ESA/Gaia/DPACA map of the motion of 2 billion stars as they careen throughout the Milky Way. In a feat of cosmic proportions, astronomers have generated the most detailed atlas of the Milky Way yet — and it’s in 3D. Compiled from data gathered by the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia observatory, which has been clocking the cosmos since 2013, the exhaustive star map will give astronomers clues as to how exactly our home solar system formed some 4.5 billion years ago. The star atlas includes the positioning and movements of 2 billion known stars that dot our galaxy, including their coloring, brightness, and the first visual evidence of the acceleration of our solar system. What’s more, astronomers were also able to map the Milky Way’s neighboring galaxies. ESA/Gaia/DPACPictured are the Milky Way’s neighboring dwarf galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Milky Way is a 13.5-billion-year-old disc of star matter and looking deeper into it reveals its past. Indeed, scientists were able to map the size and makeup of the galaxy as it was 10 billion years ago, simply by looking further into space. So far, the map has confirmed the long-held belief that our solar system is accelerating as it orbits throughout the galaxy and orbits ever closer to the galaxy’s center, at a rate of about seven millimeters a second. Understanding the rate of our solar system’s acceleration throughout the galaxy is integral to mapping the age and creation of our solar system. The data also shows how the movement of stars on the outer edges of the Milky Way, known as the galaxy’s “anticenter,” hint at significant fluctuations in the galaxy’s makeup throughout the eons. ESA/Gaia/DPACThis is a brightness and color map of the galaxy. Higher concentrations of stars are shown in more intense colors. The movement of these stars also revealed that the Milky Way almost smashed into a neighboring galaxy known as Sagittarius. Though the two didn’t collide, they did get close enough that the gravity in the larger Milky Way galaxy was able to distort or knock about some of the stars on the edges of the Sagittarius galaxy. The ESA described this mini-showdown and its ripple effects as what happens when a “stone is dropped into water.” Scientists are currently confident that the Milky Way is in the process of consuming Sagittarius. In total, Gaia has mapped 92 percent of the celestial bodies within 326 light-years of our Sun. The last census of our “solar neighborhood” took place in 1957 and mapped just 915 objects. It was updated in 1991 to include 3,803 objects, but it also only observed a distance of 82 lightyears from our sun, rendering this latest census the most exhaustive in human history. Explore Gaia satellite’s incredible map of our galaxy. Since its launch in 2013, the Gaia observatory has published three mind-bending press releases about the history of our universe. Since its last press release in 2018, the observatory has mapped over 100 million new stars in our galaxy. Its deputy scientist fittingly referred to the research as “a treasure trove for astronomers.” The Gaia telescope, which is known as a “galaxy surveyor,” is positioned is about 930,000 miles from Earth facing the opposite direction from the sun. This positioning is optimal for data collection because it is balanced between the gravity of Earth and the Sun and is, therefore, able to remain still. This also means it can use less fuel in order to stay in place. Also, because it is facing away from the Earth, the telescope doesn’t pick up any light interference from our home planet, making for a clear view of the cosmos. ESA/Gaia/DPACThis is a density map of the galaxy, where the brightest and most massive stars are whitest. As groundbreaking as Gaia’s discoveries have been, the work is still incredibly difficult. “Gaia is measuring the distances of hundreds of millions of objects that are many thousands of light-years away, at an accuracy equivalent to measuring the thickness of hair at a distance of more than 2000 kilometers,” said Floor van Leeuwen, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy and UK Gaia DPAC project manager. Astronomers aren’t disheartened by this challenge, however. As van Leeuwen added, “These data are one of the backbones of astrophysics, allowing us to forensically analyze our stellar neighborhood, and tackle crucial questions about the origin and future of our Galaxy.” Gaia will continue its census of our solar neighborhood and beyond, painstakingly unraveling the history of our universe one star plot at a time. For now, though, we can use Gaiaga’s 3D model to observe our ancient cosmic history as no man has ever been able to before. Next up, watch as a star the size of our Sun gets shredded by a supermassive black hole. Then, learn 29 space facts that prove life on Earth isn’t all that interesting. The post Astronomers Just Created The Most Detailed 3D-Map Of Our Galaxy Yet appeared first on All That's Interesting.

NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva/Spaceengine/M. ZamaniAn artist’s rendition of the universe’s first stars as they would have appeared roughly 100 million years after the Big Bang. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope believe they have discovered Population III stars — the universe’s first generation of stars that formed shortly after the Big Bang — according to a study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters on Oct. 27, 2025. The discovery centers on a distant star cluster called LAP1-B, located about 13 billion light-years from Earth. Researchers argue that this is the first cluster to satisfy all the major theoretical predictions about the earliest stars. “If indeed Pop III, this is the first detection of these primordial stars,” lead author Eli Visbal, an astrophysicist at the University of Toledo, told Live Science. And these early stars could help reveal how galaxies form across the universe. Inside The Potential Discovery Of The Universe’s Oldest Stars Population III stars are theorized to have formed from only hydrogen and helium — the elements created during the Big Bang — combined with dark matter, the mysterious material that makes up a substantial portion of the universe. Scientists believe that these celestial bodies were massive in size, and probably much brighter and hotter than the Sun. The team identified LAP1-B with the help of gravitational lensing, a phenomenon predicted by Albert Einstein, in which a massive foreground object warps space-time and magnifies distant background objects. The galaxy cluster MACS J0416 magnified LAP1-B, making the faint object visible to the James Webb Space Telescope. “Where it happens to be situated, the light gets bent by gravity in such a way that it magnifies it like 100 times,” Visbal said in a statement from the University of Toledo. “LAP1-B would have ordinarily been impossible to see, even with the best telescopes, but we can see it because of this effect.” NASA/ESA/HSTAn example of the gravitational lensing effect used to see distant galaxies. Multiple pieces of evidence support the Population III identification. The stars’ spectra showed emission lines suggesting high-energy photons, which line up with theoretical predictions for these primordial stars. Analysis of the stars’ emission lines showed considerable stretching, matching up with the universe’s expansion over the course of billions of years. As Visbal explained: “They teach us about the earliest stages of galaxy formation and evolution — for example, how metals pollute the initially pristine hydrogen and helium gas.” The First Candidate To Meet All The Conditions For Population III Stars The study argues that LAP1-B is the first candidate that meets the three critical conditions for Population III stars: It formed in a low-metallicity environment with temperatures suitable for star formation, it contains only a few big stars in a low-mass cluster, and it conforms to mathematical models for how star masses were distributed in the first generation of stars. “It’s exciting,” said Visbal. “We’ve been working on theoretical models of these stars for a long time, so to now be on the precipice of perhaps direct detections is very exciting.” Previous Population III candidates identified by the James Webb telescope, including stars in the galaxy GN-z11, which were widely reported on in March 2024, are still considered very old. But it’s now believed that these prior candidates don’t fit all the conditions required to classify them as Population III. NAOJAnother artist’s rendering of Population III stars. The latest discovery was made possible by the James Webb Space Telescope’s 21-foot mirror and its capabilities for infrared observations. The telescope detected emission lines originally released as ultraviolet light but later stretched into infrared wavelengths by the universe’s expansion over time. The researchers acknowledged that confirming LAP1-B’s nature will require additional observations. In addition, the cluster appears to have a companion system, LAP1-A, possibly located within the same dark matter halo, which may be worth a much closer look in the future. In the study, the team also suggested that future observations could detect additional Population III systems from the earliest times in cosmic history, providing deeper insights into how the first celestial bodies emerged across the universe. “When we study Population III stars, we learn about the building blocks of our modern-day galaxies,” Visbal said. “They can tell us about how the universe evolved.” After learning about how astronomers may have found the universe’s first stars, see some of the most remarkable images ever captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Then, discover some incredible facts about space. The post The James Webb Space Telescope May Have Just Located Some Of The First Stars In The Universe appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Elizaveta Romashkina/Russian Academy of SciencesArchaeologists found numerous pieces of medieval ceramics at the sunken city found in Lake Issyk-Kul. