Category: 7. Science

Astronomers have, for the first time, caught a growing planet “parked” inside the dark lane of a multi-ringed disk of dust and gas – the exact kind of gap long suspected to be sculpted by newborn worlds.

The object orbits a young Sun-like star called WISPIT-2, and its light betrays a world still gulping hydrogen as it builds itself up.

WISPIT-2 and dust disk gaps

For years, high-contrast images of planet-forming disks have shown bright rings split by shadowy gaps.

The prevailing idea was simple: protoplanets plow lanes, like snowplows in fresh powder. But almost no planets had ever been found sitting inside those gaps, leaving room for doubters.

“Dozens of theory papers have been written about these observed disk gaps being caused by protoplanets, but no one’s ever found a definitive one until today,” said lead author Laird Close, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona.

Professor Close calls the WISPIT-2 discovery a “big deal” because planets have often been absent in places where they should be.

This gap has prompted many in the scientific community to invoke alternative explanations for the ring-and-gap pattern found in many protoplanetary disks.

“It’s been a point of tension in astronomy that we have these really dark gaps, but we cannot detect the faint exoplanets in them,” he said. “Many have doubted that protoplanets can make these gaps, but now we know that in fact, they can.”

Instruments that found WISPIT-2

Together with Richelle van Capelleveen from Leiden Observatory, Professor Close and his team carried out their observations using several world-class telescopes.

They relied on the MagAO-X extreme adaptive optics system mounted on the 6.5-meter Magellan Telescope in Chile.

The experts also used the twin 8.4-meter Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, along with ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

MagAO-X – short for Magellan Adaptive Optics System eXtreme – cancels the blur of Earth’s atmosphere in real time. That yields razor-sharp images at visible wavelengths, where the best clues to newborn planets lie.

Spotting a newborn world

The hunt focused on a specific beacon: hydrogen-alpha, or H-alpha, a deep-red wavelength emitted by super-hot hydrogen plasma. When gas free-falls onto a growing world, the impact can heat it enough to shine at H-alpha.

“As planets form and grow, they suck in hydrogen gas from their surroundings, and as that gas crashes down on them like a giant waterfall coming from outer space and hits the surface,” Close explained. “It creates extremely hot plasma, which in turn, emits this particular H-alpha light signature.”

MagAO-X is specially designed to look for hydrogen gas falling onto young protoplanets, and that’s how we can detect them.

A second, even closer-in candidate emerged inside the central cavity between the star and the inner edge of the disk.

“Once we turned on the adaptive optics system, the planet jumped right out at us,” said Close, who called this one of the more important discoveries in his career.

Inside WISPIT-2’s new planet

The outer object is designated WISPIT-2b. It sits about 56 astronomical units from the star – well beyond the orbit of Neptune if transplanted into our solar system. Modeling suggests a mass of roughly five Jupiters.

The team flagged candidate CC1 inside the cavity, about 14-15 AU out, with roughly nine Jupiter masses. Those masses were inferred in part from thermal infrared data gathered at the Large Binocular Telescope by UArizona graduate student Gabriel Weible.

“It’s a bit like what our own Jupiter and Saturn would have looked like when they were 5,000 times younger than they are now,” Weible said. “The planets in the WISPIT-2 system appear to be about 10 times more massive than our own gas giants and more spread out.”

“The overall appearance is likely not so different from what a nearby ‘alien astronomer’ could have seen in a ‘baby picture’ of our solar system taken 4.5 billion years ago.”

The disk itself is elaborate: four bright rings, four dark gaps, and likely two planets shaping them. The geometry matches decades of theory on how embedded worlds tug on dust and gas to carve lanes.

“Our MagAO-X adaptive optics system is optimized like no other to work well at the H-alpha wavelength, so you can separate the bright starlight from the faint protoplanet,” Close said.

Discovery confirmed in infrared

In a companion paper, van Capelleveen and colleagues at the University of Galway report detecting the planet in thermal infrared light and detailing the rings with the VLT’s SPHERE instrument. This independent window on the same system bolsters the H-alpha find.

