When we look up at the night sky, bright celestial objects naturally draw most of our attention. However, the cosmos also contains hidden objects that are important for understanding how galaxies evolve: low surface brightness galaxies (LSBGs) and Ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs). It is crucial to understand their properties, as well as the history of their formation and evolution. In a newly published paper, a team of scientists from the Astrophysics Division of the National Centre for Nuclear Research, led by the PhD student Antonio Vanzanella, has investigated new candidates for UDG galaxies in order to confirm their nature and precisely determine their properties.

According to currently accepted cosmological models, our Universe is constantly expanding, and the rate of this expansion continues to increase. However, measuring this rate poses a major challenge for scientists, which is why new methods are being sought, such as the study of so-called compact relic galaxies. In a recently published paper, a team of researchers from the Astrophysics Division of the National Centre for Nuclear Research has shown that these extraordinary objects may allow for a more accurate determination of the rate at which the Universe is expanding.

Machine learning and modern statistical methods are becoming key tools in astrophysics and cosmology – from processing observational data and photometric redshifts to time-domain discoveries, image classification and parameter inference. From 21 to 25 September, the Astrophysics Division of the National Centre for Nuclear Research hosted the "Viewing Space Through Machine Learning and Astrostatistics" (VISTULA) workshop. It provided a structured introduction to the fundamentals of statistics and the concepts of machine learning.

The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) contains key information about the earliest stages of the Universe's evolution. In a recent study, astrophysicists from the National Centre for Nuclear Research (NCBJ) investigated how microwave emission from our Galaxy and gravitational lensing distort the CMB signal. They also examined which methods could be employed by future CMB experiments to place tighter constraints on the amplitude of primordial gravitational waves.

X-shaped radio galaxies (XRGs) are a rare class of active galaxies, whose origins are still uncertain. Scientists believe they might be linked to galaxy mergers, which makes them candidates to find black hole pairs that will produce gravitational waves in the future. Results of the study of almost 200 XRGs, led by Prajnadipt Ghosh, a doctoral student from the Astrophysics Division at NCBJ, have just been published in the Astrophysical Journal.

A new era of astronomy and astrophysics begins, as the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory launches LSST, the most comprehensive cinematic record of the Universe. The initiative involves a Polish consortium composed of eight institutions, led by the National Centre for Nuclear Research.