https://phys.org/space-news/ en-us The latest science news on astronomy, astrobiology, and space exploration from Phys.org. SpaceX's blockbuster IPO filing included some out-of-this-world details, including a provision that founder Elon Musk's massive bonus only kicks in if one million humans settle on Mars. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-musk-spacex-bonus-unique-condition.html Space Exploration Thu, 21 May 2026 14:05:13 EDT news698591039 Sand clouds form every morning but clear up by nightfall on WASP-94A b, a well-studied gas giant in a constellation located nearly 700 light years away from Earth. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), research published in the journal Science is among the first to detect cloud cycles on a Hot Jupiter exoplanet. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-de-fog-exoplanet-atmospheres.html Astronomy Thu, 21 May 2026 14:00:09 EDT news698571001 In his 1964 paper, "Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations," famed astrophysicist and radio astronomer Nikolai Kardashev addressed the types of transmissions (and at what energies) astronomers should search for in their Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). As part of his analysis, Kardashev proposed a universal scale for classifying the technological advancement of civilizations based on their overall energy consumption. The resulting Kardashev Scale (as it came to be known) came down to three categories. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-kardashev-conundrum-bitcoin-metric.html Astrobiology Thu, 21 May 2026 12:20:02 EDT news698582862 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 A planet that is about the size of Saturn, but with a temperature more like Earth's, has an atmosphere rich in methane, according to a new study using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). https://phys.org/news/2026-05-saturn-sized-exoplanet-earth-temperature.html Astronomy Thu, 21 May 2026 11:20:01 EDT news698577061 Suppose there are signs of extraterrestrial life and we have not yet been able to detect them. What does that mean? In Nature Astronomy, researchers discuss the consequences of these so-called false-negative results. "We are currently investing a great deal of money in missions that might need to be designed differently." https://phys.org/news/2026-05-extraterrestrial-life-space-missions-astrobiologists.html Astrobiology Thu, 21 May 2026 11:00:17 EDT news698570821 It's a truism among oceanographers that there is more accurate mapping of the surface of the moon and Mars than of the deep-ocean floor. That's especially true for the Bismarck Sea, a relatively deep body of water north of Papua New Guinea. It's an ocean basin with a geologically complex seafloor rife with faults, volcanic features, rifts, scarps, and active subduction and spreading zones at depths that make high-resolution sonar mapping challenging. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-eruption-bismarck-sea.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 21 May 2026 08:00:01 EDT news698568002 Astronomers have identified a possible new member of one of astronomy's strangest classes of objects: Odd radio circles (ORCs), enormous ring-like structures visible only at radio wavelengths. The newly discovered source, J1248+4826, appears to be the most compact ORC candidate identified so far, with a ring only about 30,000 parsecs across. The paper was posted to the arXiv preprint server on May 6. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-tiniest-odd-radio-circle.html Astronomy Thu, 21 May 2026 07:20:04 EDT news698506438 Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with the lofty goal of ferrying humans to Mars and colonizing Earth's neighboring planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-sprawling-company-stars-mars.html Space Exploration Thu, 21 May 2026 07:10:01 EDT news698556075 Elon Musk announced plans Wednesday for one of the biggest stock sales ever by taking public a space company that is currently losing billions of dollars a year. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-reveals-biggest.html Space Exploration Thu, 21 May 2026 04:50:01 EDT news698556038 Hundreds of companies raised a combined $70 billion by selling shares to the public in the United States last year. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex.html Space Exploration Thu, 21 May 2026 04:20:02 EDT news698555932 Elon Musk's SpaceX is set for the debut launch of its latest Starship iteration on Thursday, testing the most powerful version yet of the megarocket as the company targets a blockbuster initial public offering. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-starship-ipo.html Space Exploration Thu, 21 May 2026 04:19:02 EDT news698555875 Neptune's far-flung moon Nereid may be the last of the planet's original companions that managed to survive a cosmic crash, scientists reported Wednesday. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-neptune-mysterious-moon-nereid-survivor.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 20 May 2026 15:55:54 EDT news698511286 A team of scientists has recorded one of the most detailed views ever of a failed solar eruption, a powerful blast from the sun that never broke free. Their work is published in the journal Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-uncover-solar-eruptions-die.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 20 May 2026 13:26:36 EDT news698502364 LSU researchers helped uncover what may be the first clear detection of gamma rays from a superluminous supernova, using data from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope—a breakthrough that offers new insight into the powerful magnetars believed to drive some of the universe's brightest stellar explosions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nasa-fermi-glimpses-power-source.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 13:00:07 EDT news698496602 On a special night, if you are lucky, you might catch a faint red glow quietly lighting up Japan's sky, stretching low along the horizon and easy to miss if you are not looking carefully. Subtle and diffuse, it probably appears as a soft crimson haze. But behind this glowing beauty are countless charged particles traveling from the sun toward Earth's magnetic field, which then collide with oxygen atoms high above our planet. At these great heights, where the air is extremely thin, the excited oxygen atoms then release their energy as dim red light, creating the auroras we see from the ground. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-space-storms-japan-sky-red.