Space Exploration News

The North Pole Dome crater: (A) simplified map of the East Pilbara Terrane (EPT, Western Australia), showing Paleoarchean granite domes (pink) and greenstone belts (greens and blues); the North Pole Dome (NPD) lies near the terrane center; (B) geological map of the NPD and the shatter-cone field (yellow star); (C) A quartz (Qtz)-carbonate vein cutting shatter-cone lineation. Image credit: Kirkland et al., doi: 10.1130/G54866.1.

Australia’s North Pole Dome Crater is Earth’s Oldest and Only Known Archean Impact Structure

Jun 25, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Zircon crystals and impact-altered minerals show that a massive asteroid slammed into what is now the Pilbara region of Western Australia about 3 billion...

The asteroid Donaldjohanson is composed of two heavily cratered lobes, connected by a smoother neck, with overall dimensions 8.8 km by 4.4 km by 3.1 km. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / SwRI / Dan Gallagher.

Asteroid Donaldjohanson is Wobbly, Peanut-Shaped Object with Watery Past, Scientists Say

Jun 22, 2026 by News Staff

The main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, a heavily cratered fragment born from a catastrophic breakup 155 million years ago, appears to wobble through space...

This artist’s impression shows radar waves from NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar pinging Europa; the radar waves penetrate Europa’s icy surface before bouncing back to be collected by NSF’s Green Bank Telescope on Earth. Image credit: NSF / AUI / NSF’s NRAO / P.Vosteen.

Radar Observations Reveal New Clues about Europa’s Hidden Interior

Jun 17, 2026 by News Staff

Using NASA’s Goldstone Solar System Radar and NSF’s Green Bank Telescope, astronomers from the University of California, Los Angeles, confirmed that...

XRF map of 7.53 g slice of NWA 12593: calcium (Ca) and iron (Fe) illustrate the location and diversity of clasts; sulfur (S) highlights the location of cracks and terrestrial weathering. Image credit: Crow et al., doi: 10.1130/G54386.1.

Lunar Meteorite Preserves Evidence of Colossal Asteroid Strike

Jun 10, 2026 by News Staff

Planetary scientists analyzing a lunar meteorite known as Northwest Africa (NWA) 12593 have uncovered evidence of an asteroid impact that occurred 3.5...

As planets and stars travel through the streams of charged particles flowing across space, their magnetic fields act like obstacles; incoming particles are slowed and deflected, forming a boundary called the bow shock; just ahead of this boundary lies the foreshock, a variable region where magnetic conditions can accelerate some particles to nearly the speed of light. Image credit: Ben C. Smith, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Jupiter Accelerates Electrons to Near-Light Speed, Offering Clues to Cosmic Ray Origins

Jun 5, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The giant planet’s bow shock isn’t just deflecting the solar wind, it’s acting as a powerful particle accelerator, firing electrons to relativistic...

This is an artist impression of the protoplanetary disk around HD 107146. Image credit: A. Angelich / NRAO / AUI / NSF.

Meteorite Found in Africa Preserves Evidence of Long-Lost Massive Protoplanet

Jun 2, 2026 by News Staff

The Northwest Africa (NWA) 12774, an angrite meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert, likely in Mauritania, appears to be a fragment of a vanished protoplanet,...

An artistic representation of the Zwan-Wolf effect at Mars, as observed by NASA’s MAVEN mission. Image credit: LASP / CU Boulder.

MAVEN Detects Rare Atmospheric Effect on Mars

May 19, 2026 by News Staff

New observations from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft reveal that the Zwan-Wolf effect — a phenomenon once thought...

This is an artist's impression of a water-vapor geyser on Europa. Image credit: University of Cologne.

Do Europa’s Water Plumes Really Exist? New Study Reopens Debate

May 18, 2026 by News Staff

New research led by planetary scientists from Southwest Research Institute and KTH Royal Institute of Technology suggests that evidence for vapor erupting...

In November 2025, 3I/ATLAS passed between ESA’s Juice spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Southwest Research Institute.

Europa Clipper and Juice Team Up to Observe Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

May 13, 2026 by News Staff

When the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS passed between ESA’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) spacecraft and NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft in November...

