A combination of data collected with the ALMA radio telescope, shown in red, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, shown in blue. Sagittarius A* is at the center.

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An article published in “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” reports evidence of a cosmic wind emanating from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. Mark D. Gorski and Lena Murchikova of Northwestern University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics used observations with the ALMA radio telescope and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to create a high-quality map of the cold carbon monoxide gas surrounding Sagittarius A*. The map shows a cone-shaped cavity where a hot, energetic wind blows and sweeps away the gas.

Abell 2744-QS01. The insets show zooms of three separate views of QS01 generated by gravitational lensing

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Two articles, one published in the journal “Nature” and one in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”, report different aspects of a study of the supermassive black hole cataloged as Abell 2744-QSO1, or simply QSO1, indicating that it’s older than its host galaxy. A team of researchers used observations with the James Webb Space Telescope to study QSO1 and measured its mass at about 50 million times the Sun’s. This means it makes up at least two-thirds of the total mass of the galaxy, an anomaly that betrays its age and leaves open some possible hypotheses about its origin.

The capsule of the Shenzhou 22 spacecraft after landing (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

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A few hours ago, the three Chinese taikonauts of the Shenzhou 22 mission returned to Earth after spending 210 days on the Tiangong space station, where they arrived on October 31, 2025, in the mission that started as Shenzhou 21. The three taikonauts, Zhang Lu, Wu Fei, and Zhang Hongzhang, had departed the station less than six hours earlier to land at a site called Dongfeng in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The Shenzhou 23 spacecraft blasting off (Photo courtesy Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

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A confirmation has arrived that three Chinese taikonauts from the Shenzhou 23 mission reached the Chinese space station Tiangong with an automated docking maneuver. They blasted off about 3.5 hours earlier atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Two of them will remain there for about six months, the standard duration for a mission, while the third taikonaut will conduct a one-year mission.

The three taikonauts, as the Chinese call their astronauts, on the Shenzhou 23 mission are Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan, and Lai Ka-ying. The identities of the crew members are revealed only at the last minute, but Chinese authorities have recently started releasing more information than they did a few years ago.

Super Heavy 19 and Starship 39 at liftoff (Image courtesy SpaceX)

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It was the afternoon in the USA when SpaceX conducted a new flight test of its Super Heavy rocket and Starship prototypes, launched from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. This is the 12th test involving the entire system of Elon Musk’s company, which is supposed to revolutionize space travel with an unprecedented transport capacity and being totally reusable. They are advanced prototypes with the Super Heavy identified as Booster 19 and the Starship identified as Starship 39 or Ship39 or simply S39. It was the first test of the vehicles in their Block 3 version.