If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, Shaula and Lesath will come over your southeastern horizon before dawn sometime this month. They’re a hopeful sign that spring is coming.
How do you recognize the coming of spring? Maybe you spot a first returning robin. Or tune into news about a groundhog looking for its shadow. For stargazers, one sign of spring is the early-morning sighting of a pretty pair of stars in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. Those stars, known as Shaula and Lesath, are part of the Stinger of the Scorpion. They are located at the end of the Scorpion’s curved Tail.
The Pawnee – once the largest group of people living on the U.S. Central Plains – viewed the sky as a calendar. Different stars foretold the change of seasons. Many of their seasonal rituals occurred according to their observations of stars and planets. The most important of these was the Spring Awakening ceremony, tied to the observation of Shaula and Lesath on cold February mornings. The American anthropologist Gene Weltfish wrote in her 1977 book “The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture“:
The position of the stars was an important guide to the time when this ceremony should be held. The earth-lodge served as an astronomical observatory and as the priests sat inside at the west, they could observe the stars in certain positions through the smokehole and through the long east-oriented entranceway. They also kept careful watch of the horizon right after sunset and just before dawn to note the order and position of the stars.
The ceremony must be held at exactly the right time of year, when the priest first tracked two small twinkling stars known as the Swimming Ducks in the … horizon near the Milky Way.
When the Swimming Ducks came into view in the southeast – before daybreak in the month of February – the Pawnee recognized that it was time to begin planting ceremonies. The return of the celestial ducks to open water on the river of the Milky Way signaled the first stirrings of the great plains from hibernation.
Shaula and Lesath’s presence over the horizon was symbolic of waterfowl breaking through the ice. These stars were a sign of hope that spring was on its way.
In a dark sky, you can see that the starlit band of the Milky Way runs behind Shaula and Lesath in the Tail of Scorpius. Photo via Daniel McVey.
How to see the Swimming Ducks
You can see this harbinger of spring for yourself as Shaula and Lesath come into view at or shortly before dawn. You’ll need a clear, unobstructed view to the south to southeast to spot these stars, flickering by the horizon. If you view the constellation of Scorpius as a tilted J, the pair of stars is found at the end of the J shape. Daybreak may make them difficult to find, but keep looking throughout February. Eventually you’ll spot them low along the horizon.
As we approach the end of winter, Shaula and Lesath will appear higher each morning in the southeast before dawn. Their morning appearance tells us that spring is not far away.
Bottom line: The early Pawnee of the U.S. Central Plains regarded the stars Shaula and Lesath – in the Stinger of Scorpius the Scorpion – as Swimming Ducks. When the Swimming Ducks appeared before dawn in winter, the Pawnee knew spring was near and would begin planting ceremonies. So in some respects, these stars were a Pawnee version of Groundhog Day.
If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, Shaula and Lesath will come over your southeastern horizon before dawn sometime this month. They’re a hopeful sign that spring is coming.
How do you recognize the coming of spring? Maybe you spot a first returning robin. Or tune into news about a groundhog looking for its shadow. For stargazers, one sign of spring is the early-morning sighting of a pretty pair of stars in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion. Those stars, known as Shaula and Lesath, are part of the Stinger of the Scorpion. They are located at the end of the Scorpion’s curved Tail.
The Pawnee – once the largest group of people living on the U.S. Central Plains – viewed the sky as a calendar. Different stars foretold the change of seasons. Many of their seasonal rituals occurred according to their observations of stars and planets. The most important of these was the Spring Awakening ceremony, tied to the observation of Shaula and Lesath on cold February mornings. The American anthropologist Gene Weltfish wrote in her 1977 book “The Lost Universe: Pawnee Life and Culture“:
The position of the stars was an important guide to the time when this ceremony should be held. The earth-lodge served as an astronomical observatory and as the priests sat inside at the west, they could observe the stars in certain positions through the smokehole and through the long east-oriented entranceway. They also kept careful watch of the horizon right after sunset and just before dawn to note the order and position of the stars.
The ceremony must be held at exactly the right time of year, when the priest first tracked two small twinkling stars known as the Swimming Ducks in the … horizon near the Milky Way.
When the Swimming Ducks came into view in the southeast – before daybreak in the month of February – the Pawnee recognized that it was time to begin planting ceremonies. The return of the celestial ducks to open water on the river of the Milky Way signaled the first stirrings of the great plains from hibernation.
Shaula and Lesath’s presence over the horizon was symbolic of waterfowl breaking through the ice. These stars were a sign of hope that spring was on its way.
In a dark sky, you can see that the starlit band of the Milky Way runs behind Shaula and Lesath in the Tail of Scorpius. Photo via Daniel McVey.
How to see the Swimming Ducks
You can see this harbinger of spring for yourself as Shaula and Lesath come into view at or shortly before dawn. You’ll need a clear, unobstructed view to the south to southeast to spot these stars, flickering by the horizon. If you view the constellation of Scorpius as a tilted J, the pair of stars is found at the end of the J shape. Daybreak may make them difficult to find, but keep looking throughout February. Eventually you’ll spot them low along the horizon.
As we approach the end of winter, Shaula and Lesath will appear higher each morning in the southeast before dawn. Their morning appearance tells us that spring is not far away.
Bottom line: The early Pawnee of the U.S. Central Plains regarded the stars Shaula and Lesath – in the Stinger of Scorpius the Scorpion – as Swimming Ducks. When the Swimming Ducks appeared before dawn in winter, the Pawnee knew spring was near and would begin planting ceremonies. So in some respects, these stars were a Pawnee version of Groundhog Day.
This artist’s concept portrays the Milky Way‘s black hole. This supermassive black hole sits at the core of our galaxy and goes by the name of Sagittarius A* (A-star). It’s surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas. The black hole’s gravity bends light from the far side of the disk, making it appear to wrap above and below the black hole. We see several flaring hot spots in the disk. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected both bright flares and fainter flickers coming from Sagittarius A*. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Ralf Crawford (STScI).
The Webb space telescope has spotted flares and flickers coming from the monster black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
Scientists compare these flares to solar flares, except it’s more dramatic because the environment around a black hole is much more extreme.
These black hole fireworks don’t follow a pattern. Watch the video to see them randomly flicker, brighten and flare.
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way appears to be having a party, complete with a disco ball-style light show. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astrophysicists has gained the longest, most detailed glimpse yet of the “void” that lurks in the middle of our galaxy.
They found the swirling disk of gas and dust (or accretion disk) orbiting the central supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A*, is emitting a constant stream of flares with no periods of rest. The level of activity occurs over a wide range of time, from short interludes to long stretches. While some flares are faint flickers, lasting mere seconds, other flares are blindingly bright eruptions, which spew daily. There also are even fainter changes that surge over months.
The new findings could help physicists better understand the fundamental nature of black holes, how they get fed from their surrounding environments and the dynamics and evolution of our own galaxy.
The study published in the February 18 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Lead author Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in Illinois said:
In our data, we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness. And then boom! A big burst of brightness suddenly popped up. Then, it calmed down again. We couldn’t find a pattern in this activity. It appears to be random. The activity profile of this black hole was new and exciting every time that we looked at it.