Space junk begins to fall down much faster once the Sun’s activity across the solar cycle reaches approximately 67% of its peak.

Space Junk Falls Faster When Sun Heats Up, New Study Finds

May 6, 2026 by News Staff

Space debris — ranging from defunct satellites and discarded rocket stages to fragments from collisions — poses an ever-increasing threat to...

Juno captured this view of Thebe during a close flyby on May 1, 2026. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Juno Snaps Rare Close-Up of Jupiter’s Shadowy Moon Thebe

May 6, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured a new view of the irregular moon Thebe during a May 1 flyby, revealing the battered world from just 5,000 km away. Juno...

Hubble’s photo of Jupiter displays the ever-changing landscape of its turbulent atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Amy Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Michael H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Jupiter is Little Smaller Than We Thought

May 4, 2026 by News Staff

Using data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have produced the most precise measurements of Jupiter’s size in half a century and found...

A close-up of three holes Curiosity drilled into Martian rock at a location nicknamed Mary Anning in October 2020. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Curiosity Reveals Richest Trove of Organic Molecules Yet on Mars

Apr 22, 2026 by News Staff

NASA’s Curiosity rover has detected more than 20 carbon-containing compounds — including seven never before seen on Mars — in a sample collected...

This image shows the Amapari Marker Band, a winding region where NASA’s Curiosity rover discovered unexpected signs of an ancient lake. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Curiosity Finds Chemical Traces of Ancient Shallow Lake in Gale Crater

Apr 22, 2026 by News Staff

Using data from the ChemCam instrument on NASA’s Curiosity rover, planetary scientists found minerals with high amounts of iron, manganese, and zinc...

Illustration taken from orbiter data identifying the coastal shelf region on Mars; analogous features on Earth are signatures of our global oceans, and only form over long periods of time. Image credit: A. Zaki.

Newly-Identified Geological Feature Points to Vast, Long-Dried Up Ocean in Northern Plains of Mars

Apr 20, 2026 by News Staff

A continent-like shelf beneath the Martian surface hints that a vast ocean once covered up to a third of Mars, reshaping the long-running debate over its...

This colorful view of Mercury was produced by using images from the color base map imaging campaign during MESSENGER’s primary mission. These colors are not what Mercury would look like to the human eye, but rather the colors enhance the chemical, mineralogical, and physical differences between the rocks that make up the planet’s surface. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury’s Sulfur-Rich Magma May Rewrite How Solar System’s Innermost Planet Formed

Apr 15, 2026 by News Staff

New research from Rice University suggests sulfur keeps Mercury’s interior molten at lower temperatures, offering new clues to how the planet’s strange...

Jupiter (lower left) has a strong magnetic field which creates a cavity in its circumplanetary disk; Saturn (upper right) lacks a strong magnetic field so its circumplanetary disk evolves without a cavity. Image credit: Yuri I. Fujii / L-INSIGHT / Kyoto University / Shinichiro Kinoshita.

Jupiter’s Strong Magnetic Field May Explain Why It Has So Many Large Moons

Apr 7, 2026 by News Staff

The Jovian system has four large moons, including the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, whereas the Saturnian system is dominated by one giant...

This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 images collected on December 2, 2018 by OSIRIS-REx’s PolyCam instrument from a range of 15 miles (24 km). Image credit: NASA / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / University of Arizona.

Asteroid Bennu’s Minerals and Organic Matter Occur in Distinct Chemical Domains: Study

Apr 6, 2026 by News Staff

A new nanoscale analysis of the Bennu sample OREX-800066-3 returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission shows that organic compounds and minerals cluster into...

Illustration of the predicted hexagonal carbon hydride compound under Neptune-like interior conditions. In this structure, carbon forms the outer spiral chains (yellow) and hydrogen forms the inner spiral chains (blue), consistent with the quasi-one-dimensional superionic behavior identified in first-principles simulations. Image credit: Cong Liu.

New Form of Matter May Lurk Deep Inside Uranus and Neptune

Apr 6, 2026 by News Staff

New computational simulations suggest ice-giant planets like Uranus and Neptune harbor a quasi-one-dimensional superionic state of carbon hydride that...