Phys.org Astronomy and Space

• NASA moves its Artemis II moon rocket off the launch pad for more repairs

  NASA moved its grounded Artemis moon rocket from the launch pad back to its hangar Wednesday for more repairs.

• How long could Earth microbes live on Mars?

  Searching for past or present life on Mars is the sole driving force behind every mission we send to the red planet, from orbiters to landers to rovers. However, there remains a concern in the scientific community about Earth-based microbes hitching a ride on Mars-bound spacecraft, also called forward contamination. The concern is potentially mistaking Earth microbes for Mars life or that Earth microbes potentially influence samples of Mars life we might find. While NASA is dedicated to mitigating it as much as possible, could new methods help determine how long Earth-based microbes could survive on Mars and alleviate concerns about forward contamination?

• ALMA explores giant molecular clouds in nearby galaxy NGC 1387

  An international team of astronomers has employed the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to investigate molecular gas in a nearby galaxy known as NGC 1387. Results of the observational campaign, published Feb. 3 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, deliver important insights regarding the properties of giant molecular clouds of this galaxy.

• ALMA reveals Milky Way's core in largest-ever mosaic, tracing cold gas filaments

  Astronomers have captured the central region of our Milky Way in a striking new image, unveiling a complex network of filaments of cosmic gas in unprecedented detail. Obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), this rich dataset—the largest ALMA image to date—will allow astronomers to probe the lives of stars in the most extreme region of our galaxy, next to the supermassive black hole at its center.

• Surprise solar eruptions on sun's far side validate new forecasting method

  A team of scientists from around the world has created the first system that can predict when and where extremely powerful solar storms, called superflares, are most likely to happen. These storms can disrupt power grids, communications, and satellites, and even pose dangers to astronauts in space.

• Physicists develop new method to measure universe's expansion rate

  We have known for several decades that the universe is expanding. Scientists use multiple techniques to measure the present-day expansion rate of the universe, known as the Hubble constant. These methods are internally consistent and based on the same physics, so all observed values of the Hubble constant should agree. But those that come from early-universe datasets disagree with those that come from late-universe datasets. This problem is known as the Hubble tension and is considered to be one of the most significant open questions in cosmology.

• Are there aliens broadcasting from Hycean world K2-18b? Astronomers just listened in

  If you've been following exoplanet research over the last couple of years, you've definitely heard of K2-18b. Located 124 light years away in the constellation Leo, it's attracted a lot of attention as it sits squarely in its red dwarf host star's habitable zone, and measurements of the James Webb Space Telescope show its atmosphere is rich in carbon dioxide and methane. It's one of the prime candidates for a "Hycean" world—one where a thick hydrogen-rich atmosphere covers a global liquid water ocean.

• One of the biggest stars in the universe might be getting ready to explode

  One of the largest known stars in the universe underwent a dramatic transformation in 2014, new research shows, and may be preparing to explode. A study led by Gonzalo Muñoz-Sanchez at the National Observatory of Athens, published in Nature Astronomy today, argues that the enormous star WOH G64 has transitioned from a red supergiant to a rare yellow hypergiant—in what may be evidence of an impending supernova.

• The legal void of the asteroid gold rush

  Asteroid mining companies are finally getting off the ground, and that is raising some concerns about the impact those activities will have on the space environment. A new paper published in Acta Astronautica by Anna Marie Brenna of the University of Waikato in New Zealand discusses a framework that she thinks might work to solve the legal challenges facing those who want to protect the space environment and those who want to exploit it.

• Astronomers inspect ultraluminous X-ray pulsar's magnetic field evolution in the Whale galaxy

  Indian astronomers have investigated an ultraluminous X-ray pulsar in the galaxy NGC 4631, designated X-8. The new study, described in a paper published Feb. 16 on the arXiv preprint server, provides essential information regarding the magnetic field evolution of this pulsar.

• CINEMA mission will explore auroras and Earth's mysterious magnetotail

  Every winter, thousands of tourists travel to high-latitude regions like Scandinavia, Canada, and Alaska hoping to see the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. Vincent Ledvina, an aurora guide and Ph.D. student in space physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, estimates he leads 1,000 people on aurora tours each year. Some ask Ledvina how the dazzling curtains of light are created, and he tells them that auroras occur when high-energy particles from space are funneled by Earth's magnetosphere into the polar atmosphere and collide with different molecules in the air. Ledvina says that more specific questions can be difficult to answer.

• Study finds Subaru Telescope papers doubled world-average citations in early years

  How did the construction of the Subaru Telescope transform Japanese astronomy? A new study provides a quantitative answer by analyzing scientific publications and their citation impact during the telescope's early years. Drawing on large-scale publication data, the research shows that the Subaru Telescope generated many internationally influential results and significantly enhanced Japan's global visibility in astronomical research.

• Image: Curiosity rover surveys boxwork region of Mars

  NASA's Curiosity Mars rover captured this panorama of boxwork formations—the low ridges seen here with hollows in between them—using its Mastcam on Sept. 26, 2025, the 4,671st Martian day (sol) of the mission. These boxwork formations were created billions of years ago when water leaked through rock cracks. Minerals carried into the cracks later hardened; after eons of windblown sand eroding away the softer rock, the hardened ridges were left exposed.

• 6 planets will parade across the night sky at the end of February

  Six planets are linking up in the sky at the end of February, and most will be visible to the naked eye.