“To see planets in the fleeting time of their youth, astronomers have to find young disk systems, which are rare because that’s the one time that they really are brighter and so detectable,” van Capelleveen said.

“If the WISPIT-2 system was the age of our solar system and we used the same technology to look at it, we’d see nothing. Everything would be too cold and too dark.”

WISPIT-2 as a turning point

Until now, every directly imaged “accreting” protoplanet had turned up in the inner cavity of a disk, not inside a true gap. Skeptics argued that rings could arise without planets, via magnetic fields or dust chemistry.

Seeing a bona fide, gas-gobbling world embedded in a gap closes that loop: the long-suspected planet–gap connection holds in at least one textbook case.

The broader stakes are high. Our solar system began as a similar disk 4.5 billion years ago.

Pinning down where and how protoplanets sit in those disks – and catching them while they are still feeding – lets astronomers test models of how giants like Jupiter and Saturn assembled.

These findings also reveal how the planets sculpted debris and set the stage for the smaller rocky worlds inside.

With MagAO-X and other extreme adaptive optics systems now tuned to H-alpha and the infrared, more targets will follow. The gaps may not stay empty for long.

The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

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Research design

This study was based on a descriptive qualitative research design that utilised content analysis to systematically analyse the data. The study was conducted between January and February 2024. A Twelve faculty members specialised in the fields of family medicine, medical education, public health, psychiatry, rheumatology, biostatistics and medical informatics in Erzincan, Erzurum and Trabzon provinces in Türkiye were studied. The study adhered to the “Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research” (COREQ) checklist to ensure comprehensive and transparent reporting [12]. This study was designed within an interpretivist paradigm, which seeks to understand the meanings and experiences of participants in their natural settings [13].

Sample and participants

A combination of purposive and snowball sampling was employed to ensure maximum variation in participants’ backgrounds and experiences, enhancing the transferability of findings [13]. Purposive sampling allowed deliberate selection of participants from diverse academic disciplines, while snowball sampling expanded the participant pool through recommendations from initial participants. To enhance maximum variation sampling while addressing potential bias due to prior acquaintance, the study was conducted in two phases: in the first phase, the principal investigator interviewed six participants with whom there was some familiarity; in the second phase, six additional participants were identified through recommendations from these initial participants, and none of them had a prior relationship with the investigator, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives.

Inclusion criteria included being a faculty member at a medical school and having no prior qualitative research experience. Academics who had recently started their academic career and had less than one year of experience, who had no experience in managing an independent research project or taking an active role in the research process, or who had previous collaborations with the researchers, to minimise potential bias, were not included in the study. The decision to exclude participants with less than one year of experience was made to ensure the study focused on academics with a sufficient baseline understanding of research responsibilities, based on the expectation that a minimum level of research maturity and familiarity with academic responsibilities is important for reflecting realistic perceptions and challenges regarding qualitative research.

Structured interviews were used to ensure that all participants were asked the same set of questions, maintaining consistency in data collection. Participants were from diverse fields such as family medicine [4], biostatistics and medical ınformatics [2], medical education [2], public health [2], psychiatry [1], and rheumotology [1]. The specialisation areas of the participants and the sampling method are shown in Fig. 1.

Data collection method and procedure

Two researchers conducted a pilot interview prior to the interviews, but the study did not include it. The pilot interview was conducted exclusively to refine the structured interview questions for clarity and flow, avoiding inclusion in the main analysis to prevent inconsistencies arising from pre-finalised questions. Given the limited time availability and heavy workloads of medical faculty members, structured interviews were chosen to ensure consistent data collection and to efficiently cover all key topics within a limited 15–20 min timeframe. While structured interviews are less typical in qualitative research, they were deemed appropriate in this context to balance practicality with thematic depth. Although structured interviews are less commonly employed in qualitative research than semi-structured formats, they can be appropriate when comparability across participants and time efficiency are essential [14, 15]. They allow researchers to maintain a consistent structure across all interviews, which can facilitate the comparison of responses and reduce variability introduced by different interviewing styles [15]. In our study, the limited time availability of medical academics made structured interviews the most feasible option, while still allowing us to collect rich data on pre-determined topics.

