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News•Jan 27, 2026
Ignis Mission Timelapses: Earth and Moon Views From the International Space Station
ESA astronaut Sławosz Uznański‑Wiśniewski recorded striking timelapse videos of Earth and the Moon from the International Space Station’s Cupola during his 20‑day stay on Axiom Mission 4, dubbed Ignis. Launched on 25 June 2025 aboard a SpaceX Dragon, the mission hosted 13 experiments proposed by Polish institutions and three ESA‑led investigations across human research, materials science, biology and technology. Ignis represents ESA’s second commercial human spaceflight, highlighting a growing partnership between European agencies and private launch providers. The high‑definition footage is now publicly available, offering both scientific insight and public engagement.
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 26, 2026
Moon-Based Observations Capture Earth's 'Radiation Fingerprint'
A study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research demonstrates that lunar‑based observations can view Earth as a full disk, capturing its outgoing radiation with unprecedented continuity. By applying spherical harmonic analysis, researchers showed that roughly 90% of the observed...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 26, 2026
Proposed New Mission Will Create Artificial Solar Eclipses in Space
The Moon‑enabled Sun Occultation Mission (Mesom) proposes using the Moon as a natural occulter to create artificial solar eclipses in space, enabling prolonged, high‑quality observations of the Sun’s inner corona. Current coronagraphs and rare terrestrial eclipses provide limited viewing time...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 26, 2026
Microgravity Rewires Microbial Metabolism, Limiting Space-Based Manufacturing Efficiency
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory completed the MELSP experiment on the ISS, showing that microgravity fundamentally rewires microbial metabolism and cuts melanin production efficiency. Engineered E. coli produced the same enzyme in space, but impaired substrate transport and...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 26, 2026
High-Resolution Map Shows Dark Matter's Gravity Pulled Normal Matter Into Galaxies
Using James Webb Space Telescope data, astronomers produced the highest‑resolution dark‑matter map to date, covering a sky region 2.5 times the size of the full Moon and cataloguing nearly 800,000 galaxies. The map, published in Nature Astronomy, visualizes dark‑matter density...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 26, 2026
New Insight Into Economic Outcomes of the US Space Race
Florida State University economists Shawn Kantor and Alexander Whalley published a study in the American Economic Review that re‑examines the economic legacy of the 1950s‑60s US space race. Using declassified CIA intelligence to isolate NASA’s impact, they find that federal...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 25, 2026
Chandra Catalog Now Contains 1.3 Million X-Ray Detections Across the Sky
NASA’s Chandra X‑ray Observatory has expanded its Chandra Source Catalog to include 1.3 million X‑ray detections, covering the entire sky. The new release consolidates over 20 years of observations with uniform processing and improved positional accuracy. Researchers can now query the catalog...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 23, 2026
From Lunar Nights to Martian Dust Storms: Why Batteries Struggle in Space
Space agencies are racing to establish permanent lunar bases and Mars outposts, but battery technology remains a critical weak point. Extreme temperature swings, intense radiation, and vacuum conditions cause conventional lithium‑ion cells to fracture, overheat, or degrade rapidly. Researchers are...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 23, 2026
Halley's Comet Wrongly Named: 11th-Century English Monk Predates British Astronomer
Recent interdisciplinary research reveals that 11th‑century monk Eilmer of Malmesbury recorded two appearances of the comet now known as 1P/Halley—in 989 and again in 1066—centuries before Edmond Halley identified its 76‑year cycle. The observations, cited in William of Malmesbury’s chronicles,...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 23, 2026
Multiwavelength Variability Reveals Dust Structure in Quasars
An international team analyzed optical, near‑infrared, and mid‑infrared variability of four quasars to map dust structures around their central black holes. By measuring inter‑band time delays, they derived a graphite‑to‑silicate particle size ratio of about 0.4, indicating graphite dominates near‑infrared...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 23, 2026
Astrophysicists Discover Largest Sulfur-Containing Molecular Compound in Space
Astrophysicists at the Max Planck Institute and the Centro de Astrobiología have identified 2,5‑cyclohexadiene‑1‑thione (C₆H₆S), the largest sulfur‑bearing molecule ever detected in space, within the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027 near the Milky Way’s centre. The molecule, a thirteen‑atom cyclic compound, was...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Hubble Uncovers the Secret of Blue Straggler Stars that Defy Aging
The Hubble Space Telescope’s ultraviolet survey of 48 Milky Way globular clusters has produced the largest catalog of blue straggler stars, exceeding 3,000 objects. Analysis shows these anomalously young‑looking stars are far more common in low‑density clusters than in crowded...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Accessing Water on Mars: Examining the Best Technologies for Future Missions
A new study in Advances in Space Research compares technologies for extracting water on Mars, focusing on subsurface ice, soil moisture, and atmospheric vapor. The analysis rates subsurface ice as the most viable long‑term source, while soil and air water...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Resurrected Ancient Enzyme Offers New Window Into Early Earth and the Search for Life Beyond It
University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers have resurrected a 3.2‑billion‑year‑old nitrogenase enzyme and expressed it in modern microbes. Their experiments show the ancient enzyme produces isotopic signatures identical to those of contemporary nitrogenase, confirming the reliability of these signatures as biosignatures in...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
AI Model that Found 370 Exoplanets Now Digs Into TESS Data
NASA’s Ames team upgraded its open‑source AI tool ExoMiner to ExoMiner++, now trained on both Kepler and TESS data. In its first run the model flagged roughly 7,000 TESS signals as exoplanet candidates, expanding the catalog beyond the 370 planets...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Dark Energy Survey Scientists Release Analysis of All Six Years of Survey Data
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) has released a comprehensive analysis that merges all six years of observations, covering 669 million galaxies across an eighth of the sky. By jointly exploiting weak lensing, galaxy clustering, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Type‑Ia supernovae, the...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Webb Telescope Reveals Galaxy Cluster's Gravity Warping Light From Distant Galaxies
The James Webb Space Telescope captured a new image of the massive galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223, located about 5 billion light‑years away in Leo. The picture showcases dramatic gravitational lensing, with background galaxies stretched into arcs and jelly‑like shapes, including a previously...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Rethinking Where Life Could Exist Beyond Earth
A new study by Prof. Amri Wandel expands the classic habitable zone by showing that tidally locked exoplanets around M‑ and K‑dwarf stars can retain liquid water on their permanent night side, even when orbiting closer than traditional models allow....
