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. Using advanced new simulations, a team of astronomers in the U.S. has developed a promising new theory for how giant, gaseous exoplanets migrate into stiflingly close orbits around their host stars. Led by J. J. Zanazzi at The Pennsylvania State University, the team showed how both massive "hot Jupiters" and smaller, Neptune-sized planets could migrate from distant, elliptical orbits as they release energy via dramatic shock waves in their outer atmospheres. Their results have been published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-supersonic-strange-orbits-hot-jupiters.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:20:06 EDT news712412094 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 Scientists may add a new dwarf planet to the official roster of our solar system. The distant, icy body, provisionally dubbed 2026 ED138, orbits our system beyond Pluto. It was spotted earlier this month by a scientist combing through data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rubin-observatory-reveals-dwarf-planet.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 27 Oct 2026 18:30:05 EDT news712338601 Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) have found a rare disk of debris around a dead star that provides a glimpse of what may happen to our solar system. Unlike in similar systems previously found, the debris—the leftovers of planets that once orbited the star—is organized in a double disk, the two parts separated by a clear gap. The disk appears to be shaped by two planetary bodies, one possibly as big as Pluto, that have survived the violent death of the star. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-debris-disk-orbiting-dead-star.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Oct 2026 18:00:12 EDT news712322463 There is a problem in low Earth orbit, and it's growing. According to the European Space Agency, there are about 19,440 satellites on orbit, 3,540 of which are nonfunctioning and/or not emitting a signal to warn other spacecraft of their location. The need to service these sleepwalking satellites in space will only increase as more are launched. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-autonomous-rendezvous-simulated-spacecraft-failures.html Space Exploration Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:00:03 EDT news712333651 Earth may have produced much of its water during the planet's formation, as rocky pebbles reacted with the hydrogen-rich atmosphere surrounding the young planet, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience. The findings offer a potential explanation for how Earth acquired one of the essential ingredients for life and suggest that similar water-producing processes could be common on rocky planets beyond our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-earth-planet-grew.html Astrobiology Tue, 27 Oct 2026 11:40:01 EDT news712312933 A Southwest Research Institute–led study used NASA's James Webb Space Telescope to examine ice grains streaming from interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, just the third object from beyond our solar system ever identified. The observations point to tiny aggregates of water ice and dust, about a micron or smaller. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-webb-links-interstellar-comet-3iatlas.html Astronomy Tue, 27 Oct 2026 10:00:13 EDT news712310882 In our solar system's corner of the galaxy, stars rarely collide. It makes sense: Space is vast, and stars have room to roam. Even in most of the present-day universe, stellar collisions are rare. The James Webb Space Telescope, however, peers deep enough into space to see the universe as it was not too long after the Big Bang. Its observations have revealed extraordinarily compact stellar systems, raising the possibility that collisions between stars were once much more common. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-stellar-collisions-common-universe-young.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 11:00:32 EDT news712225924 To produce hydrogen using sunlight, the energy obtained from light must be retained until it can be used in a chemical reaction. However, if an electron that has gained energy from light quickly returns to its original position, it becomes difficult to make use of that energy. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-electron-room-blue-titanium-dioxide.html Analytical Chemistry Mon, 26 Oct 2026 10:20:06 EDT news712224902 A new study reveals a dust-reddened quasar from a time when the universe was less than a billion years old. Located at a redshift of 6.5488, the object J1440+0019 contains a rapidly accreting supermassive black hole with a mass of about 1.1 billion suns. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Oct. 9. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-jwst-alma-reveal-dusty-rapidly.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 09:20:36 EDT news711982981 Astronomers have found a vast reservoir of hydrogen with something conspicuously missing: detectable starlight. The object, called AGC 322753, contains roughly 2 billion times the sun's mass in neutral hydrogen, a potential supply of material for making stars. Its radio signal suggests the gas may be rotating in a disk, yet deep astronomical images reveal no matching glow. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fast-arecibo-dark-galaxy-vast.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Oct 2026 06:55:00 EDT news712216463 In places like South Asia, Africa and parts of the Americas, monsoon rains supply water for drinking, crops and hydropower for billions of people. Understanding the patterns that monsoons tend to follow can help people plan for drought risks affecting agriculture, reservoirs and hydropower across distant regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-stalagmites-reveal-exceptions-asiasouth.html Earth Sciences Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:00:01 EDT news711981698 An international study involving ICTA-UAB reveals that large energy corporations use corporate sustainability narratives to legitimize wind, solar and hydropower projects that, in practice, exclude communities from fair economic and financial returns and ignore the projects' social and environmental impacts. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-dark-side-energy-transition-renewable.html Economics & Business Thu, 22 Oct 2026 14:40:02 EDT news711894001 Technion researchers have presented evidence for the existence of solar-storm-like outbursts near supermassive black holes, which can be a million times larger than the sun or more. The phenomenon was discovered in the vicinity of the black hole in the galaxy NGC 3783, and the researchers' findings were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-black-hole-uncover-evidence-solar.html Astronomy Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:03:31 EDT news711885705 In a study published in Advanced Optical Materials, researchers at Vilnius University (VU) demonstrated perovskite-based laser structures that maintained stable performance over more than 400 million pulses. Their findings address one of the major challenges limiting the practical use of perovskites: their instability. These semiconductor materials could play an important role in next-generation optical technologies, but their tendency to degrade has long posed a challenge for researchers worldwide. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-perovskite-laser-stable-million-pulses.html Condensed Matter Wed, 21 Oct 2026 18:00:02 EDT news711813781 Researchers at Keele University have discovered that migratory butterflies may use different navigation systems to find their way during migrations, highlighting the importance of understanding how different species may respond to environmental changes. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-butterfly-reveal-migrating-species-natural.html Plants & Animals Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:20:01 EDT news711801421 Climate change can look very different at the scale of a forest, field or hillside. A new review shows how changes in vegetation and atmospheric conditions can cause local microclimates to warm at very different rates from the regional climate—and why this matters for understanding how biodiversity will respond to climate change. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-life-earth-climate.html Earth Sciences Wed, 21 Oct 2026 12:20:23 EDT news711798782 A new study led by researchers at the Konkoly Observatory of the HUN-REN Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences (HUN-REN CSFK) in Budapest has revealed what makes a distant red giant star the most explosively active in the entire Kepler field—and the answer lies in a surprisingly subtle interplay between a close stellar companion, vast dark starspots and a highly efficient internal magnetic dynamo. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-astronomers-uncover-powerful-stellar-flares.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Oct 2026 09:20:06 EDT news711791342 Water isn't always as it seems. Under extreme conditions, such as those found on other planets, it has been discovered to change its atomic structure, giving it the means to alter its appearance and other properties. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-weve-physicists-earth-conditions.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 20 Oct 2026 16:10:02 EDT news711729662 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 The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS brought material from another planetary system within reach of our telescopes, but reading its chemistry poses a problem. Energetic particles encountered during its journey through space may have changed its outer layers, so how much of what astronomers detect still reflects the comet's birthplace? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-sun-meters-interstellar-comet-3iatlas.html Astronomy Tue, 20 Oct 2026 08:10:01 EDT news711696503 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 By indirectly probing the depths of Uranus and Neptune's atmospheres, an international team of scientists has revealed a significant contrast in their chemical composition. Neptune appears to be more enriched in oxygen than Uranus. These results suggest that the two ice giants may have formed in different regions of the primitive solar system before reaching their current orbits, calling into question the idea of a common origin for these two planets, often considered twins. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-planetary-twins-uranus-neptune-stories.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 18:40:06 EDT news711646141 During the COVID-19 pandemic, air travel declined dramatically. Many view the disruption as a potential tipping point for reducing emissions from the aviation sector. However, once travel restrictions were lifted, passenger traffic quickly rebounded to prepandemic levels and, in many regions, even surpassed them. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-social-norms-infrastructure-climate-transitions.html Environment Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:20:01 EDT news711628141 The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered its first previously unknown comet in images taken between Sept. 16 and 24, 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-euclid-comet-million-miles-earth.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 13:20:01 EDT news711626041 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 Australian researchers and international collaborators have demonstrated a solar-driven approach to convert glycerol, a low-value byproduct of biodiesel production, into hydrogen and higher-value chemicals. Using advanced techniques at the Australian Synchrotron, they revealed how the catalyst changed while it was working. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-sunlight-biodiesel-byproduct-life-hydrogen.html Materials Science Fri, 16 Oct 2026 17:40:01 EDT news711373459 A new University of Melbourne-led study has identified insights and evidence that could help mitigate the fast-rising climate impact of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-wider-approach-mitigate-rechargeable-battery.html Environment Fri, 16 Oct 2026 16:10:02 EDT news711378241 A phenomenon rarer than a solar eclipse and more powerful than any single storm system is unfolding this fall, and NASA is tracking it closely. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-satellites-historic-el-nio.html Earth Sciences Fri, 16 Oct 2026 12:44:08 EDT news711373385 Astronomers have discovered a star being torn apart by a massive black hole more than 1,000 parsecs from the center of its host galaxy. The tidal disruption event, TDE 2023mfm, was first discovered by ZTF and then studied with a wide range of telescopes, including Keck, Lick, Hubble, Swift, Chandra, XMM-Newton and the VLA. The discovery paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 28. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-shredded-star-reveals-massive-black.html Astronomy Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:20:17 EDT news711112932