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Space

Jupiter’s moon Europa has a seafloor that may be quiet and lifeless

By Chris Woolston The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, yet none have captured the interest and imagination of astronomers and space scientists quite like Europa, an ice-shrouded world that is thought to possess a vast ocean of liquid salt water. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar system bodies to explore. A new study led by Paul Byrne, an associate professor of Earth, environmental, and planetary sciences, throws cold water on the idea that Europa could ...

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Space

Earliest, hottest galaxy cluster gas on record could change our cosmological models

An international team of astronomers led by Canadian researchers has found something the universe wasn’t supposed to have: a galaxy cluster blazing with hot gas just 1.4 billion years after the Big Bang, far earlier and hotter than theory predicts. The result, published today in Nature, could upend current models of galaxy cluster formation, which predict such temperatures occur only in more mature, stable galaxy clusters later in the universe’s life. “We didn’t ...

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Space

Joint ground- and space-based observations reveal Saturn-mass rogue planet

Simultaneous ground- and space-based observations of a newly discovered free-floating planet have enabled direct measurement of its mass and distance from Earth, according to a new study. The findings offer insights into the diverse and dynamic pathways by which planets can be cast adrift into interstellar space. Although studies to date have only revealed a handful of such free-floating planets, detections are expected to increase in the coming years, particularly with the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope campaign that is scheduled for launch in 2027, ...

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Space

Numbers in our sights affect how we perceive space

Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have studied the relationship between numerical information in our vision, and how it affects our perception of space. Volunteers were asked to identify the center of lines and squares filled with numbers; how far they were from the true center revealed unexpected biases. Crucially, their work with squares showed how our perception of space is a complex interplay between “object-based” processing and our processing of numerical ...

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Space

ACA-SIM: A robust way to decode satellite signals over complex waters

A new study introduces ACA-SIM (atmospheric correction based on satellite–in situ matchup data), a neural-network-based atmospheric correction algorithm that uses real satellite–Aerosol Robotic Network-Ocean Color (AERONET-OC) matchups to improve the accuracy of atmospheric correction over coastal waters. By learning from real-world satellite radiance and in-situ reflectance data, ACA-SIM significantly reduces errors and striping artifacts in ocean color products, outperforming existing models in turbid water and complex-aerosol conditions such as the Bohai Sea, North Africa dust ...

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Space

Stardust study resets how life’s atoms spread through space

Starlight and stardust are not enough to drive the powerful winds of giant stars, transporting the building blocks of life through our galaxy. That’s the conclusion of a new study from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, of red giant star R Doradus. The result overturns a long-held idea about how the atoms needed for life are spread. “We thought we had a good idea of how the process worked. It turns out we were wrong. For us as scientists, that’s the most exciting result”, says Theo Khouri, astronomer at Chalmers and joint leader of the study. To understand the origins ...

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Space

Astronomers see fireworks from violent collisions around nearby star

Young star systems are a place of violent collisions. Rocks, comets, asteroids and larger objects bounce off one another and occasionally coalesce, gradually turning the primordial dust and ice of a stellar nebula into planets and moons. The largest of these collisions, however, are expected to be rare over the hundreds of millions of years it takes to form a planetary system — perhaps one every 100,000 years. Now, astronomers have seen the aftermath of two powerful collisions within a 20-year ...

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Space

Cosmic crash caught on camera

In an unprecedented celestial event, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) captured the dramatic aftermath of colliding space rocks within a nearby planetary system. When astronomers initially spotted a bright object in the sky, they assumed it was a dust-covered exoplanet, reflecting starlight. But when the “exoplanet” disappeared and a new bright object appeared, the international team of astrophysicists — including Northwestern University’s Jason Wang — realized these were not planets at all. Instead, they were the illuminated remains of a cosmic fender bender. Two distinct, violent collisions generated two luminous clouds of debris in the ...

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Space

Europa Clipper instrument uniquely observed interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

SAN ANTONIO — December 18, 2025 — The Southwest Research Institute-led Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has made valuable observations of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which in July became the third officially recognized interstellar object to cross into our solar system. UVS had a unique view of the object during a period when Mars- and Earth-based observations were impractical or impossible. “We’re excited that this opportunity to view another target on the way to Jupiter was completely unexpected,” said SwRI’s Dr. Kurt Retherford, the principal investigator for Europa-UVS. ...

