Phys.org Astronomy and Space

• US-Russian crew of 3 blasts off to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft

  A U.S.-Russian crew of three began a mission to the International Space Station aboard a Russian spacecraft following a successful launch Thursday.

• European Space Agency boosts budget to catch up in space race

  The European Space Agency said Thursday it would increase its budget for the next three years to almost 22.1 billion euros ($25.6 billion).

• Scientists capture the crackling sounds of what they believe is lightning on Mars

  Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover.

• Meteorite samples are time capsules from the early solar system

  When a meteor streaks across the sky, it's not just beautiful. It's nature's way of delivering a time capsule to Earth. Contained within are hints about the very beginning of the solar system and how planets, including our own, formed.

• Astronomers capture an exceptional gamma-ray flare from a blazar

  Astronomers have performed very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of a gamma-ray loud blazar known as TXS 2013+370. The observations, posted November 19 on the arXiv preprint server, resulted in the detection of an exceptional gamma-ray flare from this object.

• Red spider nebula photo taken by Webb

  Using its Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured never-before-seen details of the Red Spider Nebula, a planetary nebula, in this image released on Oct. 26, 2025. NIRCam is Webb's primary near-infrared imager, providing high-resolution imaging and spectroscopy for a wide variety of investigations.

• Telescope in Chile captures stunning new picture of a cosmic butterfly

  A telescope in Chile has captured a stunning new picture of a grand and graceful cosmic butterfly.

• NASA confirms support for delayed European Mars rover: ESA

  NASA has confirmed that it will contribute to Europe's Martian rover Rosalind Franklin, which is scheduled to launch in 2028 after repeated delays, the European Space Agency said on Wednesday.

• South Korea's largest satellite launched on Nuri rocket in ambitious space mission

  South Korea launched its largest satellite yet on its nationally developed space rocket early Thursday in the fourth of six launches planned through 2027.

• Helping to grow plants in space for NASA missions to the moon and mars

  Imagine biting into a crisp, garden-fresh salad and savoring juicy strawberries for dessert. But instead of your backyard, you're gazing out at a stark lunar landscape, Earth hanging like a precious blue marble in the inky sky.

• Meteorite crater hosts methane-making microbes—a clue to life on Mars?

  Scientists have discovered living microbes producing methane in the fractured rocks deep inside Sweden's Siljan impact crater, offering insights into Earth's earliest life and the search for life beyond our planet.

• Electric discharges detected on Mars for the first time

  On Mars, winds constantly stir up whirlwinds of fine dust. It was at the center of two of these dust devils that the SuperCam instrument's microphone, the first ever to operate on Mars, accidentally recorded particularly strong signals.

• Life is just matter with meaning

  What are the physics of life? That is more than just a philosophical question—it has practical implications for our search for life elsewhere in the galaxy. We know what Earth life looks like, on a number of levels, but finding it on another planet could require us to redefine what we even mean by life itself.

• Starquakes reveal red giant's turbulent history and rapid spin in black hole system

  Astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy (IfA) have uncovered the turbulent past of a distant red giant by listening to its celestial "song." Subtle variations in the star's brightness suggest that it potentially once collided and merged with another star, an explosive event that left it spinning rapidly. It now orbits a quiet black hole in the Gaia BH2 system.

• Astronomers investigate nearby pulsar with radio telescopes

  Using the Large Phased Array (LPA) and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), astronomers from Russia and China have observed a nearby pulsar designated PSR J1951+2837. The new observations, presented Nov. 18 on the pre-print server arXiv, deliver important insights into the nature of this pulsar.

• NASA's Roman Observatory passes spate of key tests

  NASA's nearly complete Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has made another set of critical strides toward launch. This fall, the outer portion passed two tests—a shake test and an intense sound blast—to ensure its successful launch.

• When darkness shines: How dark stars could illuminate the early universe

  Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars. The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists' understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading.

