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. Since 2016, an ordinary-looking F-type star called KIC 8462852, nicknamed Tabby's star, has behaved anything but ordinarily. In a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on July 6, researchers revisited this star to find out what is really causing its irregular dimming. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-hour-dip-tabby-star-decade.html Astronomy Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:00:05 EDT news704472236 Using spectral data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), astronomers have gained some of the clearest evidence yet that white dwarf stars are accreting debris from disintegrating exoplanets. Captured while DESI was unable to study its primary targets: distant galaxies, the results provide unprecedented insights into the chemical makeup of rocky exoplanets, revealing compositions remarkably similar to the planets and asteroids of our own inner solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-desi-side-reveals-spectra-disintegrated.html Astronomy Sun, 02 Aug 2026 08:20:01 EDT news704452570 By analyzing data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and conducting new radial velocity measurements, U.K. and French astronomers have found evidence that the mysterious Tabby's star may be orbited by an object about nine times more massive than Jupiter. The new findings are published on the preprint server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tabby-star-orbited-planetary-mass.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:00:03 EDT news704450067 The spacecraft aced its encounter with Mars. Now, mission scientists are studying a trove of data from the flyby in preparation for its arrival at asteroid Psyche in 2029. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-nasa-psyche-mission-mars-flyby.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 18 Jul 2026 14:51:26 EDT news703605061 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 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 Italian astronomers have used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to perform polarimetric observations of the star WRAY 15-1880 and its young circumstellar disk. Results of the new observations, presented June 10 on the arXiv preprint server, suggest that this disk may host a primitive planetary system. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-young-disk-wray-primitive-planetary.html Astronomy Tue, 16 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT news700802492 Asteroids and planetesimals regularly bombarded Earth between about 4.6 billion and 3.5 billion years ago, during the Hadean and Archean eons. Because few rocks today are more than 4 billion years old, our understanding of the planet's environment during that time is limited. However, samples from the moon and its cratered surface hint at the period's rate of cosmic impacts. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-cosmic-bombardment-earth-crust-prebiotic.html Astrobiology Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:40:04 EDT news700143613 NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. They also suggest a new role for Jupiter in the distribution of these elements throughout the young solar system. The study, published in Science Advances, examines this history by looking at the ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen in iron meteorites and in younger objects known as chondrites. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-jupiter-redirected-life-ingredients-earth.html Astrobiology Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:50:01 EDT news699726061 When the solar system formed, a disk of gas and dust orbited the young sun. Over the course of millions of years, the dust gradually clumped together to form kilometer-sized chunks known as planetesimals. Some grew into planets, while the rest are considered to be the precursors of today's asteroids. Researchers assume that this development did not proceed in a linear fashion, with different stages of planetesimal development occurring simultaneously, and not every region of the disk offering favorable "starting conditions" for planetesimals. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-jupiter-region-forged-meteorite-parent.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 22 May 2026 18:00:02 EDT news698677261 A new study, published in Science Advances, has refined some important details about the moon's largest and oldest impact crater, which stretches more than 1,200 miles (2,000 km) on the far side of the moon. The new details can help guide some of the planning for NASA's upcoming Artemis mission to the moon, which is planned for 2028. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-moon-largest-impact-crater-priceless.html Space Exploration Fri, 08 May 2026 13:50:01 EDT news697463270 Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is now on its way out of our solar system, never to return. The comet was only the third-ever detected object to originate from outside our solar system. Traveling at high speeds, it looped around the sun within 1.5 AU (one AU, or astronomical unit, is the distance between Earth and the sun) in October 2025; as of April, it is now past the orbit of Jupiter on its way out of the solar system. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-methane-emerges-interstellar-comet-3iatlas.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 16 Apr 2026 19:40:01 EDT news695572435 The Subaru Telescope observed the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS on January 7, 2026, after it made its closest approach to the sun. By observing colors in the coma around the comet, astronomers could estimate the ratio of carbon dioxide to water. This ratio is much lower than that inferred from earlier observations by space telescopes. These findings suggest that the chemistry of the coma is evolving over time and offers clues to the structure of comet 3I/ATLAS. The work appears in The Astronomical Journal. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-subaru-telescope-captures-comet-3iatlas.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 15 Apr 2026 03:58:42 EDT news695444252 Japan's space agency, JAXA, has been knocking it out of the park with small-body exploration missions for decades. They had historic successes with both Hayabusa and Hayabusa2, and they are going to visit the Martian moons soon with the Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission. But after that, they are aiming for something much more pristine and arguably more difficult—a comet. The Next Generation Small-Body Return (NGSR) was recently described in a paper presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), and is under assessment as a large-class mission for the 2030s. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-jaxa-pristine-early-solar-samples.html Space Exploration Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:30:01 EDT news694785617 This month's NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month offers us a two-for-one on brand new stars—with some potential planets thrown in as well. This visual highlights Webb's views of the protoplanetary disks Tau 042021 (left) and Oph 163131 (right), otherwise known by the catalog numbers 2MASS J04202144+2813491 and 2MASS J16313124-2426281, respectively. Tau 042021 is situated around 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus, while Oph 163131 lies about 480 light-years away in Ophiuchus. