Highlights from AAS Nova: 22 June – 5 July 2025

AAS Nova provides brief highlights of recently published articles from the AAS journals, i.e., The Astronomical Journal (AJ), The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), ApJ Letters, ApJ Supplements, The Planetary Science Journal, and Research Notes of the AAS. The website's intent is to gain broader exposure for AAS authors and to provide astronomy researchers and enthusiasts with summaries of recent, interesting research across a wide range of astronomical fields.

The following are the AAS Nova highlights from the past two weeks; follow the links to read more, or visit AAS Nova for more posts. You can also sign up to receive emails each time a new post is published.

2 July 2025
Citizen Science Born in the Pandemic: The Hubble Image Similarity Project
A team of citizen scientists compared 5.4 million pairs of astronomical images, helping researchers create a database of image similarity information that can be used to test image-search algorithms.

1 July 2025
Giving Justice to Intermediate-Mass Black Hole Mergers
Astrobites reports on how researchers are preparing for future detections of merging supermassive and intermediate-mass black holes.

30 June 2025
Featured Image: Hubble and JWST Check Up on the BOAT Gamma-Ray Burst
Two powerful telescopes examined the brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed by humans, hundreds of days after the burst was first detected. What did they see?

27 June 2025
Finding Galaxies in the Dark: Using Globular Clusters to Identify Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies
With their extremely low surface brightness, ultra-diffuse galaxies are very difficult to detect, but a recent study has spotted one by searching for its globular clusters.

25 June 2025
Monthly Roundup: The Supermassive Black Hole of Messier 87
The massive nearby elliptical galaxy Messier 87 hosts one of the most-studied supermassive black holes in the universe. What have researchers recently learned about this black hole's spin, jets, and flares?

24 June 2025
Duel of the Dual: The Mystery of a Quasar Pair
Astrobites reports on JWST observations of a mysterious binary quasar system from cosmic noon.

23 June 2025
Planets Around Small Stars Even Less Likely to Have Atmospheres Than Previously Thought
The troubles continue for planets around the smallest and coolest stars: new research suggests that it's even harder than previously suspected for these planets to hold on to their atmospheres.

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