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a medieval city submerged beneath the surface of Lake Issyk-Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan. The most recent expeditions began in the fall of 2025, focusing on the flooded Toru-Aygyr complex in the northwestern part of the lake. There, archaeologists found a medieval necropolis, large ceramic vessels, and parts of a building made of baked bricks, which may have been a mosque or a bathhouse. Lake Issyk-Kul, which is the eighth deepest lake in the world, once sat along the Silk Road, and this now-sunken city was likely once an important stop along the route. However, at the beginning of the 15th century, a large earthquake caused the city to sink into the lake, where its remains sit to this day. The Sunken Remains Of A Medieval City Found In Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk-Kul Russian Academy of SciencesArchaeologists uncovered the remains of multiple structures, including a Muslim necropolis from the 13th or 14th century. The expedition covered four sections of the lake, at depths ranging from about three feet to 13 feet, according to a statement from the Russian Geographical Society, whose grant funded the project. In the first section, archaeologists found several fire-brick buildings. One included a millstone used for crushing and grinding flour or grits. They also found a building that was used as either a mosque, a bathhouse, or a madrasa, an Islamic school. Alongside these buildings, archaeologists uncovered several stone structures and wooden beams. The beams are being sent for radiocarbon dating and dendrochronological analysis to determine the age of the materials. In the second section, archaeologists discovered a 13th- or 14th-century Muslim necropolis, which had been heavily eroded by the lake’s salt water. “In the 13th century, under the influence of the Golden Horde, Islam became widespread in the region,” said expedition head Maksim Menshikov. “Probably, the necropolis that we discovered at the bottom of the lake is connected with this period.” Archaeologists also uncovered burials near the necropolis, all carried out in the Islamic tradition with the skeletons pointed north and their faces turned toward the holy Kaaba in Mecca. Two skeletons that were found buried in this fashion, one of a man and one of a woman, have been recovered and will undergo comprehensive analysis. The third section of the lake that was explored held several medieval ceramics, while the fourth section contained round and rectangular structures made of mudbrick. Uncovering The History Of The Settlement That Once Stood Along Lake Issyk-Kul Denis Davydov/Russian Academy of SciencesArchaeologists from the Lake Issyk-Kul expedition: Ekaterina Lameykina (in pink T-shirt) and Kristina Guseynova (middle), with diver Elizaveta Romashkina. This medieval city was located along the Silk Road, an important route for travelers and traders from East Asia to Europe for hundreds of years during this period. And this newly-explored site likely served as an important stop for traders on their way to or from China. “The site we are studying was a city or a major trading hub on a key section of the Silk Road,” Valery Kolchenko, researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, told Heritage Daily. In order to learn more about the historical context of the city, researchers analyzed medieval documents in addition to carrying out their underwater expeditions. For one, the evidence shows that, in the 10th century, a Turkic dynasty called the Kara-Khanid State began to take power in the region. “People here practiced various religions: pagan Tengrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity,” Menshikov explained. “The ruling elite often turned to Islam throughout their rule, but this religion became widespread in Central Asia only in the 13th century. Prior to that, Islam was primarily the religion of the nobility and the population involved in active economic activity.” However, any prosperity that this city enjoyed was ultimately brought to a sudden end in the 15th century, when a devastating earthquake caused it to sink into the waters of Lake Issyk-Kul. “After the earthquake disaster, the region’s population changed drastically,” Kolchenko said, “and the rich medieval settlement civilization ceased to exist.” After reading about the remains of the medieval city beneath Lake Issyk-Kul, see the massive 6th-century statue found by a potato farmer in Kyrgyzstan. Then, learn about the mammoth remains that workers found in the Issyk-Kul region. The post Divers Just Found A Sunken Medieval City In An Enormous Lake In The Mountains Of Eastern