The exploration of celestial bodies and cosmic phenomena beyond Earth. This field seeks to uncover the mysteries of the universe, including the nature of stars, planets, galaxies, and the laws governing space and time.
Repeated moonquakes along the Lee-Lincoln fault, not meteor impacts, caused boulder falls and landslides in the Taurus-Littrow valley, the Apollo 17 landing site, a study published recently in Science Advances has found. The findings raise concerns for the safety of future long-term lunar outposts.
On September 1, 1859, British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a sudden flash of light erupting from a group of sunspots. Less than 24 hours later, Earth was struck by the most powerful geomagnetic storm in recorded history. Telegraph systems failed, auroras spread across the globe, and the event became known as the Carrington Event.
The first-of-its-kind Surya Heliophysics Foundation Model, developed by NASA and IBM, uses 9 years of solar observations to forecast flare activity and solar storms with high accuracy.
Researchers using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope have measured the Sun’s thinnest coronal loops, recorded during an X1.3-class solar flare on August 8, 2024.
NASA’s InSight mission data revealed kilometer-scale lumps of rocky debris scattered throughout Mars’ mantle, findings published in Science on August 28, 2025 show. The fragments, likely remnants of massive asteroid impacts 4.5 billion years ago, indicate sluggish interior mixing compared to Earth.
A study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on August 27, 2025, revealed crystalline silicates and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302), located 3 400 light-years (1 040 parsecs) away in Scorpius, providing new insights into the formation of planetary material.
Astronomers have discovered the first confirmed planet forming inside a multi-ringed disk, WISPIT 2b. It is a young 5 million-year old gas giant, orbiting the star TYC 5709-354-1 (WISPIT 2) at a distance of roughly 8 billion km (5 billion miles).
An international team of researchers has captured the most detailed image ever of a cosmic filament—an enormous strand of gas connecting two actively forming galaxies—dating back to when the universe was just 2 billion years old.
The most energetic neutrino ever observed was detected by the KM3NeT neutrino observatory in the Mediterranean Sea, estimated at 220 PeV (220 x 1015 electron volts or 220 million billion electron volts). The event, designated KM3-230213A, challenges existing cosmic ray models and may indicate a new type of high-energy astrophysical source.
ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission’s 6th and final Mercury flyby took place at 05:59 UTC on January 8, 2025, passing just 295 km (183 miles) above the planet’s surface.
While space is silent, instruments aboard the spacecraft recorded data that mission teams converted into audible frequencies, allowing listeners to “hear” the flyby in a newly released recording.