Random fireworks
To conduct the study, Yusef-Zadeh and his team used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to observe Sagittarius A* for a total of 48 hours in 8- to 10-hour increments across one year. This enabled them to track how the black hole changed over time.
While the team expected to see flares, Sagittarius A* was more active than they anticipated. The observations revealed ongoing fireworks of various brightnesses and durations. The accretion disk surrounding the black hole generated five to six big flares per day and several small sub-flares or bursts in between.
Here's a timelapse of the flickering black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Video via NASA, ESA, CSA, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern), Howard Bushouse (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI). ?
Two separate processes at play in the Milky Way’s black hole
Although astrophysicists do not yet fully understand the processes at play, Yusef-Zadeh suspects two separate processes are responsible for the short bursts and longer flares. He posits that minor disturbances within the accretion disk likely generate the faint flickers. Specifically, turbulent fluctuations within the disk can compress plasma (a hot, electrically charged gas) to cause a temporary burst of radiation. Yusef-Zadeh likens these events to solar flares:
It’s similar to how the sun’s magnetic field gathers together, compresses, and then erupts a solar flare. Of course, the processes are more dramatic because the environment around a black hole is much more energetic and much more extreme. But the sun’s surface also bubbles with activity.
Yusef-Zadeh attributes the big, bright flares to occasional magnetic reconnection events. This is a process where two magnetic fields collide, releasing energy in the form of accelerated particles. Traveling at velocities near the speed of light, these particles emit bright bursts of radiation. Yusef-Zadeh said:
A magnetic reconnection event is like a spark of static electricity, which, in a sense, also is an ‘electric reconnection.’
Dual vision
Webb’s NIRCam can observe two separate wavelengths at the same time (2.1 and 4.8 microns in the case of these observations). So Yusef-Zadeh and his collaborators were able to compare how the flares’ brightness changed with each wavelength. Yet again, the researchers were met with a surprise. They discovered events observed at the shorter wavelength changed brightness slightly before the longer-wavelength events. Yusef-Zadeh said:
This is the first time we have seen a time delay in measurements at these wavelengths. We observed these wavelengths simultaneously with NIRCam and noticed the longer wavelength lags behind the shorter one by a very small amount … maybe a few seconds to 40 seconds.
This time delay provided more clues about the physical processes occurring around the black hole. One explanation is that the particles lose energy over the course of the flare. As in, they lose energy quicker at shorter wavelengths than at longer wavelengths. Such changes are expected for particles spiraling around magnetic field lines.
Aiming for an uninterrupted look
To further explore these questions, Yusef-Zadeh and his team hope to use Webb to observe Sagittarius A* for a longer period of time, such as 24 uninterrupted hours, to help reduce noise and enable the researchers to see even finer details. Yusef-Zadeh said:
When you are looking at such weak flaring events, you have to compete with noise. If we can observe for 24 hours, then we can reduce the noise to see features that we were unable to see before. That would be amazing. We also can see if these flares repeat themselves or if they are truly random.
Bottom line: Using the Webb space telescope, scientists have observed a flickering and flaring coming from the disk of the Milky Way’s black hole.
This artist’s concept portrays the Milky Way‘s black hole. This supermassive black hole sits at the core of our galaxy and goes by the name of Sagittarius A* (A-star). It’s surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas. The black hole’s gravity bends light from the far side of the disk, making it appear to wrap above and below the black hole. We see several flaring hot spots in the disk. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected both bright flares and fainter flickers coming from Sagittarius A*. Image via NASA/ ESA/ CSA/ Ralf Crawford (STScI).
The Webb space telescope has spotted flares and flickers coming from the monster black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy.
Scientists compare these flares to solar flares, except it’s more dramatic because the environment around a black hole is much more extreme.
These black hole fireworks don’t follow a pattern. Watch the video to see them randomly flicker, brighten and flare.
The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way appears to be having a party, complete with a disco ball-style light show. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astrophysicists has gained the longest, most detailed glimpse yet of the “void” that lurks in the middle of our galaxy.
They found the swirling disk of gas and dust (or accretion disk) orbiting the central supermassive black hole, called Sagittarius A*, is emitting a constant stream of flares with no periods of rest. The level of activity occurs over a wide range of time, from short interludes to long stretches. While some flares are faint flickers, lasting mere seconds, other flares are blindingly bright eruptions, which spew daily. There also are even fainter changes that surge over months.
The new findings could help physicists better understand the fundamental nature of black holes, how they get fed from their surrounding environments and the dynamics and evolution of our own galaxy.
The study published in the February 18 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Lead author Farhad Yusef-Zadeh of Northwestern University in Illinois said:
In our data, we saw constantly changing, bubbling brightness. And then boom! A big burst of brightness suddenly popped up. Then, it calmed down again. We couldn’t find a pattern in this activity. It appears to be random. The activity profile of this black hole was new and exciting every time that we looked at it.
Random fireworks
To conduct the study, Yusef-Zadeh and his team used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) to observe Sagittarius A* for a total of 48 hours in 8- to 10-hour increments across one year. This enabled them to track how the black hole changed over time.
While the team expected to see flares, Sagittarius A* was more active than they anticipated. The observations revealed ongoing fireworks of various brightnesses and durations. The accretion disk surrounding the black hole generated five to six big flares per day and several small sub-flares or bursts in between.
Here's a timelapse of the flickering black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Video via NASA, ESA, CSA, Farhad Yusef-Zadeh (Northwestern), Howard Bushouse (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI). ?
Two separate processes at play in the Milky Way’s black hole
Although astrophysicists do not yet fully understand the processes at play, Yusef-Zadeh suspects two separate processes are responsible for the short bursts and longer flares. He posits that minor disturbances within the accretion disk likely generate the faint flickers. Specifically, turbulent fluctuations within the disk can compress plasma (a hot, electrically charged gas) to cause a temporary burst of radiation. Yusef-Zadeh likens these events to solar flares:
It’s similar to how the sun’s magnetic field gathers together, compresses, and then erupts a solar flare. Of course, the processes are more dramatic because the environment around a black hole is much more energetic and much more extreme. But the sun’s surface also bubbles with activity.
Yusef-Zadeh attributes the big, bright flares to occasional magnetic reconnection events. This is a process where two magnetic fields collide, releasing energy in the form of accelerated particles. Traveling at velocities near the speed of light, these particles emit bright bursts of radiation. Yusef-Zadeh said:
A magnetic reconnection event is like a spark of static electricity, which, in a sense, also is an ‘electric reconnection.’
Dual vision
Webb’s NIRCam can observe two separate wavelengths at the same time (2.1 and 4.8 microns in the case of these observations). So Yusef-Zadeh and his collaborators were able to compare how the flares’ brightness changed with each wavelength. Yet again, the researchers were met with a surprise. They discovered events observed at the shorter wavelength changed brightness slightly before the longer-wavelength events. Yusef-Zadeh said:
This is the first time we have seen a time delay in measurements at these wavelengths. We observed these wavelengths simultaneously with NIRCam and noticed the longer wavelength lags behind the shorter one by a very small amount … maybe a few seconds to 40 seconds.
This time delay provided more clues about the physical processes occurring around the black hole. One explanation is that the particles lose energy over the course of the flare. As in, they lose energy quicker at shorter wavelengths than at longer wavelengths. Such changes are expected for particles spiraling around magnetic field lines.
