter’s smallest moon in the 2030s
By Diana Bletter
Paz Beniamini receives his Blavatnik Young Scientists Award, June 2, 2026. (Eran Be'eri)
June 6, 2026, 10:05 am
Bucking boycotts, prizewinning Israeli astrophysicist finds ‘Zen-like’ perspective in space
Open University’s first Blavatnik Award laureate, Paz Beniamini, studies cosmic bursts and neutron stars; says science must ‘be done on international level’ regardless of politics
By Diana Bletter
The Barnard 68 nebula, located in the constellation Ophiuchus, approximately 400 light-years from Earth. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, Dr. Shmuel Bialy of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and his team measured the signals emitted from this nebula as a result of molecular hydrogen excitation by cosmic rays for the first time. (Courtesy/ European Southern Observatory)
February 6, 2026, 7:57 am
A star is born: Israeli team detects stellar-creation particles 400 light-years away
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology researchers measure cosmic rays in far-off Barnard 68 nebula; study opens ‘new field of astrophysics research’
By Diana Bletter
From left to right: Sara Faris, Yael Dgany, and Prof. Iair Arcavi of Tel Aviv University. (Courtesy/Tel Aviv University)
July 21, 2025, 6:01 pm
In world breakthrough, scientists see star survive encounter with a black hole
Star AT 2022dbl wandered close to black hole but was only partially destroyed; Tel Aviv University researchers say discovery ‘changes our conceptions of black holes’
By Diana Bletter
A handout artist's impression released on April 17, 2025 by N. Madhusudhan/University of Cambridge, shows the K2-18b super-Earth, a hycean world, such as exoplanet K2-18b which astronomers say they have found the strongest yet 'hints' of the life outside this solar system. (Handout / University of Cambridge / AFP)
April 17, 2025, 4:20 pm
Astronomers say they’ve found strongest ever ‘hints’ of life beyond our solar system
British-US team detects ‘biosignatures’ on planet K2-18b, 124 lightyears from Earth, says it is ‘closest we have come to seeing a feature that we can attribute to life’
By Daniel Lawler
File - this undated handout image provided on January 26, 2022 by astrophysicist Natasha Hurley-Walker from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) shows the Milky Way as viewed from Earth, with a star icon (at R-placed by source) marking the position of a mysterious repeating transient in space. (Natasha Hurley-Walker/AFP)
April 15, 2024, 12:31 pm
Study uses Egyptian mythology as blueprint for ancient heavens
Astrophysicist Or Gruar uses observatory simulators to map the galaxy onto sky-goddess Nut’s body in potential Egyptology breakthrough
By ToI Staff
Countless glowing galaxies of all shapes and sizes speckling the black backdrop of space. Toward the center left, a red dot, a never-before-seen galaxy discovered by Webb.(NASA/ESA/CSA/Tommaso Treu - UCLA)
November 18, 2022, 4:07 am
Webb telescope spies likely oldest galaxies ever found, upending cosmic timeline
Two super-bright galaxies from universe’s earliest years point to stars possibly being formed 100 million years before previously thought, though more data needed to verify claim
By Agencies
NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. (NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham/Wikipedia)
January 5, 2022, 6:21 am
Space is changing. Webb is just the start, says ex-Israeli who was in from its dawn
Michael Kaplan, who shepherded the telescope through its planning stages before temporarily living in Israel, talks space robots, baby galaxies, and the pitfalls of Israeli bravado
By Haviv Rettig Gur
Illustration of a black hole with an accretion disk around it. As a result of the accretion of material from a destroyed star, powerful jets are launched. (Elen11 via iStock by Getty Images)
February 23, 2021, 9:22 pm
Picking up signal from faraway galaxy, Israelis challenge black hole assumptions
Black holes can go months or years before gobbling up last of dead star’s remains, physicists say, after detecting pattern of radio emissions from aftermath of star’s destruction
By Nathan Jeffay
Scientists revealed the first image ever made of a black hole after assembling data gathered by a network of radio telescopes around the world. The image was released April 10, 2019, by Event Horizon Telescope. (Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration/Maunakea Observatories via AP)
April 10, 2019, 6:43 pm
Seeing the ‘unseeable’: Scientists reveal first-ever image of a black hole
Photo of a fiery ring around the edges of an abyss depicts supermassive space phenomenon 6 billion times the mass of our sun
By Seth Borenstein
Screen capture from video of a computer generated image of the Oumuamua asteroid. (YouTube)
November 8, 2018, 2:18 pm
Experts say Israeli researchers’ ‘alien spacecraft’ theory is science fiction
Study published by pair of Harvard scientists pointing out unusual journey of cigar-shaped rock is dismissed as based on ‘numbers with large uncertainties’
By AFP
399485 01: Physicist Stephen Hawking smiles during a symposium in honor of his birthday at the University of Cambridge January 11, 2002 in Cambridge, England. (Sion Touhig/Getty Images, via JTA)
March 14, 2018, 11:43 pm
Israeli academic inspired one of Stephen Hawking’s biggest discoveries
Scientist Jacob Bekenstein, who later taught at Hebrew University for 25 years, sparred with preeminent theoretical physicist before they cooperated on black holes
By JTA
This image provided by the National Science Foundation shows a rendering of how the first stars in the universe might have looked. Scientists have detected a signal from 180 million years after the Big Bang when the earliest stars began glowing. The findings were published on February 28, 2018 in the journal Nature. (N.R.Fuller/National Science Foundation via AP)
February 28, 2018, 9:42 pm
Israeli, US scientists detect signs of dark matter in glimpse of earliest stars
Early universe after Big Bang apparently twice as cold as previously thought — possibly because of dark matter interacting with hydrogen, says Tel Aviv University astrophysicist
By Seth Borenstein
Illustration of a neutron star. (Screen capture: YouTube, Hebrew University)
October 16, 2017, 9:34 pm
Israeli scientists predicted effects seen in historic neutron star study
The scientific community was skeptical following a 1989 paper positing that stars’ collision leads to the creation of heavy elements, like gold
By ToI Staff and AFP
An illustration depicting the collision of two neutron stars detected on August 17, 2017. (Robin Dienel/Carnegie Institution for Science via AP)
October 16, 2017, 7:47 pm
Scientists witness huge cosmic crash, find origins of gold
Astronomers for the first time observe collision of two neutron stars, confirming rate of expansion of universe, formation of heavy elements
By Seth Borenstein
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