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Perseverance Reveals How Complex Water Systems Shaped the Jezero Crater on Early Mars
A new study reveals that Jezero Crater’s enigmatic ‘Margin Unit’ was shaped by a complex sequence of ancient lakes, groundwater systems, and hydrothermal fluids.
Swiss Engineers Just Designed a Better 'Shock Absorber' for Spacecraft
Rocket launches are some of the most violent travel methods man has ever created. They generate millions of pounds of thrust and convert that into intense g-forces. Humans must undergo serious training to withstand those experiences, but machines have to do so as well, but by design rather than…
Stanford Engineers Teach Spacecraft to "Dream" Their Way to the Space Station
Docking with the ISS may seem simple. However, actually doing so is a showcase in how difficult orbital mechanics can be. It’s equivalent to traveling down a highway at 28,000 km/hr and parallel parking into an open garage on a multi-billion dollar laboratory traveling at the same speed. If you try…
Strange Galaxies in the Early Universe Were Shaped by Weird Stars
Galaxies and their stars in the early Universe look a lot weirder than those we see today, and astronomers want to know why. A team of researchers at the University of Utah decided to survey certain stars in nearby galaxies as analogs of those that existed when the Universe was still in its…
New Lunar Crater Offers Keys To Moon’s Shallow Subsurface
Asteroids which strike the Moon and create new craters offer lunar scientists a window onto the workings of our natural satellite’s shallow subsurface.
JUICE Mission to Swing by Earth on September 28
The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) will return to Earth on 28 September, with flight controllers guiding the spacecraft close to our home planet to alter its speed and direction en route to Jupiter.
Following Neptune Through Opposition 2026
Never seen Neptune for yourself? Late September 2026 presents an ideal opportunity to cross the outermost ice giant off of your ‘life list,’ as the planet reaches opposition for 2026, rising opposite to the setting Sun and riding high to the south towards local midnight.
Astronomers Directly Image the Youngest Exoplanet Ever
Most exoplanets we find have been around a long time. They’ve cleared out their orbital path (one of the requirements of planethood, as fans of Pluto well know), have their own gravitational pull, and in many cases shine with their own infrared light. But it takes a long time to get to that point…
How Diffractive Solar Sails Could Stop a Killer Asteroid at 100 km/s
Asteroids don’t come with a warning label that they might one day hit Earth. While we don’t know of any currently on course to do so, we are finding thousands of new ones each year, and there’s always a potential that one could. We proved a viable technique for dealing with that eventuality - the…
SKA May Detect Magnetic Fields on Distant Exoplanets
Studying exoplanets has provided astronomers with a plethora of insights regarding what characteristics need to be searched to find life beyond Earth. For the longest time, astronomers merely thought an exoplanet in a star’s habitable zone was a sufficient criterion for an Earth-like world…
First Diagnostic X-Rays in Space Mark New Era for Astronaut Health
A team of researchers acquired the first diagnostic X-ray images during a commercial spaceflight, demonstrating that X-ray medicine can be performed in space.
3I/ATLAS Has An Extreme Taste For Heavy Water
More and more details about 3I/ATLAS are filtering through the scientific process as time goes on. Our third known interstellar visitor attracted the attention of some of the most powerful observatories in the world when it was discovered in July 2025, and some of those telescopes found something…
Space Rocks Carry Hundreds of Thousands of Complex Organic Molecules—and We Just Photographed Them
Scientists have known for a while that meteorites contain the “building blocks” of life - complex organic molecules such as amino acids, simple sugars, or even the chemical rungs of DNA. But anyone who has taken an organic chemistry class knows there are plenty of other carbon-based molecules out…
A Rare, Distant Clump of Early Galaxies Reveals Ancient Cosmic Secrets
The discovery of a very early and rare proto-supercluster of infant galaxies may help give clues to the formation of such clusters and their connection to the Cosmic Web.
Smashed Icy Moons Cool Too Rapidly to Retain Oceans
There are more than 450 confirmed moons orbiting the eight major planets, but only a handful of them provide unique scientific value to pique the interests of the scientific community, specifically their potential for hosting life as we know it. This is due to the subsurface oceans that exist…
Scientists Release Details About Moon's New Massive Crater
It's easy to think of the Moon as the static constant companion in the night sky. Its face hasn’t visibly changed in millennia, and always faces us with the same side. But looks can be deceiving, as our closest companion is constantly bombarded by asteroids and comets that make small craters across…
Earth's Center of Mass Drifts Less Than We Thought
Earth's center of mass isn't stationary. It drifts seasonally and over the course of years. A new study measures this down to the scale of millimeters and finds the seasonal drift is smaller than we thought.
Solar Orbiter Catches the Sun’s Missing High-Speed Vibrations
The Sun’s magnetic fields are a twisty, curvy, ever changing mess. In particular, our star’s polar regions host regions called polar coronal holes that host invisible magnetic highways that stretch out into interplanetary space. But there’s a lot we don’t know about how those highways actually…
Astronomers Uncover "Hypersoft" X-ray Sources
X-rays showcase some of the most unique astronomical objects in the universe. Neutron stars and black holes siphoning gas from companion stars stick out like sore thumbs at this level of radiation. However, according to a new paper by Mustafa Muhibullah and Jimmy Irwin from the University of…
The Sun Is Physically Capable of Producing a "Superflare" According To A New Study
We have long known that the Sun is active. It “flares” quite often, sending huge amounts of energy off in a certain direction - sometimes directly at Earth. But we also know that, compared to other Sun-like stars, it seems relatively quiet, and not capable of producing the “superflares” we…
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