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Space

Philanthropic partnerships fund next-generation instruments for mid-sized telescopes

Two new research projects will bring new instruments to established astronomical observatories, expanding the capabilities of mid-sized telescopes and advancing studies of planet and star formation. The projects are the first to be supported under the Instrumentation for Astrophysics program, an initiative supported by The Kavli Foundation, the WoodNext Foundation, and philanthropist Kevin Wells. The awards total $4.8 million in philanthropic support. By pairing new technology with proven observatories, the program ...

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Space

Astronomers watch stars explode in real time through new images

Astronomers have captured unprecedented, detailed images of two stellar explosions—known as novae—within days of their eruption. The breakthrough provides direct evidence that these explosions are more complex than previously thought, with multiple outflows of material and, in some cases, dramatic delays in the ejection process. The international study, published in Nature Astronomy, used a cutting-edge technique called interferometry at the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, or CHARA, Array in California. This approach allowed scientists, including Michigan State University researcher Laura Chomiuk, to combine the light from multiple ...

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Space

Space shuttle lessons: Backtracks can create breakthroughs

What does the space shuttle have in common with the original iPhone? According to Francisco Polidoro Jr., professor of management of Texas McCombs, they’re both breakthrough inventions that integrate webs of interdependent features. In an iPhone, he notes, its size, weight, camera, and Wi-Fi capabilities influence one another. Push one feature too far, and the phone becomes heavier, bulkier, or more expensive. Companies can’t test each feature in isolation, and they can’t experiment ...

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Space

How sound moves on Mars

HONOLULU, Dec. 4, 2025 — Acoustic signals have been important markers during NASA’s Mars missions. Measurements of sound can provide information both about Mars itself — such as turbulence in its atmosphere, changes in its temperature, and its surface conditions — and about the movement of the Mars rovers. Using these sound measurements to the best extent possible requires an accurate understanding of how sound propagates on Mars. Charlie Zheng, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Utah State University, and his doctoral student Hayden Baird, who is partially sponsored by the Utah Space Grant Consortium Graduate ...

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Space

First discoveries from new Subaru Telescope program

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaiʻi have discovered a massive planet and a brown dwarf orbiting distant stars. The discoveries are the first results from OASIS (Observing Accelerators with SCExAO Imaging Survey), which combines space-based measurements with the Subaru Telescope’s advanced imaging to find hidden worlds. These discoveries in turn enable NASA’s upcoming Roman Space Telescope to test critical technologies for imaging Earth-like planets. Only about 1% of stars host massive planets and brown ...

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Space

Astronomers spot one of the largest spinning structures ever found in the Universe

UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 00:01 GMT THURSDAY 04 DECEMBER 2025 / 19:01 ET WEDNESDAY 3 DECEMBER 2025 An international team led by the University of Oxford has identified one of the largest rotating structures ever reported: a “razor-thin” string of galaxies embedded in a giant spinning cosmic filament, 140 million light-years away. The findings, published today (4 December) in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, could offer valuable new insights into how galaxies formed in the early Universe. Cosmic filaments are the largest known structures in the Universe: vast, ...

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Space

Groundbreaking simulations show how black holes glow bright

Surprisingly, some of the universe’s brightest objects are black holes. As scorching gas and dust flow around and into a black hole, they glow with fierce intensity across the light spectrum. Now, a team of computational astrophysicists has developed the most comprehensive simulations ever made of how black holes create these dazzling light shows. Using supercomputers, the researchers calculated the behavior of material zipping around black holes. Unlike all previous studies that relied on simplifying approximations, the researchers utilized a full treatment of how light moves and interacts with matter ...

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Space

Alaknanda: JWST discovers massive grand-design spiral galaxy from the universe's infancy

A spiral galaxy, shaped much like our Milky Way, has been found in an era when astronomers believed such well-formed galaxies could not yet exist. Two astronomers from India have identified a remarkably mature galaxy just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang—a discovery that challenges our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a powerful telescope capable of detecting extremely faint light from the early Universe. Using JWST, researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar ...

