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Categories: Space: Exploration, Space: The Solar System
Published Scientists call for global push to eliminate space junk


As almost 200 countries agree a legally-binding treaty to protect the High Seas, a collaboration of experts in ocean plastic pollution and satellite technology has urged world leaders to learn lessons from the management of the High Seas and act now to protect Earth's orbit.
Published ALMA traces history of water in planet formation back to the interstellar medium


Observations of water in the disk forming around protostar V883 Ori have unlocked clues about the formation of comets and planetesimals in our own solar system.
Published How does the immune system react to altered gravity?


Space travel has always tested the human body by the effects of the new conditions of altered gravity on biological systems. It has long been known that continuous exposure to microgravity conditions human physiology and causes effects that compromise muscular, sensory, endocrine and cardiovascular functions. But is it also risky to be exposed to altered gravity for short periods of time?
Published Flat, pancake-sized metalens images lunar surface in an engineering first


Astronomers and amateurs alike know the bigger the telescope, the more powerful the imaging capability. To keep the power but streamline one of the bulkier components, a research team created the first ultrathin, compact metalens telescope capable of imaging far-away objects, including the moon.
Published The planet that could end life on Earth


A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a recent experiment.
Published Can artificial intelligence help find life on Mars or icy worlds?


Researchers have mapped the sparse life hidden away in salt domes, rocks and crystals at Salar de Pajonales at the boundary of the Chilean Atacama Desert and Altiplano. Then they trained a machine learning model to recognize the patterns and rules associated with their distributions so it could learn to predict and find those same distributions in data on which it was not trained. In this case, by combining statistical ecology with AI/ML, the scientists could locate and detect biosignatures up to 87.5 percent of the time and decrease the area needed for search by up to 97 percent.
Published DART impact provided real-time data on evolution of asteroid's debris


When asteroids suffer natural impacts in space, debris flies off from the point of impact. The tail of particles that form can help determine the physical characteristics of the asteroid. NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test mission in September 2022 gave a team of scientists a unique opportunity -- to observe the evolution of an asteroid's ejecta as it happened.
Published Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick inspires robotic exploration of caves on Mars and beyond


Future space missions likely will send robots to scout out underground habitats for astronauts. Engineers have now developed a system that would enable autonomous vehicles to explore caves, lava tubes and even oceans on other worlds on their own.
Published Hubble captures movie of DART asteroid impact debris


In 2022 NASA embarked on a bold experiment to see if they could change an asteroid's velocity by smacking it with a ballistic probe -- kind of like hitting it with a hammer. This experiment was to test a potential technique to someday deflect an asteroid on a collision course to Earth. Perhaps, for the first time in the history of the universe, an intelligent planetary species sought ways to avoid its own potential extinction by threats from outer space (something the dinosaurs, who were wiped out 65 million years ago by a rogue asteroid, never evolved to accomplish).
Published New NASA DART data prove viability of asteroid deflection as planetary defense strategy


Astronomers offer new insight into how deflection missions can protect the planet from future Earth-bound asteroids and comets.
Published AI draws most accurate map of star birthplaces in the Galaxy


Scientists identified about 140,000 molecular clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy from large-scale data of carbon monoxide molecules, observed in detail by the Nobeyama 45-m radio telescope. Using artificial intelligence, the researchers estimated the distance of each of these molecular clouds to determine their size and mass, successfully mapping the distribution of the molecular clouds in the Galaxy in the most detailed manner to date.
Published Baby star near the black hole in the middle of our Milky Way: It exists after all


Scientists have detected the heaviest and youngest infant star ever discovered close to the black hole at the center of our Galaxy. They also identified the region where this 'impossible star' may have formed.
Published Liquid nitrogen spray could clean up stubborn moon dust


A liquid nitrogen spray can remove almost all of the simulated moon dust from a space suit, potentially solving what is a significant challenge for future moon-landing astronauts.
Published Galactic explosion offers astrophysicists new insight into the cosmos


Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope's first year of interstellar observation, an international team of researchers was able to serendipitously view an exploding supernova in a faraway spiral galaxy.
Published Astronomers discover metal-rich galaxies in early universe


While analyzing data from the first images of a well-known early galaxy taken by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers discovered a companion galaxy previously hidden behind the light of the foreground galaxy -- one that surprisingly seems to have already hosted multiple generations of stars despite its young age, estimated at 1.4 billion years old.
Published A mysterious object is being dragged into the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center


An object near the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy has drawn the interest of scientists because it has evolved dramatically in a relatively short time. A new study suggests that the object, called X7, could be a cloud of dust and gas that was created when two stars collided. The researchers believe it will eventually be drawn toward the black hole and will disintegrate.
Published New discovery sheds light on very early supermassive black holes


Astronomers have discovered a rapidly growing black hole in one of the most extreme galaxies known in the very early Universe. The discovery of the galaxy and the black hole at its center provides new clues on the formation of the very first supermassive black holes.
Published Discovery of massive early galaxies defies prior understanding of the universe


Six massive galaxies discovered in the early universe are upending what scientists previously understood about the origins of galaxies in the universe.
Published How one of Saturn's moons ejects particles from oceans beneath its surface


Enceladus, the sixth largest of Saturn's moons, is known for spraying out tiny icy silica particles -- so many of them that the particles are a key component of the second outermost ring around Saturn. Scientists have not known how that happens or how long the process takes. A study now shows that tidal heating in Enceladus' core creates currents that transport the silica, which is likely released by deep-sea hydrothermal vents, over the course of just a few months.
Published Why do Earth's hemispheres look equally bright when viewed from space?


When seen from space, Earth's hemispheres -- northern and southern -- appear equally bright. For years, the brightness symmetry between hemispheres remained a mystery. In a new study, researchers reveal a strong correlation between storm intensity, cloudiness and the solar energy reflection rate in each hemisphere. They offer a solution to the mystery, alongside an assessment of how climate change might alter the reflection rate in the future.