Aiming for an uninterrupted look
To further explore these questions, Yusef-Zadeh and his team hope to use Webb to observe Sagittarius A* for a longer period of time, such as 24 uninterrupted hours, to help reduce noise and enable the researchers to see even finer details. Yusef-Zadeh said:
When you are looking at such weak flaring events, you have to compete with noise. If we can observe for 24 hours, then we can reduce the noise to see features that we were unable to see before. That would be amazing. We also can see if these flares repeat themselves or if they are truly random.
Bottom line: Using the Webb space telescope, scientists have observed a flickering and flaring coming from the disk of the Milky Way’s black hole.
Scientists have named a new fish species for the character San (also called Princess Mononoke) in the animated movie Princess Mononoke, thanks to their similarly painted cheeks. Image via Pensoft/ Fish: Branchiostegus sanae. Huang et al (CC-BY 4.0). San: “Princess Mononoke” (1997)/ Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli.
New fish species named for animated character
On February 11, 2025, a team of Chinese scientists said they discovered a new species of fish in a seafood market in China. The fish has distinct stripes on its cheeks. This characteristic reminded the scientists of the character San (who is also called Princess Mononoke) in the Studio Ghibli animated film Princess Mononoke. So they’ve named the fish in honor of San.
The researchers published their peer-reviewed study in the journal ZooKeys on February 11, 2025.
The scientists – led by Haochen Huang of South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences – discovered the new species in a seafood market. Interestingly, this is not the first time – and perhaps not the last – that a team of scientists discovers a new species in these markets.
In fact, on January 14 of last month, a team of researchers from Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam discovered a new species of giant isopod in a market in Vietnam. In this case, the giant sea bug resembles one of the most iconic characters in the “Star Wars” saga: Darth Vader. The scientists called it Bathynomus vaderi. Whoever discovers it, names it!
New fish species: Branchiostegus sanae
The fish in question is a type of deepwater tilefish that belongs to the Branchiostegidae family. This species has distinctive patterns on its cheeks. The marks are red and white stripes that run vertically from the eyes to the cheeks. This is what caught the scientists’ attention as they visited an online Chinese seafood market.
To confirm that this is a new species, the researchers performed a genetic analysis. Once they confirmed it was indeed a new species, the scientists had to come up with a name.
Princess Mononoke, whose real name is San, uses makeup on her face. This paint calls to mind the red and white stripes of the fish. Hence the fish’s name: Branchiostegus sanae. “San” is a reference to the princess.
These are other species of the genus Branchiostegus. Image via Huang et al./ Pensoft Publishers.
Princess Mononoke
San is one of the most recognizable and beloved characters from Studio Ghibli. After her parents abandoned her, the wolves took her in. (She’s kind of like a Japanese version of Mowgli.) San then becomes the protector of the forest, defending the animals and their environment from humans who try to exploit its natural resources. In addition to her look, lead author Haochen Huang sees in the princess a fierce personality that conveys a powerful message:
In “Princess Mononoke,” San is a young woman raised by wolves after being abandoned by her human parents. She sees herself as a part of the forest and fights to protect it. The film delves into the complex relationship between humans and nature, promoting a message of harmonious coexistence between the two: something we hope to echo through this naming.
This is San, or Princess Mononoke, from the film of the same name. Image via Studio Ghibli.
Where do deepwater tilefish live?
As the name suggests, these fish inhabit deep waters. Some species live at depths of about 2,000 feet (600 meters). There are 31 species in the Branchiostegidae family. These are common fish that people consume and sell in markets in East and Southeast Asia.
There are 19 species in the Branchiostegus genus within the Branchiostegidae family. Also, from 1990 to 2024, only three species of Branchiostegus have been discovered. Only time will tell if there are more species yet to be discovered. What will scientists name their new discoveries?
This is the new species of fish discovered in China. It resembles the character of San from the Studio Ghibli movie “Princess Mononoke.” Image via Huang et al./ Wikipedia (CC BY 4.0).
Bottom line: A new fish species found in a Chinese fish market has distinctive cheek stripes, earning it the name of a character from the animated movie “Princess Mononoke.”
Scientists have named a new fish species for the character San (also called Princess Mononoke) in the animated movie Princess Mononoke, thanks to their similarly painted cheeks. Image via Pensoft/ Fish: Branchiostegus sanae. Huang et al (CC-BY 4.0). San: “Princess Mononoke” (1997)/ Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli.
New fish species named for animated character
On February 11, 2025, a team of Chinese scientists said they discovered a new species of fish in a seafood market in China. The fish has distinct stripes on its cheeks. This characteristic reminded the scientists of the character San (who is also called Princess Mononoke) in the Studio Ghibli animated film Princess Mononoke. So they’ve named the fish in honor of San.
The researchers published their peer-reviewed study in the journal ZooKeys on February 11, 2025.
The scientists – led by Haochen Huang of South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences – discovered the new species in a seafood market. Interestingly, this is not the first time – and perhaps not the last – that a team of scientists discovers a new species in these markets.
In fact, on January 14 of last month, a team of researchers from Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam discovered a new species of giant isopod in a market in Vietnam. In this case, the giant sea bug resembles one of the most iconic characters in the “Star Wars” saga: Darth Vader. The scientists called it Bathynomus vaderi. Whoever discovers it, names it!
New fish species: Branchiostegus sanae
The fish in question is a type of deepwater tilefish that belongs to the Branchiostegidae family. This species has distinctive patterns on its cheeks. The marks are red and white stripes that run vertically from the eyes to the cheeks. This is what caught the scientists’ attention as they visited an online Chinese seafood market.
To confirm that this is a new species, the researchers performed a genetic analysis. Once they confirmed it was indeed a new species, the scientists had to come up with a name.
Princess Mononoke, whose real name is San, uses makeup on her face. This paint calls to mind the red and white stripes of the fish. Hence the fish’s name: Branchiostegus sanae. “San” is a reference to the princess.
These are other species of the genus Branchiostegus. Image via Huang et al./ Pensoft Publishers.
Princess Mononoke
San is one of the most recognizable and beloved characters from Studio Ghibli. After her parents abandoned her, the wolves took her in. (She’s kind of like a Japanese version of Mowgli.) San then becomes the protector of the forest, defending the animals and their environment from humans who try to exploit its natural resources. In addition to her look, lead author Haochen Huang sees in the princess a fierce personality that conveys a powerful message:
In “Princess Mononoke,” San is a young woman raised by wolves after being abandoned by her human parents. She sees herself as a part of the forest and fights to protect it. The film delves into the complex relationship between humans and nature, promoting a message of harmonious coexistence between the two: something we hope to echo through this naming.
This is San, or Princess Mononoke, from the film of the same name. Image via Studio Ghibli.
Where do deepwater tilefish live?
As the name suggests, these fish inhabit deep waters. Some species live at depths of about 2,000 feet (600 meters). There are 31 species in the Branchiostegidae family. These are common fish that people consume and sell in markets in East and Southeast Asia.
There are 19 species in the Branchiostegus genus within the Branchiostegidae family. Also, from 1990 to 2024, only three species of Branchiostegus have been discovered. Only time will tell if there are more species yet to be discovered. What will scientists name their new discoveries?