Interviews were conducted face-to-face or via Zoom by the responsible researcher (male). After the purpose and procedure of the study were communicated, all but one of the academics contacted (Psychiatry, due to work intensity) agreed to be interviewed, and interviews were conducted at a convenient place and time.

The questions were developed based on a review of the relevant literature and refined through the pilot interview. During the interviews, the questions specified in Table 1 were asked and the conversations were audio recorded. The recordings were then transcribed verbatim.

Data analysis

Data analysis followed the six-phase thematic analysis approach outlined by Braun and Clarke (2006): familiarisation with data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report [16]. Data saturation was considered reached when no new themes emerged from subsequent interviews.

Initially, six broad themes emerged from the data: (1) Knowledge and Awareness (2), Perceptions and Attitudes (3), Barriers and Challenges (4), Support and Resources (5), Career and Professional Development, and (6) Personal Interest and Motivation. However, to improve readability and provide a more integrated understanding of the findings, these six themes were subsequently consolidated into three overarching themes: (1) Perceptions and Knowledge about Qualitative Research (2), Challenges and Barriers, and (3) Opportunities and Facilitators (Fig. 2). This thematic refinement ensured a clearer and more cohesive presentation of the participants’ experiences.

Thematic Analysis Framework Developed in the Study

Throughout the research process, the researchers engaged in continuous reflexivity to acknowledge and critically examine how their backgrounds, assumptions, and professional roles may have influenced the data collection, analysis, and interpretation [17]. The primary researcher’s clinical and academic experience, for example, was considered when interpreting participant responses, ensuring that personal biases and preconceptions were recognized and mitigated to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings.

Paying attention to participant diversity (such as differences in academic roles, disciplines, and experience levels), the researchers agreed on the statements that best represented each sub-theme. NVivo software (version 12) was chosen to assist in organizing, coding, and analyzing qualitative data systematically. Its features enabled the researchers to manage large volumes of interview transcripts efficiently and supported a transparent thematic analysis process. The selected statements or transcribed texts were not forwarded to the academics after the interview or repeated interviews were not conducted. This approach was preferred in order to preserve the natural and spontaneous responses of the participants.

Ethical aspects

The study was conducted with the approval of Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Clinical Research Ethics Committee numbered 2023-22/7. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants before the start of the study and the principles of the revised Declaration of Helsinki were followed at all stages of the study. Participants did not receive any incentives for their participation. In online interviews, the consent form was sent to the participants and they were expected to scan and send it to the researcher. At the beginning of the interviews, the participants were briefly informed about the study and their verbal consent was also obtained. Participant quotes presented in the results section are direct translations from Turkish to English, aiming to preserve the original tone and meaning as closely as possible. During the presentation of the findings and methods, any information that could reveal the identities of the participants was avoided.

“Dozens of theory papers have been written about these observed disk gaps being caused by protoplanets, but no one’s ever found a definitive one until today,” said astronomer Laird Close. “Now we know that in fact, they can.”

The discovery, announced Wednesday by the University of Arizona, was made by an international team led by the school’s Close and Richelle van Capelleveen of Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands.

“This is like getting a baby picture of our own solar system,” said Gabriel Weible, a University of Arizona graduate student who contributed to the research.

WISPIT 2b is estimated to be about five times the mass of Jupiter and sits 56 astronomical units from its star – about twice the distance of Neptune from the sun. The inner candidate planet, CC1, may be about nine Jupiter masses.

Researchers said the system provides a glimpse into what Jupiter and Saturn may have looked like when they were still forming billions of years ago.

The findings mark a breakthrough in a long-standing debate about whether dark gaps in planet-forming disks are carved by planets or by other forces.​​​​​​​

Earlier it was reported that astronomers working with NASA detected a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus, bringing the planet’s total number of confirmed satellites to 29.