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Space

Colliding galaxies create the brightest, fastest growing black holes at their center

New data confirm that the titanic collisions of galaxies ignite the most powerful active galactic nuclei. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are phases in which supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies actively feed on matter and gas, beaming out light as they do so. Our own Milky Way has a supermassive black hole at its centre, but it is currently inactive. Mergers and interactions But we still don’t really understand how supermassive black holes form and evolve. Previous studies have shown that galaxy mergers could be part of the equation. Now, new high-quality data gathered by the Euclid satellite provide ...

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Space

NASA’s Webb telescope finds bizarre atmosphere on a lemon-shaped exoplanet

Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have observed an entirely new type of exoplanet whose atmospheric composition challenges our understanding of how this type of planet forms. This bizarre, lemon-shaped body, possibly containing diamonds at its core, blurs the line between planets and stars. Officially named PSR J2322-2650b, this object has an exotic helium-and-carbon-dominated atmosphere unlike any ever seen before. It has a mass about the same as Jupiter, but soot clouds float through the air—and deep within the planet, these carbon clouds can condense and form diamonds. It orbits a rapidly ...

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Space

Exploring the origins of the universe: 145 low-noise amplifiers complete ALMA telescopes

The Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) in the Chilean Andes is one of the most powerful radio telescope facilities in the world. Researchers use it to study dark and distant regions of the universe in order to better understand how stars, planets, galaxies and life itself are formed. To do this, ALMA measures the millimeter and submillimeter radiation emitted by cold molecular clouds, for example. Molecular clouds are interstellar gas clouds with a temperature of only a few tens of Kelvin, in which stars form when the density and temperature are right. ALMA has a total of 66 individual parabolic antennas with ...

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Space

World's first successful 2 Tbit/s free-space optical communication using small optical terminals mountable on satellites and HAPS

Highlights - World's first achievement of 2 Tbit/s free-space optical communication using small optical terminals that can be mounted on satellites and High Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) - Maintained stable optical communication between two types of small terminals separated by 7.4 km in an urban environment with atmospheric turbulence - Marked a major step forward in the practical application of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) for Beyond 5G/6G Abstract The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA ...

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Space

Clues to the origin of hot Jupiters hidden in their orbits

The first exoplanet ever discovered in 1995 was what we now call a “hot Jupiter”, a planet as massive as Jupiter with an orbital period of just a few days. Today, hot Jupiters are thought to have formed far from their stars—similar to Jupiter in our Solar System—and later migrated inward. Two main mechanisms have been proposed for this migration: (1) high-eccentricity migration, in which a planet’s orbit is disturbed by the gravity of other celestial bodies and subsequently circularized by tidal forces near the star; and (2) disk migration, in which ...

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Space

Mysterious X-ray variability of the strongly magnetized neutron star NGC 7793 P13

When gas falls onto a compact object, such as a neutron star or black hole, due to its strong gravity (a process called accretion), it emits electromagnetic waves. High-sensitivity observations have discovered objects with extremely high X-ray luminosities. One possible explanation for the ultraluminosity is that an extraordinary amount of gas falls onto a compact object through a process called supercritical accretion. However, the mechanism of supercritical accretion remains unclear. The research team focused on NGC 7793 P13 (hereafter, P13), which is a neutron star in supercritical accretion, ...

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Space

Rare image of Tatooine-like planet is closest to its twin stars yet

In a discovery that’s fit for a movie, Northwestern University astronomers have directly imaged a Tatooine-like exoplanet, orbiting two suns. While obtaining an image of a planet beyond our solar system is already rare, finding one that circles two suns is even rarer. But this new world is extra exceptional. It hugs its twin stars more tightly than any other directly imaged planet in a binary system. In fact, it is six times closer to its suns than other previously discovered exoplanets. The discovery provides an unprecedented look at how planets move and form around ...

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Space

Scientists detect atmosphere on molten rocky exoplanet - study

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected the strongest evidence yet for an atmosphere on a rocky planet outside our solar system. Observations of the ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b suggest the exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean. Publishing their findings today (11 Dec) in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, researchers say that the results help to explain the planet’s unusually low density and challenge the prevailing wisdom that relatively small planets so close ...

