April 2025 Astronomy Roundup ✨
Here’s a look at last month’s top astronomy news!
🤡 Astronomy April Fools: The physics community upheld its April 1st tradition by publishing a host of absurd studies on the research archive, arxiv.org. Highlights from this year include papers on how cats oscillate like stars, what the funniest number is, and how Taylor Swift’s eras compare to the evolution of the Universe! (Image credit: Andy Freeberg)
💫 Extreme Exoplanet: Researchers from the UK and Portugal announced new evidence of a planet orbiting twin brown dwarfs on April 16th. Brown dwarfs are strange objects somewhere in between a planet and a star, and seeing them in pairs is uncommon. But it gets stranger- their planet orbits sideways on! A system like this has never been seen before. (Image credit: ESO/ L. Calçada)
👽 New Evidence for Life Out There: On April 17th, a team from Cambridge University published evidence for high concentrations of dimethyl sulfide in the planet K2-18b’s atmosphere- a chemical that is primarily produced by simple lifeforms on Earth. However, a non-biological explanation is also possible, and the signal itself still needs to be fully confirmed. (Image credit: University of Cambridge)
🛰️ Lucy Reveals Asteroid Secrets: NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew within 600 miles of asteroid Donaldjohanson on April 20th, delivering striking images of its complicated geology. Lucy will continue flying through the asteroid belt before reaching its first main target, Eurybates, in August 2027. (Image credit: NASA)
🌍 African Space Agency Launches: The headquarters of the brand-new African Space Agency (AfSA) were officially inaugurated in Cairo, Egypt on April 20th. Similar to the European Space Agency, this international organisation aims to promote collaboration across their continent for socio-economic development, collaborative research, and peaceful exploration of outer space. (Image credit: AfSA)
What was your favorite highlight this month? 🌟
7 days ago