Our sun constantly releases a stream of high-speed charged particles, known as the solar wind. Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a strong global magnetic field to shield its atmosphere from this flow. As a result, the solar wind can interact directly with Mars’ upper atmosphere and gradually strip atmospheric particles into space.

We know Mars has water ice in its polar regions, but astronauts (and their solar-powered equipment!) would much rather experience life closer to Mars’ equator. As NASA looks toward landing humans on the red planet, the Planetary Science Institute (PSI) is mapping where water should and shouldn’t be found and using statistics to quantify its certainty. Two new papers, led by PSI’s Hanna Sizemore and Samuel Courville, highlight new global maps of subsurface water ice and identify the missions and tools needed to increase the certainty of the maps.

Before any major telescope commissioning, there are dozens of papers that attempt to define what we can expect from it. We’re starting to see some come through for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which hopefully will get a more imaginative name when the 39 m (128-foot) behemoth is officially commissioned in Chile in the 2030s.

A drifting SpaceX rocket is on a collision course with the moon after launching a pair of lunar landers more than a year ago.

A Japanese probe flew 400 meters (1,312 feet) from a near-Earth asteroid this month, marking the closest approach ever recorded for such a mission, the space agency said.