When scientists produced the first map of all synaptic connections in the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans in 1986, many hailed it as a blueprint for the flow of brain signals. As it turned out, though, models of neuronal activity based on this wiring diagram bore little resemblance to the functional maps of brain activity measured in living worms.

This disconnect isn’t limited to worms. Mice, for instance, appear to have widespread silent synapses—wired connections that don’t send signals—and the actual responses of some cells in the fruit fly’s visual system do not match the responses the connectome predicts.

A new preprint helps to explain why: Most network features, in C. elegans at least, are not conserved between the anatomical and functional connectomes. Yet the anatomical connectome can still forecast—albeit in a complex way—observed neuronal activity in the worms, according to a second preprint by the same team, because “most signaling is happening along the wires,” says Andrew Leifer, associate professor of physics and neuroscience at Princeton University and principal investigator on both preprints.

The findings begin to address the long-standing challenge of reconciling structure and function, and show that “we weren’t entirely wrong” about the importance of synaptic connectivity, says Jihong Bai, professor of basic sciences at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who was not involved in the work.

The debut of a color-coded map of cell types in the worm brain in 2021 split the neuroscience community. It made it possible to identify individual neurons in whole-brain recordings and compare annotated recordings with the connectome—an exercise that revealed no correlation between the two.

“At the time, this finding was very controversial,” says Eviatar Yemini, assistant professor of neurobiology at the UMass Chan Medical School, who led the 2021 study but was not involved in the preprints. Researchers were divided “between those who couldn’t believe that this was the case and others who viewed this as a natural distinction between hardware and software,” he says.

An independent team replicated the findings the following year, and Yemini says he and his collaborators now have unpublished data showing that connectivity differences between male and hermaphrodite worms don’t match the two worms’ differences in brain activity.

Meanwhile, the publication of a “wireless” C. elegans connectome in 2023 revealed a dense signaling network, with all neurons forming, on average, more neuropeptidergic connections than synaptic links.

S

till, the studies that have looked for correlations between connectivity and functional activity in worms so far have been limited to cells that are spontaneously active, Leifer says.

Instead, he and his colleagues opted to systematically stimulate every neuron in the nematode brain, one at a time, and track the effects on the remaining neurons, covering two-thirds of all possible neuron pairs. Averaging the responses from 113 genetically identical worms, the team produced the first “signal propagation” atlas of C. elegans brain activity in 2023.

Neurons with direct synaptic connections are likely to respond to each other, with the response rate diminishing among neurons that have more synapses separating them, Leifer’s team found when they compared their functional atlas to the C. elegans connectome.

But when they trained a model to predict neuronal responses using the connectome, it was unable to reproduce the patterns of information flow seen in worms, the group reported in their 2023 paper. In fact, neuronal perturbation often prompted responses from cells that had no anatomical connections to the target cell, likely through neuropeptide signaling. Among neuronal pairs identified as likely candidates for extrasynaptic signaling, functional responses fell in mutant worms unable to release neuropeptide vesicles, the study found.

Despite that disparity, anatomical and functional maps might better align in terms of their broader organization, Leifer says. “Network science focuses on this implicit assumption that properties of the network, like the architecture, are informative and helpful,” he says.

Across most of the brain, the subnetworks of neurons—or modules—that are physically connected to one another do not overlap with the modules that show similar activity when another neuron is stimulated, Leifer’s team reported in one of the two new preprints, which was posted on arXiv last December and accepted for publication in PRX Life earlier this month. The only exception is the pharynx, a simple neuromuscular organ that contains a community of neurons separate from other regions.

And classifying “rich club” neurons—those that have a wealth of connections—revealed two, mostly distinct, lists of cells, the study found. AVEL and AVER, a pair of neurons involved in backward locomotion, buck that trend by having a multitude of both anatomical and functional connections.