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Space

What time is it on Mars? NIST physicists have the answer

Ask someone on Earth for the time and they can give you an exact answer, thanks to our planet’s intricate timekeeping system, built with atomic clocks, GPS satellites and high-speed telecommunications networks. However, Einstein showed us that clocks don’t tick at the same rate across the universe. Clocks will run slightly faster or slower depending on the strength of gravity in their environment, making it tricky to synchronize our watches here on Earth, let alone across the vast solar system. If humans want to establish a long-term presence on the red planet, scientists ...

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Space

Findings suggest red planet was warmer, wetter millions of years ago

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Rocks that stood out as light-colored dots on the reddish-orange surface of Mars now are the latest evidence that areas of the small planet may have once supported wet oases with humid climates and heavy rainfall comparable to tropical climates on Earth. The rocks discovered by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover are white, aluminum-rich kaolinite clay, which forms on Earth after rocks and sediment are leached of all other minerals by millions of years of a wet, rainy climate. These ...

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Space

New SwRI laboratory to study the origins of planetary systems

SAN ANTONIO — December 1, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has created a new space science laboratory to enhance our understanding of the origins of planetary systems. SwRI’s Nebular Origins of the Universe Research (NOUR) Laboratory is led by SwRI Senior Research Scientist Dr. Danna Qasim. The laboratory will trace the chemical origins of planetary systems. Qasim is establishing a robust astrochemistry program within SwRI’s Space Science Division, connecting early cosmic chemistry to planetary evolution. The SwRI lab will give particular focus on the chemistry of interstellar ...

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Space

Tsunami from massive Kamchatka earthquake captured by satellite

A satellite deployed to measure ocean surface heights was up to the challenge when a massive earthquake off the Kamchatka Peninsula triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami in late July. The Surface Water Ocean Topography or SWOT satellite captured the first high-resolution spaceborne track of a great subduction zone tsunami, researchers report in The Seismic Record. The track shows an unexpectedly complex pattern of waves dispersing and scattering across the ocean basin, one that could help tsunami scientists better understand how these events propagate and how they could threaten coastal communities. Angel Ruiz-Angulo at the University of Iceland and ...

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Space

The DEVILS in the details: New research reveals how the cosmic landscape impacts the galaxy lifecycle

A team of astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) has released new data from an extensive galaxy evolution survey that found a galaxy’s ‘neighbourhood’ plays a major role in how it changes over time. The Deep Extragalactic Visible Legacy Survey, or DEVILS for short, has released its initial data and a series of recent publications explaining how a galaxy’s location in the Universe can significantly influence its evolution. The survey combines data ...

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Space

After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter

In the early 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed galaxies in space moving faster than their mass should allow, prompting him to infer the presence of some invisible scaffolding — dark matter — holding the galaxies together. Nearly 100 years later, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have provided direct evidence of dark matter, allowing the invisible matter to be “seen” for the very first time. Dark matter has remained largely a mystery since it was proposed so many years ago. Up to this point, scientists have only been able to indirectly observe ...

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Space

Cute little marsupials pack a punch at mealtimes

Native Australian animals range from high-hopping kangaroos to fast-running emus – but clever little bettongs also have a special ability to find and eat the food they love. Flinders University researchers have discovered the secrets behind a superpower of these tiny relatives of kangaroos which allows them to crack open seeds that would break the jaws of most animals. They hope the research will help conservation efforts, including finding suitable locations to reintroduce populations severely impacted by predation and habitat loss. The new study, published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, reveals ...

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Space

Modeling of electrostatic and contact interaction between low-velocity lunar dust and spacecraft

Due to the unique conditions of the space environment and abundant resources, the field investigation and study of the Moon, Earth’s sole natural satellite, represent a crucial milestone in China’s forthcoming deep space endeavors. The successful collection of lunar soil by the Chang’E-5 mission signifies the next phase of the lunar exploration program, which aims to establish a preliminary research station on the lunar south pole. Highly adhesive fine dust particles with an adhesion strength of 0.1 to 1.0 kN/m2, which originate from the regolith, ...

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Space

This moss survived 9 months directly exposed to the elements of space

Mosses thrive in the most extreme environments on Earth, from the peaks of the Himalayas to the sands of Death Valley, the Antarctic tundra to the lava fields of active volcanoes. Inspired by moss’s resilience, researchers sent moss sporophytes—reproductive structures that encase spores—to the most extreme environment yet: space. Publishing in the Cell Press journal iScience on November 20, their results show that over 80% of the spores survived 9 months outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and made it back to Earth still capable of reproducing, demonstrating for the first time that an early land plant can survive long-term exposure to the elements ...