This is the new species of fish discovered in China. It resembles the character of San from the Studio Ghibli movie “Princess Mononoke.” Image via Huang et al./ Wikipedia (CC BY 4.0).
Bottom line: A new fish species found in a Chinese fish market has distinctive cheek stripes, earning it the name of a character from the animated movie “Princess Mononoke.”
View larger. | Artist’s visualization of stars near the center of the Milky Way. The longer the trail of each star, the faster it is moving. Scientists have discovered what might be the speediest exoplanet system yet. It’s depicted with a long bright trail at center. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC).
Stars move around the center of our Milky Way galaxy just like planets move around stars, bringing their exoplanets along with them. How fast can they travel?
The fastest-known exoplanet system might be near the center of the Milky Way. Astronomers first discovered it back in 2011 and have now re-observed it.
The system consists of a possible red dwarf star and super-Neptune exoplanet, 24,000 light-years away. They are moving at an incredible 1.2 million miles per hour (1.9 million kph), and possibly even faster.
Speediest exoplanet?
Stars move around the center of our Milky Way galaxy just as planets move around stars. And now, astronomers have spotted what might be the fastest star – with a planet in tow – found so far. The international team of astronomers said on February 10, 2025, that the planetary system is moving almost twice as fast as our own sun and solar system, at 1.2 million miles per hour, or 1.9 million km per hour. Speedy! The exoplanet system consists of a possible low-mass (red dwarf) star and super-Neptune planet, 24,000 light-years away near the center of the Milky Way.
The researchers also published their peer-reviewed findings in The Astronomical Journal on February 10.
Astronomers first found the pair of objects back in 2011 in a microlensing survey. When two stars are closely aligned, as seen from Earth, the nearer star acts like a natural cosmic lens, magnifying light from the background star.
Subsequently, they came up with two possible explanations: either a star about 20% as massive as our sun with a planet 29 times more massive than Earth, or a nearer rogue planet about four times the mass of Jupiter with a moon smaller than Earth. But which scenario was the correct one?
The astronomers in the new study used data from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite. They reasoned that if it was a rogue planet and moon, they would be effectively invisible in space, with no star to cast light on them. The planet and moon would, therefore, be extremely difficult to detect (although astronomers have indeed found a growing number of rogue planets in recent years).
But if it was a star and planet, then the astronomers could potentially identify the star. The planet itself would still be too faint to see, however, since the pair is so far away.
The astronomers calculated the mass ratio of the two objects, although determining the actual masses is more challenging. Co-author David Bennett, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said:
Determining the mass ratio is easy. It’s much more difficult to calculate their actual masses.
Some cool new science from our group at NASA/Goddard. https://ift.tt/1BE2cRo…
And to be sure, the astronomers found a good candidate. It’s a low-mass (red dwarf) star about 24,000 light-years away near the galactic bulge in the center of the Milky Way. The researchers compared the location of the star between 2011 and 2021.
Sean Terry is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park and Goddard Space Flight Center. He said:
We think this is a so-called super-Neptune world orbiting a low-mass star at a distance that would lie between the orbits of Venus and Earth if it were in our solar system. If so, it will be the first planet ever found orbiting a hypervelocity star.
Could the speediest exoplanet system be moving even faster?
The calculated speed is already really fast. But it’s possible that this planetary system is moving even faster. The speed estimates are of the 2D motion. But if it’s moving toward or away from us – which we don’t know yet – then it might be moving even faster than thought.
If it were to achieve a speed of 1.3 million miles per hour, it could conceivably reach escape velocity and leave our galaxy altogether.
View larger. | Artist’s concept of the low-mass (red dwarf) star and super-Neptune planetary companion. If confirmed, it is the speediest exoplanet system yet found, moving at 1.2 million miles per hour (1.9 million km per hour) near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC).
Confirmation still needed
Astronomers still need to confirm that this star is the one that the microlensing signal came from back in 2011. Bennett explained:
To be certain the newly identified star is part of the system that caused the 2011 signal, we’d like to look again in another year and see if it moves the right amount and in the right direction to confirm it came from the point where we detected the signal.
Co-author Aparna Bhattacharya, a research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and Goddard Space Flight Center, added:
If high-resolution observations show that the star just stays in the same position, then we can tell for sure that it is not part of the system that caused the signal. That would mean the rogue planet and exomoon model is favored.
NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be able to help find more speedy stars and their planets. It will also conduct a new survey of the galactic bulge in the middle of the Milky Way, where stars are the densest. As Terry noted:
In this case we used MOA [Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics] for its broad field of view and then followed up with Keck and Gaia for their sharper resolution, but thanks to Roman’s powerful view and planned survey strategy, we won’t need to rely on additional telescopes. Roman will do it all.
Other speedy stars
In 2014, astronomers reported finding other sun-like stars moving fast enough to escape our galaxy. And last year, scientists found some other speedy stars that were moving not only fast, but in odd directions.
Bottom line: Astronomers have discovered what might be the speediest exoplanet system known so far. It moves at 1.2 million miles per hour (1.9 million km per hour).
View larger. | Artist’s visualization of stars near the center of the Milky Way. The longer the trail of each star, the faster it is moving. Scientists have discovered what might be the speediest exoplanet system yet. It’s depicted with a long bright trail at center. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC).
Stars move around the center of our Milky Way galaxy just like planets move around stars, bringing their exoplanets along with them. How fast can they travel?
The fastest-known exoplanet system might be near the center of the Milky Way. Astronomers first discovered it back in 2011 and have now re-observed it.
The system consists of a possible red dwarf star and super-Neptune exoplanet, 24,000 light-years away. They are moving at an incredible 1.2 million miles per hour (1.9 million kph), and possibly even faster.
Speediest exoplanet?
Stars move around the center of our Milky Way galaxy just as planets move around stars. And now, astronomers have spotted what might be the fastest star – with a planet in tow – found so far. The international team of astronomers said on February 10, 2025, that the planetary system is moving almost twice as fast as our own sun and solar system, at 1.2 million miles per hour, or 1.9 million km per hour. Speedy! The exoplanet system consists of a possible low-mass (red dwarf) star and super-Neptune planet, 24,000 light-years away near the center of the Milky Way.
The researchers also published their peer-reviewed findings in The Astronomical Journal on February 10.
Astronomers first found the pair of objects back in 2011 in a microlensing survey. When two stars are closely aligned, as seen from Earth, the nearer star acts like a natural cosmic lens, magnifying light from the background star.
Subsequently, they came up with two possible explanations: either a star about 20% as massive as our sun with a planet 29 times more massive than Earth, or a nearer rogue planet about four times the mass of Jupiter with a moon smaller than Earth. But which scenario was the correct one?
The astronomers in the new study used data from the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite. They reasoned that if it was a rogue planet and moon, they would be effectively invisible in space, with no star to cast light on them. The planet and moon would, therefore, be extremely difficult to detect (although astronomers have indeed found a growing number of rogue planets in recent years).
But if it was a star and planet, then the astronomers could potentially identify the star. The planet itself would still be too faint to see, however, since the pair is so far away.
