Space News

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL Leaves the ISS After Nearly Six Months, With Deorbit Set for Oct. 11

Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL cargo ship, flying the CRS-24 resupply mission for NASA, was scheduled to depart the International Space Station on Oct. 9 after nearly six months docked. Flight controllers used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to detach it from the Earth-facing port of the Unity module and release it. Cygnus XL launched on a Falcon 9 from Cape Canaveral on April 11 and reached the station on April 13, delivering more than 11,000 pounds of science experiments, lab hardware and crew supplies. Before leaving it was loaded with trash and no-longer-needed cargo, and it is slated to deorbit on Sunday, Oct. 11, burning up harmlessly over the ocean. The departure frees a port on the station as Crew-13 settles in following Crew-12's return to Earth.

SpaceX Launches 21 Northrop Grumman Data-Transport Satellites for the Space Development Agency After Days of Delays

SpaceX launched 21 Northrop Grumman-built data-transport satellites for the U.S. Space Development Agency on Oct. 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, after an attempt on Oct. 5 was aborted in the final minute of the countdown and later dates slipped. The mission, Tranche 1 Transport Layer A, is the fourth to send production satellites to orbit for the agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture and joins 63 satellites already in orbit. It flew on Falcon 9 booster B1103 on its sixth flight. The finished Tranche 1 constellation is planned to include 126 transport satellites, 28 tracking satellites and four missile-defense demonstrators, linked by optical crosslinks, and is expected to start providing operational capability in 2027.

Dead Soviet Weather Satellite Meteor 2-7 Breaks Apart in Orbit, the Latest in a Run of Fragmentations

Space domain awareness company LeoLabs detected a debris-generating event at the known orbital position of Meteor 2-7, a defunct Soviet-era weather satellite, as it passed over one of its sites in Western Australia. The old satellite had already broken up once before, in March 2004. Experts say this is part of a worrying trend: a SpaceX Starlink satellite fragmented just over four months earlier, and a Russian inspector satellite disintegrated in geostationary orbit in January 2026. Debris specialists warn that persistent tracking is increasingly important as governments and companies plan to launch tens of thousands more satellites a year into huge megaconstellations, raising the odds that dead hardware creates new clouds of fragments.

Pioneer Labs Unveils sPL.001, a Microbe Evolved to Make Bioplastic From Simulated Martian Resources

Pioneer Labs, a nonprofit based in Emeryville, California, says it has built the first microbe engineered specifically for Mars. The strain, sPL.001, is an evolved isolate of the bacterium Cupriavidus necator that makes PHA bioplastic from simulated Martian resources: nutrients from regolith and acetate fixed electrochemically from the Martian atmosphere. In a preprint, the team reports more than three times the bioplastic yield of its parent strain under simulated Mars conditions. The work has only been done on Earth, the microbe depends on a steady acetate supply and cannot survive freely on Mars, and the group calls it the first of five organisms it envisions for eventually making the planet more hospitable. Some outside researchers see it more as a tool for making feedstock for 3D-printed building materials than a terraforming organism.

Canada's CHIME Telescope Detects the Faint Radio Glow of Hydrogen From Billions of Years Ago Using Only Its Own Data

Canada's CHIME radio telescope has detected the faint 21-centimeter glow of neutral hydrogen from roughly 8 to 9 billion years ago, a signal emitted when the universe was only about five billion years old. The result, published in The Astrophysical Journal, is the first time the technique known as hydrogen intensity mapping has found such a signal without cross-checking against an external galaxy survey. CHIME, near Penticton in British Columbia, scans the whole northern sky every day, and the team analysed 94 nighttime observing runs from 2019 with new algorithms to separate the cosmic signal from far brighter foreground radio noise. The detection does not measure dark energy directly, but it validates a cheap, scalable way to map cosmic expansion across a period when dark energy began to take over. The team now plans to apply the method to the other seven years of CHIME data.

SpaceX Crew-12 Splashes Down Off Los Angeles After 237 Days in Space, Setting a New ESA Endurance Record

The four astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission returned to Earth on Oct. 8, when the Crew Dragon capsule "Freedom" splashed down in the Pacific off Los Angeles at 11:34 a.m. EDT, roughly 27 hours after undocking from the International Space Station. NASA's Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA's Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos' Andrey Fedyaev spent 237 days in space, 235 of them aboard the station. Adenot set a new record for the longest continuous spaceflight by an ESA astronaut, topping Luca Parmitano's 201 days, and also became the first French woman to walk in space. Meir completed four spacewalks during the mission. The crew now begins a 45-day postflight conditioning program, while Crew-13 holds the station and SpaceX's CRS-35 cargo mission is planned for Oct. 13.

Three CMEs Head for Earth: G2 Storm Possible Oct. 9 and Northern Lights Chances Into the Weekend

Three coronal mass ejections from the complex sunspot region AR4549 are racing toward Earth and could boost the northern lights across the northern United States. Two erupted on Oct. 6 and 7, with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center expecting the main cloud to arrive in the early hours of Oct. 9 (UTC) and a second to deliver a possible glancing blow around the same time. A third, launched on Oct. 8, could reach Earth around Oct. 10-11. Forecasters call for minor G1 conditions overnight on Oct. 8-9 and a possible G2 moderate storm peak on the morning of Oct. 9, though arrival times carry several hours of uncertainty. With AR4549 still facing Earth, more solar activity may follow.

NASA Selects GIMLI to Hunt for a Suspected Lava-Tube Cave Beneath the Moon's Marius Hills Pit

NASA has chosen GIMLI, an investigation led by the Planetary Science Institute, to look for a suspected lava tube extending from the Marius Hills Pit, a hole first spotted by Japan's Kaguya orbiter in 2009. Funded through NASA's PRISM program and delivered on a commercial lunar lander and rover, with instruments built by Honeybee Robotics, GIMLI will use ground-penetrating radar, seismic sensors and a gravimeter to test whether a cave exists and how large it is. It is one of three new science investigations picked to support NASA's planned Moon base near the lunar south pole. A confirmed lava tube would reveal how volcanism shaped the Moon and could one day give astronauts natural shelter from radiation, temperature extremes and micrometeorites.

Webb and MeerKAT Catch the Most Distant Fast Radio Burst Ever Seen, From About 11 Billion Light-Years Away

Astronomers have identified FRB 20240304B, the most distant fast radio burst ever detected, more than doubling the previous distance record. The burst was first picked up by South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope, then traced by the James Webb Space Telescope to a host galaxy roughly 11 billion light-years away, meaning its signal set out when the universe was only about 3 billion years old. The host turns out to be a small, metal-poor galaxy in the middle of an intense episode of star formation, which supports the idea that magnetars born in star-forming environments can power these flashes. Because FRBs reveal how much matter they pass through on the way to Earth, such distant bursts could help map the gas between galaxies and probe the first stars. The study was published Oct. 8 in the journal Science.

Earth and Mars Were Built by Different Recipes, Volatile-Element Chemistry Reveals

A Nature Astronomy study co-led by Anders Johansen at the University of Copenhagen's Globe Institute concludes that Earth and Mars grew in very different ways despite forming from the same cloud of gas and dust about 4.5 billion years ago. By reading the depletion of moderately volatile elements such as sodium, potassium and zinc in each planet's mantle and crust, the team found that at least 75% of Earth's rocky bulk came from protoplanets that grew by sweeping up tiny pebbles, while roughly three-quarters of Mars came from collisions among larger planetesimals. The result backs a hybrid model of planet formation, with the two worlds using the two processes in opposite proportions. The percentages describe the silicate mantle and crust, not the metallic cores, and the team says the contrast held up under several alternative assumptions. The same approach could one day help astronomers infer how rocky exoplanets formed and whether they could be habitable.

NASA to Release Artemis II Lunar Farside Science Data on Oct. 7, Lunar Farside Day

Data gathered by the Artemis II crew about the Moon's farside during their April 2026 flyby is scheduled for public release on Oct. 7 at a virtual Lunar Surface Science Workshop that starts at 11:00 a.m. ET. The date was chosen to mark the anniversary of Luna 3's 1959 images, the first ever taken of the farside. The Lunar Science Team will roll out its findings, walk participants through publicly available reports and Planetary Data System products, and take questions. Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, and mission specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen observed the Moon and Earth and saw a solar eclipse during the flyby, the first time humans had returned to the lunar vicinity in more than 53 years. The release is expected to feed landing-site and Moon base planning for later Artemis missions.

ESA-CAS SMILE Spacecraft Films a Complete Auroral Oval in Ultraviolet, Even in Daylight

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for Oct. 6 shows a time-lapse from the SMILE spacecraft, a joint mission of ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, capturing an entire auroral oval in one view. The oval is far too large to see from the ground, but SMILE's ultraviolet camera records it from high above Earth, including auroras that occur during the day. The clip covers about an hour in late July and shows how turbulent and variable auroras really are. The points of light at the edges are distant stars that appear to move only because the camera view shifts as the spacecraft orbits. SMILE's goal is to understand how the solar wind interacts with Earth's magnetosphere, knowledge that helps protect astronauts, satellites and power grids from solar storms.

Jupiter Slips Behind the Crescent Moon in a Rare Pre-Dawn Occultation on Oct. 6

Skywatchers across parts of North America can watch Jupiter disappear behind the slender crescent Moon before dawn on Oct. 6 in a rare lunar occultation. The event follows the Moon's pairing with Mars on Oct. 5, which kicks off a busy stretch of October morning-sky sights. Visibility depends on location, so check local timing before heading out, and a clear eastern horizon helps.

Astronomers Find a "Phoenix Planet" Born From the Ashes of a Dead Star

Astronomers have found the first known second-generation planet orbiting a white dwarf: a Jupiter-sized gas giant circling HS 0209+0832, about 790 light-years away, that appears to have formed from material the star shed as it died. The white dwarf's atmosphere is loaded with zinc, copper and especially niobium, at roughly 1,000 times solar levels, a signature of the s-process that builds heavy elements inside red giants and one that ordinary first-generation planets should not carry. NASA's TESS data show the planet orbits every 4.4 days, and radiation from the star will eventually boil its atmosphere away. The team, including researchers at the University of Warwick and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thinks a companion star helped pull the ejected material back into a disc. The result was published Oct. 5 in Nature Astronomy.

Blue Origin Unveils a 20-Meter "Power Tower" to Supply Solar Power for NASA's Moon Base

Blue Origin has revealed its Power Tower, a 20-meter-tall, vertically deployed solar array designed to deliver more than 10 kilowatts for Moon Base operations at the lunar south pole. The company posted an animation on Sept. 25 showing the hardware landing and unfolding, along with video of a deployment test on Earth on July 22, 2026. The design looks like an evolution of the LAMPS mast developed by Blue Origin subsidiary Honeybee Robotics, and its modular layout is meant to extend power to other assets beyond the lander. NASA's Moon Base is in its first phase, which runs to 2029, with the base targeted to be up and running by 2032.

Mars' North Polar Ice Is Far Cleaner Than Thought, Containing Only About 3% Dust

A University of Washington team led by Aditya Khuller and graduate student Pari Mohan has concluded that the water ice around Mars' north pole holds only about 3% dust by mass, far less than earlier estimates of up to 25%. They swapped the older method, which was modeled on lunar regolith, for techniques long used to study snow and ice on Earth. Cleaner ice absorbs less sunlight and reflects more of it back to space, which helps keep the planet cold and slows sublimation of the ice. The finding also bears on Mars' climate history: dustier layers in the polar deposits could once have melted at their base and made nutrient-rich pockets of liquid water. The study was published in npj Space Exploration.

Mars Meets the Crescent Moon, Then Slides Through the Beehive Cluster Around Oct. 11

Early risers got a close pairing of Mars and a waning crescent moon on Oct. 5, with the Beehive star cluster in Cancer sitting just below them in the predawn sky. The show continues as Mars drifts eastward and crosses the Beehive over three consecutive mornings, passing through the heart of the cluster on Oct. 11. Mars shines as a bright orange-yellow point beside the cluster's faint stars, and the pair fits easily into the same view in binoculars. Look toward the east or east-northeast a couple of hours before sunrise, away from city lights if you can.

