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 Oct. 16, 2021, NASA's Lucy spacecraft began its journey to the never-before-explored Jupiter Trojan asteroids with an early morning launch. Now less than a year away from the first-ever close-up of a Trojan, the Southwest Research Institute–led mission has already made several findings during its first five years. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-lucy-mission-years-discoveries.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 07:00:07 EDT news711691156 Indonesian authorities were investigating Tuesday after a car-sized piece of debris, possibly from a Chinese rocket according to a government agency, crashed into a palm oil plantation near homes and work sites. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-indonesia-probes-chinese-rocket-fragment.html Space Exploration Tue, 20 Oct 2026 05:46:08 EDT news711693934 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 If you've ever created a snowflake by folding, cutting and unfolding a piece of paper, you've practiced the art of kirigami. Like origami, kirigami has inspired innovations far beyond the elementary school classroom, with applications ranging from deployable structures for spacecraft to semiconductors. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-4d-biofabrication-technology-tissue-wound.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 19 Oct 2026 19:40:12 EDT news711648422 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 Japanese scientists will launch a spacecraft on Tuesday that aims to be the first to retrieve samples from one of Mars' moons, potentially helping unlock the origins of the solar system and life on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-world-mission-moon-mars.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 15:30:01 EDT news711639870 The aurora is among nature's most visually striking phenomena. It occurs when charged particles from the sun are funneled by Earth's magnetic field into the upper atmosphere, where they collide with atoms and molecules and produce distinctly colored curtainlike patterns of light. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-auroral-electrons.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 14:40:01 EDT news711628203 Mercury remains one of our solar system's most elusive and difficult planets to study. It's easier to send probes to the icy moons of Saturn or Jupiter, or even to Pluto, than to land on our innermost planet, Mercury. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-enigmatic-mercury-puzzle-lander.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 19 Oct 2026 09:20:02 EDT news711610218 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 Japanese space mission is about to launch towards Mars. But it will not land on the planet itself. Instead, the Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission will focus on Phobos, the bigger of Mars's two small moons. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-mmx-mission-aims-swipe.html Space Exploration Sun, 18 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711356214 Japan is set to launch a spacecraft on the world's first mission to bring back samples from Phobos, one of the two small, potato-shaped moons orbiting Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-japan-spacecraft-mission-samples-martian.html Planetary Sciences Sun, 18 Oct 2026 07:38:40 EDT news711527854 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-simulations-explore-nuclear-mitigation-asteroid.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:00:05 EDT news711191693 The ocean beneath Saturn's moon Enceladus lies under kilometers of ice, but some of its contents do reach the surface. Jets near the south pole spray out water vapor and icy particles, offering a way to investigate the hidden ocean without drilling down to it. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-salt-crystals-clues-life-beneath.html Astrobiology Sat, 17 Oct 2026 11:40:01 EDT news711288914 Plants begin responding to spaceflight almost immediately after leaving Earth, according to a new University of Florida study that captured the earliest stages of biological adaptation during a commercial suborbital mission. Published in the journal npj Microgravity, the study reports the results of an experiment conducted by a UF astronaut during Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-26 flight on Aug. 29, 2024. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-shift-gene-minutes-spaceflight-reveals.html Space Exploration Fri, 16 Oct 2026 19:00:01 EDT news711376001 On May 10, 2025, a spacecraft built in the Soviet Union to land on Venus came home. Launched in 1972, Cosmos-482 was stranded by a failed upper stage of its rocket and circled Earth for 53 years. In its last days, several space agencies and research groups forecasted when it would fall, and therefore where. Roscosmos later reported that it came down in the Indian Ocean, west of Jakarta. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-air-deep-uncontrolled-satellites-rocket.html Space Exploration Fri, 16 Oct 2026 10:40:12 EDT news711280994 NASA's Artemis II mission sent four astronauts around the moon and brought them safely back to Earth, laying a foundation for crewed flights to the moon's surface. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rigorous-analysis-nasa-artemis-ii.html Space Exploration Thu, 15 Oct 2026 19:40:01 EDT news711292475 The Earth got its moon when a small planet collided with our planet more than 4 billion years ago. This impact hurled molten rock into space, which eventually coalesced to form the satellite we can see every night from across our planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-mars-moons-japan-mmx-space.html Space Exploration Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:40:05 EDT news711282372 If you've ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning, you know standard batteries do not like extreme cold. That's why NASA researchers are working to develop a battery that could function in the brutal cold of the moon's south pole, where nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius). https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-batteries-power-humanity-moon.html Space Exploration Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:40:02 EDT news711213681 Researchers have developed a chip-scale optical ring-laser gyroscope that can measure rotation as slow as 37 degrees per hour. This record sensitivity, approaching Earth's rotation rate of 15 degrees per hour, could eventually be useful for precision navigation and orientation systems, particularly where GPS is unavailable. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-chip-scale-gyroscope-rotation-unprecedented.html General Physics Wed, 14 Oct 2026 19:00:10 EDT news711213061 A commercial lander that will be at the forefront of NASA's efforts to establish a moon base, humanity's first lunar outpost, has passed a series of critical tests at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The tests simulated the extreme temperatures and vacuum of space, as well as the intense shaking and ear-splitting roar of launch. Results show that Voyager Technologies' Griffin Mission One (Griffin-1) spacecraft is ready to survive the rigors of space exploration. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-jpl-readies-voyager-technologies.html Space Exploration Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:00:19 EDT news711107527 NASA experiments focused on human and plant health and drug-resistant organisms will travel to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's 35th Commercial Resupply Services mission for the agency from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, advancing research that benefits life on Earth and future exploration. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-spacex-crs-mission-health.html Astronomy Tue, 13 Oct 2026 08:00:02 EDT news711088502 NASA is taking an unusual approach to testing heat shields that can keep astronauts safe as they return from missions to the moon and Mars: taking out the trash. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-generation-shield-technologies.html Space Exploration Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:40:07 EDT news711024542 On April 1, 2026, the crew of the Artemis II mission launched into space atop NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). Roughly 3 1/2 hours after launch, the rocket's upper stage separated from the Orion spacecraft (Integrity), and astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen began their nearly 10-day journey around the moon. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-preliminary-lunar-science-artemis-ii.html Space Exploration Mon, 12 Oct 2026 10:20:26 EDT news711015842 NASA has taken the next step in the process of developing a new all-glass telescope for the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, a space observatory designed to detect ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-nasa-advances-lisa-mission-contributions.html Astronomy Fri, 09 Oct 2026 16:40:01 EDT news710759228 The European Space Agency–led Solar Orbiter spacecraft has flown through an S-shaped kink known as a "switchback" in the solar wind's magnetic field. By fingerprinting the elusive particles within the switchback, Solar Orbiter has traced its origin back to the sun's surface and revealed more about solar magnetism—the unruly instigator of dangerous solar storms. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-solar-orbiter-tracks-mysterious-magnetic.html Astronomy Thu, 08 Oct 2026 05:00:10 EDT news710588161 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 Deep space travel comes with a huge potential downside—radiation exposure that can kill an astronaut either quickly or slowly over time if not managed correctly. But what exactly does that mean, and is there any way to handle it other than sticking more and more protective layers between the squishy biological systems inside a spacecraft and the radiative void of deep space? https://phys.org/news/2026-10-space-biological-cascade-cancer.html Astronomy Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:40:20 EDT news710407742 Heat shields are one of the most important parts of any spacecraft that intends to enter an atmosphere. And the material they are made of is critical. Improving them has been a challenge, though, as researchers typically only get "before" and "after" pictures of a heat shield's job of helping a spacecraft land safely back on Earth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rays-ai-reveal-spacecraft-shields.html Astronomy Mon, 05 Oct 2026 12:20:09 EDT news710407561 Saturn's icy moon Enceladus hides a global ocean beneath its frozen surface. From fractures near its south pole, material from this ocean is ejected into space as a plume of water vapor and ice particles. These particles offer scientists a rare opportunity to investigate an extraterrestrial ocean without drilling through kilometers of ice. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-enceladus-ocean-spray-chemically-diverse.html Astrobiology Sun, 04 Oct 2026 12:00:01 EDT news709890049 While scientists are known for their dedication to their research, crawling on the floor to avoid electrocution for the sake of a measurement seems a little excessive. But this is what British physicist John Cockcroft and Irish physicist Ernest T.S. Walton had to do in the early 1930s while studying the structure of atomic nuclei. Luckily, their efforts led to their receiving the Nobel Prize in 1951. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-physicists-uncovered-particle-honored-nobel.html General Physics Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:00:01 EDT news710159048