• Jupiter's Galilean moons may have gained life's building blocks at birth

  Southwest Research Institute was part of an international team that demonstrated how complex organic molecules (COMs), key chemical precursors to life, could have been incorporated into Jupiter's Galilean moons during their formation. The team's findings have resulted in complementary studies published in The Planetary Science Journal and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, offering new insights into the potential for life in the Jovian system.

• Auroras on Ganymede and Earth share striking similarities

  New observations of Ganymede reveal a striking similarity between the auroras on the largest moon in the solar system and those on Earth. The international team of astrophysicists, led by researchers from the University of Liège, has produced new results indicating that, despite different conditions, the fundamental physical processes that generate auroras are common to different celestial bodies, and not just planets.

• Young 'sun' caught blowing bubbles by Chandra

  For the first time, a much younger version of the sun has been caught red-handed blowing bubbles in the galaxy by astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bubble—called an "astrosphere"—completely surrounds the juvenile star. Winds from the star's surface are blowing up the bubble and filling it with hot gas as it expands into much cooler galactic gas and dust surrounding the star. The sun has a similar bubble around it, which scientists call the heliosphere, created by the solar wind. It extends far beyond the planets in our solar system and protects Earth from damaging particles from interstellar space.

• Curiosity rover captures Martian spiderwebs up close

  For about six months, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has been exploring a region full of geologic formations called boxwork, low ridges standing roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall with sandy hollows in between. Crisscrossing the surface for miles, the formations suggest ancient groundwater flowed on this part of the red planet later than scientists expected. This possibility raises new questions about how long microbial life could have survived on Mars billions of years ago, before rivers and lakes dried up and left a freezing desert world behind.

• Exomoons could reveal themselves through lunar eclipses

  Our solar system hosts almost 900 known moons; more than 400 orbit the eight planets while the remaining orbit dwarf planets, asteroids, and Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). Of these, only a handful are targets for astrobiology and could potentially support life as we know it, including Jupiter's moons Europa and Ganymede, and Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus. While these moons orbit two of the largest planets in our solar system, what about moons orbiting giant exoplanets, also called exomoons? But, to find life on exomoons, scientists need to find exomoons to begin with.

• Astronomers discover rare super-Jupiter orbiting distant star

  Using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an international team of astronomers has discovered a new exoplanet orbiting a distant star known as TIC-65910228. The newfound alien world is slightly larger and nearly five times more massive than Jupiter. The discovery was reported in a paper published Feb. 13 on the arXiv pre-print server.

• The optical engineering required to photograph an Earth twin

  More and more papers are coming out about the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). As the telescope moves from theory to practice (and physical manifestation), various working groups are discovering, defining, and designing their way to the world's next major exoplanet observatory.

• NASA will return its moon rocket to the hangar for more repairs before astronauts strap in

  Grounded until at least April, NASA's giant moon rocket is headed back to the hangar this week for more repairs before astronauts climb aboard.

• Martian volcanoes could be hiding massive glaciers under a blanket of ash

  When we think of ice on Mars, we typically think of the poles, where we can see it visibly through probes and even ground-based telescopes. But the poles are hard to access, and even more so given the restrictions on exploration there due to potential biological contamination. Scientists have long hoped to find water closer to the equator, making it more accessible to human explorers. There are parts of the mid-latitudes of Mars that appear to be glaciers covered by thick layers of dust and rock.

• Occupy Mars? Or the moon? Get a reality check on Elon Musk's plans

  It's an age-old debate in space circles: Should humanity's first city on another world be built on the moon, or on Mars? As recently as last year, SpaceX founder Elon Musk saw missions to the moon as a "distraction." In a post to his X social-media platform, he declared that "we're going straight to Mars."

• Cosmic curveball: Distant system challenges planet-formation theory

  An international team of astronomers has discovered a distant planetary system that challenges long-standing theories of how planets form. Across our galaxy, astronomers routinely observe a characteristic pattern in planetary systems: rocky planets orbiting close to their host star with gas giants farther away. Our own solar system follows this rule, with the inner planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, composed of rock and iron, and the outer planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune being predominantly gaseous.

• NASA moon rocket hit by new problem, putting March launch with astronauts in jeopardy

  NASA's new moon rocket suffered another setback Saturday, putting next month's planned launch with astronauts in jeopardy.

• Cosmologists collaborate to sharpen measurements of the Hubble constant

  Drawing together leading experts from across the field, an international collaboration of cosmologists has created a unified approach for measuring the value of the Hubble constant. Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, the milestone could bring us a step closer to understanding why the universe appears to be expanding faster than our standard cosmological model predicts.

• A low-cost microscope to study living cells in zero gravity

  As space agencies prepare for human missions to the moon and Mars, scientists need to understand how the absence of gravity affects living cells. Now, a team of researchers has built a rugged, affordable microscope that can image cells in real time during the chaotic conditions of zero-gravity flight—and they're making the design available to the broader scientific community.

• Supercomputer simulations reveal rotation drives chemical mixing in red giant stars

  Advances in supercomputing have made solving a long‐standing astronomical conundrum possible: How can we explain the changes in the chemical composition at the surface of red giant stars as they evolve?

• SpaceX rocket left behind a plume of chemical pollution as it burnt up in the atmosphere

  Space junk returning to Earth is introducing metal pollution to the pristine upper atmosphere as it burns up on re-entry, a new study has found.