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. Planning a successful trip can be challenging, especially when your destination is in outer space. Even before liftoff, space missions require extraordinary amounts of scientific preparation and data analysis to succeed, which can take years to complete. However, as space agencies race to establish a permanent presence on the moon, using artificial intelligence to combine such information into a single system could make mission planning much more efficient. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-gen-artificial-intelligence-future-space.html Space Exploration Wed, 28 Oct 2026 17:30:01 EDT news712425961 The theory that comets delivered the molecular building blocks for life on Earth is a long-standing one, since comets are known to carry many of these molecules. However, a new study challenges this idea. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-comets-didnt-seed-life-earth.html Astrobiology Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:10 EDT news712240261 Over 1,645 Martian days, NASA's Perseverance Mars rover measured the fine and ultrafine Martian dust particles found clinging to samples of spacesuit materials that are carried aboard the rover, including particles small enough to penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream. The findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and could inform spacesuit and habitat design, dust-removal procedures and crew health standards for future NASA missions to Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-perseverance-clues-crews-ultrafine-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2026 12:00:01 EDT news712314844 Establishing a long-term presence on the moon will require solving challenges that are easy to overlook on Earth. Lunar temperatures, for instance, can vary from hundreds of degrees below zero to boiling, making effective insulation essential for lunar habitats. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-everyday-mylar-insulator-lunar-habitats.html Space Exploration Fri, 23 Oct 2026 15:20:01 EDT news711979621 What, exactly, is a plant made of? Scientists have a good understanding of the essential nutrients plants need to grow. But what plants need and what they contain are not necessarily the same. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-global-database-fuller-picture-elements.html Biochemistry Thu, 22 Oct 2026 18:20:11 EDT news711903362 Earthquakes and the seismic waves they generate provide some of the best clues to Earth's interior. To extend that success to other worlds, scientists placed seismometers on the Apollo missions to the moon and on the Viking Mars landers, which reached Mars in 1976. Though the Apollo detectors proved a resounding success, Viking's results on Mars were less clear: Viking 1's seismometer failed to deploy properly, and Viking 2 recorded only two ambiguous events. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-reexamined-viking-reveals-marsquake-region.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:40:06 EDT news711799802 NASA researchers are developing the future of flight on Mars, laying the groundwork for helicopters with the ability to fly higher and farther while conducting science on the Red Planet. Using high-fidelity computer simulations and wind tunnel tests, engineers are reimagining the rotorcraft blades that could carry the next generation of Mars flyers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-experimental-mars-helicopter-blade.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 13:50:01 EDT news711720660 Scientists at Columbia University and Imperial College London have found that the largest canyon system in the solar system is still active and shaping Mars today, billions of years after it first formed. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-canyon-mars-tectonically-today.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2026 09:20:36 EDT news711705481 A Japanese spacecraft rocketed toward Mars on Tuesday on a quest to explore its mysterious moons and bring back samples. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-spacecraft-mysterious-moons-mars.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:40:13 EDT news711693525 Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars' moons to retrieve samples that could help unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, in what aims to be the first round trip to the Martian region. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-historic-mission-mars-moon.html Space Exploration Sun, 18 Oct 2026 16:20:01 EDT news711555681 A Ph.D. student at the University of Sydney has produced the first comprehensive classification system and map of Martian soils, creating a new framework that could help scientists compare landscapes across the Red Planet and identify promising locations for future exploration, habitation and food production. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-comprehensive-mars-soil-classification-framework.html Astrobiology Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:40:06 EDT news711372541 Female protagonists in animated films have come a long way over the past several decades. Take the 1959 movie "Sleeping Beauty": Soft-spoken and vulnerable, Princess Aurora is cursed as an infant by the evil fairy Maleficent and ultimately saved not by her own wits, but by a prince's kiss. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-animated-nonhuman-characters-overwhelmingly-male.html Social Sciences Thu, 15 Oct 2026 20:00:01 EDT news711298282 Scientists using the European Space Agency's Mars Express, in combination with a state-of-the-art meteorological model of the Red Planet, have found that there may be some exotic physics behind Mars' most curious cloud. The paper, "Homogeneous ice Nucleation from Water Vapour Suggested by Elongated Clouds on Mars," is published in Nature Geoscience. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mars-oddest-cloud-odder-previously.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:01:01 EDT news710520301 In the early history of our solar system, scientists theorize that a Mars-sized object called Theia smashed into the infant Earth, vaporizing massive amounts of rock and blasting it into space. Some of that material coalesced into the moon, where NASA's Artemis program is returning humans, preparing for Mars and shaping the future of space exploration. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-planet-shattering-collisions.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:00:13 EDT news710078942 The Mars we know today is a cold, dry world of dust and rocks. However, around 3.8–3.6 billion years ago, it may have looked very different. Geological and mineral evidence suggests that, in its distant past, the planet experienced periods warm and wet enough for water to exist on its surface, potentially forming rivers, lakes and even an ocean in the northern hemisphere. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-life-chemistry-clues-mars.html Astrobiology Thu, 01 Oct 2026 10:40:11 EDT news710065741 New research has found that the rate of hip fractures among astronauts after spaceflights lasting more than 90 days was higher than after shorter spaceflights or among people who were not astronauts. The findings of the study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, underscore the need for expanded assessment of astronauts' long-term skeletal health. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-day-spaceflights-linked-higher-hip.html Space Exploration Thu, 01 Oct 2026 00:10:01 EDT news709985522 Four and a half billion years ago, Earth and Mars were born in the rotating cloud of gas and dust that would eventually become our solar system. Yet exactly how the planets formed remains one of the most disputed questions in planetary science. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-earth-mars-built-cosmic-recipes.html Astrobiology Wed, 30 Sep 2026 12:00:01 EDT news709980001 Although Mars may have once resembled Earth, the rocky red planet now appears far from hospitable. Still, certain details—such as ice-bound water—pique researchers' curiosity. As on Earth, ice on Mars contains valuable records of past climate that could reveal whether the planet hosts, or has ever hosted, life. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-north-pole-mars-dusty-scientists.html Astrobiology Wed, 30 Sep 2026 09:00:22 EDT news709975621 A popular narrative across Instagram Reels, business podcasts and magazine covers is that people who are smart and serious about growth read nonfiction. Nonfiction directly provides factual information and real-world knowledge, whereas fiction, like novels and poetry, is treated as a less practical cousin. Now, a recent study has asked whether fiction really is just entertainment. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nightstand-empathy-cognitive-health.html Social Sciences Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:20:14 EDT news709890034 At the end of the last ice age, early humans crisscrossed the Americas following seasons, rivers and game, often with a trusty spear in hand. Nearly 13,000 years later, archaeologists are using those spearheads to study how America's first inhabitants understood risk. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-spearheads-reveal-ice-age.html Archaeology Mon, 28 Sep 2026 17:20:05 EDT news709824662 SpaceX launched its enormous Starship into orbit for the first time Monday and successfully delivered the most advanced Starlink satellites yet, but cut the flight short to ensure safety. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-spacex-supersized-starship-orbit.html Space Exploration Mon, 28 Sep 2026 09:07:51 EDT news709805242 When a spacecraft reenters Earth's atmosphere at hypersonic velocities, its protective heat shield faces extreme conditions, including temperatures beyond 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,650 degrees Celsius). To survive, the shield relies on specialized materials that absorb heat as they degrade in a controlled process called ablation, sacrificing the shield's outer layers to protect the vehicle and crew within. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-real-spacecraft-shields-extreme-conditions.html Space Exploration Sat, 26 Sep 2026 12:00:01 EDT news709471452 On the surface, the arid expanses of the Mojave Desert may seem inhospitable and largely removed from the global carbon cycle. But beneath the surface, its mineral-rich soils are running a carbon cycle of their own—one that could account for a surprisingly large share of the planet's annual carbon exchange. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-carbon-minerals.html Earth Sciences Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:40:01 EDT news709464742 The asteroid Bennu orbits the sun once every 1.2 years and approaches Earth every six years, passing within around 300,000 kilometers. NASA took advantage of this to collect material from the celestial body. In a spectacular operation in 2023, the US space agency collected samples from the surface of the asteroid Bennu by its OSIRIS-REx probe. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-bennu-asteroid-samples-involving-jupiter.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 18:40:01 EDT news709399861 Unlike Earth, the moon no longer has a core-generated magnetic field. On our planet, the movement of liquid iron in the outer core generates a global magnetic field. This so-called geodynamo works on a similar principle to a bicycle dynamo, which converts mechanical motion into electrical energy. "Today, there is an ongoing heated debate as to whether the moon also operated a dynamo in the past," says Xi Yang, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at ETH Zurich. This is because analyses of rock samples brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts are contradictory. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-side-moon-clues-magnetic-field.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:00:23 EDT news709229941 Students in Cornell's Space Systems Design Studio (SSDS) have released mission results for two unique light-sail experiments. These sails are slightly larger than a pizza box and harness momentum from photons to accelerate to high velocities. With ChipSats onboard—gram-scale spacecraft that fit in the palm of your hand—the sails can become free-flyers. They origami-fold into CubeSats for launch and completely separate when deployed, allowing them to be far smaller and lighter than traditional solar sails. The ChipSats provide all ground communications and steering capabilities for a fraction of the mass and cost. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-student-missions-deploy-free-flying.html Space Exploration Mon, 21 Sep 2026 17:10:02 EDT news709227061 When NASA's Perseverance rover reached the inner edge of Mars' Jezero Crater in September 2023, mission scientists were surprised by what they found. The geologic area, called the "Margin Unit," stretches along the shoreline of an ancient Martian lake, so they expected sedimentary rocks, which would have formed as layers of sand piled on top of each other over millennia. Composed of clay and silt, sedimentary rocks on Earth are good at preserving past microbial life. The scientists were especially intrigued by strong signals of carbonate minerals detected by Mars orbiters. On Earth, carbonates frequently form in shallow ocean and lake environments capable of supporting life. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-early-mars-reveal-episodes.html Astrobiology Mon, 21 Sep 2026 16:30:01 EDT news709226281 Mysterious trenches stretching for kilometers across southern Australia's Nullarbor Plain have been revealed as the surface footprints of deep, hidden ancient cave systems. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-nullarbor-reveals-surface-deep-hidden.html Earth Sciences Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:20:27 EDT news708857883 Carbonate minerals are among the best records of past liquid water on Mars: They form when water carrying dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with rock, and their composition reflects the chemistry of both. Yet Mars has surprisingly little carbonate on its surface compared with what climate models predict, given that the planet likely had a (at least transiently) thick, CO2-rich atmosphere more than 3 billion years ago. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-mars-reveal-carbonate.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:00:17 EDT news708857762 It's no secret that plastic and other human trash are a problem for marine life, but our understanding has long focused on the ocean's surface. As described in a study published in PLOS One, a more complete picture is coming into focus, revealing that even some of our planet's greatest depths have become home to our debris. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-deep-ocean-familiar-trash-plastic.html Environment Wed, 16 Sep 2026 14:00:11 EDT news708680581