African Science Stars

We are celebrating Youth Day in South Africa with a special guided day-tour of in Cape Town. Grab your copy of our magazine on site today. 🚀🌍

Issue 12 is now live! 🚀

What does it take for life to exist beyond Earth? In this edition of African Science Stars, we explore the fascinating world of astrobiology - from the search for life in the cosmos to the conditions that make planets habitable. 🌍

Dive into inspiring stories, cutting-edge research, and the science helping us answer one of humanity’s biggest questions: Are we alone in the universe?

Read Issue 12 now: https://issuu.com/africansciencestars/docs/african_science_stars_issue_12

Celebrate Youth Day 2026 with NRF|SAAO Cape Town! ☀️

Join SAAO for FREE special guided day tours and safe solar viewing through the Observatory’s solar telescopes, weather permitting.

Tour times: **10:00 AM** and **1:00 PM**
Tickets are limited, so book early.

For more information and bookings, visit:
https://www.saao.ac.za/visit-capetown/

🌌 JWST has found a galaxy from just 280 million years after the Big Bang.

The galaxy is called MoM-z14, and right now it is the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy known. Its light has been travelling through expanding space for about 13.5 billion years before reaching Webb.

Astronomers confirmed its distance using JWST’s NIRSpec instrument. The key number is its redshift: 14.44. That means we are seeing MoM-z14 when the Universe was only about 2 percent of its current age.

The surprise is not just that Webb found it. It is that MoM-z14 is bright, compact and chemically unusual at such an early time.

Its spectrum shows signs of nitrogen enrichment, which is strange because nitrogen normally needs earlier generations of stars to build it up. One possibility is that the dense early Universe formed supermassive stars unlike anything we see nearby today.

MoM-z14 also appears to have begun clearing the thick hydrogen fog around it, giving astronomers a clue to the era of reionization, when the first galaxies made the Universe transparent to light.

This is Webb pushing astronomy closer to cosmic dawn.

📄 RESEARCH PAPER
📌 Naidu et al., “A Cosmic Miracle: A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at zspec = 14.44 Confirmed with JWST”, The Open Journal of Astrophysics (2026)

Why dark skies matter?

Could life be possible elsewhere in the Milky Way?

Soon, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch to help answer this and other fundamental questions about our galaxy. Now, we’ve got a question for you: will you send your name on this epic journey?

Get your boarding pass and explore the universe with us: https://go.nasa.gov/RomanNames

SAASTA was at the Eswatini Science Week, where they proudly promoted the African Science Stars Women in Astronomy Edition. 🚀

The special edition celebrates the achievements and contributions of women in astronomy, inspiring the next generation of scientists, researchers and innovators across Africa. 🌍

Mr Humbulani Mudau, CEO of SANSA, and Dr Zolana João, Director-General of Angola’s National Space Agency, proudly promote the African Science Stars magazine at the Angola ICT Forum in Luanda. 🇦🇴

The forum brings together leaders from across Africa’s technology, innovation and space sectors to explore opportunities for collaboration, digital transformation and sustainable development on the continent. ✨