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New AI tool predicts vision loss risk in astronauts—before launch

Since the dawn of human spaceflight, scientists have carefully studied the effects of space and microgravity on astronauts. After decades of observations and examinations, one truth is certain: space is brutal on the human body. Muscles atrophy, bones lose mass, limbs stretch and—more unknown—eyesight can degrade in ways not yet fully understood.

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Perseverance meets the megabreccia

Last week, the Perseverance rover began an exciting new journey. Driving northwest of the Soroya ridge, Perseverance entered an area filled with a diverse range of boulders that the science team believes could hold clues to Mars’s early history.

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Sunset SpaceX launch could make for unique show if weather allows

A SpaceX launch on the Space Coast just after sunset Monday could mean the return of the unique jellyfish effect over Florida’s skies.

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Using pulsar accelerations to detect a dark matter sub-halo in the Milky Way for the first time

Dr. Sukanya Chakrabarti, the Pei-Ling Chan Endowed Chair in the College of Science at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), and her team have posted a new paper to the arXiv preprint server that for the first time uses binary and solitary pulsars to constrain properties of a dark matter sub-halo in our own […]

Supermassive black holes shrouded by dust in the early universe

Astronomers have discovered “dust-shrouded supermassive black holes” in the early universe, less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang—a type of object that had previously escaped detection.

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Enceladus’s plumes: Experiment questions ocean origin of organics

Organic molecules detected in the watery plumes that spew out from cracks in the surface of Enceladus could be formed through exposure to radiation on Saturn’s icy moon, rather than originating from deep within its sub-surface ocean.

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A rocky planet in its star’s ‘habitable zone’ could be first known to have an atmosphere—here’s what we found

New research using NASA’s powerful JWST telescope has identified a planet 41 light years away which may have an atmosphere. The planet is within the “habitable zone,” the region around a star where temperatures make it possible for liquid water to exist on the surface of a rocky world. This is important because water is […]

Life after microgravity: Astronauts reflect on post-flight recovery

Space changes you. It strengthens some muscles, weakens others, shifts fluids within your body, and realigns your sense of balance. NASA’s Human Research Program works to understand—and sometimes even counter—those changes so astronauts can thrive on future deep space missions.

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Beware of the ‘gravitational keyhole’: How to find the safest spots to deflect a hazardous asteroid

Selecting the right spot to smash a spacecraft into the surface of a hazardous asteroid to deflect it must be done with great care, according to new research presented at the EPSC-DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki. Slamming into its surface indiscriminately runs the risk of knocking the asteroid through a “gravitational keyhole” that sends it […]

White dwarf orbiting a blue straggler star detected

Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Italian astronomers have observed five blue straggler stars in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae. Their results show that one of these stars has a white dwarf companion. The discovery is presented in a paper published Aug. 28 on the arXiv preprint server.

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First-ever complete measurement of a black-hole recoil achieved thanks to gravitational waves

A team of researchers led by the Instituto Galego de Física de Altas Enerxías (IGFAE) from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) has measured for the first time the speed and direction of the recoil of a newborn black hole formed through the merger of two others. The result, published today in the journal […]

Upgraded single-photon detector searches for ‘light’ dark matter

About 80% of the universe’s mass is thought to consist of dark matter. Yet, little is known about the composition and structure of the particles that make up dark matter, presenting physicists with some fundamental questions. To explore this elusive matter, researchers are attempting to capture photons, or light particles, which are produced when dark […]

50 years ago, NASA sent two spacecraft to search for life on Mars. The missions’ findings are still discussed today

Finding life beyond Earth would be a major scientific discovery with significant implications for all areas of science and human thought. Yet, only one direct search for extraterrestrial life has ever been conducted.

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Is space worth the cost? Accounting experts say its value can’t be found in spreadsheets

Since the early days of human space exploration, the endeavor has been haunted by a very good question: why spend so much on space when there are so many urgent problems here on Earth?

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Ultra-wideband radio observations unravel polarization mystery of millisecond pulsar

Within our Milky Way galaxy, in the direction of the constellation Vulpecula, a cosmic “lighthouse” named PSR B1937+21 spins at an astonishing rate of 642 revolutions per second. It emits electromagnetic pulses that rival the precision of atomic clocks.

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