NASA Pushes Crew-12's ISS Departure to Oct. 7 After Meir Hands Station Command to Dubrov

NASA and SpaceX have moved the return of the Crew-12 astronauts to no earlier than Oct. 7. Undocking from the International Space Station is now targeted for 1:05 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, with a splashdown off the California coast around 11:25 a.m. EDT on Thursday, Oct. 8, weather and recovery conditions permitting. On Oct. 4, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir formally handed command of the station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov in a change-of-command ceremony, with all 11 people aboard sharing a group hug. Meir, Jack Hathaway, ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev will have spent roughly 235 days in orbit by the time they leave, while Crew-13 stays on for a six-month mission.

ISRO Readies GSLV Launch of NavIC Satellite NVS-03 in Mid-October

ISRO is preparing to launch NVS-03, the third of five second-generation NavIC navigation satellites, on a GSLV Mk II rocket from Sriharikota in mid-October, with reports pointing to a window of Oct. 15 to 20. The roughly 2,250 kg satellite has been at the spaceport since August, and the launch campaign began on Sept. 14 with the first stage already stacked. NVS-03 follows NVS-01 and NVS-02, the latter of which failed to reach its intended geosynchronous orbit. Once in position it would bring NavIC back to four working satellites, alongside IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1I and NVS-01, which is the number needed for the system to offer standalone positioning again. Two more satellites, NVS-04 and NVS-05, are already in advanced stages of development.

NASA's PRIMA Far-Infrared Telescope Becomes the First Mission in a New Probe Explorer Class

NASA has advanced PRIMA, the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics, into Phase B development as the first mission in its new Probe Explorers class of mid-sized astrophysics missions. The space telescope will use a roughly 1.8-meter (5.9-foot) mirror to run deep, sensitive surveys in far-infrared light, a wavelength range that sits between radio telescopes and observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope. It is meant to fill a gap left since the retirement of the Herschel and Spitzer telescopes, studying everything from planet formation and dusty galaxies to black hole growth. NASA currently targets a 2033 launch, with a cost cap of about $1.2 billion if the mission passes its confirmation review, and JPL will manage the project.

Black Hole Jets Reach Far Beyond Their Galaxies and May Be What Shuts Down Star Formation

A new study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, led by Sanchayeeta Borthakur of Arizona State University and Namrata Roy of India's Raman Research Institute, finds that jets from supermassive black holes can disturb gas far outside the visible edge of their host galaxies. The team combined observations of hundreds of galaxies with active jets from the DESI survey with radio jet measurements from the LOFAR Two-meter Sky Survey. They found the jets do not affect the surrounding gas evenly in all directions: the gas is energized and made to glow mainly along the jet's path, leaving a trail hundreds of thousands of light-years long. By heating and stirring the gas around a galaxy, the jets make it harder for that material to cool and fall back in to form stars, offering some of the clearest evidence yet of how black holes help decide a galaxy's fate.

NASA Picks Three New Science Investigations to Prepare for Its Lunar Moon Base

NASA has selected three new science investigations through its PRISM program to help lay the groundwork for Moon Base, its planned first lunar outpost near the south pole. The payload suites will fly on commercial lunar deliveries and will track micrometeoroid impacts, measure volatiles in the Moon's thin outer layer of gas, use a short-period seismometer to detect seismic events, and map lunar resources. One Planetary Science Institute-led investigation, GIMLI, will look for a possible underground lunar cave that could one day serve as a natural shelter from temperature swings, radiation and micrometeoroids. NASA says the data will help assess hazards for Moon Base hardware and protect future astronauts.

Webb Decodes Planet-Shattering Collisions Around 21 Young Stars

Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, together with archival Spitzer data, have studied 21 so-called extreme debris disks, young star systems packed with unusually warm dust in the zone where rocky planets form. A team led by Kate Su of the Space Science Institute found the disks split into two chemical types: silica-rich disks, which resemble volcanic glass and point to high-energy impacts between Mars-sized bodies that vaporize rock, and silica-poor disks, which hold minerals like forsterite and point to gentler collisions between Moon-sized objects. Silica-rich disks turn up only around very young stars, and the results offer clues to the kind of giant impacts that created Earth's Moon. The work was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

Blue Origin Seeks to Boost New Glenn Launch Rate at Cape Canaveral From 12 to 50 a Year

Blue Origin is asking regulators to approve a big jump in how often New Glenn can fly from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 36. The FAA released a draft environmental assessment on Sept. 29 examining a proposal to raise the pad's limit from 12 launches to 50 per year. The request comes as the company recovers from the May pad explosion that wrecked a New Glenn rocket and damaged the site, and as it targets a return to flight by the end of the year. Blue Origin's CEO Dave Limp has also said its first outside funding round, a shift from being funded solely by Jeff Bezos, is oversubscribed.

ISS Crew Swells to 11 as Crew-12 Prepares to Hand Over Command and Head Home

With NASA's Crew-13 now aboard, 11 people are living on the International Space Station, and the outgoing Crew-12 astronauts are getting ready to leave. Crew-13 spends Oct. 3 unpacking Dragon, moving safety gear and reviewing emergency roles, and on Oct. 4 the departing crew will formally transfer their duties, with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir handing command of the station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov in a ceremony. Crew-12, which has been in orbit for about 235 days, is expected to undock on Oct. 5 and splash down off the Southern California coast around midday EDT on Oct. 6, weather permitting.

Starship Flight 15 Could Fly as Early as Oct. 19, With a Ship Catch Possibly on the Table

After Starship reached orbit for the first time on Flight 14, SpaceX is already preparing for Flight 15, with provisional planning documents pointing to Oct. 19 as the earliest possible launch date. No official date has been announced, and the FAA license, which covered only Flight 14, will need to be modified first. Elon Musk has said a successful Flight 14 could clear the way for SpaceX to try catching the Ship upper stage with the launch tower's chopstick arms, something it has so far done only with the Super Heavy booster. Flight 15 could also begin testing parts of the docking hardware needed for in-orbit propellant transfer, a capability NASA's Moon plans depend on, though SpaceX has not laid out an official mission profile.

Falcon Heavy Flies Its First Mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, Capping a Three-Launch Day for SpaceX

SpaceX's Falcon Heavy lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center just before midnight EDT on Oct. 1 carrying the classified NROL-97 payload for the U.S. spy satellite agency. It is the first time the NRO has used the heavy-lift rocket after flying 22 missions on Falcon 9, and the first NRO mission to launch under the National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 2 contract. Both side boosters, which previously flew NASA's Roman Space Telescope mission, returned to landing zones at Cape Canaveral, and the payload fairing was reused from the NROL-95 launch in July. It was SpaceX's third Falcon launch of the day, following Crew-13 from Florida and a rideshare mission from Vandenberg in California.

Hubble Completes Its 200,000th Orbit While Watching for a Lensed Supernova to Reappear

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope finished its 200,000th trip around Earth on Sept. 19, having covered more than 8 billion kilometers and made over 1.7 million observations in 36 years. On that orbit it observed galaxy cluster MACS J0417, whose gravity bends and magnifies light from objects behind it, to look for the return of supernova Athena, an explosion first spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope in 2025. Because the cluster's lensing sends the supernova's light along several paths, Athena is predicted to reappear at some point between now and early March 2027. Timing those reappearances can help map the cluster's mass and sharpen measurements of the universe's expansion rate, known as the Hubble constant.

Record 10-Minute X-Ray Flash May Mark the Birth of a Magnetar From Colliding Neutron Stars

Astronomers report that a fast X-ray transient called EP250704a, caught by China's Einstein Probe satellite, lasted nearly ten minutes, the longest prompt X-ray flash ever linked to a neutron star merger. Follow-up observations with the Very Large Telescope in Chile, led by graduate student Niccolo Passaleva in Eleonora Troja's group, measured the event at roughly six billion light-years away and found no accompanying supernova, which points away from a collapsing massive star. The team concludes the flash most likely came from two neutron stars merging and leaving behind a rapidly spinning, strongly magnetized magnetar that kept powering the emission. If more such events are found, they could offer a new way to locate neutron star mergers and, with future gravitational-wave runs, to pair X-ray flashes with gravitational-wave signals.

Solar Storm Alert: Sept. 28 Eruption and a Heart-Shaped Coronal Hole Could Spark Auroras This Weekend

Space weather forecasters expect unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions on Oct. 2 as a cloud of plasma launched from the Sun on Sept. 28 reaches Earth, with periods that could touch minor G1 storm levels. A large new coronal hole, now sitting near the center of the Earth-facing side of the Sun, is also sending fast solar wind that may arrive around Oct. 3 and keep activity elevated, again with G1 storming possible. Solar wind speeds had been low in recent days, so the forecast hinges on how the incoming material is oriented when it hits Earth's magnetic field. Aurora watchers at high latitudes should keep an eye on local forecasts over the next couple of nights.

SpaceX Crew-13 Docks With the ISS in Record-Fast 7 Hours 55 Minutes, Crew Floats Aboard

NASA's Crew-13 astronauts reached the International Space Station on Oct. 1 after lifting off at 11:10 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40. The Crew Dragon capsule Grace docked just 7 hours and 55 minutes after launch, a new record for a U.S. spacecraft, helped by a favorable alignment between the station and the launch site. Hatches opened at 9:19 p.m. EDT and NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canada's Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov floated aboard roughly 25 minutes later to begin a stay of about six months. The mission lifted off more than two weeks later than first planned after a leak was found on the Dragon spacecraft.

White House Nominates Lt. Gen. David Miller to Lead U.S. Space Command

The White House has nominated Space Force Lt. Gen. David N. Miller Jr. to command U.S. Space Command, and Space Command and the Space Force confirmed the pick on Sept. 30. Miller, currently the Space Force's deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, would succeed Gen. Stephen Whiting if confirmed by the Senate, where a hearing has not yet been scheduled. He would also oversee the command's move from Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado to a new purpose-built headquarters at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama.

ESA-JAXA Ramses Asteroid Mission Powers Up for the First Time Ahead of Apophis Flyby

The European Space Agency and JAXA's Ramses planetary defense spacecraft was switched on as an integrated system for the first time at prime contractor OHB Italia's facility in Milan, with its on-board computer powered together with the subsystems inside the spacecraft body. Ramses is meant to meet asteroid Apophis ahead of its exceptionally close pass of Earth on April 13, 2029, when it will come within about 32,000 km. The timeline is tight: the spacecraft and its two CubeSats must be ready to launch on a Japanese H3 rocket in spring 2028, so the team is building it in two parts at once to save time.

NASA's Roman Space Telescope Passes Guidance Tests and Takes Its First Coronagraph Observation

NASA reported that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's fine-guidance system, which feeds guide-star positions to the attitude control system about four times a second to keep the observatory steady, passed a series of tests between Sept. 22 and 27. With that stability confirmed, the Coronagraph Instrument built by JPL took its first deliberately blurry look at space on Sept. 22 to confirm it can produce a focused image. The coronagraph is meant to demonstrate technology for blocking starlight to directly image planets and dusty disks, and NASA expects Roman's first images by early 2027 after a three-month commissioning period.

Astronomers Find the Coldest Lava World Yet Holding an Atmosphere, a Possible Window Into Early Earth

A team led by Brandon Park Coy of the University of Chicago used the James Webb Space Telescope to study HD 3167 b, a rocky super-Earth about 154 light-years away that circles its star in just one Earth day. The planet's dayside turned out cooler than a bare rock would be, which suggests an atmosphere is redistributing heat or reflecting starlight, making it the smallest and coolest lava world with evidence of one. Researchers say such planets are useful analogs for the magma-ocean phase of the young Earth, and the result supports a growing view that most lava worlds keep some atmosphere.