For the remaining cells, being physically connected to several neurons doesn’t translate to having multiple functional connections, “perhaps because they might only be transiently active in certain contexts or internal states,” says study investigator Sophie Dvali, a graduate student in Leifer’s lab.

That lack of correspondence adds to mounting evidence that researchers cannot infer information flow using the synaptic connectome alone.

I

n the other preprint, posted on bioRxiv last November, Leifer and his colleagues took a different approach—they used a portion of the neuronal activity data from their 2023 signal propagation atlas to train a computer model to infer the remaining activity. They constrained the model to the worm’s connectome so that it was forced to learn pathways of information flow that depend on anatomical connections.

The model captured neuronal responses among connected cells and neurons without a synaptic link. Rather than relying on direct connections, the model appears to identify complex pathways that make it possible to ferry information between far-flung neurons, says study investigator Matthew Creamer, associate research scholar at Princeton University.

The brain is a dynamic system that acts in complex ways, Creamer says. For example, a neuron could signal to its neighbor, which in turn silences the neuron that stimulated it. “That’s exactly the kinds of things we’re trying to account for in our model.”

In contrast to the 2023 findings, connectivity appears to be critical for inferring neuronal responses, the preprint shows. When Creamer used a model that was not constrained to the connectome, or used a scrambled connectivity map, the model performed poorly.

The findings “provide evidence that there is a causal relationship between the anatomical and functional connectome, which I believe could be a significant advance,” says Hannes Buelow, professor of neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who was not involved in either study.

But only the model knows where that causality is coming from, Buelow says. Testing a slice of the connectome—such as the sensory system, which contains signaling pathways that are relatively well understood—could reveal causal interactions, he says.

It’s unclear, however, the extent to which extrasynaptic signaling contributes to neuronal responses. That the model could replicate most signals using the connectome implies that wireless communication constitutes only a fraction of neuronal responses.

Although wireless signaling might not account for most neuronal communication in worms, “for any individual connection it may be very important,” Creamer says. And variability in neuronal responses between animals could underestimate how much signaling occurs outside of synapses, he adds.

Training the model using functional data from a larger number of animals, which could better account for the variability, might reveal a more significant role for extrasynpatic signaling. For now, Leifer and his team plan to use optical sensors to measure neuropeptide flow following neuronal stimulation, he says.

And understanding that variability—why different neurons respond to stimulation of the same cell in different, but genetically identical, animals—could reveal how internal processes influence neuronal interactions. Inducing a particular internal state, such as hunger or arousal, in the worm and observing how signaling patterns change is another “exciting future direction,” Leifer says.

The team hopes that the work will provide a blueprint for similar investigations in other organisms, Leifer says. The complete fly connectome, published in 2024, could be used together with new recordings of rapid neuronal activity to model that organism’s brain function, he says.

On the evening of September 7, the second (and final) total lunar eclipse of the year will take place—serving up the striking sight of a red “blood moon” in the sky across much of the world.

Total lunar eclipses occur when the Earth is positioned between the full moon and the sun, with the moon falling into the shadow of our planet. However, rather than disappearing into darkness, the shadowed moon instead turns red. This is because of a phenomenon called Rayleigh scattering.

Visible sunlight, while it appears white, is actually made up of lights of different colors that have different wavelengths, and these interact differently with Earth’s atmosphere when passing through it. During a lunar eclipse, shorter wavelengths of visible light, toward the blue end of the visible spectrum, scatter outward, away from the region shadowed by the Earth. But those with longer wavelengths, toward the red part of the spectrum, are instead bent inward and cast into the shadowed region—and onto the surface of the moon.

This year’s first lunar eclipse, back in March, was best viewed from the United States, but unfortunately if you’re in the Americas you’re going to miss seeing the blood moon live this time. The totality phase of this September’s eclipse—when the moon is within Earth’s shadow and will appear a deep red—will be visible across Asia, central and eastern Africa, and Australia. These maps from Timeanddate.com show where on the planet the total eclipse can be seen.