The astronomers calculated the mass ratio of the two objects, although determining the actual masses is more challenging. Co-author David Bennett, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said:
Determining the mass ratio is easy. It’s much more difficult to calculate their actual masses.
Some cool new science from our group at NASA/Goddard. https://ift.tt/1BE2cRo…
And to be sure, the astronomers found a good candidate. It’s a low-mass (red dwarf) star about 24,000 light-years away near the galactic bulge in the center of the Milky Way. The researchers compared the location of the star between 2011 and 2021.
Sean Terry is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland, College Park and Goddard Space Flight Center. He said:
We think this is a so-called super-Neptune world orbiting a low-mass star at a distance that would lie between the orbits of Venus and Earth if it were in our solar system. If so, it will be the first planet ever found orbiting a hypervelocity star.
Could the speediest exoplanet system be moving even faster?
The calculated speed is already really fast. But it’s possible that this planetary system is moving even faster. The speed estimates are of the 2D motion. But if it’s moving toward or away from us – which we don’t know yet – then it might be moving even faster than thought.
If it were to achieve a speed of 1.3 million miles per hour, it could conceivably reach escape velocity and leave our galaxy altogether.
View larger. | Artist’s concept of the low-mass (red dwarf) star and super-Neptune planetary companion. If confirmed, it is the speediest exoplanet system yet found, moving at 1.2 million miles per hour (1.9 million km per hour) near the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC).
Confirmation still needed
Astronomers still need to confirm that this star is the one that the microlensing signal came from back in 2011. Bennett explained:
To be certain the newly identified star is part of the system that caused the 2011 signal, we’d like to look again in another year and see if it moves the right amount and in the right direction to confirm it came from the point where we detected the signal.
Co-author Aparna Bhattacharya, a research scientist at the University of Maryland, College Park and Goddard Space Flight Center, added:
If high-resolution observations show that the star just stays in the same position, then we can tell for sure that it is not part of the system that caused the signal. That would mean the rogue planet and exomoon model is favored.
NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be able to help find more speedy stars and their planets. It will also conduct a new survey of the galactic bulge in the middle of the Milky Way, where stars are the densest. As Terry noted:
In this case we used MOA [Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics] for its broad field of view and then followed up with Keck and Gaia for their sharper resolution, but thanks to Roman’s powerful view and planned survey strategy, we won’t need to rely on additional telescopes. Roman will do it all.
Other speedy stars
In 2014, astronomers reported finding other sun-like stars moving fast enough to escape our galaxy. And last year, scientists found some other speedy stars that were moving not only fast, but in odd directions.
Bottom line: Astronomers have discovered what might be the speediest exoplanet system known so far. It moves at 1.2 million miles per hour (1.9 million km per hour).
Enjoy this short video by Marcy Curran on the zodiacal light around the March equinox. We hope you enjoy it!
Zodiacal light around March equinox
The moon has waned now and left the evening sky dark for seeing the zodiacal light! This eerie cone of light can be found in the west, just as evening twilight draws to a close. Or, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, look for it in the east, before twilight begins at dawn. We on the northern half of the globe have our best chance to see it in a moon-free sky starting now. The light is easiest to see (for all of Earth) around the March equinox. So watch for it now through May whenever you’ve got a moon-free sky.
The zodiacal light looks like a hazy pyramid of light, extending up from your horizon.
We in the north call it the false dusk. In the Southern Hemisphere now, it goes by the name false dawn.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jose Palma captured this image in Portugal on February 1, 2024, and wrote: “It’s zodiacal light time … and the ISS trail is crossing above Jupiter and the zodiacal light.” Thank you, Jose!
You might have seen the zodiacal light in the sky and not realized it. Maybe you glimpsed it while driving on a highway or country road at this time of year. Suppose you’re driving toward the west in springtime around 90 minutes after sunset. You notice what you think is the lingering evening twilight, or the light of a nearby town, over the horizon. Instead, you might be seeing the zodiacal light.
Note for Southern Hemisphere: Around late February through March, and into early May – for you – the zodiacal light looks like a hazy pyramid of light. It extends up from your eastern horizon before morning twilight begins.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Flynn captured this image on February 19, 2023, near Pine Mountain Club, California. He wrote: “The zodiacal light over the Pacific … at the top of the image is the Pleiades star cluster. At the bottom of the image are the planets Jupiter and Venus setting into the light pollution and marine layer.” Thank you, Michael!
What is this eerie light?
People used to think zodiacal light originated somehow from phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere. But today we understand it as sunlight reflecting off dust grains that circle the sun in the inner solar system. These grains were once thought to be left over from the process that created our Earth and the other planets of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. In recent years, though, there’s been discussion about their possible origin in dust storms on the planet Mars. Read more: Do Mars dust storms cause the zodiacal light?
Whatever their origin, these dust grains in space spread out from the sun in the same flat disk of space inhabited by Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. This flat space around the sun – the plane of our solar system – translates on our sky to a narrow pathway called the ecliptic. This is the same pathway traveled by the sun and moon as they journey across our sky.
Ancient civilizations called the pathway of the sun and moon the zodiac or pathway of animals. They did this in honor of the constellations seen beyond it. Hence the name zodiacal light.
The grains of dust are thought to range from about millimeter-sized to micron-sized. They are densest around the immediate vicinity of the sun and extending outward beyond the orbit of Mars. Sunlight shines on these dust grains to create the light we see.
Springtime? Autumn? What’s best?
The answer to that varies. For both hemispheres, springtime is the best time to see the zodiacal light in the evening. Autumn is the best time to see it before dawn. Look for the zodiacal light in the east around the time of the autumn equinox. Look for it in the west after sunset around the time of the spring equinox.
But, of course, spring and autumn fall in different months for Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres. So if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere look for the zodiacal light before dawn from about late August through early November. In those same months, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, look for the light in the evening.
Likewise, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, look for the evening zodiacal light from late February through early May. During those months, from the Southern Hemisphere, look for the light in the morning.
How to see the light
The zodiacal light can be extremely bright and easy to see from latitudes like those in the southern U.S.
Meanwhile, skywatchers in the northern U.S. or Canada sometimes say, wistfully, that they’ve never seen it.
You’ll need a dark sky location to see the zodiacal light, someplace where city lights aren’t obscuring the natural lights in the sky. The zodiacal light is even milkier in appearance than the summer Milky Way. It’s most visible after dusk in spring because, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the ecliptic – or path of the sun and moon – stands nearly straight up in spring with respect to the western horizon after dusk. Likewise, the zodiacal light is easiest to see before dawn in autumn, because then the ecliptic is most perpendicular to the eastern horizon in the morning.
In spring, the zodiacal light can be seen for up to an hour after dusk ends. Or, in autumn, it can be seen for up to an hour before dawn. Unlike true dusk, though, there’s no rosy color to the zodiacal light. The reddish skies at dawn and dusk are caused by Earth’s atmosphere, while the zodiacal light originates far outside our atmosphere.
The darker your sky, the better your chances of seeing it. Your best bet is to pick a night when the moon is out of the sky, although it’s definitely possible, and very lovely, to see a slim crescent moon in the midst of this strange milky pyramid of light. In the springtime, the best time to look for the zodiacal light – and avoid moonlight – is a few days after the full moon through a few days after a new moon.