Giant Planet TOI-1355 b Is Slipping Out of View, With Transits Set to Stop by 2033

University of Tokyo researchers led by Noriharu Watanabe and Norio Narita report that TOI-1355 b, a hot super-Jupiter about 805 light-years away with roughly 5.8 times Jupiter's mass, is leaving the geometry from which Earth can see it pass in front of its star. The planet circles an unusually hot early A-type star every 2.17 days on a surprisingly oval orbit, which makes it a rare example for studying how hot Jupiters migrate inward. Using data from NASA's TESS and Japan's Okayama Observatory, the team found the orbit is slowly tilting so its transits will cease by around mid-2033, leaving astronomers less than seven years to study it with instruments such as JWST.

NASA and SpaceX Give 'Go' for Crew-13 Launch to the Space Station, Targeting Record-Fast Trip

NASA and SpaceX finished their launch readiness review on Sept. 30 and cleared the Crew-13 mission to lift off on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 11:10 a.m. EDT from Cape Canaveral's Space Launch Complex 40. Aboard the Crew Dragon capsule Grace will be NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian astronaut Joshua Kutryk and Russian cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov, who are heading for a six-month stay on the ISS; Watkins will become the first NASA astronaut to launch on a Dragon twice. The flight plan could get the crew to the station in roughly 7 hours 50 minutes, which would make it the fastest U.S. crew trip to the ISS, and the launch had slipped from September after a leak was found on Dragon.

ESA's Juice Spacecraft Picks Up a Free Speed Boost on Its Way to Jupiter

The European Space Agency's Juice spacecraft swept within 8,640 km of Earth on Sept. 28 for its third gravity assist, bending its trajectory by about 20 degrees and adding roughly 3.5 km/s (around 8,000 mph) to its speed without burning any fuel. The flyby, which happened over the Indian Ocean, followed earlier gravity assists at the Moon and Earth in 2024 and at Venus in 2025, and sets Juice up for one final Earth flyby in January 2029 before it reaches Jupiter in July 2031. During the close approach the spacecraft spent several hours in Earth's shadow running on battery power, and its ten science instruments were switched on to gather calibration data on Earth and the Moon.

Astronomers Discover 50 "Ghost" Dwarf Galaxies That Could Help Solve a Cosmic Puzzle

A team led by Crescenzo Tortora of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics used the Very Large Telescope to capture the deepest images yet of three galaxies, NGC 5068, NGC 5084 and NGC 5087, located between 17 and 100 million light-years away, and found almost 50 previously unseen faint dwarf galaxies orbiting them. The discovery bears on the long-standing "missing satellite" problem, in which standard cosmological models predict far more small satellite galaxies around large galaxies than astronomers have actually observed, while some other galaxies have recently turned out to have more satellites than expected. Tortora said studying these faint stellar systems is key to understanding how dark matter shapes galaxies across the universe.

NASA Moves to Secure Boeing's Starliner as SpaceX Signals Crew Dragon Will Eventually Retire

NASA announced steps on Sept. 28 to keep Boeing's CST-100 Starliner flying, including additional funding to fix its thruster issues and support for certifying the capsule on a new rocket once United Launch Alliance's Atlas V is retired. The move follows SpaceX statements that it intends to wind down Crew Dragon, currently NASA's only operational vehicle for routine astronaut flights to the space station, as the company shifts focus to Starship and its Starlink and orbital data center ambitions. NASA has also named a commander for a future Starliner mission, continuing its effort to keep two independent U.S. crew transportation options despite Starliner's troubled 2024 crewed test flight, which left astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on the ISS for nine months.

Albania Becomes 73rd Country to Sign the Artemis Accords

The Republic of Albania signed the Artemis Accords at a ceremony at NASA Headquarters on Sept. 21, becoming the 73rd signatory to the U.S.-led framework of principles for peaceful and transparent exploration of the moon and beyond. NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson presided over the signing, which came just a week after Djibouti joined as the 72nd nation.

SpaceX Launches Third Classified Space Force Mission Believed to Carry Starshield Satellites

A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at dawn on Sept. 26 on the classified USSF-385 mission, thought to be the third launch in a series deploying satellites based on SpaceX's government-focused Starshield design. The Space Force released no details, but it cataloged 23 satellites in orbit after each of the two earlier launches in the series, USSF-366 on Aug. 15 and USSF-153 on Sept. 10. The booster flew for a tenth time and landed on a drone ship, and the launch was the last Falcon 9 flight of September from Vandenberg, which has become SpaceX's primary Falcon site as Cape Canaveral shifts toward Starship work.

AstroForge Plans First Space Mission to Run Entirely on AI, With No Commands From Earth

Asteroid-mining startup AstroForge announced that its Autonomy-1 spacecraft will fly on the debut orbital launch of Stoke Space's Nova Pathfinder rocket in early 2027 and carry out its whole mission after separation without a single command from the ground. The spacecraft will be run by an AI system called Solo, which will also operate a NASA Goddard heliophysics instrument for studying space weather, and will only send telemetry and science data back to Earth. Solo will first be tested in a shadow mode on AstroForge's DeepSpace-2 mission planned for late 2026; the company says cutting ground operations, which make up nearly a third of its mission costs, is key to flying fleets of spacecraft.

NASA Moves PRIMA Far-Infrared Space Telescope Into Development, Targeting 2033 Launch

NASA has advanced PRIMA, a far-infrared observatory, into Phase B development, making it the first mission in the agency's new Probe Explorer class. The cryogenically cooled telescope, about 5.9 feet across, is designed to fill the wavelength gap between the James Webb Space Telescope and radio observatories, studying how planets, stars, black holes and even Earth's water formed. If it passes a confirmation review, project cost is capped at $1.2 billion excluding launch, with liftoff targeted for 2033 and a planned five-year mission led by JPL alongside partners including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the U.K.

Starship Reaches Orbit for the First Time, Deploying 26 Starlink V3 Satellites

SpaceX's Starship flew to orbit for the first time on Sept. 28, lifting off from Starbase, Texas, and successfully deploying 26 next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, the mission's primary payload. One Raptor engine on the upper stage shut down during ascent, and the Super Heavy booster also lost engines during its boostback burn, prompting flight controllers to shorten the flight and limit time in orbit as a precaution; the booster still made a soft splashdown, and the upper stage came down in the northern Pacific after roughly three hours, well short of the planned six orbits and nearly 10-hour mission. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman congratulated SpaceX on the milestone, noting Starship's future roles could include carrying telescopes, national security payloads and supporting the broader orbital economy.

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 Arrives at Kennedy Ahead of October Launch

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 astronauts have arrived at Kennedy Space Center as preparations intensify for their upcoming mission to the International Space Station.

NASA’s Swift Observatory Returns to Full Gamma-Ray Burst Operations

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has reactivated its third science instrument and resumed automatically tracking powerful gamma-ray bursts across the universe.

Rocket Lab Launches 13th Synspective Radar Satellite From New Zealand

Rocket Lab's Electron rocket lifted off from New Zealand on its "Owlright, Owlright, Owlright" mission, delivering the 13th Strix synthetic-aperture-radar satellite for Japanese company Synspective, which is building a 30-satellite constellation to support disaster response and infrastructure monitoring. The launch marked Rocket Lab's 96th orbital mission overall and 18th of 2026, sending the roughly 220-pound spacecraft into a 37-degree-inclination low-Earth orbit at about 347 miles in altitude.

James Webb Space Telescope Finds Early Universe Was Already Rich in Heavy Elements

Using JWST, astronomers led by Yongda Zhu at the University of Arizona studied three galaxies as they appeared roughly 13.3 billion years ago, during the universe's Epoch of Reionization. By analyzing how starlight was absorbed as it passed through surrounding gas, the team found oxygen, carbon and silicon already escaping into intergalactic space just 500 million years after the Big Bang, far earlier than expected. The findings suggest the pristine hydrogen signatures long sought as evidence of the universe's first stars had already been erased, and were published Sept. 24 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Hubble Marks 200,000th Orbit While Hunting a Reappearing Supernova

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope completed its 200,000th trip around Earth on Sept. 19, more than 36 years after launching in 1990 and after over 1.7 million observations. The milestone came as Hubble monitors galaxy cluster MACS J0417, whose gravity bends light from a distant supernova called Athena so that it may reappear in multiple images over time, a phenomenon that could help refine measurements of the universe's expansion rate. Hubble remains scientifically active with no further servicing missions planned; NASA expects it to stay productive into the next decade before an eventual controlled reentry in the mid-2030s.

New Studies Strengthen the Case for Microbial Life in Enceladus' Ocean

Two new papers led by Frank Postberg of Freie Universität Berlin bolster the search for life on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. One study found that water droplets ejected from the moon's subsurface ocean freeze more slowly than expected, letting salts and organic compounds separate into individually analyzable ice grains as they collide with surface fractures. A second study recreated Enceladus' alkaline, low-oxygen ocean chemistry in the lab and found a hydrogen-eating microbe, Methanothermococcus okinawensis, grew and adapted quickly to the conditions. Together, the findings suggest a future mission like ESA's planned L4 spacecraft could realistically detect biosignatures by sampling individual plume particles.

Astronomers Find First Black-Hole 'Microblazar' Hiding in the Milky Way

A team led by Josep Martí of the University of Jaén has identified IRAS 18293-0941, a system roughly 12,000 light-years away where a small stellar-mass black hole feeds on a massive companion star and fires a jet of near-light-speed plasma almost directly at Earth. The system went unnoticed for decades because thick interstellar dust hides it from optical telescopes; it was finally confirmed using the European VLBI Network and South Africa's MeerKAT observatory, which revealed a 100-light-year-wide bubble where the unseen counter-jet slams into surrounding gas. The find gives astronomers a much closer example of how black-hole jets accelerate particles to energies exceeding those produced by the Large Hadron Collider.

Google's Project Suncatcher Set to Launch First AI Satellite Prototype

Google announced that a prototype satellite carrying four of its tensor processing unit (TPU) AI chips, built by Earth-imaging company Planet, will launch on SpaceX's Transporter-18 rideshare mission around Oct. 1. Over roughly a year in orbit, Google will study how the chips handle space radiation and how well a cooling system combining heat pipes and radiators dissipates heat with no airflow available. The mission is an early step toward Project Suncatcher's goal of orbital AI data centers, with a laser-communication test between two satellites planned for 2027; SpaceX is separately pursuing a similar concept with its own planned "Starmind" satellite constellation.

NASA Releases Dramatic New Engineering Camera Footage of Artemis II Launch

NASA has published newly processed footage from the specialized engineering cameras that tracked April's Artemis II launch, combining infrared and visible-light views to capture the Space Launch System rocket lifting off in extraordinary detail. The footage offers fresh angles on the mission that carried four astronauts around the moon and back, the first crewed lunar flight since the Apollo program.

XRISM Observatory Directly Observes a Pulsar Feeding on a Hypergiant's Stellar Wind

Using the XRISM X-ray observatory, astronomers have directly observed the pulsar GX 301-2 capturing plasma from the stellar wind of its companion, a blue hypergiant roughly 40 times the sun's mass, for the first time. The gas forms a swirling accretion disk that repeatedly builds up and breaks apart during the pulsar's four-day passage through the densest part of the wind, powering the system's strong X-ray flares.

Perseverance Rover Uncovers Evidence of Repeated Ancient Water Activity on Mars

NASA's Perseverance rover has found signs that water shaped the rocks of Jezero Crater's Margin Unit in at least three separate episodes, including one involving hot circulating groundwater, rather than a single ancient lakeshore as expected. The findings, based on analysis of more than 185 bedrock targets, suggest early Mars hosted more complex and long-lived water systems than previously thought.

Black Hole 'Burps' Follow the Same Rules No Matter the Size

New research comparing tidal disruption events across black holes of vastly different sizes finds that the high-speed jets they launch after shredding a star follow a universal rule, switching on once feeding drops to about 2% of the Eddington limit. The findings, drawn from a study of 20 stellar-shredding events, could let astronomers predict when a black hole will fire off its next radio jet.