The totality phase will begin at 17:30 UTC on September 7, with the moment of maximum eclipse coming roughly 40 minutes later, at 18:11 UTC, and totality then ending an additional 40 minutes later. Before and after totality, the moon will be partially eclipsed, becoming first more and then less shadowed. Timeanddate.com has a city lookup tool as well, where you can enter your location to find the timings of the eclipse for where you are.

If you’re not in a viewing zone but still want to watch live, the Virtual Telescope Project—conceived and coordinated by Italian astrophysicist Gianluca Masi—will provide a live broadcast of the eclipse and blood moon on YouTube.

This total lunar eclipse will occur just under three days before the moon reaches perigee, the point at which it is closest to Earth, which means that it appear slightly larger than average during the event.

After September 7, the next total lunar eclipse won’t happen until early March 2026—but luckily for those in the US, it will be visible in North America, Australia, and east Asia.

This story originally appeared on WIRED Italia and has been translated from Italian.

Wondering what’s happening with the moon right now? Wonder no more, we have all the details for the moon’s current phase in the lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon’s visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth. 

So, let’s see what’s happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 29.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Friday, Aug. 29, the moon phase is Waxing Crescent, and 34% will be lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Observation.

There’s a lot to see when you look up at the moon tonight. With no visual aids, look to the top right (bottom left if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere) to see the Mare Crisium, the Mare Fecunditatis, and the Mare Tranquillitatis.

With binoculars, you’ll also get a glimpse of the Endymion Crater, the Posidonius Crater, and the Mare Nectaris. If you have a telescope in your lineup, you’ll also spot the Apollo 11, Apollo 17, and the Rupes Altai,

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon – The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Wondering what’s happening with the moon right now? Wonder no more, we have all the details for the moon’s current phase in the lunar cycle.

The lunar cycle is a series of eight unique phases of the moon’s visibility. The whole cycle takes about 29.5 days, according to NASA, and these different phases happen as the Sun lights up different parts of the moon whilst it orbits Earth.

So, let’s see what’s happening with the moon tonight, Aug. 29.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Friday, Aug. 29, the moon phase is Waxing Crescent, and 34% will be lit up to us on Earth, according to NASA’s Daily Moon Observation.

There’s a lot to see when you look up at the moon tonight. With no visual aids, look to the top right (bottom left if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere) to see the Mare Crisium, the Mare Fecunditatis, and the Mare Tranquillitatis.

With binoculars, you’ll also get a glimpse of the Endymion Crater, the Posidonius Crater, and the Mare Nectaris. If you have a telescope in your lineup, you’ll also spot the Apollo 11, Apollo 17, and the Rupes Altai,

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Sept. 7. The last full moon was on Aug. 9.

What are moon phases?

According to NASA, moon phases are caused by the 29.5-day cycle of the moon’s orbit, which changes the angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Moon phases are how the moon looks from Earth as it goes around us. We always see the same side of the moon, but how much of it is lit up by the Sun changes depending on where it is in its orbit. This is how we get full moons, half moons, and moons that appear completely invisible. There are eight main moon phases, and they follow a repeating cycle:

New Moon – The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it’s invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent – A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter – Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous – More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon – The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous – The moon starts losing light on the right side.

Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent – A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

Pregnant women in developing countries are at risk of experiencing multiple forms of violence, including physical, sexual, and psychological abuse, often perpetrated by intimate partners. These forms of violence can have adverse consequences for both maternal and fetal health. The current study revealed that more than half of the studied women (58.8%) had experienced violence. The results align with Fekadu et al.¹⁶, who observed a prevalence rate of 58.7%, and Padmasri et al.¹⁷, who discovered a prevalence of 52.8%. On the other hand, Nejatizade et al.¹⁸ reported a lower prevalence of 30.3%. Different sampling techniques, cultural norms, sociodemographic characteristics, and determinants of women’s health and social empowerment are some of the variables that may have an impact on these variations in prevalence rates. In addition, participants’ willingness to disclose experiences of domestic violence during pregnancy may be influenced by feelings of shame, fear of societal judgment, and concerns about how their families, partners, and community perceive them.