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
Astronomers Discover Dense Super-Neptune Exoplanet Orbiting a Sun-Like Star
Astronomers using NASA's TESS have confirmed a dense super‑Neptune, TOI‑3862 b, orbiting a Sun‑like star 800 light‑years away. The planet is half Jupiter's size, weighs 0.169 Jupiter masses and has a density of 1.75 g cm⁻³, placing it deep within the hot‑Neptune desert. It...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 22, 2026
The Hidden Microbial Communities that Shape Health in Space
A new perspective article in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes outlines a roadmap for studying biofilms during long‑duration spaceflight, emphasizing their dual role in human and plant health. Researchers from the University of Glasgow, Maynooth University and UCD, working within NASA’s...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 21, 2026
Q&A: How AI Changes NASA's Search for Life in Outer Space
Alicja Ostrowska’s doctoral thesis examines how artificial intelligence is reshaping NASA’s search for extraterrestrial life. The research reveals that AI tools are trained on Earth‑based analog data, often from charismatic or industrially relevant sites, which can embed bias into planetary...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 21, 2026
Massive Black Hole Mystery Unlocked by Researchers
Irish researchers at Maynooth University have solved a long‑standing puzzle about how super‑massive black holes formed in the early universe. Using cutting‑edge computer simulations, they showed that light‑seed black holes—born only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang—can...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
SunRISE SmallSats Ace Tests, Moving Closer to Launch
NASA’s SunRISE mission has completed a full suite of thermal‑vacuum, electromagnetic compatibility and vibration tests at Utah State University’s Space Dynamics Laboratory, confirming that all six toaster‑oven‑size SmallSats are flight‑ready. Each satellite was loaded with propellant to match launch mass...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
A Century's Worth of Data Could Help Predict Future Solar Cycle Activity
An international team led by Southwest Research Institute has calibrated over a century of Ca II K observations from the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory to reconstruct the Sun’s polar magnetic field. By correcting anomalies and correlating the historic data with modern satellite measurements,...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
South Pole Telescope Detects Energetic Stellar Flares Near Center of Galaxy
Researchers using the South Pole Telescope’s 3G Galactic Plane Survey have recorded two energetic, one‑day flares from accreting white‑dwarf binaries near the Milky Way’s center. This marks the first detection of such short‑lived events in a millimeter‑wavelength survey, revealing magnetic...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
Hubble Tension: Primordial Magnetic Fields Could Resolve One of Cosmology's Biggest Questions
A team led by Simon Fraser University professor Levon Pogosian proposes that tiny primordial magnetic fields, present at the dawn of the universe, could have accelerated recombination and altered the cosmic microwave background signal. By incorporating these fields into detailed...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
SPHEREx Imaging Reveals Increased Sublimation Activity on 3I/ATLAS
SPHEREx’s December 2025 observations of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS show a dramatic increase in sublimation activity after perihelion. Emissions of H₂O and CO rose roughly twenty‑fold, while CO₂ flux grew modestly and new organic C‑H species became detectable. Imaging revealed a...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
Vast Cluster of Ancient Galaxies Could Rewrite the History of Star Formation
Astronomers have identified an enormous, dense filament of massive, dusty galaxies that existed just one billion years after the Big Bang. Using the NIKA2 camera on the IRAM 30‑meter telescope, the team detected millimeter emission from more than a dozen galaxies...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
Sinking Salty Ice Suggests Pathway for Life-Sustaining Conditions in Europa's Ocean
Geophysicists at Washington State University have modeled a process by which dense, salt‑rich ice on Europa can detach and sink through the moon’s icy shell, delivering surface‑derived nutrients to the subsurface ocean. The study adapts Earth’s crustal delamination mechanism, showing...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 20, 2026
Gaia Data Release Reveals Four Substructures in Open Cluster NGC 752
Chinese astronomers using ESA's Gaia DR3 identified four distinct substructures within the nearby open cluster NGC 752, revealing a dense central core and three progressively looser outer groups. The total stellar mass of the cluster was revised upward to about 332.5 solar...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 19, 2026
Mercury's BepiColombo Mio and Earth's GEOTAIL Show Shared Wave Frequency Properties Across Planetary Magnetospheres