SpaceX Completes Wet Dress Rehearsal Ahead of Starship's First Orbital Launch Attempt

SpaceX finished fueling and running a full countdown simulation on its stacked Starship and Super Heavy booster at Starbase, Texas, clearing a key milestone ahead of Flight 14. The mission, targeting liftoff no earlier than Sept. 28, will be Starship's first attempt to reach orbit and is set to deploy a stack of upgraded Starlink satellites over a flight lasting nearly 10 hours.

SpaceX Rolls Super Heavy Booster to the Pad Ahead of Starship's First Orbital Launch

SpaceX has rolled the Super Heavy booster for Starship Flight 14 out to the pad at Starbase, Texas, as it prepares for the megarocket's first-ever orbital flight, now targeted for launch no earlier than Sept. 28.

Coronal Hole Sends Fast Solar Wind Toward Earth, Raising Aurora Chances

A long coronal hole rotating into an Earth-facing position is set to send a stream of fast solar wind toward our planet around Sept. 23, with forecasters watching for a possible minor geomagnetic storm and aurora.

Astronomers Discover the Earliest and Most Distant Proto-Supercluster of Galaxies Ever Seen

An international team using the Dark Energy Camera has identified COSMOS-z3.1-A, a proto-supercluster of galaxies seen when the universe was just 2.1 billion years old, with a mass roughly 5,000 times that of the Milky Way.

Alien Oceans on Europa and Enceladus May Hide Signs of Life Better Than Thought

New research from the University of Reading suggests thick ice layers and complex chemistry could make it far harder than expected for spacecraft to detect signs of life in the subsurface oceans of icy moons like Europa and Enceladus.

Meteorites Reveal Tens of Thousands of Previously Unseen Organic Compounds

A new analysis of the Murchison and Aguas Zarcas meteorites has uncovered tens of thousands of never-before-seen organic compounds, offering fresh clues about the complex chemistry that existed before the planets of our solar system formed.

NASA Powers Up Roman Space Telescope's 300-Megapixel Camera

NASA has successfully activated the Roman Space Telescope's 300-megapixel infrared camera, which will capture huge stretches of the cosmos with Hubble-like sharpness, while its planet-hunting coronagraph is also working as expected.

New Study Suggests the Sun Could Be Capable of Producing a Rare "Superflare"

Max Planck Institute researchers find that the Sun's largest historical sunspots may have had the physical potential to unleash a "superflare," a class of eruption far more powerful than any solar flare recorded in the modern era.

Superflares, observed on many Sun-like stars, release far more energy than any flare directly recorded on the Sun during roughly 70 years of space-based monitoring, leading some scientists to assume our star is simply incapable of them, a trait some have argued helped complex life develop undisturbed on Earth. A team led by Natalie Krivova at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research analyzed NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory data from 2010 to 2016, correlating the energy released by the 300 strongest flares in that period with the size of the sunspot-hosting active regions that produced them. Extrapolating that statistical relationship to the largest sunspots in the historical record, including the exceptionally large "Great Sunspot" of 1947, more than double the size of the region behind the 1859 Carrington Event, the team calculated that such a region could theoretically have released a flare with roughly ten times the energy of the Carrington Event. No superflare has ever been confirmed on the Sun, and the 1947 sunspot did not produce one, but the findings suggest the Sun cannot be ruled out as capable of one, carrying implications for how modern technology and infrastructure might one day need to withstand such an event.

MIT Researcher Develops Plasma Technology to Turn Mars' Atmosphere into Rocket Fuel

An MIT PhD candidate is building a plasma reactor that converts carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into oxygen and carbon monoxide, aiming to let future astronauts manufacture their own return-trip propellant on Mars.

MIT PhD candidate Lanie McKinney, working in the Aerospace Plasma Group under Professor Carmen Guerra-Garcia, is developing in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology intended to let astronauts produce fuel and life-support gases directly on Mars rather than hauling everything from Earth. Her reactor, a design called a Nanosecond Repetitively Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge, uses cold plasma to split Mars' abundant carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon monoxide; she is now pairing it with an oxygen-selective membrane meant to rapidly extract the oxygen before it can recombine with the carbon monoxide, a process that is not yet well understood. McKinney, a 2026 Amelia Earhart Fellow, has also co-led an MIT team that won NASA's LunaRecycle Challenge for a system converting mixed trash into 3D-printing filament, and contributed to a project on radiation-shielding bricks made from lunar regolith. The work targets a basic problem for any crewed Mars mission: without a way to manufacture propellant on-site, getting astronauts home again becomes far harder.

Russia's Progress MS-35 Cargo Ship Docks at ISS After Soyuz Rocket Anomaly Delay

A Russian Progress cargo freighter delivered about three tons of supplies to the International Space Station after a technical fault in its Soyuz-2.1b rocket forced a week-long delay ahead of launch.

Progress MS-35 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 16 after slipping roughly a week due to an undisclosed technical issue with the third stage of its Soyuz-2.1b rocket, the first time that particular Soyuz variant had been used to launch a Progress mission. After a roughly 60-hour chase, the freighter docked automatically at the space-facing Poisk module on September 19, with cosmonauts monitoring the final approach on manual backup controls as a precaution while the automated Kurs docking system completed the job without needing to be overridden. The spacecraft delivered about three tons of equipment and supplies to the seven-member Expedition 75 crew, which includes NASA, ESA, and Roscosmos astronauts. The docking came as NASA separately worked through its own scheduling hiccup, having pushed its SpaceX Crew-13 launch from mid-September to early October after engineers found an oxidizer leak in the Dragon spacecraft's propulsion system.

"Born-Again" Star Sakurai's Object Enters New Phase, Developing a Powerful Stellar Wind

Astronomers using the Very Large Telescope find that Sakurai's Object, a star that unexpectedly sprang back to life three decades ago, has entered a new phase marked by a powerful, hot stellar wind similar to those of Wolf-Rayet stars.

Sakurai's Object, also known as V4334 Sagittarii, is a star roughly 10,000 light-years away that had already reached the final stages of its life before an unexpected 1996 helium flash triggered a "born-again" outburst, briefly reviving it as a red giant. Because most stars evolve over millions or billions of years, catching one changing on a human timescale is extremely rare, and Sakurai's Object is one of only two such stars ever directly observed in the act. New Very Large Telescope observations, led by researchers including scientists from the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, show the star has grown six times brighter over 30 years and is now developing the carbon- and helium-rich stellar wind characteristic of Wolf-Rayet stars, with a surface temperature between roughly 27,000 and 36,000 Kelvin extending over a region comparable in size to our solar system. The reheating is proceeding more slowly than some models predicted, giving astronomers a rare real-time test of theories for how dying stars evolve in their final stages.

China Launches Four Different Rockets to Orbit Within 45 Hours

China carried out four launches on four different rockets from three separate spaceports in just 45 hours, highlighting the growing diversity and pace of its commercial and state launch industry.

The sequence began with a LandSpace Zhuque-2E lifting off from Jiuquan carrying 10 satellites for the Qianfan ("Thousand Sails") broadband megaconstellation, which is envisioned to eventually grow to roughly 15,000 satellites. Hours later, Orienspace's Gravity-1, the world's most powerful solid-fueled rocket, launched from a sea platform off the coast of Shanghai with nine more Qianfan satellites. A state-owned Long March 12 then lifted off from the Wenchang site on Hainan Island carrying nine spacecraft for the rival SatNet broadband constellation, planned to include about 13,000 satellites, before a Kuaizhou-11 rocket closed out the flurry from Jiuquan with two Earth-observing radar satellites for the Chinese company Spacety. None of the four missions attempted to recover their rocket stages, but the rapid pace across both government and private teams, spanning four separate rocket families, underscored how quickly China's launch sector is diversifying as its competing megaconstellation projects ramp up.

Studying Host Galaxies May Have Revealed a Secret Behind JWST's 'Little Red Dots'

A team studying 217 of the James Webb Space Telescope's puzzling "Little Red Dot" objects found their host galaxies are unusually compact, star-forming, and metal-poor, offering a new clue to what these objects are.

Little Red Dots (LRDs) are strange, super-compact, extremely luminous objects seen in JWST images of the early universe that vanish once the cosmos is roughly 2 billion years old, and astronomers still do not know whether they represent a phase of galaxy growth, black hole growth, or something else. Rather than focusing on the dominant, poorly understood "central engine" that outshines everything else in these objects, a team led by Jorge Zavala of the University of Massachusetts Amherst instead studied the faint light of the host galaxies surrounding 217 LRDs. They found these galaxies are only about 1,400 light-years across, roughly 2.5 times more compact than typical star-forming galaxies from the same early era, and unusually low in "metals," elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The team suggests these dense, low-metallicity conditions could be linked to bursts of intense star formation that might trigger or accompany the LRD phenomenon, and that such conditions may be rare in today's more metal-enriched universe, potentially explaining why LRDs are not seen nearby. The researchers say the next step is using spectroscopy to further separate the host galaxy's light from the mysterious central object and pin down what LRDs actually are.

NASA, SpaceX Continue Crew-13 Prep as Crew Enters Quarantine

The four-person crew of NASA's SpaceX Crew-13 mission has entered pre-launch quarantine at Johnson Space Center as teams target an early October launch to the International Space Station.

NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov began routine prelaunch quarantine late Thursday, limiting in-person contact and requiring medical screening for anyone who meets with them. The practice dates back to NASA's Apollo program and is meant to reduce the risk of illness developing during flight. Before quarantine began, the crew completed preflight training at SpaceX's Hawthorne, California facility and a full Crew Equipment Interface Test at Cape Canaveral, where they suited up, boarded the Dragon capsule, ran suit leak checks, verified seat fit, and got familiar with the sounds of the spacecraft's fans and pumps. Once aboard the station, Crew-13 will join Expedition 75 for a mission focused on research supporting future Moon and Mars exploration.

NASA Awards SpaceX Three More Crew Rotation Missions

NASA has expanded its Commercial Crew contract with SpaceX by three additional missions, Crew-15 through Crew-17, in a $946 million contract modification running through 2030.

The award, a firm fixed-price modification to SpaceX's Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract, brings the company's total contracted crew missions to 17 and pushes the overall value of NASA's CCtCap contract with SpaceX to $5.92 billion. The new missions cover ground, launch, in-orbit, and return and recovery operations, along with cargo transport and a lifeboat capability while docked at the International Space Station. The move follows a notice of intent NASA issued in May and helps the agency keep two independent commercial crew providers flying. SpaceX has flown crew missions for NASA since being certified in November 2020, and its twelfth rotation mission, Crew-12, is currently docked at the station.

Astronomers Confirm Youngest Known Exoplanet, Still Forming in Its Birth Disk

A newly confirmed planet less than a million years old, called Elias 2-24 b, is now the youngest exoplanet on record, roughly five times younger than the previous title holders.

The Jupiter-mass planet orbits the star Elias 2-24, about 450 light-years from Earth, and was confirmed using archival images from the W. M. Keck Observatory's coronagraph, which blocks a host star's glare to reveal faint planets hiding in the gaps of its dusty debris disk. The discovery, led by Andrea Bernardi of Universidad Diego Portales with co-author Lucas Cieza, solves a decade-old mystery: a gap in the star's disk spotted by the ALMA array and a faint point of light later seen by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope had left astronomers debating whether it was really a planet, since current models say gaps like it form too early for a planet to exist there. By combining Keck data from 2018 and 2020, the team confirmed the object's motion matched a forming planet rather than an imaging artifact. The study published Sept. 16, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and the team notes NASA's newly launched Roman Space Telescope, with an even more powerful coronagraph, should make such detections far easier going forward.

NASA's Moon Orbiter Spots New 'Once-in-a-Century' Impact Crater

Scientists working with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have identified the largest newly formed crater ever documented in the solar system, an impact so rare it happens roughly once a century.