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Space

Satellite data helps UNM researchers map massive rupture of 2025 Myanmar earthquake

The March 28, 2025, Myanmar earthquake is giving scientists a rare look into how some of the world’s most dangerous fault systems behave, including California’s San Andreas Fault. Earthquakes are notoriously messy and complex, but this one struck along an unusually straight and geologically “mature” fault, creating near-ideal conditions for researchers to observe how the Earth releases energy during a major continental rupture. An international team of researchers led by The University ...

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Space

Lunar soil analyses reveal how space weathering shapes the Moon’s ultraviolet reflectance

SAN ANTONIO — December 10, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are collaborating with researchers at UT San Antonio to study how space weathering can alter the lunar surface materials to help interpret regional and global far-ultraviolet (FUV) maps of the Moon. The study looked at how such weathering influences the FUV spectral response. By analyzing just a few grains of returned samples from the Apollo missions, the team gained important insights into the evolution of the lunar surface shaped by solar wind and micrometeoroid impacts over eons, said SwRI’s Dr. Ujjwal Raut. Using modern instruments and investigative techniques, the team gleaned ...

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Space

Einstein’s theory comes wrapped up with a bow: astronomers spot star “wobbling” around black hole

The cosmos has served up a gift for a group of scientists who have been searching for one of the most elusive phenomena in the night sky. Their study, presented today in Science Advances, reports on the very first observations of a swirling vortex in spacetime caused by a rapidly rotating black hole. The process, known as Lense-Thirring precession or frame-dragging, describes how black holes twist the spacetime that surrounds them, dragging nearby objects like stars and wobbling their orbits along the way. The team, led by the National Astronomical Observatories at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and supported by Cardiff University, examined AT2020afhd, a tidal disruption event (TDE) ...

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Space

James Webb telescope reveals spectacular atmospheric escape

Astronomers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), the National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, and the Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (IREx) at the University of Montreal (UdeM) have made a striking discovery using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). For the very first time, scientists have continuously monitored the atmosphere escaping from an exoplanet throughout a complete orbit. The result: the gas giant WASP-121b is surrounded not by one, but by two immense helium tails ...

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Space

ICE-CSIC leads a pioneering study on the feasibility of asteroid mining

Much remains to be known about the chemical composition of small asteroids. Their potential to harbour valuable metals, materials from the early solar system, and the possibility of obtaining a geochemical record of their parent bodies makes them promising candidates for future use of space resources. A team led by the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) has analyzed samples of C-type asteroids, carbon-rich minor bodies of the Solar System, progenitors of the carbonaceous chondrites. Their findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, support the idea that these asteroids ...

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Space

New report outlines science priorities for human Mars exploration

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As humanity prepares to take its first steps on Mars, a comprehensive report released today (Dec. 9) from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and steered by scientists at Penn State lays out a detailed science strategy to guide the initial human missions to the red planet. The report, commissioned by NASA, identifies the highest priority scientific objectives for the missions as well as proposes four distinct mission campaigns designed to maximize the scientific return of the first three human landings on Mars. The report is intended ...

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Space

Flaring black hole whips up ultra-fast winds

Leading X-ray space telescopes XMM-Newton and XRISM have spotted a never-seen-before blast from a supermassive black hole. In a matter of hours, the gravitational monster whipped up powerful winds, flinging material out into space at eye-watering speeds of 60 000 km per second. The gigantic black hole lurks within NGC 3783, a beautiful spiral galaxy imaged recently by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers spotted a bright X-ray flare erupt from the black hole before swiftly fading away. As it faded, fast winds emerged, raging at one-fifth of the speed of light. “We’ve not watched a black ...

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Space

Record-breaking cosmic explosion challenges astronomers’ understanding of gamma-ray bursts

Astronomers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have helped uncover new clues about the longest-lasting cosmic explosion ever observed, a gamma-ray burst that lasted nearly seven hours. The event, known as GRB 250702B, challenges decades of understanding about how and why these bursts occur. Gamma-ray bursts are intense flashes of high-energy light produced by catastrophic cosmic events, usually lasting just a few seconds or minutes. But GRB 250702B broke all known records. After its initial detection by space-based observatories, researchers used some of the world’s largest ground-based telescopes ...

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