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-webb-eyes-pair-planet-disks.html Planetary Sciences Fri, 03 Apr 2026 11:10:07 EDT news694432922 When we think of asteroids, we almost immediately think of giant rocks bouncing around like the iconic chase scene in "The Empire Strikes Back," and we often hear how they are remnants from the birth of the solar system. While the asteroids that comprise the Main Asteroid Belt of our solar system are not only spread far apart from one another, they are also not all made of rock. One asteroid approximately the size of the state of Massachusetts called 16 Psyche is made of metal, which planetary scientists hypothesize could be the remnants of a protoplanet's core that didn't build into a full-fledged planet. But how did such a unique asteroid form? https://phys.org/news/2026-03-giant-craters-reveal-psyche-lost.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:00:01 EDT news693570548 How does fine dust aggregate into building blocks that ultimately form entire planets like our Earth? A research team led by the University of Bern, with the participation of ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich and the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS has provided the first experimental evidence—obtained during parabolic flights in zero gravity—that a key physical process, known as shear-flow instability, actually occurs under conditions similar to those in planet formation regions. The study thus addresses an important gap in our understanding of the very first steps of planet formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-planets-parabolic-flight-reveal-turbulent.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:40:01 EDT news692972401 Anastasios (Andy) Tzanidakis was combing through old telescope data from 2020 when he found an otherwise boring star acting very strangely. The star, named Gaia20ehk, was about 11,000 light-years from Earth near the constellation Puppis. It was a stable "main sequence" star, much like our sun, which meant that it should emit steady, predictable light. Yet this star began to flicker wildly. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-astronomers-rare-evidence-planets-colliding.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 11 Mar 2026 15:50:01 EDT news692461081 Astronomers have long debated why so many icy objects in the outer solar system look like snowmen. Michigan State University researchers now have evidence of the surprisingly simple process that could be responsible for their creation. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-space-snowmen-gravitational-collapse-contact.html Astronomy Thu, 19 Feb 2026 14:00:15 EST news690567661 Scientists have long known that Earth's core is mostly made of iron, but the density is not high enough for it to be pure iron, meaning lighter elements exist in the core, as well. In particular, it's suspected to be a major reservoir of hydrogen. A new study, published in Nature Communications, supports this idea with results suggesting the core contains up to 45 oceans' worth of hydrogen. These results also challenge the idea that most of Earth's water was delivered by comets early on. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-earth-core-oceans-worth-hydrogen.html Earth Sciences Wed, 11 Feb 2026 11:40:01 EST news690030935 Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tatooine-planets-rare-general-binary.html Astronomy Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:27:18 EST news688998421 How common are Earth-like planets in the universe? When I started working on supernova explosions, I never imagined that my research would eventually lead me to ask a question about the origin of Earth-like planets. Yet that is exactly where it brought me. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-cosmic-rays-nearby-supernova-earth.html Astronomy Sun, 21 Dec 2025 15:00:01 EST news685011574 In an unprecedented celestial event, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) captured the dramatic aftermath of colliding space rocks within a nearby planetary system. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-hubble-captures-rare-collision-nearby.html Astronomy Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:00:07 EST news685179782 Carl Sagan famously said that "We're all made of star stuff." But he didn't elaborate on how that actually happened. Yes, many of the molecules in our bodies could only have been created in massive supernovae explosions—hence the saying—and scientists have long thought they had the mechanism for how settled: the isotopes created in the supernovae flew here on tiny dust grains (stardust) that eventually accreted into Earth, and later into biological systems. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-stardust-star-ice.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 15 Dec 2025 19:10:01 EST news685037989 The giant planets weren't always where we find them today. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune formed in a more compact configuration and later underwent a violent reshuffling that scattered them to their current positions. Exactly what triggered this chaos remains uncertain, but researchers at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux and the Planetary Science Institute now propose a close encounter with a wandering substellar object during the sun's youth. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-rogue-planet-reshape-solar.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:04:25 EST news685019042 Rocky planets like our Earth may be far more common than previously thought, according to new research published in the journal Science Advances. It suggests that when our solar system formed, a nearby supernova (the massive explosion of a star near the end of its life) bathed it in cosmic rays containing the radioactive ingredients to make rocky, dry worlds. This mechanism could be ubiquitous across the galaxy. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-supernova-immersion-earth-planets-common.html Astrobiology Sun, 14 Dec 2025 13:00:01 EST news684768937 Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, one planet in particular has attracted the attention of scientists. This planet orbits the star within the "Goldilocks zone"—a distance where water on its surface is theoretically possible, but only if the planet has an atmosphere. And where there is water, there might be life. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-trappist-1e-earth-sized-habitable.html Astronomy Thu, 04 Dec 2025 16:42:33 EST news684088921 Observations with the instrument SPHERE at ESO's Very Large Telescope have produced an unprecedented gallery of "debris disks" in exoplanetary systems. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-debris-disk-gallery-tale-asteroids.html Astronomy Wed, 03 Dec 2025 03:00:02 EST news683911862 When a meteor streaks across the sky, it's not just beautiful. It's nature's way of delivering a time capsule to Earth. Contained within are hints about the very beginning of the solar system and how planets, including our own, formed. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-meteorite-samples-capsules-early-solar.html Astrobiology Thu, 27 Nov 2025 11:20:02 EST news683212821 In 1949, famed mathematician and physicist John von Neumann delivered a series of addresses at the University of Illinois, where he introduced the concept of the "universal constructor." The theory was further detailed in the 1966 book, "Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata," a collection of von Neumann's writings compiled and completed by a colleague after his death. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-replicating-probes-solar.html Space Exploration Wed, 05 Nov 2025 07:56:06 EST news681551762