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Planetary Sciences news
JWST spots methane on a giant exoplanet, but its star may be distorting the signal
Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and elsewhere have observed a giant exoplanet known as HATS-75 b. Results of the new observations, published April 8 on the arXiv ...
Subaru telescope captures comet 3I/ATLAS composition change
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 ...
Planetary Sciences
8 hours ago
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Young stars dim quickly in their X-ray output, potentially benefiting orbiting planets
Scientists have found that young stellar cousins of our sun are calming down and dimming more quickly in their X-ray output than previously thought, according to a new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. A paper ...
Astrobiology
17 hours ago
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Virtual sunspots help AI find rare magnetic matches in vast solar archives
Research led by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has integrated three types of machine learning models to generate solar magnetic patches with physical properties and used those as a query to find matching patches in real ...
Astronomy
18 hours ago
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Webb redefines the dividing line between planets and stars
Planets, like those in our solar system, form in a bottom-up process where small bits of rock and ice clump together and grow larger over time. But the heftier the planet, the harder it is to explain its formation that way.
Astronomy
19 hours ago
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Cosmic dust identified as the source of Venus' enigmatic lower haze
Venus, often called Earth's twin, is in fact a planet of extremes. Beneath its thick carbon dioxide atmosphere are crushing surface temperatures and dense clouds of sulfuric acid. While the planet's main cloud layer sits ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 14, 2026
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Contaminants, including ink, detected in meteorites suggest sample preparation needs improving
The IBeA group of the EHU-University of the Basque Country is proposing new measures to safeguard the purity of extraterrestrial samples. Several contaminants, including traces of ink, originating in the preparation of subsamples, ...
Astrobiology
Apr 14, 2026
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Artemis II crew used modern photography to tell the story of their lunar journey—and update some classic Apollo images
At this point in NASA's human spaceflight story, researchers have a substantial amount of material—documents, artifacts and images—with which to tell the stories of past flights to space. But with NASA's Artemis II mission ...
Space Exploration
Apr 13, 2026
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Is the moon more iron-rich than what we thought?
The moon is Earth's only natural satellite, a rocky celestial body that orbits our planet at an average distance of about 384,000 kilometers. The most widely accepted scientific explanation for the moon's origin is the "giant ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 13, 2026
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First Proba-3 science: Surprisingly speedy solar wind found in inner corona
Since July 2025, the European Space Agency's pair of Proba-3 satellites has already created 57 artificial solar eclipses. So far, the mission has collected more than 250 hours of high-resolution videos of the sun's atmosphere, ...
Astronomy
Apr 13, 2026
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The sun is tearing an asteroid to pieces, and Earth is now flying through the fallout
Across Earth, every night, thousands of automated stargazers are waiting to take pictures of shooting stars. I am one of the scientists who study these meteors.
Planetary Sciences
Apr 13, 2026
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The moon just got a new scar
Look up at a full moon on a clear night and you are staring at a face that has been punched, gouged, and battered for 4 billion years. Those dark patches are vast basins blasted open by impacts so colossal they reshaped a ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 13, 2026
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Between eternal night and day, the faces of two cousins of Earth
An international team including the University of Bern (UNIBE) and the University of Geneva (UNIGE), members of the National Center of Competence in Research PlanetS, has succeeded in mapping the climate of rocky exoplanets ...
Astrobiology
Apr 13, 2026
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JAXA plans to bring back pristine early solar system samples from a comet
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 ...
Space Exploration
Apr 12, 2026
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Scientists spot a solar flare with surprising spectral behavior
On August 19, 2022, solar astronomers using the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on the Hawaiian island of Maui caught the fading remnants of a C-class solar flare. Their observations showed something unusual: very ...
Astronomy
Apr 12, 2026
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Meet Orpheus—A hopper mission built to hunt for life in Martian volcanoes
We've spent decades scratching the surface of Mars trying to uncover life there. But we've been searching a barren wasteland bombarded by radiation and bathed in toxic perchlorates. The entire time, it's likely that it's ...
Astrobiology
Apr 12, 2026
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Chang'e mission samples reveal how exogenous organic matter evolves on the moon
Elements essential to life, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, were "delivered" to Earth and the moon during the early stages of the solar system via asteroids and comets impacting their surfaces. These ...
Astrobiology
Apr 10, 2026
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Subaru Telescope sheds light on Jupiter Trojan asteroids' color mystery
Observations conducted with the Subaru Telescope and its first-generation wide-field camera, Suprime-Cam, have revealed new insights into the relationship between the color and size of Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
Astronomy
Apr 10, 2026
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Artemis II: As humans return to the Moon, which of these 4 futures will we choose?
The four Artemis II astronauts who looped around the moon this week are expected to splash down soon. NASA's grand mission spells a return to human deep-space travel, with renewed interest in building a long-term moon base.
Space Exploration
Apr 10, 2026
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Medieval Japanese poetry and buried trees help elucidate volatile space weather
On Earth, extreme solar activity often appears as beautiful, benign auroras. But venturing beyond the safety of the Earth's magnetic field, one faces the full brunt of a temperamental star that can suddenly erupt with flares ...
Astronomy
Apr 9, 2026
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More news
A Mercury rover could explore the planet by sticking to the Terminator
Water on the moon? New study narrows down the most likely locations
An aerobot with ISRU capabilities could explore Venus' atmosphere for years
The largest survey of exoplanet spins confirms a long-held prediction
Image: NISAR views Mount St. Helens
NASA's water-hunting tool will help scout moon's South Pole
The depths of Neptune and Uranus may be 'superionic'
Webb eyes a pair of planet-forming disks
Earth from space: Eyes on our moon
Early data from Vera C. Rubin Observatory reveals over 11,000 new asteroids
Other news
Sperm whale clicks follow similar rules to human speech
Bottled lightning makes a cleaner fuel
Drought takes a heavy toll on bumblebees
Copper's 'gatekeeper' could unlock cleaner energy future
Saturn's magnetic bubble is lopsided compared to Earth's, suggests new study
Mercury scout mission concept with solar sail propulsion
Could a solar storm derail the Artemis II mission?
Terraforming Mars: Modeling engineered aerosols to warm the planet
