Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Welcome back to Night Sky News for July 2026 with me, astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst! In this episode we’re chatting about 3 new exciting scientific discoveries, from a new planet spotted by JWST around the star Beta Pictoris, to the most distant quasar ever found, spotted by Euclid, and the first “missing black hole” found in a star cluster in the Milky Way by Hubble. And of course we’ll also chat about how to see the total solar eclipse and the Perseids Meteor Shower which are both coming up on Wednesday 12th August.
Papers mentioned:
Yang et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2607.03432
Whitaker et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2606.18350
Sutlieff et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23801v2
Gibbs et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23789
Previous videos:
Intermediate mass black hole found in Omega Cen - youtu.be/tOUWrBy0a4c?t=984
Intermediate mass black holes: fact or fiction? youtube.com/watch?v=Dr8CJAOlGVc
Why you should believe the hype for Roman - youtube.com/watch?v=-EiTby2Lku8
Eclipse links:
ukeclipse.com
science.nasa.gov/eclipses/safety
00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - Total solar eclipse 12th August
03:25 - Perseids Meteor shower 12th August
05:32 - Saturn in the evening skies
07:24 - UK funding cut reversal
09:25 - Reflect Orbital’s sunlight satellite
12:50 - JWST's Β Pictoris d discovery
15:57 - Euclid finds 2 new most distant quasars
18:30 - Black hole finally found in Omega Centauri by Hubble
24:47 - Bloopers
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
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📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
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👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): dr-becky.teemill.com
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🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive
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🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
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👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
Welcome back to Night Sky News for July 2026 with me, astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst! In this episode we’re chatting about 3 new exciting scientific discoveries, from a new planet spotted by JWST around the star Beta Pictoris, to the most distant quasar ever found, spotted by Euclid, and the first “missing black hole” found in a star cluster in the Milky Way by Hubble. And of course we’ll also chat about how to see the total solar eclipse and the Perseids Meteor Shower which are both coming up on Wednesday 12th August.
Papers mentioned:
Yang et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2607.03432
Whitaker et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2606.18350
Sutlieff et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23801v2
Gibbs et al. (2026) - arxiv.org/pdf/2606.23789
Previous videos:
Intermediate mass black hole found in Omega Cen - youtu.be/tOUWrBy0a4c?t=984
Intermediate mass black holes: fact or fiction? youtube.com/watch?v=Dr8CJAOlGVc
Why you should believe the hype for Roman - youtube.com/watch?v=-EiTby2Lku8
Eclipse links:
ukeclipse.com
science.nasa.gov/eclipses/safety
00:00 - Introduction
01:40 - Total solar eclipse 12th August
03:25 - Perseids Meteor shower 12th August
05:32 - Saturn in the evening skies
07:24 - UK funding cut reversal
09:25 - Reflect Orbital’s sunlight satellite
12:50 - JWST's Β Pictoris d discovery
15:57 - Euclid finds 2 new most distant quasars
18:30 - Black hole finally found in Omega Centauri by Hubble
24:47 - Bloopers
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV
Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com
Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst
---
📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): lnk.to/DrBecky
---
👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): dr-becky.teemill.com
---
🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive
---
🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video!
---
👩🏽💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