Zodiacal light photos from our community
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Christoph Stopka in Westcliffe, Colorado, took this gorgeous image of the zodiacal light on March 1, 2022, over the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, part of the Colorado Rockies. It looks like a pyramid of light on the horizon, and appears when all traces of twilight have left the evening sky. Thank you, Cristoph! Read more about this photo.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jeff Andrew captured this image in Summit County, Colorado, on March 13, 2023, and wrote: “A nice display of zodiacal light that appears to emanate from the setting planet Venus, but in reality is a glow of diffuse sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust. The light extends towards and past the Pleiades open star cluster and the Taurus constellation ending near the planet Mars. Also visible in this image is the Orion constellation, the Andromeda galaxy, the Perseus constellation, the Double Star Cluster in Perseus, and the Aries constellation. In the foreground is the snow-covered Gore Mountain Range of central Colorado.” Thank you, Jeff!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Flynn in Pine Mountain Club, California, took this image on September 26, 2022. Thank you, Michael!
Bottom line: If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you can see the zodiacal light from late February to early May as a hazy pyramid of light extending up from the western horizon, beginning about an hour after sunset. Southern Hemisphere? Look east before dawn.
Enjoy this short video by Marcy Curran on the zodiacal light around the March equinox. We hope you enjoy it!
Zodiacal light around March equinox
The moon has waned now and left the evening sky dark for seeing the zodiacal light! This eerie cone of light can be found in the west, just as evening twilight draws to a close. Or, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, look for it in the east, before twilight begins at dawn. We on the northern half of the globe have our best chance to see it in a moon-free sky starting now. The light is easiest to see (for all of Earth) around the March equinox. So watch for it now through May whenever you’ve got a moon-free sky.
The zodiacal light looks like a hazy pyramid of light, extending up from your horizon.
We in the north call it the false dusk. In the Southern Hemisphere now, it goes by the name false dawn.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jose Palma captured this image in Portugal on February 1, 2024, and wrote: “It’s zodiacal light time … and the ISS trail is crossing above Jupiter and the zodiacal light.” Thank you, Jose!
You might have seen the zodiacal light in the sky and not realized it. Maybe you glimpsed it while driving on a highway or country road at this time of year. Suppose you’re driving toward the west in springtime around 90 minutes after sunset. You notice what you think is the lingering evening twilight, or the light of a nearby town, over the horizon. Instead, you might be seeing the zodiacal light.
Note for Southern Hemisphere: Around late February through March, and into early May – for you – the zodiacal light looks like a hazy pyramid of light. It extends up from your eastern horizon before morning twilight begins.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Flynn captured this image on February 19, 2023, near Pine Mountain Club, California. He wrote: “The zodiacal light over the Pacific … at the top of the image is the Pleiades star cluster. At the bottom of the image are the planets Jupiter and Venus setting into the light pollution and marine layer.” Thank you, Michael!
What is this eerie light?
People used to think zodiacal light originated somehow from phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere. But today we understand it as sunlight reflecting off dust grains that circle the sun in the inner solar system. These grains were once thought to be left over from the process that created our Earth and the other planets of our solar system 4.5 billion years ago. In recent years, though, there’s been discussion about their possible origin in dust storms on the planet Mars. Read more: Do Mars dust storms cause the zodiacal light?
Whatever their origin, these dust grains in space spread out from the sun in the same flat disk of space inhabited by Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. This flat space around the sun – the plane of our solar system – translates on our sky to a narrow pathway called the ecliptic. This is the same pathway traveled by the sun and moon as they journey across our sky.
Ancient civilizations called the pathway of the sun and moon the zodiac or pathway of animals. They did this in honor of the constellations seen beyond it. Hence the name zodiacal light.
The grains of dust are thought to range from about millimeter-sized to micron-sized. They are densest around the immediate vicinity of the sun and extending outward beyond the orbit of Mars. Sunlight shines on these dust grains to create the light we see.
Springtime? Autumn? What’s best?
The answer to that varies. For both hemispheres, springtime is the best time to see the zodiacal light in the evening. Autumn is the best time to see it before dawn. Look for the zodiacal light in the east around the time of the autumn equinox. Look for it in the west after sunset around the time of the spring equinox.
But, of course, spring and autumn fall in different months for Earth’s Northern and Southern Hemispheres. So if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere look for the zodiacal light before dawn from about late August through early November. In those same months, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, look for the light in the evening.
Likewise, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, look for the evening zodiacal light from late February through early May. During those months, from the Southern Hemisphere, look for the light in the morning.
How to see the light
The zodiacal light can be extremely bright and easy to see from latitudes like those in the southern U.S.
Meanwhile, skywatchers in the northern U.S. or Canada sometimes say, wistfully, that they’ve never seen it.
You’ll need a dark sky location to see the zodiacal light, someplace where city lights aren’t obscuring the natural lights in the sky. The zodiacal light is even milkier in appearance than the summer Milky Way. It’s most visible after dusk in spring because, as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, the ecliptic – or path of the sun and moon – stands nearly straight up in spring with respect to the western horizon after dusk. Likewise, the zodiacal light is easiest to see before dawn in autumn, because then the ecliptic is most perpendicular to the eastern horizon in the morning.
In spring, the zodiacal light can be seen for up to an hour after dusk ends. Or, in autumn, it can be seen for up to an hour before dawn. Unlike true dusk, though, there’s no rosy color to the zodiacal light. The reddish skies at dawn and dusk are caused by Earth’s atmosphere, while the zodiacal light originates far outside our atmosphere.
The darker your sky, the better your chances of seeing it. Your best bet is to pick a night when the moon is out of the sky, although it’s definitely possible, and very lovely, to see a slim crescent moon in the midst of this strange milky pyramid of light. In the springtime, the best time to look for the zodiacal light – and avoid moonlight – is a few days after the full moon through a few days after a new moon.
Zodiacal light photos from our community
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Christoph Stopka in Westcliffe, Colorado, took this gorgeous image of the zodiacal light on March 1, 2022, over the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, part of the Colorado Rockies. It looks like a pyramid of light on the horizon, and appears when all traces of twilight have left the evening sky. Thank you, Cristoph! Read more about this photo.View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Jeff Andrew captured this image in Summit County, Colorado, on March 13, 2023, and wrote: “A nice display of zodiacal light that appears to emanate from the setting planet Venus, but in reality is a glow of diffuse sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust. The light extends towards and past the Pleiades open star cluster and the Taurus constellation ending near the planet Mars. Also visible in this image is the Orion constellation, the Andromeda galaxy, the Perseus constellation, the Double Star Cluster in Perseus, and the Aries constellation. In the foreground is the snow-covered Gore Mountain Range of central Colorado.” Thank you, Jeff!View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Michael Flynn in Pine Mountain Club, California, took this image on September 26, 2022. Thank you, Michael!
Bottom line: If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, you can see the zodiacal light from late February to early May as a hazy pyramid of light extending up from the western horizon, beginning about an hour after sunset. Southern Hemisphere? Look east before dawn.