Kyrgyzstan appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Louise Reily/Australian MuseumThe fossils containing Telmatomyia talbragarica. A lifetime of amateur fossil hunting has led to the discovery of a new species of non-biting midge — a small type of fly — that lived roughly 151 million years ago. Robert Beattie, an 82-year-old retired teacher, has had a fascination with fossils ever since he was a child. Over the years, he’s donated numerous specimens to the Australian Museum, including prehistoric fish and insects found in fossil beds across the country. But one particular set of fossils from the Talbragar Fish Beds site in New South Wales recently caught the attention of scientists. A closer examination of these specimens revealed that Beattie had brought them something truly extraordinary: the oldest non-biting midge fossil ever found in the Southern Hemisphere, which just happened to be a previously unknown species. The results of their study have now been published in the journal Gondwana Research. Robert Beattie’s Lifelong Fascination With Fossils It took the museum’s paleontologists years to identify the new species, but for Beattie, the discovery was the result of a lifetime of fossil hunting. Back in 1948, when he was just a boy, Beattie was vacationing with his family in New South Wales when he came upon a shell embedded in a rock. He soon learned that this rock was actually a Permian fossil that was hundreds of millions of years old. “I couldn’t believe it,” Beattie told The Guardian. “I’ve been interested in fossils ever since.” Salty Dingo/Australian MuseumRobert Beattie, the man who found the fossils. Beattie has visited countless dig sites throughout his life, scouring Australia’s eastern states for prehistoric relics. In the 1960s, he studied paleontology at Macquarie University and then spent his professional life working as a science and agriculture teacher before retiring at the age of 59. Throughout it all, he had been working with the Australian Museum, providing the institution with specimens he found. After retiring, Beattie immersed himself in his passion for fossil hunting even further. But it was a 2016 conference in Scotland that prompted the research that would define his career. Beattie gave a presentation in Edinburgh on some tiny insects he’d discovered at Talbragar, a fossil site in the central tablelands of New South Wales. In attendance was Dr. Viktor Baranov, a paleontologist at the Doñana Biological Station in Spain who happened to know a thing or two about the insects. “You know those things you had up on the screen?” he asked Beattie. “They are midges.” Four years later, Baranov visited the Australian Museum to take a closer look at Beattie’s fossils. The subsequent years of work would ultimately challenge long-held scientific assumptions about the evolution of prehistoric midges. Talbragar Midge Fossils Point To Origins In The Southern Hemisphere In the new research paper, Baranov and his colleagues identified the midges found in Beattie’s fossils as a new species, giving it the name Telmatomyia talbragarica (meaning “fly from the stagnant waters”). The specimens date to the Jurassic period and belong to the Podonominae subfamily of midges. “Robert collected these fossils over about a 10-year period,” said study co-author Dr. Matthew McCurry of the Australian Museum. “We really didn’t understand the importance until we started studying them quite recently.” Louise Reily/Australian MuseumMatthew McCurry with the Australian Museum’s fossil collection. For years, scientists assumed these freshwater insects evolved in the Northern Hemisphere, largely because the oldest known fossils were found in regions like China and Siberia — parts of the prehistoric supercontinent Laurasia. Notably, Beattie’s specimens were the oldest ever found in the Southern Hemisphere, which may challenge the assumed narrative of how they evolved. Researchers also stated that the age and location of the fossils provide compelling evidence for the theory that midges originated from the southern supercontinent Gondwana, not Laurasia. “We’re putting so much more effort into finding fossils in the Northern Hemisphere — that results in biases in our understanding of the past as well,” McCurry said. Telmatomyia talbragarica helps correct this long-standing geographical skew in paleontological research, he said. This find suggests that when researchers actively investigate sites in the Southern Hemisphere, they often yield discoveries that challenge the established record. After reading about the discovery of this prehistoric midge, learn about a more modern fly, the damselfly. Then, discover seven insects that will give you nightmares. The post An Amateur Fossil Hunter Has Discovered A Previously Unknown Insect Species That Lived 151 Million Years Ago appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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