In our study, psychological violence was found to be the most prevalent form of domestic violence among pregnant women, affecting 44.2% followed by physical, and the least common form of violence was sexual. These findings are consistent with previous research, as shown by Elkhateeb et al.⁸ and Modiba et al.¹⁹. However, Ayeni and Tekbaş²⁰ found that sexual violence is more frequent among violent acts.

Violence against pregnant women is influenced by various factors. In contrast, Rayhan et al.²¹ reported that long-term married women are less likely to face violence. This discrepancy may be explained by contextual differences. In our study context, prolonged marriages might result in a cumulative exposure to stressors or entrenched patterns of conflict that escalate over time.

Addressing the effect of demographic factors, our study found that uneducated, non-working women in insufficient income families experience higher rates of violence, a finding in agreement with Ayeni and Tekbaş²⁰ and Finnbogadóttir^a et al.²². Similarly, a meta-analysis carried out by Nabaggala et al.²³ assessing educational disparities in IPV prevalence among ever-partnered women in sub-Saharan Africa found significantly higher violence rates among those with lower education levels. Furthermore, Agarwal et al.²⁴ in a comprehensive review of that issue mentioned that women who have a low level of education or low income may be at a higher risk of experiencing IPV during pregnancy. These findings can be attributed to the fact that education empowers women with knowledge of their rights and psychological resilience, while unemployed pregnant women face increased violence risk due to financial dependence, isolation, limited support, and stress, making it harder to seek protection.

In Egypt, traditional gender roles, family-centered norms, and stigma often prevent women from disclosing abuse, particularly during pregnancy. According to the 2005 Egyptian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), 47% of ever-married women reported having experienced physical violence since the age of 15. Supporting this, the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights reported in 2008 that violence against women was on the rise^25,26.

Violence during pregnancy could have severe consequences, The current research reported that violence is associated with a significant increase in multiple maternal complications which aligns with the systematic review and meta-analysis done by Raziani et al.²⁷ which highlighted an association between overall IPV scores and an increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes, including premature rupture of membranes (PROM), unwanted pregnancy, pre-eclampsia, miscarriage, cesarean section, and vaginal bleeding. Additionally, a scoping review by Finnbogadóttir^b et al.²⁸ on the consequences of violence on pregnancy and childbirth found that women with such a history face a higher risk of common pregnancy-related complaints, hospitalization, fear of childbirth, cesarean section, and both physical and mental health complications.

Moreover, Violence during pregnancy has been linked to adverse fetal outcomes. Our results found that women who experienced violence had higher rates of preterm birth, fetal distress, and LBW. These findings are consistent with those of Melaku et al.²⁹, who reported that women exposed to domestic violence had a fourfold higher risk of preterm birth and a 2.5-fold higher risk of perinatal death compared to unexposed women. Supporting our results, a systematic review and meta-analysis of 50 studies across 17 countries by Donovan et al.³⁰ found that women subjected to IPV exhibited elevated levels of stress-related hormones, contributing to preterm birth and LBW. Similar conclusions were drawn by Pastor-Moreno et al.³¹ in their review of 39 studies. However, in contrast, Al Shidhani et al.³² found no significant association between domestic violence and adverse birth outcomes. Fetal complications may be explained by a hypothesis proposed by Noormohamadi et al.³³, suggesting that vasoconstriction—triggered by the activation of the pituitary, adrenal, and sympathetic nervous systems in response to violence—can reduce uterine-placental blood flow. This reduction may lead to fetal hypoxia, increasing the risk of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) and LBW.

Limitations

This study has some limitations. Underreporting of violence is possible due to its sensitive nature, and recall bias may have affected the accuracy of participants’ responses. The hospital-based sampling may introduce selection bias, excluding women who use private facilities. Additionally, loss to follow-up, particularly among women delivering in other hospitals or who can’t be reached by phone, may have affected postpartum data completeness.