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. On Sunday, Aug. 30, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The observatory will join the Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, and the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021, in scanning the vastness of space and potentially finding answers to longstanding mysteries of the universe. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-telescope-roman-reveal-secrets-universe.html Astronomy Fri, 28 Aug 2026 07:40:03 EDT news707113621 A new study led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) provides evidence that liquid nitrogen is rising to Pluto's surface through cracks at the northern edge of Sputnik Planitia, part of the massive heart-shaped glacier on the dwarf planet's surface. This is the first evidence of liquid flow occurring recently on Pluto. The study is based on data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft and led by SwRI Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern, the principal investigator of the New Horizons mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-liquid-nitrogen-pluto-heart-glacier.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:00:05 EDT news705225241 Pluto is on an icy march away from the sun. In 2114, it will turn back, but until then, its elliptical orbit will carry it to colder and darker parts of the outer solar system. This is Pluto's first time entering the outer solar system since its 1930 discovery, and along this journey, its atmosphere could slowly freeze out. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-pluto-hazy-atmosphere-collapsing-sun.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:40:04 EDT news704971081 In 1989, the Voyager 2 mission discovered six new moons orbiting Neptune, including five tiny ones that orbit just outside the planet's main rings. Because of their small sizes and locations, these satellites have been difficult to study from Earth. Now, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of Caltech researchers has observed Neptune's rings and three of those moons—Larissa, Galatea and Proteus—and found that their composition is unique among outer solar system bodies. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-neptune-moons-shattered-ancient-icy.html Space Exploration Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:00:06 EDT news704623381 Evidence of the slowing of Charon's spin period (despinning) is recorded in tectonic features on the surface of Pluto's icy moon, according to a modeling study published in Nature Communications. The findings offer insights into the early thermal evolution of Charon and other icy satellites in the outer solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-pluto-moon-charon.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 14 Jul 2026 13:38:00 EDT news703255062 Scientists have detected evidence of landslides on Pluto for the first time. A paper published in the journal Icarus reports that images taken by the New Horizons spacecraft during a flyby revealed six large landslides in three impact craters. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-massive-landslides-icy-pluto.html Astrobiology Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:30:02 EDT news703172932 Following its longest hibernation period ever of nearly a year, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has emerged in good health and is ready to begin transmitting science data gathered in the distant Kuiper Belt far beyond Pluto. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nasa-horizons-spacecraft-hibernation-good.html Space Exploration Tue, 07 Jul 2026 21:00:02 EDT news702655742 Where does the solar system end and interstellar space begin? That's a question scientists have been working to answer using spacecraft traveling beyond the sun's influence. A team of researchers from the Southwest Research Institute, led by Heather Elliott, is using the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard New Horizons to track the solar wind in the outer reaches of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-horizons-solar.html Astronomy Tue, 07 Jul 2026 09:00:02 EDT news702624421 A new Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) study based on data from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has uncovered insights into why the solar wind gradually slows as it moves toward the edge of the solar system and the boundary with interstellar space. The study "The Gradual Slowing of the Solar Wind in the Outer Heliosphere" is published in The Astrophysical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-horizons-tracks-solar-slowdown-interstellar.html Astronomy Mon, 29 Jun 2026 19:20:31 EDT news701963730 Life on Earth took a long evolutionary journey that eventually created us, the purportedly intelligent species that dominates the planet. But there was no grand plan or design, only happenstance, nature and luck. Life on Earth suffered multiple extinctions, but got up, dusted itself off and continued on its long march to complexity. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gravitational-tides-earth-extinctions.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 24 Jun 2026 20:00:01 EDT news701516829 Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are using a solar wind forecasting method combined with analytic and numerical heliosphere models to find out where the first plasma boundary of the outer heliosphere lies as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft hurtles toward this mysterious region of space. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-solar-heliosphere-boundaries.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:10:01 EDT news701364782 Researchers are constantly sifting through new spectral data gathered by powerful telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Most of the time, when they identify spectral features—specific absorption or emission lines from different types of light gathered from a planet, moon or star—these features are known to be caused by certain atoms or molecules. For example, the emission line at 426.7 nanometers is known to come from singly ionized carbon, representing a specific atomic transition between energy states of a carbon ion. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-titan-pluto-mysterious-spectral-feature.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:00:04 EDT news701346373 A team of professional and amateur Japanese astronomers have found evidence for a thin atmosphere around a small body in the outer solar system. The object is so small that it should not have a sustainable atmosphere, raising questions about when and how the atmosphere formed. Future observations to better characterize the atmosphere will help solve these mysteries. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-tiny-world-neptune-atmosphere-shouldnt.html Astronomy Mon, 04 May 2026 11:00:09 EDT news697097941 University of Warwick astronomers have uncovered the chemical fingerprint of a frozen, water-rich planetary fragment being consumed by a white dwarf star outside our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-icy-planetesimal-high-nitrogen-content.html Astrobiology Sat, 27 Sep 2025 08:30:01 EDT news677752155 In our nearby stellar neighborhood, a burned-out star is snacking on a fragment of a Pluto-like object. With its unique ultraviolet capability, only NASA's Hubble Space Telescope could identify that this meal is taking place. