Space Exploration News

Scientists May Have Solved Mystery about Uranus’ Radiation Belts

Allen et al. compared space weather impacts of a fast solar wind structure (first panel) driving an intense solar storm at Earth in 2019 (second panel) with conditions observed at Uranus by Voyager 2 in 1986 (third panel) to potentially solve a 39-year-old mystery about the extreme radiation belts found. Image credit: SwRI.
Dec 9, 2025 by News Staff

In 1986, NASA’s Voyager 2 provided the only direct measurement of the radiation environment at Uranus. These findings established the well-accepted characterization of a system with a weaker ion radiation belt and surprisingly intense electron radiation belt. However, these observations may not have occurred during normal conditions. In a new study, Southwest Research Institute scientists compared the Voyager 2 observations to a similar event observed...

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This image from ESA’s Juice spacecraft shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: ESA / Juice / NavCam / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

ESA’s Juice Spacecraft Beams Back New Image of 3I/ATLAS

Dec 4, 2025 by News Staff

During November 2025, ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) used five of its science instruments to observe 3I/ATLAS, the second interstellar comet...

Psyche acquired four observations of 3I/ATLAS over the course of eight hours on September 8 and 9, 2025. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / ASU.

Psyche Observes Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Dec 3, 2025 by Natali Anderson

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft have acquired new images of 3I/ATLAS, the third object and the second comet from outside the Solar System confirmed. Psyche...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission to explore the asteroid Bennu and return a sample to Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Bio-Essential Sugars in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Japan has analyzed an extract from a sample of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu collected by NASA’s...

Mastcam-Z landscape and multispectral images of light-toned float rocks atop the Jezero crater Margin Unit near the Hans Amundson Memorial workspace (Sol 912) demonstrating the spectral diversity of this material. Image credit: Broz et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02856-3.

Mars Was Warmer, Wetter Millions of Years Ago, Planetary Scientists Say

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered several thousand small, light-toned rock fragments, or float rocks, with some exhibiting spectral signatures...

Detection of electric discharges in dust devils by the SuperCam instrument on board NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. Image credit: Nicolas Sarter.

Perseverance Detects Triboelectric Discharges during Martian Dust Devils and Storms

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using data captured by the SuperCam microphone aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover over two Martian years, planetrary scientists have detected 55 triboelectric...

Physcomitrium patens spores survive simulated space conditions with high resilience. Image credit: Maeng et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113827.

Moss Can Survive Long-Term Exposure to Elements of Space, New Experiments Show

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Japan has tested protenemata (juvenile moss), brood cells (specialized stem cells that emerge under stress conditions) and sporophytes...

An artist’s impression of the collision between the proto-Earth and Theia. Image credit: MPS / Mark A. Garlick.

Moon-Forming Protoplanet Theia Originated from Inner Solar System, New Research Suggests

Nov 21, 2025 by News Staff

The Moon formed from a giant impact of the proto-Earth with the ancient protoplanet Theia. In a new study, a team of scientists from the United States,...

This image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured on October 3, 2025 by the CaSSIS instrument aboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter. Image credit: ESA / TGO / CaSSIS.

TGO Provides More Accurate Information about Path of 3I/ATLAS through Solar System

Nov 19, 2025 by News Staff

Thanks to the data collected by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) onboard ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft orbiting Mars,...

Panoramic aerial drone image of the Jinlin crater, taken on May 12, 2025. Image credit: Chen et al., doi: 10.1063/5.0301625.

Well-Preserved Impact Crater Discovered in China

Nov 13, 2025 by News Staff

Researchers have discovered an impact crater formed on a granite mountain capped by a thick weathering crust in southern China. Located in Zhaoqing in...

An artistic rendering of Kraken Mare, a large liquid methane sea on Titan. Image credit: NASA’s John Glenn Research Center.

Unexpected Mixture of Hydrogen Cyanide and Hydrocarbons May Exist on Saturn’s Moon Titan

Oct 21, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Titan offers great motivation for the detailed study of organic chemistry in unconventional conditions. Nonpolar hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane...

