Above: A mass migration of stellar twins. Stars similar to our Sun form a mass migration from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, occurring approximately 4 to 6 billion years ago. (Credit: NAOJ)
The most recent issue of Free Astronomy Magazine (May-June 2026) is available for your reading and downloading pleasure in English, Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese at www.astropublishing.com (and facebook).
For my part, the discovery of HD 162826, the first of now several solar siblings discovered, was absolutely fascinating when I first read about it. That we all seem to have had our own version of "The Great Escape" further adds to that fascination.
Summary of content as follows (h/t Claude Sonnet 4.6):
Compelling evidence of a star collapsing directly into a black hole (p. 4, Keck Observatory)
Keck Observatory observations of object M31-2014-DS1 in Andromeda — a ~5 solar mass supergiant that gradually brightened in infrared then vanished without a supernova explosion — provide the strongest observational support yet for the theorized direct-collapse route from massive star to black hole.DES scientists release analysis of all six years of survey data (p. 6, NOIRLab)
The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration has released its final combined analysis of 758 nights of data using all four cosmological probes (BAO, Type Ia supernovae, galaxy clusters, and weak gravitational lensing), finding results broadly consistent with the standard ΛCDM model but with persistent tension in matter clustering that upcoming Rubin Observatory data may resolve.Light show around a rapidly dying star (p. 10, NASA/ESA Hubble)
A new Hubble image of the Egg Nebula (CRL 2688) — the closest and youngest pre-planetary nebula known — reveals intricate concentric arcs and twin polar beams sculpted by a dying Sun-like star expelling its outer layers into a thick dust cocoon.Hidden chemistry at the heart of the Milky Way (p. 12, ESO/ALMA)
The ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey (ACES) has produced the largest ALMA image ever made, mapping dozens of molecular species across the Central Molecular Zone to reveal the complex chemistry and star-forming conditions in the extreme environment surrounding the Milky Way's central black hole.Massive cloud with metallic winds discovered orbiting mystery object (p. 16, NOIRLab)
When Sun-like star J0705+0612 dimmed by 40× for eight months, Gemini South's GHOST spectrograph revealed it was being occulted by a vast metal-rich cloud (containing iron and calcium) gravitationally bound to an unidentified secondary object — likely a planet or brown dwarf — whose planetary collision origin is inferred from the cloud's composition and motion.Nebula PMR 1 — Two heads are better than one! (p. 22, NASA/ESA/CSA Webb)
Webb's NIRCam and MIRI instruments have captured the "Exposed Cranium" planetary nebula PMR 1 in unprecedented infrared detail, showing a dying star shedding its outer hydrogen shell and inner mixed-gas cloud in a brain-like structure bisected by a polar outflow jet.A dead star creating a shock wave (p. 24, ESO)
ESO's VLT/MUSE has imaged a beautiful bow shock surrounding white dwarf RXJ0528+2838 — a structure that no known physical mechanism can explain, since the disc-less binary system should be unable to power the outflow that has been sustaining the shock for over 1,000 years.Boundaries of observable Universe pushed closer to Big Bang (p. 28, NASA/ESA/CSA Webb)
Webb has spectroscopically confirmed galaxy MoM-z14 at redshift z = 14.44, placing it only 280 million years after the Big Bang and making it one of the most distant galaxies ever confirmed, while its unexpected nitrogen enrichment and signs of reionization challenge current models of early galaxy formation.ALMA detects extremely abundant alcohol in 3I/ATLAS (p. 32, ALMA Observatory)
ALMA observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS — only the third confirmed interstellar visitor after 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov — detected a methanol-to-HCN ratio of 70–120, far higher than nearly all Solar System comets, suggesting it formed under chemical conditions unlike those that shaped our own planetary system.Webb locates former star that exploded as supernova (p. 34, NASA/ESA/CSA)
By aligning archival Webb MIRI and NIRCam images of galaxy NGC 1637 with post-explosion Hubble data, astronomers identified supernova 2025pht's progenitor as a surprisingly red, carbon-rich dusty red supergiant — the first supernova progenitor detection by Webb, and one that supports the hypothesis that the dustiest massive stars have been the hardest to find in pre-explosion surveys.Extremely rare second-generation star in Pictor II (p. 36, NOIRLab)
Star PicII-503 in the ultra-faint dwarf galaxy Pictor II has been identified as the first unambiguous second-generation star in such a system, carrying the lowest iron content ever measured outside the Milky Way combined with extreme carbon overabundance — preserving a direct chemical fingerprint of the Universe's very first stellar generation.AI-assisted method discovers hundreds of cosmic anomalies (p. 40, NASA/ESA Hubble)
ESA researchers trained an AI neural network called AnomalyMatch on the 35-year Hubble Legacy Archive and confirmed over 1,300 astrophysical anomalies — including 800+ previously unknown colliding galaxies, gravitational lenses, jellyfish galaxies, and objects that defied classification entirely — in just two and a half days of automated search.AES Andes announces cancellation of INNA (p. 42, ESO)
Following a detailed ESO technical analysis showing severe and irreversible harm to the dark skies over Paranal, AES Andes has cancelled the INNA green hydrogen and ammonia megaproject that had been planned near ESO's Very Large Telescope and future Extremely Large Telescope sites in northern Chile.CDG-2 may be composed of 99% dark matter (p. 44, NASA/ESA)
Using Hubble, ESA's Euclid, and Subaru to follow up a cluster of four globular clusters in the Perseus galaxy cluster, astronomers detected a faint diffuse glow consistent with an underlying galaxy (CDG-2) whose mass budget is estimated at 99% dark matter, making it one of the most dark-matter-dominated galaxies ever identified.Our Sun escaped the galactic center along with its "twins" (p. 46, NAOJ)
A catalogue of 6,594 solar twins from ESA's Gaia mission shows a broad peak of similar-aged stars positioned around the same galactic distance as the Sun, supporting the model that our Sun was born ~10,000 light-years closer to the galactic center and migrated outward 4–6 billion years ago as part of a large-scale stellar mass migration triggered by the Milky Way's bar structure.Hubble unexpectedly catches comet breaking up (p. 48, NASA/ESA)
While observing a replacement target after a scheduling constraint, Hubble serendipitously captured long-period comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) fragmenting into at least four pieces over three consecutive days in November 2025 — the earliest stage of cometary breakup ever recorded, with spectroscopic analysis revealing the comet is unusually carbon-depleted compared to Solar System comets.