An international team has confirmed that chorus emissions—electromagnetic waves previously studied in Earth’s magnetosphere—also occur in Mercury’s weak magnetic field. Using BepiColombo’s Mio plasma‑wave instrument, six flybys between 2021 and 2025 captured audible‑frequency waves that match the instantaneous frequency chirps...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 19, 2026
Proba-3 Mission Captures Rare Solar Prominence Eruptions in Sun's Inner Corona
The European Space Agency’s Proba‑3 mission captured a rare sequence of three solar prominence eruptions within a five‑hour window on 21 September 2025. Using its ASPIICS coronagraph, the twin‑satellite formation created an artificial eclipse that revealed the sun’s inner corona in unprecedented...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 19, 2026
What the First Medical Evacuation From the International Space Station Tells Us About Health Care in Space
In early January 2026 NASA performed the first medical evacuation from the International Space Station in 25 years, returning the Crew‑11 astronauts aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule. The incident, though details remain confidential, underscores the rarity of serious health events in...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 19, 2026
X-Ray Observations Reveal Hidden Disturbances in Galaxy Cluster Abell 3571
X‑ray observations by the Einstein Probe’s Follow‑up X‑ray Telescope have uncovered hidden disturbances in the massive galaxy cluster Abell 3571, part of the Shapley Supercluster. Although the cluster previously appeared morphologically relaxed, residual and thermodynamic maps reveal surface‑brightness excesses and a...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 18, 2026
Experiments Bring Enceladus' Subsurface Ocean Into the Lab
Researchers in Japan and Germany have reproduced the chemical environment of Saturn’s moon Enceladus’ subsurface ocean using a high‑pressure reactor that mimics tidal heating and freezing cycles. By feeding a mixture of ammonia, hydrogen cyanide and other plume‑derived compounds into...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 18, 2026
How to Prevent Charge Buildup in a Lunar Rover
Future lunar rovers risk hazardous triboelectric charge buildup on wheels as they traverse the Moon’s insulating regolith. While solar‑wind plasma normally dissipates excess charge, plasma‑starved regions such as night‑side wakes and permanently shadowed craters limit this natural discharge path. Researchers...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 17, 2026
NASA's New Moon Rocket Heads to the Pad Ahead of Astronaut Launch as Early as February
NASA rolled its 322‑foot Space Launch System (SLS) rocket out of the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B on Jan. 15, 2026, positioning it for a crewed Artemis II lunar fly‑by as early as February. The 11‑million‑pound launch vehicle will carry commander...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 16, 2026
Astronomer Uses 'China Sky Eye' To Reveal Binary Origin of Fast Radio Bursts
An international team using the Five‑hundred‑meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), nicknamed “China Sky Eye,” has delivered the first decisive evidence that some fast radio bursts (FRBs) arise in binary stellar systems. After 20 months of monitoring the repeating source FRB 220529A,...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 15, 2026
Hidden Magma Oceans Could Shield Rocky Exoplanets From Harmful Radiation
Researchers at the University of Rochester have identified deep basal magma oceans (BMOs) inside super‑Earths as a novel source of planetary magnetic fields. Laboratory laser‑shock experiments and quantum‑mechanical simulations show that molten rock under extreme pressure becomes highly conductive, sustaining...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 15, 2026
Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope Enables More Complete View of the Carbon Cycle in Star-Forming Regions
Chinese researchers used the 60‑cm Antarctic Terahertz Explorer (ATE60) at Dome A to capture submillimeter emissions from carbon’s ionized, atomic and molecular phases in two massive star‑forming regions. The study achieved the first complete carbon‑phase inventory, revealing unusually high atomic‑carbon‑to‑CO ratios....
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 15, 2026
Frequency Comb Lasers Enable Clearer Observation of Black Holes
A research team led by KAIST professor Jungwon Kim has integrated optical frequency‑comb lasers into radio‑telescope receivers, achieving the world’s first laser‑based reference signal for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). The ultra‑precise comb provides thousands of stable frequencies, allowing exact...
By Phys.org - Space News
News•Jan 15, 2026
Ancient Type II Supernova Discovered From Universe's First Billion Years
Astronomers using JWST have confirmed SN Eos, a Type II supernova at redshift 5.133, making it the most distant spectroscopically verified supernova ever observed. The explosion occurred when the universe was about one billion years old, shortly after reionization, and the host galaxy...
By Phys.org - Space News