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-hubble-white-dwarf-piece-pluto.html Astronomy Thu, 18 Sep 2025 12:06:03 EDT news677415961 A Southwest Research Institute-led team has reported the first detection of gas on the distant dwarf planet Makemake, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This discovery makes Makemake only the second trans-Neptunian object, after Pluto, where the presence of gas has been confirmed. The gas was identified as methane. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-methane-gas-dwarf-planet-makemake.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 09 Sep 2025 13:29:03 EDT news676643341 Is there a massive undiscovered planet on the outer reaches of the solar system? The idea has been around since before the discovery of Pluto in the 1930s. Labeled as planet X, prominent astronomers had put it forward as an explanation for Uranus's orbit, which drifts from the path of orbital motion that physics would expect it to follow. The gravitational pull of an undiscovered planet, several times larger than Earth, was seen as a possible reason for the discrepancy. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-planet-massive-edge-solar.html Astronomy Tue, 29 Jul 2025 15:30:01 EDT news673020970 Trans-Neptunian objects (TNO) are some of our solar system's lesser-known objects. They number in the thousands, and they get their name from their orbits. These dwarf planets orbit the sun at a greater average distance than Neptune does. Pluto is the group's most well-known member, having been demoted from planet to TNO in recent years. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-astronomers-trans-neptunian-track-ancient.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 16 Jul 2025 10:38:16 EDT news671881083 In the outer reaches of our solar system, far beyond the orbit of Pluto, lies Sedna, one of the most mysterious objects ever discovered. This reddish dwarf planet follows such an extreme orbit that it takes more than 11,000 years to complete a single journey around the sun. Now, scientists are proposing a new mission to reach this distant world using a revolutionary propulsion technology. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-propulsion-enable-mission-sedna.html Space Exploration Fri, 27 Jun 2025 12:08:04 EDT news670244881 What processes during the formation of Pluto's largest moon, Charon, potentially led to it having cryovolcanism, and even an internal ocean? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2025) hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the formation and evolution of Charon to ascertain whether it once possessed an internal ocean during its history and if this could have led to cryovolcanism based on images obtained by NASA's New Horizons probe. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-cryovolcanism-resurfacing-pluto-largest-moon.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 27 Jun 2025 11:26:52 EDT news670242410 The federal government's decision to extend the life of Woodside's North West Shelf gas plant in Western Australia has been condemned as a climate disaster. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-woodside-north-west-shelf-giant.html Environment Thu, 05 Jun 2025 12:36:04 EDT news668345761 The first observations of Pluto by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal dramatic phenomena on its surface, like seasonal cycles of volatile ice redistribution across its surface, and material being pulled from its very atmosphere onto its main satellite, Charon—an eerie interaction that happens nowhere else in our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-crazy-idea-cooling-effects-pluto.html Astronomy Tue, 03 Jun 2025 12:53:04 EDT news668173981 For centuries, astronomers have sought to understand the formation and evolution of the solar system and the dynamics that govern it. In particular, there is the long-standing question of whether or not the planets' orbits will remain stable over time. However, these studies have generally treated the solar system as an isolated system, focusing solely on the gravitational interactions between the planets. This is in spite of the fact that astronomers have known for some time that stars in the Milky Way make close passes to each other every so often. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-stars-significant-impact-future-solar.html Astronomy Mon, 02 Jun 2025 15:24:04 EDT news668096642 It's an evocative idea that has long bedeviled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-mysterious-planet.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 29 May 2025 05:01:31 EDT news667713684 A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-extreme-cousin-pluto-dwarf-planet.html Astronomy Thu, 22 May 2025 10:37:10 EDT news667129026 The solar system consists of our star, the sun, and everything bound to it by gravity: the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, along with dwarf planets like Pluto, dozens of moons, and millions of asteroids and comets. The planets orbit the sun in elliptical paths, with the inner four being rocky terrestrial worlds and the outer four being gas and ice giants many times larger than Earth. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-hint-planet.html Astronomy Wed, 30 Apr 2025 10:03:03 EDT news665226182 The NASA New Horizons spacecraft's extensive observations of Lyman-alpha emissions have resulted in the first-ever map from the galaxy at this important ultraviolet wavelength, providing a new look at the galactic region surrounding our solar system. The findings are described in a new study authored by the SwRI-led New Horizons team. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-horizons-lyman-alpha-galaxy.html Astronomy Mon, 28 Apr 2025 11:56:47 EDT news665060200 What can a sample return mission from Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io, teach scientists about planetary and satellite (moon) formation and evolution? This is what a recent study presented at the 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC 2025) hopes to address as an international team of more than two dozen scientists discussed the benefits and challenges of a mission to Io with the goal of sampling its volcanic plumes that eject from its surface on a regular basis. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-sampling-plumes-jupiter-volcano-moon.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 01 Apr 2025 15:22:24 EDT news662739735 Venus—a hot planet pocked with tens of thousands of volcanoes—may be even more geologically active near its surface than previously thought. New calculations by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis suggest that the planet's outer crust may be constantly churning, an unexpected phenomenon called convection that could help explain many of the volcanoes and other features of the Venusian landscape. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-convection-crust-venus-volcanoes.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 31 Mar 2025 09:21:03 EDT news662631660 The puzzle of predicting how three gravitationally bound bodies move in space has challenged mathematicians for centuries, and has most recently been popularized in the novel and television show "3 Body Problem." There's no problem, however, with what a team of researchers say is likely a stable trio of icy space rocks in the solar system's Kuiper Belt, found using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-hubble-kuiper-belt-duo-trio.html Astronomy Tue, 04 Mar 2025 12:46:03 EST news660314761