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 11:40:07 EDT news698494681 A discovery by a South Korean research team suggests that impact-generated lakes may have fostered early oxygen-producing life. A team of South Korean scientists has uncovered new evidence that could help explain how Earth's atmosphere became rich in oxygen, one of the most transformative events in the planet's history. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-asteroid-impact-site-reveals-early.html Astrobiology Wed, 20 May 2026 10:20:05 EDT news698490421 The Haystack 37m Telescope has been a landmark in radio astronomy and radar studies of the solar system since its first light in 1964. Over the following four decades, it supported NASA's Apollo landings on the moon, made planetary radar maps of the surface of Venus, contributed to experimental tests of Einstein's general relativity, supported the development of VLBI, and conducted foundational studies of quasars and star-forming regions. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-years-legendary-telescope-black-holes.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 10:00:01 EDT news698489714 One of the most puzzling findings from the JWST's observations of the early universe is the size of black holes. According to our understanding of black hole growth, these early black holes are far more massive than expected. Astronomers expected the unexpected from JWST, and it has delivered. Now the challenge is to update models of the universe to include these new observations. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-explanation-massive-black-holes-jwst.html Astronomy Wed, 20 May 2026 09:20:11 EDT news698486701 Captured by the multispectral imager instrument on NASA's Psyche mission, this is an enhanced-color view of the large double-ring crater Huygens (upper right; about 290 miles, or 470 kilometers, in diameter) and the surrounding heavily cratered southern highlands near 15 degrees south latitude. The various colors in this dramatic scene are likely due to differences in the compositional properties of dust, sand, and bedrock in this ancient terrain. The image scale is around 2,200 feet (670 meters) per pixel. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-image-nasa-psyche-mission-captures.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 May 2026 09:00:05 EDT news698482682 SpaceX seems to have mistaken shooting for the moon with shooting at the moon. Forecast to occur on Aug. 5, a five-story-long piece of a rocket from one of the private space exploration company's recent lunar missions is expected to hit the moon at around 5,400 miles per hour, around 24 times the speed of a Formula 1 racecar. As it currently stands, projections put the rocket's crash course with the moon at 2:44 a.m. Eastern Time. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-rocket-moon-space-private.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 May 2026 08:40:01 EDT news698479668 This view of a crescent Mars was captured on May 15, 2026, at about 5:03 a.m. PDT by NASA's Psyche mission as it approached the planet for a gravity assist. Captured by the spacecraft's multispectral imager instrument, this was the last view of the whole planet before it began to overfill the field of view of the camera. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-image-nasa-psyche-mission-images.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 May 2026 08:20:03 EDT news698479382 This view of the Martian surface, captured by NASA's Psyche spacecraft on May 15, 2026, shows streaks that have formed due to wind blowing over impact craters in the Syrtis Major region. The image scale is nearly 1,200 feet (360 meters) per pixel. The wind streaks extend to about 30 miles (50 kilometers) long, and the large craters near the center-bottom of the scene average about 30 miles in diameter. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-image-nasa-psyche-mission-spies.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 May 2026 08:00:03 EDT news698479321 If humans one day settle Mars, they will need tools and parts to build structures on the planet. Carrying heavy, bulky supplies 34 million miles from Earth would be impractical. A better plan, says Zane Mebruer, a recent graduate of the U of A, would be 3D printing items on the Red Planet. His new research, completed while he was an honors undergraduate in mechanical engineering at the U of A, suggests it may be possible. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-future-mars-settlers-tools.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 May 2026 07:20:03 EDT news698479794 Elon Musk wants to take SpaceX public—and he's asking investors to believe the rocket and AI company is worth almost $1.75 trillion. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-spacex-ipo-moonshot-doubters-wall.html Space Exploration Wed, 20 May 2026 05:40:01 EDT news698472923 A new European-led telescope could map the dusty, hidden half of the universe, all without using fossil fuels. If you have ever seen the Milky Way in the night sky, you probably noticed that it looks cloudy. That is because towards the center of our galaxy, and of most galaxies, there are vast amounts of dust that make it hard to see what is going on. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-atlast-telescope-reveal-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 19 May 2026 13:40:03 EDT news698411764 Some animals can move efficiently beneath granular surfaces. These include the sandfish (Scincus scincus), a lizard native to the Sahara. It can burrow into the sand and then literally "swim" through the desert sand to hunt or escape predators. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mars-rovers-sand.html Space Exploration Tue, 19 May 2026 12:20:14 EDT news698405804 As space missions travel farther from Earth, spacecraft must increasingly be able to process and store their own data. Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) could be the primary tool for handling this growing volume of information. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nand-storage-deep-space-missions.html Space Exploration Tue, 19 May 2026 12:20:01 EDT news698408281 German defense tech start-up Helsing and space technology group OHB on Tuesday unveiled a joint venture to develop an AI-powered surveillance and targeting system for use in outer space. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-german-firms-space-surveillance.html Space Exploration Tue, 19 May 2026 10:20:03 EDT news698401781 Using the MeerKAT radio telescope, an international team of astronomers has discovered 15 new millisecond pulsars in 47 Tucanae—one of the closest and best studied globular clusters. The finding is reported in the latest issue of Astronomy & Astrophysics. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-meerkat-millisecond-pulsars-globular-cluster.html Astronomy Tue, 19 May 2026 09:40:04 EDT news698381494