Phys.org Astronomy and Space

• SWOT satellite takes stock of world's river water

  In a first, a space mission led by NASA and France has tracked Earth's rivers swelling and shrinking from month to month over the course of a year and found significantly less of a swing than previous model-based estimates. A record drought in the Amazon likely influenced the tally made by the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite. The findings also reveal new details about the underwater topography of the world's river channels.

• Most compact quadruple star system yet fits within an area the size of Jupiter's orbit

  Astronomers have reported observations of a rare star system consisting of one star orbiting a system of three more tightly bound stars. This quadruple star system is described in a new study, published in Nature Communications, as the most compact quadruple star system observed to date, with all four stars fitting into an area the size of Jupiter's orbit.

• Mars Express orbiter captures craters on planet's Arabia Terra

  Craters, craters, and yet more craters: this snapshot from ESA's Mars Express is packed full of them, each as fascinating as the last.

• Artemis II: What's on the menu?

  The food flying aboard Artemis II is designed to support crew health and performance during the mission around the moon. With no resupply, refrigeration, or late-load capability, all meals must be carefully selected to remain safe, shelf-stable, and easy to prepare and consume in NASA's Orion spacecraft. Food selections are developed in coordination with space food experts and the crew to balance calorie needs, hydration, and nutrient intake while accommodating individual crew preferences.

• JWST reveals surprising secrets in Jupiter's northern lights

  An international team of scientists, led by a Ph.D. researcher from Northumbria University, has made further discoveries about a spectacular feature of Jupiter's northern lights, revealing a never-before-seen temperature structure and dramatic density changes within the top of the giant planet's atmosphere.

• Astronomers discover TOI-5734 b, a hot sub-Neptune twice Earth's size

  Using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher for the Northern Hemisphere (HARPS-N), an international team of astronomers has discovered a hot sub-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a nearby star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-5734 b, is about two times larger and nine times more massive than Earth. The discovery was presented in a research paper published February 20 on the arXiv pre-print server.

• Hubble and Euclid zoom into cosmic eye

  For this month's ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month, NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope is joined by ESA's Euclid to create a new view of the most visually intricate remnants of a dying star: the Cat's Eye Nebula, also known as NGC 6543. This extraordinary planetary nebula in the constellation Draco has captivated astronomers for decades with its elaborate and multilayered structure. Observations with ESA's Gaia mission place the nebula at a distance of about 4,300 light-years.

• Space Force won't launch Vulcan rockets until booster problem solved

  United Launch Alliance was hoping to ramp up its new Vulcan rocket launches this year, but won't be launching any national security missions until it solves a recurring issue of booster nozzles burning off the rocket on launch.

• Four decades of data give unique insight into the sun's inner life

  Scientists have analyzed more than 40 years of astronomical data to uncover evidence that the sun's internal structure subtly changes from one solar cycle minimum to the next. Publishing their findings in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, researchers from the University of Birmingham and Yale University reveal that even small differences in solar magnetic activity produce detectable changes inside the sun.

• A Plan B for space? On the risks of concentrating national space power in private hands

  Private companies are no longer peripheral participants in U.S. space activities. They provide key services, including launching and deploying satellites, transporting cargo and astronauts to the International Space Station, and even sending landers to the moon.

• World's biggest astronomy camera seeks to answer pressing questions about the universe

  The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has started releasing its first discoveries: including supernovae, variable stars and asteroids, which will from now on be discovered at an astonishing rate as it begins its Legacy Survey of Space and Time, a ten-year survey probing the deepest reaches of the universe.

• The RCW 36 nebula: A cosmic hawk and its baby stars

  This image, taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), seems to have captured a cosmic hawk as it spans its wings. While the dark clouds in the middle of the image make up the head and body of the bird of prey, the filaments extending away from the body to the left and right compose its wings. Below it is a mesmerizing blue nebula with massive newly born stars, whose intense radiation make the gas around them glow brightly.

• HETDEX data reveal a vast 'sea of light' between early galaxies

  Astronomers with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) have used data from the project to make the largest, most accurate 3D map yet of the light emitted by excited hydrogen in the early universe, 9 billion to 11 billion years ago. This specific form of light, called Lyman alpha, is emitted in large quantities when hydrogen atoms are exposed to a star's energy. That makes it a great tool for finding bright galaxies in this far-off time, which experienced a rash of star creation. However, the locations of fainter galaxies and gas, which also emit Lyman alpha, have remained largely unknown.

• Life forms can planet hop on asteroid debris—and survive

  Tiny life forms tucked into debris from an asteroid hit could catapult to other planets—including Earth—and survive, a new Johns Hopkins University study finds. The work demonstrates that a certain hardy bacterium easily withstands extreme pressure comparable to an ejection from Mars after an asteroid hit, as well as the inhospitable conditions it would face during the ensuing interplanetary journey.

• A 690-million-kilometer journey through space ends for Australia's SpIRIT mission

  After more than 25 months of successful operations in space, the SpIRIT mission has ended, marking a major milestone for Australia's growing space capability. Led by the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency, the Space Industry Responsive Intelligent Thermal (SpIRIT) nanosatellite exceeded its original two-year design life.

• Asteroid Ryugu samples offer new insights into early solar system magnetism

  To uncover the history of our solar system, it is necessary to study the dynamic evolution of the ancient solar nebula materials. These materials interacted and coevolved with the weak but widespread magnetic field of the solar nebula, which was generated by the weakly ionized nebular gas in the protoplanetary disk. During the formation or alteration, the magnetization of these materials can become locked in for billions of years, a phenomenon known as natural remanent magnetization (NRM). NRM measurements of primordial astromaterials can therefore provide critical information on the spatiotemporal evolution of the early solar system.