• The DEVILS in the details: How the cosmic landscape impacts the galaxy lifecycle

  A team of astronomers from the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) has released new data from an extensive galaxy evolution survey that found a galaxy's "neighborhood" plays a major role in how it changes over time. The data were published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

• After nearly 100 years, scientists may have detected dark matter

  In the early 1930s, Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky observed galaxies in space moving faster than their mass should allow, prompting him to infer the presence of some invisible scaffolding—dark matter—holding the galaxies together. Nearly 100 years later, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope may have provided direct evidence of dark matter, allowing the invisible matter to be "seen" for the very first time.

• Puzzling ultraviolet radiation in the birthplaces of stars

  Researchers used the MIRI instrument onboard the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify the presence of ultraviolet radiation in five young stars in the Ophiuchus region, and to understand its role in the formation of stars. The discovery of UV radiation around these protostars and its significant impact on the surrounding material is a challenge to models describing the formation of stars.

• From orbit to X-ray: Imaging the entire EURECA satellite to reveal hidden structural damage

  Whether it's a sprained ankle or a backpack at the airport, X-ray images are an everyday occurrence in many areas. Empa researchers at the Center for X-Ray Analytics have succeeded in taking images that are far less commonplace: In collaboration with the Swiss Space Center (now Space Innovation at EPFL) and the Swiss Museum of Transport, they have X-rayed an entire satellite.

• Finding 40,000 asteroids before they find us

  The number 40,000 might not sound particularly dramatic, but it represents humanity's growing catalog of near-Earth asteroids, rocky remnants from the solar system's violent birth that cross paths with our planet's orbit. We've come a long way since 1898, when astronomers discovered the first of these wanderers, an asteroid called Eros.

• Researchers reveal key role of interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in molecular clouds

  Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are important carriers of organic matter throughout the universe. As organic molecules, they play a central role in interstellar chemistry and are closely related to the origin of prebiotic molecules. Understanding how these organic compounds evolve in molecular clouds—the cold, dark cradles of star formation—is essential for tracing the origins of complex molecules that may lead to life.

• Chang'e-6's far-side lunar samples show strongly cohesive behavior

  Lunar samples serve as a critical link between orbital remote sensing and ground-truth measurements. Previous sample-return missions—Apollo, Luna, and Chang'e-5—have collectively brought back approximately 383 kilograms of lunar soil and rock from the moon's near side, advancing the understanding of lunar geological evolution and regolith properties. However, the absence of samples from the far side has limited investigations into its unique composition and geologic history.

• Recently discovered X-ray transient traced to possible collapsar origin

  Using various ground-based and space telescopes, an international team of astronomers has observed a recently discovered fast X-ray transient designated EP 241021a. Results of the multiwavelength observational campaign, published November 17 on the pre-print server arXiv, shed more light on the behavior and nature of this transient.

• China launches Shenzhou-22 early for stranded space station crew

  China conducted an urgent unmanned spacecraft launch on Tuesday, after damage to a previous mission's return capsule left the crew on its space station without a means of getting back to Earth.

• Boeing's troubled capsule won't carry astronauts on next space station flight

  Boeing and NASA have agreed to keep astronauts off the company's next Starliner flight and instead perform a trial run with cargo to prove its safety.

• Boiling oceans may lurk beneath the ice of solar system's smallest moons

  The outer planets of the solar system are swarmed by ice-wrapped moons. Some of these, such as Saturn's moon Enceladus, are known to have oceans of liquid water between the ice shell and the rocky core and could be the best places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. A new study published Nov. 24 in Nature Astronomy sheds light on what could be going on beneath the surface of these worlds and provides insights into how their diverse geologic features may have formed.

• Tectonic regimes of terrestrial planets could explain Earth and Venus's divergence

  An international team has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the tectonic evolution of terrestrial planets. Using advanced numerical models, the team systematically classified for the first time six distinct planetary tectonic regimes and identified a novel regime: the "episodic-squishy lid."

• AI is making spacecraft propulsion more efficient, and could even lead to nuclear-powered rockets

  Every year, companies and space agencies launch hundreds of rockets into space—and that number is set to grow dramatically with ambitious missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. But these dreams hinge on one critical challenge: propulsion—the methods used to push rockets and spacecraft forward.