• Dark‑energy wobble: DESI and the Dark Energy Survey’s galaxy maps suggest cosmic acceleration may be weakening . If confirmed, our universe’s destiny and fundamental physics could change. The cosmos may be slowing.

• Cosmic heartbeat: Pulsar timing arrays reveal hints of ultra‑slow gravitational waves. Beat patterns from overlapping waves could expose whether the signal comes from cosmic inflation or nearby supermassive‑black‑hole binaries—a faint cosmic heartbeat . Pulsars are cosmic clocks.

• Exoplanet life scent: JWST detected dimethyl sulfide/dimethyl disulfide in K2‑18b’s atmosphere—molecules produced only by life on Earth—yielding the strongest exoplanet biosignature yet . Follow‑up observations will test this tantalizing hint. If confirmed, it may be our first hint of alien life.

• Mars’s whispered fossils: Perseverance’s ‘Sapphire Canyon’ sample contains organic carbon, sulfur, iron and phosphorus, compounds that could fuel microbial metabolisms . Vivianite and greigite patterns hint at possible past life, but abiotic explanations remain . It could be Mars handing us a fossil.

• Lonely primordial giant: JWST discovered a solitary black hole dubbed QSO1 weighing around 50 million suns and lacking a host galaxy . Its existence challenges galaxy‑first theories and suggests some black holes may be primordial . This loner upends cosmic chronology.

• Hidden quasar dawn: Subaru and JWST uncovered seven dust‑shrouded quasars less than a billion years after the Big Bang . This first detection of obscured supermassive black holes implies early quasars were more common than thought. Peering through dust reveals hidden giants.

• The Hubble crisis: A Coma‑anchored distance ladder gives a Hubble constant of 76.5 km/s/Mpc, matching local measurements yet conflicting with early‑universe predictions , turning the Hubble tension into a true cosmological crisis . Models and measurements are dueling.

• Caught in the act of creation: MagAO‑X directly imaged a protoplanet, WISPIT 2b, within a ring gap, proving such gaps are carved by forming planets . The five‑Jupiter‑mass world orbits far from its star, offering a window into planet growth . Watching planet birth feels like seeing our solar system’s dawn.

• Cosmic lightning beacon: The CHIME/Outrigger array captured one of the brightest fast radio bursts ever, RBFLOAT, about 130 million light‑years away . Its dazzling flash and precise location point to an older magnetar near a star‑forming region . This cosmic flash is a distant lighthouse.

• Seeds from Bennu: OSIRIS‑REx returned the largest carbon‑rich asteroid sample from Bennu; the material’s water‑bearing clays and abundant carbon suggest that asteroids seeded Earth with life’s building blocks . These grains may hold life’s seeds.