View larger. | In this image from Voyager 1 – acquired on February 14, 1990, from a distance slightly past the orbit of Saturn – planet Earth appears as a pale blue dot within the sunbeam, just right of center. As you can see, the blue glow of Earth occupies less than a single pixel so it’s not fully resolved. Image via NASA.
February 14, 1990: the Pale Blue Dot
The Voyager 1 spacecraft, out near Saturn, took this iconic image of Earth 35 years ago. It turned out to be one of the most memorable images ever taken from space. Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot:
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
An updated look at the Pale Blue Dot
NASA said on February 12, 2020, that it has now updated the Pale Blue Dot image, using modern image-processing software and techniques. NASA explained:
… the Voyager project planned to shut off the Voyager 1 spacecraft’s imaging cameras to conserve power because the probe – along with its sibling Voyager 2 – would not fly close enough to any other objects to take pictures. Before the shutdown, the mission commanded the probe to take a series of 60 images designed to produce what they termed the Family Portrait of the Solar System. Executed on Valentine’s Day 1990, this sequence returned images for making color views of six of the solar system’s planets and also imaged the sun in monochrome.
The popular name of this view comes from the title of the 1994 book by Voyager imaging scientist Carl Sagan. He originated the idea of using Voyager’s cameras to image the distant Earth and played a critical role in getting the family portrait taken.
The direction of the sun is toward the bottom of the view (where the image is brightest). Rays of sunlight scattered within the camera optics stretch across the scene. By coincidence, one of those light rays intersects dramatically with Earth.
From Voyager 1’s vantage point – a distance of approximately 3.8 billion miles (6 billion km) – Earth appears separated from the sun by only a few degrees. The close proximity of the inner planets to the sun was a key factor as to why engineers couldn’t take these images earlier in the mission. At that time, our star was still close and bright enough to damage the cameras with its blinding glare.
Scientists combined green, blue and violet spectral filters from the Voyager 1 Narrow-Angle Camera for this composite. Voyager took these photos at 4:48 UTC on February 14, 1990. That was just 34 minutes before Voyager 1 powered off its cameras forever.
Our family portrait
View larger. | The Family Portrait of the Solar System. Voyager 1 acquired this series of 60 images on February 14, 1990. Image via NASA.View larger. | This simulated view from NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System app shows Voyager 1’s perspective when it took its final series of images. This Family Portrait of the Solar System includes the Pale Blue Dot image. Image via NASA.
Bottom line: February 14, 2025, is the 35th anniversary of the Voyager 1 image of Earth. Voyager was near Saturn when it took this image, which is now known as the Pale Blue Dot.
View larger. | In this image from Voyager 1 – acquired on February 14, 1990, from a distance slightly past the orbit of Saturn – planet Earth appears as a pale blue dot within the sunbeam, just right of center. As you can see, the blue glow of Earth occupies less than a single pixel so it’s not fully resolved. Image via NASA.
February 14, 1990: the Pale Blue Dot
The Voyager 1 spacecraft, out near Saturn, took this iconic image of Earth 35 years ago. It turned out to be one of the most memorable images ever taken from space. Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote in his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot:
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
An updated look at the Pale Blue Dot
NASA said on February 12, 2020, that it has now updated the Pale Blue Dot image, using modern image-processing software and techniques. NASA explained:
… the Voyager project planned to shut off the Voyager 1 spacecraft’s imaging cameras to conserve power because the probe – along with its sibling Voyager 2 – would not fly close enough to any other objects to take pictures. Before the shutdown, the mission commanded the probe to take a series of 60 images designed to produce what they termed the Family Portrait of the Solar System. Executed on Valentine’s Day 1990, this sequence returned images for making color views of six of the solar system’s planets and also imaged the sun in monochrome.
The popular name of this view comes from the title of the 1994 book by Voyager imaging scientist Carl Sagan. He originated the idea of using Voyager’s cameras to image the distant Earth and played a critical role in getting the family portrait taken.
The direction of the sun is toward the bottom of the view (where the image is brightest). Rays of sunlight scattered within the camera optics stretch across the scene. By coincidence, one of those light rays intersects dramatically with Earth.
From Voyager 1’s vantage point – a distance of approximately 3.8 billion miles (6 billion km) – Earth appears separated from the sun by only a few degrees. The close proximity of the inner planets to the sun was a key factor as to why engineers couldn’t take these images earlier in the mission. At that time, our star was still close and bright enough to damage the cameras with its blinding glare.
Scientists combined green, blue and violet spectral filters from the Voyager 1 Narrow-Angle Camera for this composite. Voyager took these photos at 4:48 UTC on February 14, 1990. That was just 34 minutes before Voyager 1 powered off its cameras forever.
Our family portrait
View larger. | The Family Portrait of the Solar System. Voyager 1 acquired this series of 60 images on February 14, 1990. Image via NASA.View larger. | This simulated view from NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System app shows Voyager 1’s perspective when it took its final series of images. This Family Portrait of the Solar System includes the Pale Blue Dot image. Image via NASA.
Bottom line: February 14, 2025, is the 35th anniversary of the Voyager 1 image of Earth. Voyager was near Saturn when it took this image, which is now known as the Pale Blue Dot.
An artist’s concept of Vegavis iaai, a loon-like waterfowl. Scientists think it was a diving bird, shown here chasing fish. Researchers discovered an almost complete Vegavis iaai skull in Antarctica and said it’s the oldest-known modern bird fossil. Its existence in Antarctica suggests this land was a refuge from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Image via Mark Witton/ Ohio University.
Scientists have discovered the earliest-known modern bird in the fossil record, dating back 69 million years.
An almost complete skull of the loon-like bird Vegavis iaai shows features found in modern birds.
Scientists found this fossil in Antarctica. The location suggests this region may have played a role in modern birds’ survival of the dinosaur-killing asteroid.
Skull in Antarctica is the earliest modern bird fossil
How did some birds survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs? A fossilized skull might be a new piece of the puzzle. On February 7, 2025, researchers from Ohio University said that a nearly complete skull found in Antarctica is the earliest-known modern bird in the fossil record. It belonged to a loon-like bird called Vegavis iaai that lived 69 million years ago.
The researchers published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on February 5, 2025.
Vegavis iaai has been a controversial bird species. Scientists first discovered its fossils 20 years ago. Initially, they did not have enough of its skeleton to properly characterize it as a modern bird. Lead author Christopher Torres, NSF postdoctoral research fellow at Ohio University, said:
Few birds are as likely to start as many arguments among paleontologists as Vegavis. This new fossil is going to help resolve a lot of those arguments. Chief among them: where is Vegavis perched in the bird tree of life?
The Vegavis skull, excavated from Vega Island in Antarctica in 2011, is providing new insights into this creature. For instance, scientists said the skull shows traits of modern birds, such as the shape of the brain case and a beak without teeth. Also, Vegavis’s skull shows this ancient bird had powerful jaw muscles, needed for overcoming water resistance when it was diving for fish. It resembled a loon, and it might have been an ancestor of waterfowl.
Meanwhile, previously discovered Vegavis fossils are adding to its story. Researchers think this bird propelled itself underwater, as it pursued its prey, using its feet as paddles. Some diving waterfowl use this same feeding strategy today.
