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. Venus appears pale yellow in visible light, but ultraviolet images reveal dramatic dark and bright patterns moving with the planet's upper sulfuric acid clouds. Scientists have known about these markings for roughly a century, yet the chemical identity of the material responsible—the "unknown absorber"—remains unresolved. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-venus-mysterious-clouds-exceptionally-strong.html Astrobiology Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:00:05 EDT news707039401 Stanford researchers have offered an explanation for why some sizzling, lava-covered worlds nestled tightly around their stars can retain their atmospheres. At such close quarters, intense stellar radiation should strip away a planet's air. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-lava-exoplanets-retain-atmospheres-billions.html Astrobiology Wed, 26 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news706957007 Over the past three decades, computer models of planetary system formation have gone from fairly crude representations to sophisticated simulations using thousands of different starting points. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-solar-earth-fluke.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:40:05 EDT news706520402 Welcome back to our series on interstellar travel! In our first installment, we examined attempts to realize nuclear propulsion and how the technology could be used to reach the nearest star. In our second, we examined how fusion power has also been considered a means of propelling spacecraft to relativistic speeds (a fraction of the speed of light). In both cases, these proposals paralleled Cold War developments in rocketry and nuclear armaments, as they did for most space age advancements. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-interstellar-iv-solar-magnetic-energy.html Astronomy Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:20:09 EDT news706437782 Japanese scientists are readying a mission to Mars' moons to retrieve samples that may unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth, although a rival Chinese mission aims to make it back first. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-japan-aims-moons-mars.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 16 Aug 2026 15:05:17 EDT news706111469 The habitable zone concept is useful for understanding which worlds might, possibly, maybe, be habitable. It highlights exoplanets at the right distances from their stars for liquid water to potentially exist on their surfaces. But that alone can't determine habitability. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-mission-evolution-exoplanet-atmospheres.html Astrobiology Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:00:01 EDT news705685681 Hundreds of Venus-like planets could soon help determine why some worlds become sweltering greenhouse hellscapes while others remain capable of supporting life. But before answering that question, scientists first need to know how fast those planets are spinning. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-planets-hellish.html Astronomy Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:00:01 EDT news705573181 Venus may be overwhelmingly inhospitable today, but many planetary scientists believe that it wasn't always this way. Billions of years ago, some observational evidence suggested that our planetary neighbor may have looked far more like Earth, complete with oceans potentially capable of harboring life. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-venus-polygonal-plains-watery.html Astrobiology Wed, 05 Aug 2026 08:00:09 EDT news705070220 Every year, thousands of satellites are launched into orbit around our planet. The result is an increasingly congested "space" above Earth populated by equipment that provides services to the surface. At the same time, these satellites affect ground-based astronomy and create the potential for damage when they eventually fall through Earth's atmosphere to the surface. In addition, near-Earth space hosts old rocket bodies and other materials (cameras, gloves, etc.) left in orbit by past missions. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tracking-satellites-space-debris-radio.html Space Exploration Thu, 30 Jul 2026 11:20:04 EDT news704622625 Excavations at Hohle Fels Cave in the UNESCO World Heritage area of the Swabian Jura in southwestern Germany have again yielded two spectacular 40,000-year-old depictions of birds carved from mammoth ivory. The two figurines are the smallest discovered so far and are the size of a thumbnail, while still including many details. These remarkable finds come from the rich Aurignacian layers at Hohle Fels, which have produced some of the oldest figurative art known and date to the initial arrival of modern humans in the Upper Danube region. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-ice-age-artists-thumbnail-size.html Archaeology Wed, 29 Jul 2026 17:40:01 EDT news704550903 In 2010, scientists waiting to use the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands captured a brief 36 minutes of images of Venus. They were waiting for the sun to set so they could look at distant stars and dust disks around young stars. Consequently, little attention was paid to the data, which was filed away in the archives. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-evidence-giant-venus-atmosphere-uncovered.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 28 Jul 2026 11:40:03 EDT news704452588 Venus is an inhospitable place, with temperatures soaring to several hundred degrees Celsius (hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit) and no oceans like those on Earth. Planetary scientists long believed Venus was geologically dormant. However, recent research indicates that Venus remains geologically "alive" and even hosts active volcanoes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-young-rift-flanks-venus-tectonically.html Astronomy Fri, 24 Jul 2026 05:00:05 EDT news704016001 Dreams of finding a sort of Earth 2.0 motivate much of the thinking around the search for exoplanets. But there is more to exoplanet science than searching for potentially habitable worlds. Scientists need a deeper understanding of the overall exoplanet population to understand the cosmos. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-venus-zone-planets-plato-habitable.html Astrobiology Tue, 21 Jul 2026 12:00:02 EDT news703845362 Scientists have painted the most detailed portrait yet of the planetary system orbiting Barnard's Star—the sun's closest neighbor after Alpha Centauri, just under six light-years from Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-astronomers-nearby-planets-small-strange.html Astrobiology Wed, 15 Jul 2026 15:20:01 EDT news703340046 Researchers have reconstructed and transcribed a mathematical formula from the site of Xultun, Guatemala, revealing the name of a Maya astronomer for the first time. During the Classic period (250–900 CE), mathematics and astronomy were a key part of Maya society, with complex calculations based on calendar dates and astronomical observations influencing everything from the erection of monuments to the inauguration of kings and queens. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hidden-maya-wall-astronomer-emerges.html Archaeology Mon, 13 Jul 2026 19:00:01 EDT news702638642 The 1.7 million satellites that companies are aiming to launch into Earth's orbit in the coming years will have "devastating consequences for astronomy," new research warned Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-million-satellites-devastating-astronomy.html Astronomy Sat, 04 Jul 2026 18:20:01 EDT news702139042 Planets beyond our solar system can have magnetic fields similar to those closer to home, astronomers said Tuesday after observing extreme winds on scorching worlds known as "hot Jupiters." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hot-jupiter-reveal-exoplanet-magnetic.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 03 Jul 2026 11:10:02 EDT news699678128 A new European Southern Observatory (ESO) study has found that current proposals to launch more than 1.7 million satellites into orbit, including extremely bright ones, would have "devastating consequences for astronomy." According to the study, no more than 100,000 faint satellites, below naked-eye visibility, should orbit Earth to safeguard our ability to observe the night sky with modern telescopes. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-orbit-overload-devastate-astronomy-million.html Astronomy Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:20:01 EDT news702120001 When astronomers discovered a giant planet orbiting a dead star in 2020, they wondered how it survived its star's violent demise. Now, observations from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may finally explain the planet's unlikely escape from destruction. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-giant-planet-survived-star-death.html Astronomy Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:00:14 EDT news701945786 You're the grillmaster at the annual family Fourth of July barbecue, and you're sweating bullets standing over the grill in the sweltering summer heat. You're trying to stay cool by pressing a cold beer can to your forehead, but to no avail. You can't go inside because, once again, you're the grillmaster and need to watch the food simmering on your freshly cleaned grill. Your brother-in-law is a university astronomy professor and walks over, asking how you're doing. You say, "This heat is killing me. I feel hotter than the barbecue!" Your science teacher brother-in-law slyly says, "Try being an exoplanet." You roll your eyes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hot-jupiter-star-powered-barbecue.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 24 Jun 2026 09:20:07 EDT news701510995 Need some good news on a Friday after a long week? The Earth may not be engulfed by the expanding fireball of the dying sun, which has long been assumed to be our home planet's ultimate fate, according to scientists. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sun-engulf-earth-scientists.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:40:02 EDT news701085030 Finding life beyond our solar system is a major goal of modern astronomy. NASA's planned Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to take direct images of Earth-sized planets around stars other than our sun. This task, however, is extraordinarily difficult, given that these planets are roughly 10 billion times fainter than their host stars. To detect them, scientists must find ways to suppress nearly all of the nearby starlight, which would otherwise overwhelm the faint planetary signal. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-telescope-mirror-stability-exoplanet.html Astronomy Thu, 18 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news701011867 Have you ever been out at night and seen a streak of light blast across the sky and disappear? Ever wonder where that shooting star came from, or how it got to be in your sky? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-asteroid-comet-meteor-meteorite-streaking.html Astronomy Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:40:05 EDT news700833900 A paper on new research into the cause of death of Simonetta Vespucci, model for the world-renowned Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli, has been published by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, Universita Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and the University of California in the journal Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-explanation-mystery-death-botticelli-birth.html Other Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news700844162 Venus' bizarre and extraordinarily slow retrograde rotation on its axis has long puzzled planetary scientists. But in a new paper presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna, the authors argue that their models indicate a high-angle, moon-sized, high-velocity impactor likely triggered Venus' strange 248-day rotation. And it probably happened within the first 50 million years of Venus' formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-venus-strange-rotation-triggered-high.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:20:01 EDT news700736615 A team of astronomers, led by Brooke Kotten of the University of Michigan, has shown that TOI-5882—a sunlike star located some 1,300 light-years away—has likely eaten one of its planets. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-lithium-spike-reveals-sun-star.html Astronomy Mon, 15 Jun 2026 14:40:02 EDT news700746421 The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is a marvel of nature, a highly effective killer that doesn't have to move an inch to capture and kill its prey. It releases a fruity nectar scent to attract flies and other insects. After they land in the trap, tiny hairs are triggered and the leaves shut with impressive speed. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-venus-flytrap-snap-rapid-cell.html Plants & Animals Fri, 12 Jun 2026 10:11:47 EDT news700477872 Researchers have developed the Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM) to assess which planets can maintain life-supporting atmospheres, focusing on size and atmospheric dynamics. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-atmosphere-survival-refines-habitable-planets.html Astrobiology Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:40:04 EDT news699795001 Multi-billion-dollar space telescope programs aren't only feats of aerospace engineering. They also feature "lies, damn lies, and statistics." Or at least statistics. They definitely feature those, as does all good observational astronomy. The problem with statistics is, in order to get a clear definitive answer, you need lots of samples. And, to put it mildly, it's hard to find lots of samples of planets with alien life on them. And even harder to prove that the signals we think are caused by alien life aren't caused by some other non-biological process. Or at least that's the theory underpinning a new paper available on the arXiv preprint server from David Kipping of Columbia University (and Cool Worlds YouTube fame). https://phys.org/news/2026-06-astrobiology-looming-statistical-crisis.html Astrobiology Tue, 02 Jun 2026 08:20:03 EDT news699602221 Preliminary results of a study presented at the recent European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna indicate that hellish Venus-type planets may be about twice as common as habitable planets that form with oceans. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-hellish-venus-planets-prevalent-true.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 21 May 2026 11:50:49 EDT news698582931