Named McGetchin after pioneering lunar scientist Tom McGetchin, the crater formed on the Moon's eastern edge sometime between April 11 and May 22, 2024, when a comet or asteroid roughly the size of a three- to six-story building struck the surface. The impact carved out a crater 728 feet wide and 141 feet deep, big enough to span two football fields and swallow three stacked school buses. LRO image-processing specialist Robert Wagner spotted the telltale debris pattern during a routine data-quality check on Oct. 24, 2025, calling it the most obvious impact signature he had ever seen in the orbiter's change-detection maps. Follow-up observations with LRO's Diviner thermal instrument found a 4-mile-wide "cold spot" around the crater that runs about 16 degrees Fahrenheit cooler at night than its surroundings, caused by the impact fluffing up the regolith. The findings appeared in two papers published Sept. 16, 2026, in Science Advances.

NASA-JAXA XRISM Mission Captures Pulsar Feeding on a Giant Star's Wind

Using the Japan-led XRISM X-ray observatory, astronomers have directly observed a neutron star pulling in stellar wind from its giant companion, powering the system's strongest X-ray flares.

The target system, BP Crucis, sits about 13,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Crux. Its primary star, Wray 977, is a blue hypergiant roughly 40 times the Sun's mass, constantly shedding gas as a powerful stellar wind. Its tiny companion, the pulsar GX 301-2, is a neutron star spinning every 11 minutes that sweeps an X-ray beam toward Earth. Twice during its 41.5-day orbit, the pulsar plows through an especially dense stream of that wind and lights up with strong X-ray flares for several days. XRISM's Resolve instrument observed the system for about 16 hours near the end of one such flare, capturing detailed X-ray spectra showing iron absorption lines shifted in a way that reveals gas racing toward the pulsar at roughly 335,000 mph. Researchers, led by Roi Rahin of UMBC and NASA Goddard, say the pulsar first sweeps up a messy, turbulent disk of gas that powers the flare, which breaks down as it moves deeper into the stream before plasma falls directly onto the neutron star. The findings published in the journal Science Advances.

Hubble Reveals a Spiral Galaxy Spinning Out of Sync With Itself

A new Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 4698, a spiral galaxy about 55 million light-years away whose central bulge rotates at a right angle to the rest of its disk.

NGC 4698 sits in the constellation Virgo as part of the Virgo Cluster, home to more than a thousand gravitationally bound galaxies. Unlike typical spirals, its dusty arms hover in a ring around the galaxy's outer disk rather than winding down to the center, and the stars and gas closest to its glowing central bulge rotate perpendicular to the rest of the galactic disk. At the heart of that bulge sits a supermassive black hole that appears to be actively pulling in gas and growing. Astronomers suspect the mismatch originated outside the galaxy: a stream of gas funneled in from elsewhere, possibly from a past minor merger hinted at by a faint tail of hydrogen trailing off one side, could have built a misaligned disk of gas and stars near the center. The image comes from a Hubble survey studying star clusters, nebulae, and galaxy evolution across the Virgo Cluster.

BlackSky's Fifth Gen-3 Satellite Delivers First-Light Imagery Within 20 Hours of Launch

BlackSky says its fifth Gen-3 satellite captured and processed its first images in under 20 hours after launching on a Rocket Lab Electron rocket, extending the company's streak of rapid satellite commissioning.

The satellite's first image, taken at 23:25 UTC on September 11 over an air base near Nanning, China, showed H-6 bombers visible through early-morning haze. BlackSky's Gen-3 spacecraft capture imagery at 35-centimeter resolution and pair it with AI-enabled analytics that automatically detect vehicles, aircraft, and vessels, aimed at giving customers faster situational awareness during fast-moving events. The company says every Gen-3 satellite launched so far has reached first light on its first day in orbit, and it plans to add more Gen-3 spacecraft to the constellation by the end of 2026, operating alongside its existing Gen-2 fleet in a dual-constellation setup. Customers access the imagery through BlackSky's Spectra tasking and analytics platform via subscription or dedicated sovereign systems.

NASA Details Timeline and Site Requirements for Proposed U.S. Space Academy

NASA has released new details on the proposed United States Space Academy, including an ambitious construction timeline and campus requirements, as the agency defends the plan against criticism.

The disclosures follow an August 28 executive order directing NASA to establish a national space academy and a September 9 meeting of the Presidential Commission tasked with working out its structure, chaired by Administrator Jared Isaacman. According to NASA's released timeline, the agency wants to break ground on a permanent campus by 2027, enroll its first class in temporary facilities in 2028, and complete the move to a permanent site by 2031. NASA is asking governors to nominate host sites of at least 300 acres, ideally near existing NASA centers or universities, for a campus meant to start with about 1,200 undergraduates and grow toward 4,000. Modeled loosely on tuition-free military service academies, the school would let graduates fulfill their service obligation at NASA or in other government civilian roles rather than active duty, training future astronauts, engineers, and space-industry leaders. The commission has 120 days from the executive order to deliver its recommendations.

Space Force Awards Antares $161 Million to Develop Nuclear Reactor for Spacecraft

The U.S. Space Force has awarded nuclear microreactor startup Antares a $161 million contract to develop and demonstrate a fission reactor for powering spacecraft, the largest defense award for space nuclear power to date.

The Strategic Breakthrough award, from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, funds a ground demonstration of Antares' heat-pipe-cooled R1-S reactor design followed by integration with a spacecraft for flight certification ahead of a future launch. It also covers plans to power an operational ground-to-space asset using the company's electricity-generating Mark-1 reactor, slated for testing in 2027. Antares, founded in 2023 and based in Torrance, California, reached a milestone in June 2026 when its Mark-0 microreactor achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory, making it the first private company to bring an advanced reactor to criticality under the Department of Energy's Reactor Pilot Program. The award follows a December 2025 executive order pushing for a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 and one in Earth orbit as soon as 2028, and comes on the heels of a $470 million funding round the company closed in July.

Vega-C Launches ESA's FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C Earth Observation Satellites

A Vega-C rocket lifted off from French Guiana carrying ESA's vegetation-monitoring FLEX satellite and the ocean- and atmosphere-watching Copernicus Sentinel-3C, expanding Europe's Earth observation fleet.

Flight VV30 lifted off from the Vega launch complex at Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, the eighth Vega-C mission overall and the second run solely by Italian operator Avio without Arianespace. Riding together on a shared Vespa adapter, the two spacecraft deployed into a roughly 820-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit over about two hours, with Sentinel-3C separating first. Sentinel-3C is the third satellite in the Copernicus Sentinel-3 series, continuing a joint ESA-EUMETSAT record of ocean-color, surface-temperature, and altimetry data that began with Sentinel-3A and -3B. FLEX, built by Thales Alenia Space on a Myriade bus, begins a roughly 3.5-year ESA Earth Explorer mission mapping chlorophyll fluorescence worldwide to gauge how efficiently plants are photosynthesizing.

JWST Discovers That Asteroid Chariklo's Two Rings Are Evolving in Opposite Directions

New James Webb Space Telescope observations show the centaur asteroid Chariklo's inner ring has grown denser while its outer ring has faded, challenging the idea that small-body ring systems stay stable over time.

Astronomers led by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia used JWST in October 2022 to watch a background star flicker as it passed behind Chariklo, a roughly 250-kilometer-wide centaur orbiting between Saturn and Uranus that has carried two narrow rings since their discovery in 2013. Comparing this stellar-occultation measurement with a decade of ground-based observations, the team found the inner ring (C1R) had become markedly more opaque while the outer ring (C2R) had grown noticeably fainter, opposite changes happening at the same time, something no existing model of small-body ring dynamics predicted. Pinning down the observation required precise knowledge of Chariklo's orbit, the background star's position from ESA's Gaia mission, and JWST's own trajectory near the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point. Researchers say the cause remains unclear, and the discovery may force a rethink of how rings form and stay stable around bodies far too small to hold onto them by gravity alone.

Two Large Coronal Holes Send Fast Solar Wind Toward Earth, Raising Aurora Chances

A pair of large coronal holes on the sun have rotated into an Earth-facing position, with forecasters expecting the resulting fast solar wind to spark geomagnetic activity and possible auroras through September 14.

Coronal holes are cooler, less dense regions of the sun's outer atmosphere where the magnetic field opens up and lets high-speed solar wind escape into space. NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory has been tracking two such holes, one in the northern hemisphere and one in the south, with the southern hole rotating into a geoeffective position that now faces Earth directly. Space weather forecasters expect the resulting solar wind stream to begin reaching Earth's magnetic field, potentially stirring up geomagnetic storming and extending the range of visible auroras over the following days. Separately, sunspot region AR4521 has been producing minor flares, though it is rotating toward the sun's far side and its activity isn't expected to affect Earth.

Djibouti Becomes 72nd Nation to Sign NASA's Artemis Accords

The Republic of Djibouti signed the Artemis Accords at a ceremony at NASA Headquarters today, becoming the 72nd country to join the U.S.-led framework for peaceful space exploration.

NASA Deputy Administrator Matt Anderson hosted Djibouti's Ambassador to the United States, Mohamed Siad Douale, for the signing, alongside U.S. State Department Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Frank Garcia. The Artemis Accords were established in 2020 by NASA and the State Department along with seven founding nations, laying out shared principles for safe, transparent, and coordinated civil exploration of the Moon, Mars, and beyond, built on commitments already made under the Outer Space Treaty. Djibouti's signature follows Turkey's, which became the 71st signatory on August 31, and continues a steady expansion of the accords across Africa, the Middle East, and beyond as more countries and private companies turn their attention to lunar activity.

New Plasma Thruster Could Let Satellites Stay in Very Low Orbit Indefinitely

A University of Stuttgart PhD thesis proposes a plasma engine that burns the very air molecules causing atmospheric drag as propellant, potentially letting satellites orbit indefinitely in Very Low Earth Orbit.

Satellites flying in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), roughly 100 to 450 kilometers up, get sharper imagery and can run communications or radar with less power, but the thin atmosphere at that altitude creates enough drag that spacecraft need near-constant thruster firing to avoid falling back to Earth, typically burning costly propellants like xenon. Francesco Romano's University of Stuttgart PhD thesis proposes solving that problem by feeding the same air molecules causing the drag into a plasma engine as fuel instead. Applying the design to real missions, including ESA's GOCE satellite, which flew in VLEO on a xenon ion thruster until it ran out of fuel in 2013, Romano's calculations suggest the new engine could keep a satellite aloft indefinitely between 190 and 250 kilometers using less than 1.6 kilowatts of power, well within what a typical spacecraft's solar panels can generate.

SpaceX Marks 700th Falcon Rocket Launch, Completes O3b mPOWER Constellation for SES

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 carrying the final three O3b mPOWER satellites for operator SES, marking the 700th orbital launch of the Falcon rocket family.

The mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, also notching the 400th orbital flight from that pad. The three satellites complete SES's O3b mPOWER medium-Earth-orbit constellation, designed to deliver high-throughput, low-latency broadband connectivity to government, maritime, aviation, and enterprise customers around the globe. The Falcon family, spanning the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, has become the world's most-flown orbital rocket line, underpinning everything from Starlink deployment to NASA science missions and national security payloads.

Japan's Hayabusa2 Achieves First-Ever Laser Ranging During an Asteroid Flyby

JAXA's Hayabusa2 probe bounced laser pulses off asteroid Torifune mid-flyby, a world-first for spacecraft navigation technology.

The laser fired twice, about a second apart, from roughly 20 and 15 kilometers out, just moments before closest approach. Torifune turned out to be an elongated, two-lobed "contact binary" -- two rocky chunks fused together -- and the images returned were larger and sharper than the team had expected. Hayabusa2, famous for its earlier sample-return mission to asteroid Ryugu, is now cruising back out on its ion engines toward two planned Earth flybys in 2027 and 2028, ahead of further deep-space encounters. Mission scientists say the technique will help future missions navigate and study near-Earth asteroids and other small bodies more precisely.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Launches Toward Deep Space

NASA's next flagship observatory lifted off on a Falcon Heavy, beginning a three-month journey to survey dark matter, dark energy, and exoplanets.

