The Physical Review journals portfolio is expanding its coverage of astronomy and astrophysics.

Several free-to-publish and Open Access journals of our portfolio have come together to form the Astronomy and Astrophysics Topical Group. It covers a broad range of topics, from nuclear astrophysics to exoplanets and planetary atmospheres, through our broad-scope premier journals Physical Review Letters and Physical Review X, and our topical journals Physical Review C, Physical Review D, Physical Review E, Physical Review Fluids, Physical Review Research, PRX Life, as well as Reviews of Modern Physics.

Physical Review D

Cosmology, astrophysics, galaxy and black hole formation, gravitational waves and related areas of astronomy.

Physical Review Letters

The top research in all areas of astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. 

Physical Review C

Nuclear astrophysics, star evolution, nucleosynthesis, and related areas of astronomy. 

Physical Review E

Space and astrophysical plasmas, planetary formation and dynamics, chaotic dynamics, planetary atmospheres, solarphysics, etc.

Physical Review Fluids

Fundamental fluid dynamics in astrophysical environments: Solar physics, stellar and planetary atmospheres, accretion disks, etc.  

Reviews of Modern Physics 

Cosmology and gravitation, astroparticle physics, astronomy and astrophysics.

Physical Review X

Groundbreaking and impactful research in astrophysics, astronomy, cosmology, gravitation, and astroparticle physics.

Physical Review Research

Physical Review Research covers all aspects of astronomy and astrophysics. 

PRX Life

Fundamental principles of life and its potential existence beyond Earth - bridging biology, physics, and astrobiology. 

2027 Emerging Astrophysicist Award

Physical Review journals among top research publications in latest Journal Citation Reports

Journal Metrics pages updated with data from the 2024 Journal Citation Reports

American Physical Society earns top score in SCOAP3 open science assessment

APS and Astrobites Announce Partnership

After announcing their new result at the Global Physics Summit in Anaheim, CA, the DESI collaboration submitted their Data Release 2 papers to Physical Review D, which are now published. They are probing nearly 15 million galaxies and quasars, the farthest of which reach back to a time when the Universe was only 1.5 billion years old. The new data and analysis strengthen DESI’s first result from last year, favoring an evolving dark energy over a cosmological constant with high significance.

DESI DR2 results. I. Baryon acoustic oscillations from the Lyman alpha forest

       M. Abdul Karim et al.,  Phys. Rev. D 112, 083514 – Published 06 October, 2025

DESI DR2 results. II. Measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations and cosmological constraints

       M. Abdul Karim et al., Phys. Rev. D, 112, 083515 – Published 06 October, 2025

Construction of the damped Lyα absorber catalog for DESI DR2 Lyα BAO

       A. Brodzeller et al., Phys. Rev. D, 112, 083510 – Published 06 October, 2025

Constraints on neutrino physics from DESI DR2 BAO and DR1 full shape

        W. Elbers et al. Phys. Rev. D, 112, 083513 – Published 06 October, 2025

Extended dark energy analysis using DESI DR2 BAO measurements

       K. Lodha et al., Phys. Rev. D, 112, 083511 – Published 06 October, 2025

Validation of the DESI DR2 measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations from galaxies and quasars

       U. Andrade et al., Phys. Rev. D, 112, 083512 – Published 06 October, 2025

Validation of the DESI DR2 Ly⁢ 𝛼 BAO analysis using synthetic datasets

       L. Casas et al., Phys. Rev. D 113, 023520 – Published 16 January, 2026

The new map of the universe's expansion history released by the DESI Collaboration offers hints at a breakdown of the standard model of cosmology.

Find here astrobites' own coverage of the DESI DR2 papers, written by young astronomers and astrophysicists from around the world. View here.

Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, DESI co-spokeperson 2018-2024.

Upcoming discussion of DESI results and its consequences with

June 30, 2026

Living systems are defined by their active acquisition and use of information. This Roadmap surveys current research on life's information processes and their importance for the search for life

beyond Earth.

Israel Gabay, Omer Luria, Edward Balaban, Amir D. Gat, and Moran Bercovici

Phys Rev. Fluids 11, 064003 (2026) - Published 16, June 2026

Large-aperture telescopes are currently limited by launch vehicle constraints. The Fluidic Telescope (FLUTE) concept seeks to overcome this by using liquid mirrors which, in microgravity, naturally relax into a precise spherical shape. However, necessary telescope maneuvers subject the liquid to body forces that perturb this interface. This study provides an experimentally validated analytical model for such liquid dynamics by solving for the non-self-adjoint problem of a thin liquid film pinned in a circular domain. Using the model to simulate decades of operation, we show that while edge disturbances build up, the inner 80% of the aperture remains optically precise for over 20 years.

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 251002 – Published 26 June, 2026

A solar storm hitting Earth appears to have reduced the amount of incoming high-energy cosmic rays, suggesting a new way of measuring solar activity.

Sofia Flores and Jean-Baptiste Fouvry

Phys. Rev. E 113, 064127 – Published 12 June, 2026

The dynamics of stars orbiting a supermassive black hole can be used as a test case for statistical closure schemes that allow the calculation of dynamical correlation functions in the fully nonlinear and nonperturbative regime. The authors develop an iterative scheme based on the Martin–Siggia–Rose formalism, and find that it compares well with numerical simulations.

A.G. Abac et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 041403, 2026 

An analysis of a record-breaking gravitational-wave detection tests whether general relativity holds under extreme conditions.

A. G. Abac et al. (LIGO Scientific, Virgo, and KAGRA Collaborations) Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 111403, 2025

In time for the 10-year anniversary of the first detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, Physical Review Letters publishes a new significant observation: Using a very strong black-hole merger signal, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration has shown Hawking’s area law to hold with high credibility.

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