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Space

Prediction of optic disc edema progression during spaceflight

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest crewmembers who did not develop optic disc edema (ODE) on flight day 30 were unlikely to develop clinically concerning ODE on flight day 150. The data suggest that optical coherence tomography imaging during spaceflight missions provides an opportunity to predict the magnitude of ODE that may develop during a longer-lasting mission. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Brandon R. Macias, PhD, email brandon.r.macias@nasa.gov. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The ...

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Space

Open spaces in cities may be hotspots for coyote-human interaction

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Open semi-natural settings in urban areas – like parks and golf courses teeming with plants and small mammals – are possible hotspots for interaction between coyotes and humans, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed times and locations in Chicago when coyotes were on the move at the same time people were working, socializing or otherwise occupied outside the home. The analysis showed that overlap of human and coyote activity would be far more probable in areas with a high proportion of open space and less likely to ...

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Space

New global satellite dataset for humanitarian routing and tracking infrastructure change

While many global road maps exist, few include detailed surface information or keep pace with rapid infrastructure change. The new HeiGIT dataset closes this gap by combining 3–4 meter resolution PlanetScope imagery (2020–2024) with deep-learning models to analyze 9.2 million kilometers of major transport routes connecting cities and rural regions. The result is a high-accuracy global classification (89.2%), outperforming widely used open datasets by over 20 percentage points. A central component of the dataset is the Humanitarian Passability Score — an index that combines surface type and ...

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Space

LHAASO uncovers mystery of cosmic ray "knee" formation

Milestone results released by the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) on November 16 have solved a decades-old mystery about the cosmic ray energy spectrum—which shows a sharp decrease in cosmic rays above 3 PeV, giving it an unusual knee-like shape. The cause of the "knee" has remained unclear since its discovery nearly 70 years ago. Scientists have speculated that it is linked to the acceleration limit of the astrophysical sources of cosmic rays and reflects the transition of the cosmic ray energy spectrum from one power-law distribution to another. Now, however, two recent studies—published in National ...

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Space

Chang'e-6 samples reveal first evidence of impact-formed hematite and maghemite on the Moon

A joint research team from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) and Shandong University has for the first time identified crystalline hematite (α-Fe2O3) and maghemite (γ-Fe2O3) formed by a major impact event in lunar soil samples retrieved by China's Chang'e-6 mission from the South Pole–Aitken (SPA) Basin. This finding, published in Science Advances on November 14, provides direct sample-based evidence of highly oxidized materials on the lunar surface. Redox reactions are a fundamental component of planetary formation and evolution. ...

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Space

Mechanical power by linking Earth’s warmth to space

Engineers at the University of California, Davis, have invented a device that can generate mechanical power at night by linking the natural warmth around us to the cold depths of space. The invention could be used, for example, to ventilate greenhouses or other buildings. The work is described Nov. 12 in Science Advances. The invention is a type of machine called a Stirling engine. Other machines such as internal combustion engines generate power from a large heat gradient, said Jeremy Munday, professor of electrical and ...

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Space

Mysterious ‘impossible’ merger of two massive black holes explained

In 2023, astronomers detected a huge collision. Two unprecedentedly massive black holes had crashed an estimated 7 billion light-years away. The enormous masses and extreme spins of the black holes puzzled astronomers. Black holes like these were not supposed to exist. Now, astronomers with the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) and their colleagues have figured out just how these black holes may have formed and collided. The astronomers’ comprehensive simulations — which follow the system from the lives of the parent stars through to their ultimate death — uncovered ...

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Space

Universe's expansion 'is now slowing, not speeding up'

Universe's expansion 'is now slowing, not speeding up' Royal Astronomical Society press release RAS PR 25/42 Embargoed until 00:01 GMT on Thursday 6 November The universe's expansion may actually have started to slow rather than accelerating at an ever-increasing rate as previously thought, a new study suggests. "Remarkable" findings published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society cast doubt on the long-standing theory that a mysterious force known as 'dark energy' is driving distant galaxies away increasingly faster. Instead, they show no evidence ...

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