The observatory separated cleanly from the Falcon Heavy's upper stage about half an hour after liftoff and is now settling toward a halo orbit near the second Sun-Earth Lagrange point, roughly a million miles from Earth. Unlike the James Webb Space Telescope, Roman orbits the Sun rather than the Earth. Over the coming months, engineers will calibrate its instruments -- a Wide-Field Instrument and a Coronagraph -- before NASA targets its first public images for early 2027. Once operational, Roman is expected to beam back about 1.4 terabytes of data daily, the highest rate of any NASA astrophysics mission so far, with machine learning and citizen scientists helping sift through the flood of images for new discoveries.

Signs of Icy Exocomets Found Delivering Water Around Young Star PDS 70

Lund University astronomers spotted fast-changing gas signals hinting that comets may be carrying water toward planets forming around a nearby young star.

The clue builds on a 2023 discovery of water vapor deep in PDS 70's inner disk. By digging back through archival spectra and running orbital simulations, the team found that the system's gas giants could be flinging distant icy planetesimals inward -- a process that may closely mirror how Earth got its own water billions of years ago. The exocomet explanation isn't confirmed yet; researchers say a stellar disk wind is still a plausible alternative. They're hoping the Extremely Large Telescope, currently under construction in Chile, will eventually offer a clear enough view to settle the question and reveal whether more planets are hiding in the system.

Scientists Propose a Mission to Finally Rendezvous With Halley's Comet

A new trajectory design could let a spacecraft meet Halley's Comet head-on in 2060 -- something no past mission has managed.

Halley's tilted, backward orbit makes it extremely costly to match speeds with using conventional propulsion, which is why past missions like ESA's Giotto only managed brief flybys. The new design would use proven technology -- radioisotope power generators paired with a Hall-effect thruster -- along with planetary flybys to reach the comet beyond Saturn's orbit by around 2060, about a year before its next close pass by the Sun. Arriving that early and that far out means a spacecraft could watch the comet's nucleus wake up as it warms and begins releasing gas and dust on its way toward the inner solar system, offering by far the most detailed look at Halley's Comet ever obtained.

NASA Issues Solicitation for Critical Infrastructure and Tech to Build Base at Lunar South Pole

NASA officially announced a open solicitation seeking proposals from commercial industry, academia, and international partners to develop key technologies and infrastructure. The initiative targets critical capabilities, including vertical solar power generation, in-situ oxygen extraction from lunar regolith, nuclear Radioisotope Stirling generators, and in-space manufacturing for a long-term base at the Moon's South Pole.

The solicitation aims to close essential capability gaps required to establish a sustainable, long-term human presence under the Artemis campaign. Key technology areas include vertical solar arrays for continuous power, extracting usable molecular oxygen from rocks and dust, and radioisotope Stirling nuclear generators to operate spacecraft in pitch-black, dusty, remote regions. The initiative also emphasizes in-space advanced manufacturing and nanomaterials production to minimize heavy reliance on resupply missions from Earth.

ESA and JAXA Hold Joint Briefing on BepiColombo's Final Approach to Mercury

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) held a virtual briefing on September 9, 2026, outlining the final phases of the BepiColombo mission. Following the successful separation of the Mercury Transfer Module on September 3, the spacecraft is now preparing for orbit insertion on November 21, ahead of splitting into two independent science orbiters in December.

BepiColombo's eight-year voyage to the innermost planet is nearing completion. Mission managers confirmed that ESA's Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and JAXA's Mio spacecraft will separate between December 9–10 to begin dedicated scientific mapping and magnetospheric operations, marking humanity's first two-spacecraft mission to Mercury. Full scientific data gathering is scheduled to begin in April 2027.

JWST Detects Hidden Stars Making Early Galaxies Four Times Heavier Than Expected

New spectrographic analysis from the James Webb Space Telescope reveals that distant ancient galaxies conceal vast populations of low-mass, faint stars. This discovery indicates these early cosmic structures are up to four times more massive than standard astrophysical models previously estimated.

Astronomers analyzed nine distant galaxies and found that rare, high-luminosity stars had been masking vast populations of smaller, dimmer stars. In the most extreme case observed, a galaxy's stellar mass was revised upward by 400%. This finding offers a key piece to solving the ongoing "impossibly early galaxy" puzzle, explaining how early galaxies accumulated significantly more mass faster than existing galaxy formation models predicted.

BepiColombo Spacecraft Begins Arrival at Mercury After 8-Year Journey

After nearly eight years traveling through the inner solar system, the trailblazing BepiColombo spacecraft has finally begun its arrival at Mercury.

A joint ESA/JAXA mission that will study Mercury's composition and magnetic field — one of the most technically demanding interplanetary missions ever flown.

SpaceX Launches 27 More Starlink Satellites, Lands Booster at Sea

SpaceX launched another batch of Starlink internet satellites on Sept. 6, sending them up from California's central coast.

Part of the ongoing megaconstellation buildout — routine but steady evidence of the growing commercial space-internet economy (ties well into your "space economy" content angle).

NASA Expands Deep Space Network with Giant New Dish in California Desert

The new antenna will boost capacity on NASA's increasingly strained deep-space communications network as Artemis and other missions drive up demand.

The upgrade addresses growing bandwidth pressure on NASA's communications infrastructure as crewed lunar missions and deep-space probes multiply.

Private German Rocket Makes History, Reaches Orbit from European Soil

Isar Aerospace's Spectrum rocket made history on Sept. 5, becoming the first vehicle ever to reach orbit from European soil.

This marks a milestone for European independent launch capability, reducing reliance on non-European providers for orbital access. A significant moment for the continent's commercial space sector.

ASA and ESA Astronauts Begin ISS Spacewalk for Major Station Upgrades

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot began a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on September 1, 2026. The astronauts are replacing a navigation retroreflector, installing data-relay cables, preparing the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer for future maintenance, and replacing a high-definition camera.

The spacewalk began at 8:40 a.m. EDT and is part of the ISS's ongoing maintenance and technology upgrades. The new retroreflector will support spacecraft navigation during rendezvous and docking operations, while the other work will improve the station's communications, science systems, and external imaging capabilities. This marks Meir's seventh spacewalk and Adenot's third.

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Begins Journey to Unlock the Dark Universe

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has begun its three-month journey toward the Sun-Earth L2 point after launching aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on August 30. The observatory will investigate dark energy, dark matter, and exoplanets while creating an enormous survey of the universe.

Roman is heading roughly one million miles from Earth, where it will undergo commissioning before beginning its science mission. Its wide field of view will allow astronomers to survey huge portions of the sky much faster than Hubble, helping build a massive catalog of stars and galaxies and potentially identifying thousands of exoplanets.

NASA Astronauts Begin Major ISS Spacewalk for Navigation and Science Maintenance

NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot are conducting a major spacewalk outside the International Space Station today, Sept. 1, 2026. The astronauts are replacing a retroreflector used for spacecraft navigation and performing additional maintenance on the station’s communications and science equipment.

The spacewalk is expected to last approximately six and a half hours. The crew will install a new navigation retroreflector on the Harmony module, work on data-relay systems, prepare the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer's radiator for future maintenance, and replace a high-definition camera on the station's truss. This is Meir's seventh spacewalk and Adenot's third, and it is the 284th spacewalk supporting ISS assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

NASA’s Swift Space Telescope Restarts Science Observations

NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has resumed scientific observations with two of its three science instruments after a commercial mission intended to boost the telescope’s orbit was scaled back.

Swift is designed to rapidly detect and study powerful cosmic explosions, including gamma-ray bursts. Its ability to quickly point toward transient events makes it an important tool for time-sensitive astronomy. NASA reported on August 28 that Swift had resumed operations with two of its three science instruments. The development means the observatory can continue contributing observations of energetic events across the universe while work surrounding the spacecraft’s orbital situation continues.

August’s 96% Partial Lunar Eclipse Creates a Dramatic Blood Moon

A deep partial lunar eclipse occurred on August 27–28, with approximately 96% of the Moon passing into Earth’s shadow. The event was visible from parts of the world and created a striking reddish appearance across much of the lunar surface.

During a lunar eclipse, Earth moves between the Sun and Moon, causing Earth’s shadow to fall across the lunar surface. The August 27–28 eclipse was particularly deep, with about 96% of the Moon entering the darkest central portion of Earth's shadow. The portion of the Moon inside the umbra can appear reddish because sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere is filtered and bent toward the lunar surface. The event was one of August 2026’s major skywatching highlights.

Astronomers May Be Closing In on a Galaxy Without Stars

Astronomers are investigating an unusual object that could represent an extremely rare type of galaxy dominated by dark matter and gas but containing few or possibly no stars. If confirmed, it could provide a new window into how galaxies form.

Most galaxies we observe are identified through the light produced by their stars. But astronomers have long theorized that some dark-matter-dominated structures could exist with very little stellar activity. A new candidate highlighted in recent astronomical research could help scientists test these ideas. Confirming such an object would be significant because it could reveal what happens before a galaxy becomes populated with stars. Researchers still need additional observations to determine exactly what the object is, so it should be treated as a promising candidate rather than a confirmed starless galaxy.

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope Set for Launch on August 30

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is scheduled to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy from Florida on August 30. The powerful infrared observatory will investigate dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets and billions of galaxies.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is NASA’s next major space observatory. Its wide field of view will allow scientists to survey enormous regions of the universe far faster than previous space telescopes. Roman is designed to investigate some of cosmology’s biggest mysteries, including the nature of dark energy and dark matter, while also searching for and studying exoplanets. NASA currently targets liftoff for 7:26 a.m. EDT on August 30, 2026, from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. NASA’s launch coverage is scheduled to begin at 6:20 a.m. EDT. After launch, Roman will travel to the Sun-Earth L2 point, roughly one million miles from Earth.

NASA Astronauts Conduct Spacewalk Today to Upgrade ISS Communications

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot are conducting a spacewalk today to finish replacing a Space-to-Ground antenna on the International Space Station. The antenna enables high-speed communications between the ISS and mission control centers on Earth. The astronauts will also attempt additional maintenance work if time permits.

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot are scheduled to conduct U.S. Spacewalk 98 on August 25, 2026, continuing maintenance work on the International Space Station. The main objective is to complete the replacement of a Space-to-Ground antenna located on the station's Z1 truss. The antenna is an important part of the ISS communications system, allowing high-speed transmission of data between the station and mission control. Menon will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to retrieve a spare antenna while Adenot releases it from an external platform. The astronauts will then install the antenna and connect the required electrical and data connections. If time allows, the crew may also replace a retroreflector on the Harmony module, which helps provide navigation data for visiting spacecraft. NASA's live coverage begins at 7:00 a.m. EDT, with the spacewalk expected to begin at approximately 8:35 a.m. EDT and last around six and a half hours.

NASA Completes Dress Rehearsal for Roman Space Telescope

NASA has completed a major launch rehearsal as preparations continue for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

The rehearsal tested launch-day procedures ahead of the telescope's upcoming mission. Roman is designed to investigate dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets and the evolution of galaxies, making it one of NASA's major upcoming space observatories.

China’s Chang’e-7 Mission Will Hunt for Ice on the Moon

China is preparing its Chang’e-7 lunar mission to search for water ice inside permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s south pole.

The mission will include a lander, rover and a hopping probe designed to explore extremely cold, permanently shadowed regions. Finding lunar ice could be important for future human exploration because water can potentially support life and be converted into rocket fuel.

SpaceX Reaches 100 Launches in 2026

SpaceX has completed its 100th orbital mission of 2026, setting a new pace for commercial spaceflight.

A Falcon 9 launched 24 Starlink satellites from California on August 19, marking SpaceX's 100th mission of the year. The company has dramatically increased its launch frequency compared with previous years.

Hubble Solves Mystery of the Milky Way’s Ancient Merger

New Hubble observations are helping scientists uncover evidence of a massive galaxy merger that shaped the Milky Way during its early history.

Researchers identified evidence linked to the ancient Low-Energy Kraken/Heracles merger, providing new clues about how the Milky Way grew by absorbing smaller galaxies billions of years ago.

NASA-Tested Vest Could Protect Astronauts From Extreme Solar Storms

A radiation-shielding vest tested during NASA's Artemis I mission could significantly reduce astronaut radiation exposure during powerful solar storms.

