Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
The universe’s first supernovas probably produced water
Water may have formed less than 200 million years after the Big Bang, suggesting some conditions for life existed far earlier than previously thought.
- Planetary Science
A private mission to Venus aims to look for signs of life
If successful, Morning Star would be the first private mission to another planet and the first in over 30 years to directly measure Venus’s clouds.
- Astronomy
Some of Earth’s meteors are probably coming all the way from a neighboring star system
The triple star system is sending comets, asteroids and meteors our way, and the number of interstellar objects entering the solar system will rise.
- Space
The International Space Station lacks microbial diversity. Is it too clean?
Hundreds of surface swabs reveal the station lacks microbial diversity, an imbalance that has been linked to health issues in other settings.
- Planetary Science
Ancient Mars wasn’t just wet. It was cold and wet
Mars may once have held enough water to fill oceans and form coastlines. The planet’s red dust contains water and likely formed in cold conditions.
- Space
Earth had new, temporary radiation rings last year
Two bands of radiation called the Van Allen belts encircle Earth. After a May 2024 solar superstorm, two more showed up between those belts.
- Physics
A weird ice that may form on alien planets has finally been observed
High-pressure experiments generated the first direct observation of plastic ice, which has qualities of both crystalline ice and liquid water.
- Physics
A cosmic neutrino of unknown origins smashes energy records
A deep-sea detector glimpsed a particle with 220 million billion electron volts of energy — around 20 times as energetic as any neutrino seen before.
- Astronomy
A fast radio burst from a dead galaxy puzzles astronomers
A blast of radio waves from the outskirts of an ancient galaxy challenges theories about what creates such bursts.
- Planetary Science
The moon’s two grand canyons formed in less than 10 minutes
Two gargantuan canyons on the moon were carved by a hailstorm of rocks — and that’s good news for future lunar astronauts.
- Earth
Ancient rocks reveal when rivers began pouring nutrients into the sea
Rivers began pumping weathered material into the sea about a billion years after Earth formed, suggesting continents may have gotten an early start.
- Space
Life’s ingredients have been found in samples from asteroid Bennu
Samples from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission show the asteroid Bennu had organic molecules and minerals and possibly salty water and other life ingredients.