This is a digital reconstruction of the Vegavis iaai skull that was the subject of this study. Researchers generated the image using high-resolution micro-computed tomography (a series of x-ray image slices used to construct a 3D image, to see the fossil inside the rock). Image via Joseph Groenke and Christopher Torres/ Ohio University.
Bird fossil hints at life after the asteroid
Birds are the only living descendants of dinosaurs. Non-bird dinosaurs perished 66 million years ago when an asteroid impact near the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico caused catastrophic changes to Earth’s climate. After that planet-wide calamity, the birds that survived continued to evolve. Therefore, we have the high diversity of birds we see today.
Scientists think the ancestors of birds arose during the Jurassic Period (201 to 143 million years ago) from a group of dinosaurs known as theropods. And they continued evolving during the Cretaceous Period (143 to 66 million years ago).
Modern birds, similar to the species we see today, first appeared during the late Cretaceous, at locations such as Antarctica. There were also more primitive bird forms in the fossil record. But they barely resembled birds of today. Co-author Patrick O’Connor of Ohio University said:
This fossil underscores that Antarctica has much to tell us about the earliest stages of modern bird evolution. And those few places with any substantial fossil record of Late Cretaceous birds, like Madagascar and Argentina, reveal an aviary of bizarre, now-extinct species with teeth and long bony tails, only distantly related to modern birds. Something very different seems to have been happening in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, specifically in Antarctica.
Christopher Torres, lead author of the new study, is a NSF postdoctoral fellow in Patrick O’Connor’s lab at Ohio University. Image via Ben Siegel/ Ohio University.
Did Antarctica play a crucial role in modern bird evolution?
During the late Cretaceous, Antarctica was ice-free. It had a temperate climate with forests of conifers, cycads and ferns. So Vegavis lived among a diverse fauna of other birds, non-avian dinosaurs, insects, reptiles, pterosaurs and small early mammals.
Could Vegavis have survived because it was relatively sheltered in the Antarctica? There’s a considerable distance between the impact site near the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and Antarctica. So Antarctica may have allowed some birds to survive the environmental upheaval caused by the asteroid impact.
Co-author Matthew Lamanna of Carnegie Museum of Natural History said:
Antarctica is in many ways the final frontier for humanity’s understanding of life during the Age of Dinosaurs.
The discovery of a fossilized skull of a modern bird might lead to insights about how birds survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid. Image via Patrick O’Connor/ Ohio University.
Bottom line: A nearly complete bird fossil skull, found in Antarctica and dated to 69 million years old, is the earliest known modern bird in the fossil record. It suggests modern birds may have survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid by finding refuge in Antarctica.
An artist’s concept of Vegavis iaai, a loon-like waterfowl. Scientists think it was a diving bird, shown here chasing fish. Researchers discovered an almost complete Vegavis iaai skull in Antarctica and said it’s the oldest-known modern bird fossil. Its existence in Antarctica suggests this land was a refuge from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Image via Mark Witton/ Ohio University.
Scientists have discovered the earliest-known modern bird in the fossil record, dating back 69 million years.
An almost complete skull of the loon-like bird Vegavis iaai shows features found in modern birds.
Scientists found this fossil in Antarctica. The location suggests this region may have played a role in modern birds’ survival of the dinosaur-killing asteroid.
Skull in Antarctica is the earliest modern bird fossil
How did some birds survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs? A fossilized skull might be a new piece of the puzzle. On February 7, 2025, researchers from Ohio University said that a nearly complete skull found in Antarctica is the earliest-known modern bird in the fossil record. It belonged to a loon-like bird called Vegavis iaai that lived 69 million years ago.
The researchers published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Nature on February 5, 2025.
Vegavis iaai has been a controversial bird species. Scientists first discovered its fossils 20 years ago. Initially, they did not have enough of its skeleton to properly characterize it as a modern bird. Lead author Christopher Torres, NSF postdoctoral research fellow at Ohio University, said:
Few birds are as likely to start as many arguments among paleontologists as Vegavis. This new fossil is going to help resolve a lot of those arguments. Chief among them: where is Vegavis perched in the bird tree of life?
The Vegavis skull, excavated from Vega Island in Antarctica in 2011, is providing new insights into this creature. For instance, scientists said the skull shows traits of modern birds, such as the shape of the brain case and a beak without teeth. Also, Vegavis’s skull shows this ancient bird had powerful jaw muscles, needed for overcoming water resistance when it was diving for fish. It resembled a loon, and it might have been an ancestor of waterfowl.
Meanwhile, previously discovered Vegavis fossils are adding to its story. Researchers think this bird propelled itself underwater, as it pursued its prey, using its feet as paddles. Some diving waterfowl use this same feeding strategy today.
This is a digital reconstruction of the Vegavis iaai skull that was the subject of this study. Researchers generated the image using high-resolution micro-computed tomography (a series of x-ray image slices used to construct a 3D image, to see the fossil inside the rock). Image via Joseph Groenke and Christopher Torres/ Ohio University.
Bird fossil hints at life after the asteroid
Birds are the only living descendants of dinosaurs. Non-bird dinosaurs perished 66 million years ago when an asteroid impact near the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico caused catastrophic changes to Earth’s climate. After that planet-wide calamity, the birds that survived continued to evolve. Therefore, we have the high diversity of birds we see today.
Scientists think the ancestors of birds arose during the Jurassic Period (201 to 143 million years ago) from a group of dinosaurs known as theropods. And they continued evolving during the Cretaceous Period (143 to 66 million years ago).
Modern birds, similar to the species we see today, first appeared during the late Cretaceous, at locations such as Antarctica. There were also more primitive bird forms in the fossil record. But they barely resembled birds of today. Co-author Patrick O’Connor of Ohio University said:
This fossil underscores that Antarctica has much to tell us about the earliest stages of modern bird evolution. And those few places with any substantial fossil record of Late Cretaceous birds, like Madagascar and Argentina, reveal an aviary of bizarre, now-extinct species with teeth and long bony tails, only distantly related to modern birds. Something very different seems to have been happening in the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere, specifically in Antarctica.
Christopher Torres, lead author of the new study, is a NSF postdoctoral fellow in Patrick O’Connor’s lab at Ohio University. Image via Ben Siegel/ Ohio University.
Did Antarctica play a crucial role in modern bird evolution?
During the late Cretaceous, Antarctica was ice-free. It had a temperate climate with forests of conifers, cycads and ferns. So Vegavis lived among a diverse fauna of other birds, non-avian dinosaurs, insects, reptiles, pterosaurs and small early mammals.
Could Vegavis have survived because it was relatively sheltered in the Antarctica? There’s a considerable distance between the impact site near the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and Antarctica. So Antarctica may have allowed some birds to survive the environmental upheaval caused by the asteroid impact.
Co-author Matthew Lamanna of Carnegie Museum of Natural History said:
Antarctica is in many ways the final frontier for humanity’s understanding of life during the Age of Dinosaurs.
The discovery of a fossilized skull of a modern bird might lead to insights about how birds survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid. Image via Patrick O’Connor/ Ohio University.
Bottom line: A nearly complete bird fossil skull, found in Antarctica and dated to 69 million years old, is the earliest known modern bird in the fossil record. It suggests modern birds may have survived the dinosaur-killing asteroid by finding refuge in Antarctica.