Researchers analyzed data from instrumented manikins aboard the uncrewed Orion spacecraft during Artemis I. The AstroRad vest reduced simulated radiation exposure by about 60% for an extreme 1972-type solar storm and around 40% for a 1989-type storm. The technology could become valuable for future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

Scientists Capture the Sharpest-Ever Image of the Sun

Scientists have captured an exceptionally detailed image of the Sun's surface, revealing previously unseen structures that could improve our understanding of solar activity.

The image was captured using the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. Its unprecedented resolution allows researchers to study fine structures on the Sun and better understand the processes responsible for solar activity and space weather.

NASA Prepares Roman Space Telescope for August Launch

NASA and SpaceX are preparing the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope for launch later this month, opening a new chapter in the study of dark energy, exoplanets and the universe.

The Roman Space Telescope is approaching the final stages of launch preparation at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The mission is designed to conduct wide-field observations of the universe and investigate some of astronomy's biggest questions, including the nature of dark energy and the population of planets beyond our Solar System.

Japan Prepares Mission to Collect Samples From Mars' Moons

Japan is preparing its MMX mission to explore Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos and return samples to Earth, potentially revealing how the Martian system and its moons formed.

JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration mission aims to collect material from Phobos. Scientists hope the samples will help determine whether Mars' moons formed from debris created by a giant impact on Mars or were asteroids captured by Mars' gravity. The mission is particularly significant because China is also pursuing a Mars-moon sample-return mission.

NASA Invites India to Join Future Moon Base Program

NASA has invited India to participate in its plans for a permanent lunar base near the Moon’s south pole, deepening cooperation between the United States and India in future lunar exploration.

The invitation was discussed during the ninth U.S.-India Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting at ISRO headquarters in Bengaluru. NASA's lunar plans include robotic exploration beginning around 2028, followed by infrastructure development and eventually a semi-permanent human presence. India’s participation could become an important step in its long-term ambitions for human lunar exploration and space infrastructure.

Supermassive black hole spews energy 300,000 light years into deep space

Supermassive black holes are best known for their immense gravity, pulling in everything that strays too close, even light. But new research suggests these cosmic giants can also hurl enormous amounts of energy outward, driving powerful disturbances that ripple hundreds of thousands of light-years through space.

A study led by Satoshi Yamada of Tohoku University in Japan found that winds generated by an actively feeding supermassive black hole are about 100 times more powerful than astronomers previously estimated. These outflows, scientists say, inject an amount of energy comparable to several billion supernova explosions, driving turbulence through hot gas across distances of roughly 300,000 light-years —far beyond the boundaries of the host galaxy itself.Black holes are largely known for sucking matter in, but they also eject gas in the form of powerful winds," Yamada said in a statement. "These winds were thought to be contained within the galaxy, but our study revealed that the force is immensely more powerful than previously understood." To measure the extent of those outflows, Yamada and his colleagues observed H1821+643, a bright quasar in the constellation Draco about 3.4 billion light-years from Earth. The galaxy hosting H1821+643 sits at the center of a dense galaxy cluster and harbors an active supermassive black hole estimated to be three to four billion times the mass of the sun.

NASA astronaut Mike Fincke retires after 30 years at the space agency

NASA announced Fincke's decision on Wednesday (Aug. 12), celebrating his contributions to spaceflight and long career of accomplishments.

Few people have had the opportunity to shape as many chapters of NASA’s history as Mike Fincke,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said that day in a statement. Fincke departs as NASA's fourth-most flown astronaut, racking up a cumulative 549 days in space over four separate spaceflights. During those, he performed nine spacewalks and served twice as commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Most recently, he launched as pilot on SpaceX's Crew-11 mission to the ISS, stepping into the role of commander for ISS Expedition 74 from August 2025 to January 2026.

How ESA mimics and models the 2026 total solar eclipse

This is why ESA developed missions that create eclipses artificially, and why experts use computer models to create digital simulations. So how do we do it, and why is it important?

In two days, the Moon will completely shield the Sun for parts of Greenland, Iceland, Spain and Portugal, creating a total solar eclipse. For up to just over two minutes, the brightness of day will turn into twilight and reveal the solar corona, normally kept invisible by the Sun's glare. The corona is where space weather originates: where the solar wind gains speed before streaming out into the Solar System, and where coronal mass ejections arise. Space weather can disrupt our satellite networks, communication infrastructure, power grids and other technologies that modern society relies on. Until recently, the full corona could only be observed from Earth during the short periods of total eclipses. These occur around once, very rarely twice a year, in different places across the globe, and last at most a few minutes. A solar eclipse is an example of a natural 'solar occultation’ – when an object (in this case the Moon) blocks the Sun's disc from an observer's perspective. To stretch the short observation window that natural eclipses offer, scientists invented ways to create occultations artificially, using an instrument called a ‘coronagraph’: a telescope incorporating a disc to occult the Sun.

NASA Confirms New Exoplanet Discovery with Potential Habitable Conditions

NASA astronomers have announced the discovery of a new Earth-sized exoplanet located within its star's habitable zone. The planet could possess conditions suitable for liquid water, making it an exciting target for future observations.

The newly discovered exoplanet was identified using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), with follow-up observations from ground-based observatories. Scientists estimate the planet is approximately 1.1 times the size of Earth and orbits a nearby red dwarf star. Although no evidence of life has been detected, its location within the habitable zone makes it one of the most promising candidates for future atmospheric analysis using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Researchers hope to determine whether the planet has an atmosphere and search for potential biosignatures. This discovery contributes to the growing catalog of potentially habitable worlds and advances our understanding of planetary systems beyond our solar system.

NASA's Roman Space Telescope Is Ready for Launch After Final Fueling

NASA has completed fueling the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, one of the agency's most ambitious astronomy missions since the James Webb Space Telescope. The observatory is scheduled to launch on August 30, 2026, aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket. Roman is designed to survey the universe at an unprecedented scale, helping scientists investigate dark matter, dark energy, exoplanets, and the evolution of galaxies.

🚀 Mission: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope 🛰️ Launch Date: August 30, 2026 🚀 Launch Vehicle: SpaceX Falcon Heavy 📍 Destination: Sun–Earth Lagrange Point 2 (L2), approximately 1.5 million km from Earth 🔭 Roman's Wide Field Instrument can capture images about 50 times wider than the James Webb Space Telescope in a single observation. 🌌 The telescope is expected to: Survey nearly 2 billion galaxies. Produce more than 500 terabytes of scientific data every year. Study the nature of dark matter and dark energy. Discover thousands of new exoplanets using gravitational microlensing. 🤝 Roman will work alongside the James Webb Space Telescope, with Roman scanning vast regions of the sky while JWST performs detailed observations of selected targets.

Scientists Study Possible Future Mission to Chase Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Researchers are exploring ways to study an unusual object passing through our Solar System.

3I/ATLAS is considered a rare interstellar visitor, offering scientists a chance to study material from another star system.

NASA Deep Space Network Facility Affected by Spain Wildfires

Wildfires near NASA’s Madrid deep-space communication facility temporarily affected operations.

The facility supports communication with missions like Voyager, JWST, and Artemis. NASA redirected communication support to other Deep Space Network stations while assessing damage.

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Prepares for Launch

NASA’s Roman Telescope is expected to improve studies of black holes, dark energy, and exoplanets.

The telescope will survey large parts of the sky and may detect thousands of violent events where black holes tear apart stars (tidal disruption events).

ESA’s Euclid Space Telescope Finds Some of the Universe’s Oldest Quasars

ESA’s Euclid mission discovered extremely ancient quasars from the early universe.

The telescope identified 31 ancient quasars, including some that existed when the universe was only around 5% of its current age. The discovery helps scientists study the first massive galaxies and black holes.

James Webb Space Telescope Reveals How Supermassive Black Holes Feed

JWST observations are helping scientists understand how giant black holes consume matter and grow rapidly.

Researchers are studying how black holes became billions of times more massive, especially in the early universe after the Big Bang. This could solve major mysteries about galaxy evolution.

NASA Recruiting Volunteers for Yearlong Moon and Mars Mission Simulation

NASA is recruiting research volunteers for a yearlong simulated deep-space mission at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Beginning no earlier than August 2027, participants will live in isolation and rehearse Moon and Mars operations—including mock Mars walks—to help NASA prepare astronauts for future missions.

NASA announced the recruitment on July 1, 2026. Selected volunteers will spend approximately one year living and working inside two confined habitats that simulate a spacecraft journey and a planetary surface base. Participants will experience isolation, limited resources and demanding mission conditions. Their activities will include simulated surface exploration, mock Mars walks, rover journeys and astronaut-like tasks. Researchers will study the crew’s health and performance while testing technologies, procedures and equipment designed for long-duration missions. The results could support future Artemis missions, a sustained human presence on the Moon and eventual crewed missions to Mars. This opportunity does not involve travelling to Mars; the entire simulation will take place at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA’s Roman Telescope Could Detect Ancient Black Holes Shredding Stars

New research suggests NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will detect distant supermassive black holes by observing stars being torn apart by their intense gravity.

When a star passes too close to a supermassive black hole, it can be ripped apart in an event known as a tidal disruption event. The event creates an enormous burst of light that can briefly outshine the star’s entire host galaxy. NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is expected to detect up to 100 of these distant events per year, including black holes that existed between 8 billion and 11 billion years ago. Studying these events could help astronomers determine whether the universe’s earliest supermassive black holes began as smaller remnants of massive stars or formed through the direct collapse of enormous gas clouds.

NASA Astronaut Anil Menon and Soyuz Crewmates Arrive at International Space Station

NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina have safely arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft.

The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 14 and reached the International Space Station after a three-hour, two-orbit journey. Soyuz MS-29 docked with the station’s Prichal module, temporarily increasing the orbital laboratory’s population to 10 crew members. During his mission, Anil Menon will participate in research involving semiconductor manufacturing, artificial intelligence-assisted medical ultrasound, blood flow in microgravity, and bioprinting vascular structures.

NASA’s Webb Discovers Hidden Giant Planet in Famous Beta Pictoris System

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has discovered Beta Pictoris d, a previously hidden giant exoplanet orbiting one of the most studied young stars near our solar system.

Beta Pictoris d is located about 63 light-years from Earth and is estimated to be at least twice the mass of Jupiter. It becomes the third known giant planet in the Beta Pictoris system. The planet remained hidden inside the system’s bright debris disk, which made conventional imaging difficult. Webb detected it through the chemical fingerprint of its atmosphere, including carbon monoxide. Follow-up observations also detected water vapor and methane. The discovery demonstrates a powerful new way of finding exoplanets by identifying atmospheric signatures rather than relying only on direct images.

NASA’s July Skywatching Guide Features Planet Lineup, Comet 10P, and Thin Saturn Rings

NASA’s July 2026 skywatching guide highlights a Moon-and-planets dawn alignment, Comet 10P/Tempel 2, prime Milky Way viewing, and Saturn’s rings at a shallow angle.

NASA says July brings several skywatching moments: a dawn alignment of the Moon, Mars, Saturn, and Uranus on July 11–12, a dark-sky window around the July 14 New Moon for viewing Comet 10P/Tempel 2 and the Milky Way, and a good late-July opportunity to observe Saturn’s unusually thin-looking rings through a telescope.

NASA awards nearly $600M for new Moon delivery missions

NASA has selected Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace, and Intuitive Machines for four new commercial lunar delivery missions planned for late 2028.

NASA announced new Commercial Lunar Payload Services awards to support its Moon Base Program. Astrobotic received $297.9 million for two deliveries, while Firefly Aerospace received $144.2 million and Intuitive Machines received $148.3 million for one delivery each. The missions will carry NASA science payloads and technology demonstrations to help build long-term lunar surface capability. NASA is also studying possible opportunities for PROMISE, a rover concept based on Mars rover engineering heritage.

India’s Skyroot Prepares Vikram-1 for Historic Private Orbital Launch

Skyroot Aerospace is preparing Vikram-1, India’s first private rocket attempting to place a satellite into orbit.

