https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A University of Iowa-led research team has reported in a new study the most detailed observations to date of the bow shock at Jupiter, our solar system's gas giant. The findings from NASA's Juno mission reveal key differences between Jupiter's bow shock and Earth's. They also may lead to a better understanding of the physics of how shocks function in even more powerful energy releases, such as those from dying stars. The research is published in Nature Communications. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-jupiter-complex-fend-particles-sun.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 21 Sep 2026 18:40:05 EDT news709219322 Our solar system has two ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, but there may have been a third. According to a new study published in the journal Icarus, this extra world might have triggered a violent planetary shuffling billions of years ago that could have disrupted some of Jupiter's and Uranus's moons and possibly led to the formation of others. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-planets-solar.html Astronomy Mon, 01 Jun 2026 10:00:05 EDT news699524109 Observations conducted with the Subaru Telescope and its first-generation wide-field camera, Suprime-Cam, have revealed new insights into the relationship between the color and size of Jupiter Trojan asteroids. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-subaru-telescope-jupiter-trojan-asteroids.html Astronomy Fri, 10 Apr 2026 16:40:03 EDT news695045701 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-jupiter-galilean-moons-gained-life.html Astrobiology Mon, 23 Feb 2026 19:20:01 EST news691079941 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. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-auroras-ganymede-earth-similarities.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:20:01 EST news691073641 Trapped in a gravitational push and pull between Jupiter and other Jovian moons, Io is constantly being stretched and compressed. Heat generated by these contortions has melted pockets of the moon's interior so much that Io is our solar system's most volcanically active body. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-webb-telescope-spies-io-volcanic.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 04 Nov 2025 12:38:02 EST news681482281 The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered its first exoplanet, astronomers said Wednesday, capturing rare direct images of the relatively small world in Earth's galactic backyard. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-webb-telescope-captures-image-exoplanet.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 25 Jun 2025 15:28:13 EDT news670059422 Analyzing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting other worlds reveals groundbreaking insights about planetary structures without having to land on the surface. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-reveal-hidden-secrets-interiors-moon.html Astronomy Wed, 14 May 2025 13:20:01 EDT news666447010 New data from the agency's Jovian orbiter sheds light on the fierce winds and cyclones of the gas giant's northern reaches and volcanic action on its fiery moon. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-juno-mission-jupiter-io-surface.html Space Exploration Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:11:16 EDT news665161869 Israeli astronomers report the detection of a new Jupiter-like exoplanet using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS). The newfound alien world orbits a nearby M-dwarf star designated GJ 2126. The discovery was announced in a research paper published Feb. 16 on the arXiv pre-print server. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-jupiter-exoplanet-orbiting-nearby-star.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 24 Feb 2025 09:42:03 EST news659612521 A pair of astrophysicists with Aix- Marseille Université, CNRS, and Institut Universitaire de France have developed a new theory about the formation of Jupiter's largest moons. In their paper published in The Planetary Science Journal, Antoine Schneeberger and Olivier Mousis describe how they used a variety of factors to simulate the early years of Jupiter and the formation of some of its moons. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-astrophysicists-outer-disk-regions-jupiter.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 12 Feb 2025 11:10:11 EST news658580822 Even by the standards of Io, the most volcanic celestial body in the solar system, recent events observed on the Jovian moon are extreme. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-juno-mission-powerful-volcanic-io.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Jan 2025 12:00:04 EST news657288001 Astronomers from the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) in Australia and elsewhere have reinvestigated a planetary system known as HD 28185, known to contain a gaseous giant exoplanet and an outer companion, believed to be a brown dwarf. They found that the supposed brown dwarf is a massive super-Jovian planet. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-hd-brown-dwarf-massive-planet.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 28 Oct 2024 10:10:06 EDT news649328235 Astronomers have observed Jupiter's legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises—especially when NASA's Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-jupiter-great-red-unexpected-size.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:26:56 EDT news647710010 By staring into the hellish landscape of Jupiter's moon Io—the most volcanically active location in the solar system—Cornell astronomers have been able to study a fundamental process in planetary formation and evolution: tidal heating. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-volcanoes-reveal-interior-jupiter-moon.html Astrobiology Thu, 19 Sep 2024 12:28:03 EDT news645967681 Jupiter's striking appearance comes from its stormy atmosphere. Swirling clouds surround the gas giant, and their distribution reflects the planet's weather. Scientists have used professional observatories such as the Very Large Telescope in Chile (whose construction in the 1990s cost more than 330 million euro, or US$366 million) and spacecraft such as the Juno orbiter (part of a US$1.13 billion mission) to study Jupiter's meteorology, but they lack some ongoing monitoring abilities. Amateur astronomers have filled in part of this gap by monitoring visible clouds and wind. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-amateur-astronomers-aid-jupiter-weather.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 05 Sep 2024 16:39:29 EDT news644773164 Using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, scientists observed the region above Jupiter's iconic Great Red Spot to discover a variety of previously unseen features. The region, previously believed to be unremarkable in nature, hosts a variety of intricate structures and activity. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-jupiter-upper-atmosphere-astronomers.html Astronomy Tue, 25 Jun 2024 07:28:59 EDT news638519334 New research led by Lia Siegelman, a physical oceanographer at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, shows that the roiling storms at the planet Jupiter's polar regions are powered by processes known to physicists studying Earth's oceans and atmosphere. The geophysical commonalities spanning the 452 million miles between the two planets could even help facilitate an improved understanding of those processes on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-06-nasa-satellite-images-cyclones-jupiter.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Jun 2024 05:00:01 EDT news636816542 Finding water on distant planets and moons in our solar system is a challenge, especially when the instrument is thousands of kilometers away from the surface, but scientists presenting at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly describe how ground-penetrating radar is used to discover bodies of water below the surface of distant planets and they are on their way to Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-unraveling-mysteries-earth-ground-penetrating.html Astrobiology Fri, 19 Apr 2024 04:50:01 EDT news632664243 Scientists on NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter have transformed data collected during two recent flybys of Io into animations that highlight two of the Jovian moon's most dramatic features: a mountain and an almost glass-smooth lake of cooling lava. Other recent science results from the solar-powered spacecraft include updates on Jupiter's polar cyclones and water abundance. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-nasa-juno-aerial-views-mountain.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 18 Apr 2024 15:12:04 EDT news632671921 US space scientists on Thursday unveiled the interplanetary probe NASA plans to send to one of Jupiter's icy moons as part of humanity's hunt for extra-terrestrial life. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-nasa-unveils-probe-bound-jupiter.html Space Exploration Fri, 12 Apr 2024 04:24:32 EDT news632114665 Decades before any probe dips a toe—and thermometer—into the waters of distant ocean worlds, Cornell astrobiologists have devised a novel way to determine ocean temperatures based on the thickness of their ice shells, effectively conducting oceanography from space. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-ice-shell-thickness-reveals-temperature.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 29 Feb 2024 15:09:26 EST news628441762 NASA's Juno spacecraft will on Saturday, Dec. 30, make the closest flyby of Jupiter's moon Io that any spacecraft has made in over 20 years. Coming within roughly 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) from the surface of the most volcanic world in our solar system, the pass is expected to allow Juno instruments to generate a firehose of data. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-nasa-juno-jupiter-volcanic-moon.html Astronomy Fri, 29 Dec 2023 11:20:23 EST news623071218 Gravity data collected by NASA's Juno mission indicates Jupiter's atmospheric winds penetrate the planet in a cylindrical manner, parallel to its spin axis. A paper on the findings was recently published in the journal Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-juno-mission-jupiter-penetrate-cylindrical.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 09 Nov 2023 14:14:03 EST news618761641 Data collected by NASA's Juno mission indicates a briny past may be bubbling to the surface on Jupiter's largest moon. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-salts-ganymede-surface-nasa-juno.html Astronomy Tue, 31 Oct 2023 05:51:18 EDT news617950270 Jupiter has some of the most conspicuous atmospheric features in our solar system. The planet's Great Red Spot, large enough to envelop Earth, is nearly as well known as some of the various rivers and mountains on the planet we call home. https://phys.org/news/2023-10-webb-feature-jupiter-atmosphere.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Oct 2023 12:13:04 EDT news616936382 The spinning, solar-powered spacecraft will take another look of the fiery Jovian moon on July 30. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-nasa-juno-closer-jupiter-moon.html Space Exploration Wed, 26 Jul 2023 16:42:06 EDT news609608522 A team led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) has found that NASA's Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter frequently encounters giant swirling waves at the boundary between the solar wind and Jupiter's magnetosphere. The waves are an important process for transferring energy and mass from the solar wind, a stream of charged particles emitted by the sun, to planetary space environments. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-team-giant-swirling-edge-jupiter.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 17 Jul 2023 14:41:03 EDT news608823661 Depictions of the Milky Way show a coiling pattern of spiral "arms" filled with stars extending outward from the center. Similar patterns have been observed in the swirling clouds of gas and dust surrounding some young stars—planetary systems in the making. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-astronomers-elusive-planet-responsible-spiral.html Astronomy Thu, 06 Jul 2023 11:00:01 EDT news607853116 Flight controllers at ESA's mission control center in Germany have been busy this week, working with instrument teams on the final deployments to prepare ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) for exploring Jupiter. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-juice-deployments-ready-jupiter.html Space Exploration Mon, 29 May 2023 12:36:46 EDT news604582601