Two examples of Martian dunes with linear dune gullies: (a) linear dune gullies on a dune field in Galle crater; (b) linear dune gullies on a dune field in an unnamed crater in the center of Hellas Planitia. Image credit: Roelofs et al., doi: 10.1029/2024GL112860.

Martian ‘Linear Dune Gullies’ are Created by Sliding Blocks of Carbon Dioxide Ice, Researchers Find

Oct 14, 2025 by News Staff

On some of the dune fields on Mars, parallel channels, called linear dune gullies, are found. Contrary to their name these gullies are often highly sinuous....

Model depicting the importance of RNP condensate in mediating survival under Mars-like stress condition. Image credit: Dhage et al., doi: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf300.

Baker’s Yeast Can Survive Mars-like Stress Conditions, New Study Shows

Oct 14, 2025 by News Staff

Exploring the possibility of the survival of life under extraterrestrial conditions is an important goal of astrobiology. In a new study, scientists used...

The South Pole-Aitken impact basin on the far side of the Moon formed in a southward impact. Image credit: Jeff Andrews-Hanna / University of Arizona / NASA / NAOJ.

Southward Impact Excavated Magma Ocean at Moon’s Biggest Crater: Study

Oct 9, 2025 by News Staff

Roughly 4.3 billion years ago, when our Solar System was still in its infancy, a giant asteroid slammed into the far side of the Moon, blasting an enormous...

Commander Eugene Cernan retrieves a drive tube from the Lunar Roving Vehicle during an Apollo 17 EVA. Image credit: NASA.

Lunar Samples Returned by Apollo 17 Contain Anomalous Sulfur, New Analysis Shows

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

The leading hypotheses for the origin of the Moon call for a giant impact event between proto-Earth and a separate impactor called Theia. The efficiency...

This artist’s painting of the south polar region of Enceladus shows massive jets of water ice being blasted into space. Image credit: Karl Kofoed / NASA.

Cassini Detects Organic Molecules in Freshly Ejected Ice Grains from Enceladus’ Ocean

Oct 7, 2025 by News Staff

Saturn’s moon Enceladus continuously ejects a plume of ice grains and gases originating from its subsurface ocean via fractures near its south pole....

Global map of the albedo from the 750 nm filter of the UV-VIS camera onboard NASA’s Clementine spacecraft. The image shows the near side and far side of the Moon in Lambert, equal-area projection. Image credit: NASA.

Moon’s Far Side is Colder than Near Side, New Research Suggests

Oct 6, 2025 by News Staff

The stark contrast between the Moon’s near side and far side in topography, volcanic activity and crustal structure provides critical insights into lunar...

Spectrally distinct units at the Juventae Plateau, Mars. Image credit: Bishop et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-61801-2.

Planetary Scientists Discover New Mineral on Mars

Oct 6, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-discovered mineral, named ferric hydroxysulfate, provides clues about the environment and history of the Red Planet, including the possibility...

This image from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Jezero Crater on Mars, the landing site for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission. On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / JHU-APL.

Jezero Crater Experienced Multiple Episodes of Fluid Activity, New Study Confirms

Sep 23, 2025 by News Staff

Minerals are the building blocks of rocks, and the types of minerals and their chemistry provide critical information about rock formation and history....

This image of the asteroid Ryugu was captured by the Optical Navigation Camera - Telescopic (ONC-T) on JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 spacecraft on June 26, 2018, from a distance of 13.7 miles (22 km). Image credit: JAXA / University of Tokyo / Kochi University / Rikkyo University / Nagoya University / Chiba Institute of Technology / Meiji University / Aizu University / AIST.

Liquid Water Once Flowed on Asteroid Ryugu’s Parent Body, Scientists Say

Sep 22, 2025 by News Staff

This water flow occurred on an ancient asteroid more than one billion years after its formation and was probably triggered by an impact that generated...

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