How diffractive solar sails could stop a killer asteroid at 100 km/s

Asteroids don’t come with a warning label that they might one day hit Earth. While we don’t know of any currently on course to do so, we are finding thousands of new ones each year, and there’s always a chance that one could.

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Earth may have gained optimal conditions for life’s chemistry 4.33 billion years ago

Conditions on early Earth may have become stable enough to sustain the chemistry associated with the origins of life around 4.33 billion years ago, according to new research co-led by Planetary Science Institute senior scientist Oleg Abramov.

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Silicon solar cells could cut satellite power costs by up to 90%

Switching to modern silicon solar cells could cut the cost of powering satellites by as much as 90% based on beginning-of-life (BOL) performance, according to a review led by the University of Surrey. The switch to silicon cells could also halve the weight of the solar cells needed on a spacecraft, freeing mass for fuel […]

UK to launch new military space squadron to protect satellites

Britain announced Wednesday that it will launch a new military space squadron to defend the country’s satellites, the latest move as countries race to develop military space capabilities.

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Is a nearby advanced alien civilization out there waiting to pounce on Earth? Unlikely, says new study

Science fiction suggests that life on other planets, if it exists, is likely far more advanced than life on Earth. A recent study suggests otherwise.

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Earth’s chorus waves show limited link to rapid electron loss from radiation belts

The Van Allen radiation belts are huge, doughnut-shaped regions of highly energetic charged particles trapped by Earth’s magnetosphere. These charged particles play a major role in space weather, so studying them is important for predicting and managing risks to satellites, astronauts, power grids and other infrastructure.

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Largest dataset of its kind could clarify how massive stars shaped early galaxies

The more astronomers learn about the universe’s earliest galaxies, the stranger they seem. Many of their surprising properties may be explained by differences between their massive stars and those in galaxies like our own Milky Way. A new University of Utah-led survey with the Hubble Space Telescope is shedding light on the stellar astrophysics operating […]

Astronomers detect radio signals coming from an exoplanet for the first time

Exoplanets are exotic worlds orbiting distant stars far beyond our solar system. Ever since the first ones were discovered in the 1990s, astronomers have turned their attention to these distant worlds to understand more about them. Now, for the first time, scientists have detected radio signals coming directly from one of these planets, a massive […]

3I/ATLAS has an extreme taste for heavy water

More and more details about 3I/ATLAS are filtering through the scientific process as time goes on. Our third known interstellar visitor attracted the attention of some of the world’s most powerful observatories when it was discovered in July 2025, and some of those telescopes found something peculiar—the isotopes it contained appeared different. A new paper […]

The tilt in Earth’s axis makes the apparent position of continents shift with the seasons

Most kids learn in elementary school that the seasons are caused by Earth rotating on a tilted axis during its yearly orbit around the sun. The substantial tilt, about 23.5 degrees, is thought to be the result of an ancient planetary body, Theia, smashing into Earth about 4.5 billion years ago, in the same cataclysmic […]

Milky Way’s first microblazar may produce fastest particles in the galaxy

An international team of astronomers from ASTRON, JIVE, the University of Amsterdam and other institutions has found the first so-called “microblazar” in the Milky Way. This stellar system is composed of a massive star and a black hole with a jet that is pointed toward Earth. The researchers also identified the region where the jet […]

A 42-light-year X-ray tail links a pulsar to previously ‘orphan’ gamma rays

Understanding the origin, acceleration and propagation of high-energy cosmic rays has been a century-old mystery in astrophysics. Recently, joint observations from China’s Einstein Probe (EP) satellite and the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) showed an extraordinarily long X-ray tail near a pulsar about 4,600 light-years (27 quadrillion miles) from Earth—one that had never […]

Jupiter uses a surprisingly complex system to fend off particles from the sun

A University of Iowa-led research team has reported in a new study the most detailed observations to date of the bow shock at Jupiter, our solar system’s gas giant. The findings from NASA’s Juno mission reveal key differences between Jupiter’s bow shock and Earth’s. They also may lead to a better understanding of the physics […]

Student-led missions deploy free-flying light sails from CubeSats in low Earth orbit

Students in Cornell’s Space Systems Design Studio (SSDS) have released mission results for two unique light-sail experiments. These sails are slightly larger than a pizza box and harness momentum from photons to accelerate to high velocities. With ChipSats onboard—gram-scale spacecraft that fit in the palm of your hand—the sails can become free-flyers. They origami-fold into […]

Early Mars rocks reveal at least three separate water episodes

When NASA’s Perseverance rover reached the inner edge of Mars’ Jezero Crater in September 2023, mission scientists were surprised by what they found. The geologic area, called the “Margin Unit,” stretches along the shoreline of an ancient Martian lake, so they expected sedimentary rocks, which would have formed as layers of sand piled on top […]