Skyroot Aerospace, founded by former ISRO engineers, has set a July 12 to August 4, 2026 launch window for Vikram-1 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The seven-story multi-stage rocket is designed to carry payloads of up to 350 kg to low Earth orbit. The mission will collect key performance data on propulsion, guidance, and stage separation, marking a major milestone for India’s growing private space sector.

NASA launches mission to save aging Swift space observatory

NASA and startup Katalyst have launched LINK, a robotic spacecraft designed to rescue the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory by towing it into a safer orbit.

NASA’s Swift Observatory has been studying gamma-ray bursts, black holes, and distant cosmic events since 2004, but its orbit has been decaying because the satellite has no onboard propulsion. Katalyst’s LINK spacecraft launched on a Pegasus rocket over the Pacific and is expected to rendezvous with Swift, grapple it with robotic arms, and gradually raise it to a more stable orbit. If successful, this could become a major step forward for satellite servicing and space sustainability.

NASA Prepares Swift Boost Mission to Save Space Telescope

NASA is preparing a rescue mission called Swift Boost to raise the orbit of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and prevent it from re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

The Swift Observatory has been operating since 2004, studying gamma-ray bursts and other high-energy cosmic events. Its orbit has been dropping because of atmospheric drag linked to solar activity. The Swift Boost mission will use a robotic servicing spacecraft from Katalyst Space Technologies to approach, capture, and raise Swift’s orbit, potentially extending the telescope’s life by several years.

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope arrives in Florida

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida after traveling aboard the Pegasus barge. The $4.3 billion observatory is now beginning its 70 days of prelaunch processing.

The 43-foot-tall observatory arrived on June 21, 2026, traveling from the Goddard Space Flight Center in a protective container nicknamed the "Chariot". Technicians transported the telescope to the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, where it will undergo final inspections, testing, and fueling. It is targeted to launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket no earlier than August 30. The Roman Space Telescope features a mirror similar in size to Hubble's but includes a 300-megapixel Wide Field Instrument that can cover an area of the sky at least 100 times larger in a single observation. This will allow scientists to study billions of galaxies, investigate dark energy and dark matter, and search for exoplanets.

NASA Announces Winners for 2026 Human Lander Challenge

NASA selected California Polytechnic State University as the overall winner of the 2026 Human Lander Challenge for their design of environmental control and life support systems for future lunar landers.

The competition concluded on June 25, 2026, following final technical presentations near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Student teams from across the country designed systems-level approaches to enhance the performance and reliability of life support technologies essential for astronauts during deep space missions. California Polytechnic State University was awarded the $10,000 top prize for their Peltier-based Hydration Accumulation Terminal project. Purdue University took second place ($5,000), and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University placed third ($3,000). These student-developed technologies are meant to support the agency's Artemis program, which plans to return American astronauts to the Moon in 2028.

Webb Telescope Reveals Ancient Milky Way Relics

Webb and Hubble observations have identified a new class of galactic objects called bulge fossil fragments.

Scientists believe these objects survived from the early stages of the Milky Way’s formation billions of years ago, offering clues about how our galaxy assembled over cosmic time.

Interstellar Visitor 3I/ATLAS Draws Scientific Attention

Astronomers are studying the newly discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, only the third known visitor from outside our Solar System.

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest unusual carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios unlike those found in Solar System comets. Researchers are trying to determine its origin and composition. Scientists at SETI have also examined it for possible radio emissions, although no evidence of artificial signals has been detected.

Relativity Space Announces Bold, Privately Funded 2028 Mars Orbiter Mission with NASA

In a massive shift for deep-space exploration, aerospace startup Relativity Space has announced plans to privately build and launch an uncrewed Mars science orbiter in 2028. The spacecraft will carry a suite of high-tech NASA atmospheric instruments while doubling as an interplanetary communications relay.

Operating under an Interplanetary Sciences Program, the mission will utilize Relativity Space's upcoming reusable medium-lift rocket, the Terran R. NASA's Ames Research Center will design and build the primary science payload, an advanced atmospheric instrument suite called Aeolus. Aeolus is designed to deliver the first continuous, daily global picture of Martian wind patterns, temperatures, dust storms, and clouds. While NASA will process the scientific data and operate the instruments under a six-year reimbursable Space Act Agreement, Relativity Space will entirely own, construct, and fly the spacecraft. The mission marks a significant milestone where commercial infrastructure is being utilized to handle complex deep-space sovereign science.

NASA Selects DAPHNE Mission Concept to Decode Earth’s Space Weather Vulnerabilities

NASA has officially advanced the DAPHNE (Dynamic Atmosphere-Ionosphere Explorer) mission concept into its next critical development phase. The project utilizes twin twin satellites to study how lower atmospheric conditions influence the upper ionosphere, aiming to protect critical tech infrastructure and future astronaut crews from unpredictable space weather.

The mission, moving into Phase B of development for detailed design and flight planning, targets the continuously changing thermosphere-ionosphere system where Earth's neutral atmosphere meets ionized space plasma. Led by the University of Colorado, Boulder, DAPHNE will deploy two identical satellites to capture coordinated measurements of neutral winds, composition, and temperature. This data is critical for space weather forecasting, as fluctuations in this region directly disrupt low Earth orbit satellites, GPS tracking, and communications infrastructure. Additionally, NASA will use DAPHNE's findings to predict and mitigate hazardous space weather conditions as astronauts travel beyond Earth's protective magnetic field toward the Moon and Mars.

NASA’s Webb Telescope Discovers Exquisite "Salt Clouds" on Famous Pink Planet

Astronomers utilizing the James Webb Space Telescope have made a historic discovery, detecting actual salt clouds veiling the atmosphere of the famous "Pink Planet," GJ 504b. The finding marks the first direct evidence of sodium chloride clouds on an extrasolar body, shedding light on the weather of colder, older gas giants.

Discovered in 2013, the Pink Planet (GJ 504b) sits roughly 57 light-years from Earth and has long puzzled scientists due to its chilly 550°F temperature—making it too faint for ground-based spectroscopy. By leveraging the advanced infrared capabilities of the James Webb Space Telescope and applying complex data-processing models to filter out the intense glare of its host star, a Northwestern University-led team successfully isolated the planet's atmospheric spectrum. The simulated data only aligned perfectly with the observations once salt clouds were introduced into the planetary model. This breakthrough confirms a 15-year-old astrophysical theory regarding cloud formations on colder worlds, paving the way for future studies of low-temperature exoplanets.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Forecasts Extreme Weather on Ruby-Raining Exoplanet

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has successfully forecasted extreme weather patterns on a distant, scorched exoplanet. Researchers discovered that the gas giant experiences atmospheric conditions harsh enough to brew clouds and precipitation consisting of liquid rubies and sapphires, providing an unprecedented look at exotic planetary climates.

Using its advanced infrared instruments, the James Webb Space Telescope mapped the thermal profile and atmospheric composition of an extreme, ultra-hot Jupiter-like exoplanet. The data revealed intense temperature differentials between the planet’s dayside and nightside, driving fierce global winds. In the cooler regions of the atmosphere, mineral compounds of aluminum oxide condense, essentially forming clouds that rain down the raw materials of rubies and sapphires. This breakthrough marks one of the most detailed meteorological profiles of an extrasolar world to date, helping scientists better understand how planetary atmospheres behave under extreme stellar radiation.

NASA’s SpaceX Dragon to Return ISS Science Samples to Earth

NASA says a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft is scheduled to leave the International Space Station on June 16, carrying research samples and hardware back to Earth.

The Dragon spacecraft from SpaceX’s 34th commercial resupply mission will return thousands of pounds of cargo, including bioprinted organ and cartilage tissue, cryogenic fuel storage data, DNA-inspired materials for cancer-treatment research, and station hardware. NASA says the capsule is expected to splash down off the coast of California on June 17. This research supports future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars.

Astronomers Find Strong Evidence of Magnetic Fields Around Exoplanets

Astronomers studying atmospheric winds on seven hot gas-giant exoplanets have reported strong evidence that planets beyond our solar system possess magnetic fields.

Planetary magnetic fields can protect atmospheres from charged particles and stellar radiation. Their presence may therefore play an important role in atmospheric stability and long-term habitability. Researchers inferred the magnetic fields by analysing unusual wind patterns and atmospheric behaviour on several distant gas giants.

NASA Says Farewell to MAVEN After 11 Years Studying Mars

NASA has officially ended the MAVEN Mars mission after more than 11 years orbiting the Red Planet. MAVEN helped scientists understand how Mars lost much of its atmosphere, giving deeper clues about why the planet changed from a potentially habitable world into the cold, dry Mars we see today.

MAVEN, short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, was the first mission dedicated to studying Mars’ upper atmosphere and how it interacts with the Sun and solar wind. The spacecraft entered Mars orbit in 2014 and operated for more than a decade beyond its original one-year mission. NASA last heard from MAVEN on December 6, 2025, after it passed behind Mars and lost signal. A review board later determined the spacecraft was not recoverable.

Milky Way’s Black Hole Finally Shows Its Hidden Cosmic Wind

Astronomers have found evidence of a hot cosmic wind blowing from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The discovery helps solve a 50-year mystery and gives scientists a clearer look at how even “quiet” black holes can shape their surroundings.

Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and ALMA radio telescopes, researchers detected a cone-shaped cavity near Sagittarius A*. This region appears to have been carved out by hot wind from the black hole, sweeping away or heating nearby cold gas. The finding matters because it shows that our galaxy’s central black hole is not completely inactive — it still affects the environment around it, even in a quieter phase. This helps scientists better understand black hole feeding, galactic evolution, and how supermassive black holes influence the galaxies they live inside.

NASA Sets Aug. 30, 2026 Launch Date for Roman Space Telescope

NASA has announced that the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is now scheduled to launch on August 30, 2026, earlier than previously expected. The mission will study dark energy, exoplanets, and large-scale cosmic structure.

NASA has opened a new update hub for the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and confirmed that the observatory is scheduled to launch on August 30, 2026. Roman is designed to observe wide areas of the universe with high precision. Its science goals include studying dark energy, mapping cosmic structure, investigating exoplanets, and helping astronomers understand how galaxies and the universe evolved over time. This is highly relevant for CosmicCivilization because Roman could become one of the most important next-generation space telescopes for understanding dark energy, alien worlds, and the structure of the universe.

AI Helps Scientists Discover Over 10,000 Possible New Worlds

Astronomers using artificial intelligence and NASA’s TESS space telescope data have identified more than 10,000 new exoplanet candidates. If confirmed, this could dramatically expand the number of known worlds beyond our solar system and accelerate the search for potentially habitable planets.

A research team analyzed data from over 83 million stars using machine learning algorithms and detected 10,091 potential exoplanets that were previously hidden in NASA's TESS observations. Scientists believe AI is becoming one of the most powerful tools in modern astronomy because it can uncover patterns and signals that would be extremely difficult for humans to find manually. Currently, NASA has confirmed around 6,000 exoplanets, but this new discovery could potentially multiply that number if future observations verify these candidates. One candidate planet has already been confirmed, proving the effectiveness of the AI-driven approach. This discovery raises exciting questions about how many Earth-like worlds may exist in our galaxy and whether advanced civilizations could exist beyond our solar system. It also highlights how artificial intelligence may play a major role in the future of space exploration and cosmic discovery. Source Name

NASA looks to industry for future Mars communication network

NASA is seeking industry collaboration for a Mars Telecommunications Network that could support future science missions, surface exploration, and human activity on Mars.

NASA is seeking industry collaboration for a Mars Telecommunications Network that could support future science missions, surface exploration, and human activity on Mars.

NASA shares May 2026 skywatching highlights for cosmic observers

NASA’s May 2026 skywatching update highlights the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, a Moon and Venus meetup, and a rare Blue Moon at the end of the month.

NASA’s May 2026 skywatching update highlights the Eta Aquarid meteor shower, a Moon and Venus meetup, and a rare Blue Moon at the end of the month.