Unveiling the Birth Secrets of Massive Stars with the NSF NRAO Very Large Array

By observing the young star HW2 in Cepheus A, located 2300 light years from Earth, researchers have resolved the structure and dynamics of an accretion disk feeding material to this massive star. This finding sheds light on a central question in astrophysics: how do massive stars, which often end their lives as supernovae, accumulate their immense mass?

Astronomers Detect Earliest and Most Distant Blazar in the Universe

A groundbreaking discovery has revealed the presence of a blazar—a supermassive black hole with a jet pointed directly at Earth—at an extraordinary redshift of 7.0. The object, designated VLASS J041009.05−013919.88 (J0410−0139), is the most distant blazar ever identified, providing a rare glimpse into the epoch of reionization when the universe was less than 800 million years old. This discovery challenges existing models of black hole and galaxy formation in the early cosmos.