• Europe's answer to Starship

  In the summer of 2023, something happened that engineers had talked about for decades but few genuinely expected to see in their lifetimes. SpaceX's Starship, a stainless steel tower taller than a 30-story building, lit its 33 engines simultaneously and lifted off from the Texas coast. It did not go entirely to plan. But it went. And when the Super Heavy booster returned in flight test five to be caught, midair, by the enormous mechanical arms of its own launch tower, it was clear that the rules of spaceflight had fundamentally changed.

• Research reveals cosmic tug-of-war behind the Crab Pulsar's zebra stripes

  For the past two decades, scientists have wondered about a bright, distinct striped pattern seen in radio waves emanating from the Crab Pulsar, the remnant of a supernova observed by Chinese and Japanese astronomers in the year 1054.

• How to weigh a killer asteroid at 22 kilometers per second

  Estimating a mass for a potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) is perhaps the single most important thing to understand about it, after its trajectory. Actually doing so isn't easy though, as the mass for objects in the tens to hundreds of kilometers in size are too small to have their mass calculated by traditional radio-frequency tracking techniques. A new paper from Justin Atchison of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and his co-authors proposes a method that could find the mass of asteroids even on the smaller end of that range, but will require precise coordination. The research is published on the arXiv preprint server.

• ISS photo captures Atlantic sunglint 263 miles up, showing mirror-like ocean glare

  "Sunlight" beams off a partly cloudy Atlantic Ocean just after sunrise as the International Space Station orbited 263 miles above on March 5, 2025. This is an example of sunglint, an optical phenomenon that occurs when sunlight reflects off the surface of water at the same angle that a satellite sensor views it. The result is a mirror-like specular reflection of sunlight off the water and back at the satellite sensor or astronaut.

• NASA's MAVEN detects first evidence of lightning-like activity on Mars

  While sifting through the extensive data collected by NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft over the last decade, scientists discovered a familiar type of electromagnetic signal commonly caused by lightning. This rare find represents the first direct indication of lightning activity on Mars. The team recently published their findings in Science Advances, where they describe the event and why it's so difficult to detect lightning-like activity on Mars.

• Get ready for the Rubin Observatory's deluge of discoveries

  It's been about eight months since the Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) saw first light. Now the telescope is scanning the night sky to detect transient changes and sending alerts to astronomers and observatories around the world so they can perform follow-up observations. This alert system is one of the last milestones before the VRO starts its primary endeavor: the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

• Rare Type Icn supernova SN 2024abvb is among the most luminous known

  An international team of astronomers has carried out photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2024abvb—a recently discovered supernova of a rare Type Icn. The new observational campaign yields important information regarding the properties and nature of this supernova. The study was published February 18 on the arXiv pre-print server.

• NASA adds mission to Artemis lunar program, updates architecture

  As part of a golden age of exploration and discovery, NASA announced Friday the agency is increasing its cadence of missions under the Artemis program to achieve the national objective of returning American astronauts to the moon and establishing an enduring presence. This includes standardizing vehicle configuration, adding an additional mission in 2027, and undertaking at least one surface landing every year thereafter.

• The stars that lit up the early Milky Way

  Imagine trying to reconstruct the history of a city by studying only its oldest surviving buildings. You can't watch it being built, you can't interview the architects, all you have are the structures themselves, their materials, their arrangement, the subtle clues locked into their very fabric. That is essentially what astronomers do when they study the formation of our galaxy, and a new study has just given them their biggest collection of clues yet.

• MeerKAT discovers record-breaking cosmic laser halfway across the universe

  Astronomers using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa have discovered the most distant hydroxyl megamaser ever detected. It is located in a violently merging galaxy more than 8 billion light-years away, opening a new radio astronomy frontier.

• How long do civilizations last?

  It is one of the most famous questions in science, and it was asked, as legend has it, over lunch. Enrico Fermi, the physicist who helped build the first nuclear reactor and whose name graces a unit of length so small it makes an atom look generous, was chatting with colleagues about the possibility of alien life when he suddenly asked "where is everybody?"

• Would Earth still be habitable without us?

  Here's a thought experiment that keeps planetary scientists awake at night. Strip every living thing from our planet, every bacterium, every blade of grass, every creature that has ever drawn breath and ask a simple but profound question: Would Earth still be a world capable of supporting life?

• A 'Cosmic Positioning System' in the outer solar system

  There have been plenty of attempts to resolve the "Hubble Tension" in cosmology. This feature describes how one of the most important variables in cosmology, the expansion of the universe, takes on different values depending on how you measure it. A new NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I report on the Cosmic Positioning System (CPS) details another potential solution to it—this one involving a network of five far-flung satellites spread throughout the solar system. The paper is posted to the arXiv preprint server.

• Curiosity studies nodules on Mars boxwork formations

  NASA's Curiosity Mars rover discovered these bumpy, pea-sized nodules while exploring a region filled with boxwork formations—low ridges standing roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall with sandy hollows in between. This mosaic is made up of 50 individual images taken by Curiosity's Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover's robotic arm, on Aug. 21, 2025, the 4,636th Martian day (sol) of the mission. Ten images at different focus settings were taken at each of five locations to produce a sharp mosaic. The images were stitched together after being sent back to Earth.