Meeting Reports

The “Tensions in Cosmology 2025” conference brought together over 130 researchers in Corfu, Greece, to assess the status of the Hubble constant (H₀), structure growth parameter (S₈), and other emerging cosmological anomalies in the era of precision data from DESI, JWST, ACT, and other facilities. This Meeting Report summarizes the main discussions, the new results presented, and their implications for addressing the growing set of tensions with ΛCDM.

This year, the latest in an annual series of Fast Radio Burst conferences was held as a fully hybrid experience from 7–11 July at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Marking ten years since the first repeating fast radio burst was discovered, more than 200 scientists at FRB 2025 discussed the latest results in the field and charted a course for future experiments.

A conference at the International Academic Forum of Heidelberg University, Germany, brought together 80 experts across various disciplines to recount recent breakthroughs in extragalactic astrophysics and ask, where are you going, galaxy evolution?

A Spring meeting in Pittsburgh focused on fast radio bursts, recapping theoretical, observational and instrumental developments, while looking forward to upcoming advances aimed at learning more about these short radio flashes.

Planetary science is a rapidly growing research field in China. In March 2025, many hundreds of early-career planetary scientists gathered in Huangshan, China, to exchange the latest findings on this topic.

At the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, participants of the rapid response workshop on the gravitational wave background explored discrepancies between experimental results and theoretical models for a background originating from supermassive black hole binary mergers. Underestimated theoretical and/or experimental uncertainties are likely to be the explanation. Another key focus was the wide variety of search methods for supermassive black hole binaries, with the conclusion that the most compelling detections would involve systems exhibiting both electromagnetic and gravitational wave signatures.

It has been more than a decade since the last meeting on symbiotic stars and related objects was convened. This year participants gathered in Prague to discuss developments in the field, in part prompted by new surveys and observatories.

These two types of compact objects share several similarities, despite their different compositions. A short workshop in Spain brought communities together to share understanding of dense matter under extreme conditions.

A regular conference bringing together physicists, astronomers, and teachers with a connection to Nepal recently marked its seventh gathering, demonstrating an encouraging commitment to science for a developing country with limited research resources.

An IAU meeting on extraterrestrial life tackled some ageless questions from a variety of unusual perspectives, including the media and science fiction, and was refreshingly explicit about degrees of uncertainty in the answers.

The astronomy and quantum information science communities met together in a one-day workshop to share experiences and ideas on how to reach the next level — the quantum level — of astronomical interferometry.

In October 2023, astronomers, planetary scientists and biologists gathered in Kyiv for Ukraine’s first international astrobiology meeting, advancing science and crossing disciplinary borders in wartime.

New detector technologies and upcoming facilities will revolutionize sub-millimetre astronomy over the next decade. Experts in instrument science, data processing, observations, and state-of-the-art simulations met at the Lorentz Center in Leiden to discuss the most pressing science questions in the field.

The far side of the Moon offers unique advantages for science. A meeting at the Royal Society in London brought together planetary scientists, astronomers, astrophysicists and other stakeholders to discuss the future of astronomy from the Moon.

The first post-launch science meeting dedicated to the ESA/NASA Solar Orbiter spacecraft met in-person in Belfast nearly two and a half years into the mission, focusing on building new collaborations and rekindling old friendships.

More than 500 participants from around the globe registered for the first Astronomers for Planet Earth Symposium, to discuss and push for more sustainability in the field of astronomy as well as opportunities for astronomers to contribute to climate communication.

Over the last ten billion years, star formation in the Universe has been on the decline. Astronomers met at the University of Cambridge to discuss causes and themes of galaxy quenching.

The theme of tensions in cosmology has become increasingly important in the cosmological community, proving capable of attracting new generations of scientists who want to be there and contribute to the next paradigm shift.

The European Astronomical Society (EAS) awarded its most prestigious prizes during its annual meeting held in Valencia, Spain. After two virtual meetings, astronomers attended in-person or watched some of the sessions remotely.

Black-hole activity feedback is intensively studied on both galaxy-cluster scales and parsec scales. There are, however, many open questions about how the close surroundings of supermassive black holes affect large-scale structure and vice versa.