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Remembering Comet Hale-Bopp

Stuart Atkinson — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Today, most comets are found by robots. Wherever you are reading this, whatever time of the day or night it is, the unblinking electronic eyes of automated surveys like ATLAS or Pan-STARRS will be staring into the sky, seeking out these fascinating icy nomads. But legend tells of a time long ago, back in theContinue reading "Remembering Comet Hale-Bopp"

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Can Mars’ ice confirm past life?

Michael E. Bakich — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:11:54 +0000

In a recent study, a team of researchers from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Penn State suggested that future missions to Mars search for microbes or their remains in that planet’s ice, rather than in its rocks, clay, or soil. In a lab, the team recreated conditions that exist in the permafrost and iceContinue reading "Can Mars’ ice confirm past life?"

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Moonquakes are the primary trigger for lunar landslides, study finds

Brooks Mendenhall — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 14:31:26 +0000

The Moon may seem like a lifeless, unchanging world, but new research reveals it’s more geologically active than previously understood. A team of Chinese scientists has identified 41 new landslides on the lunar surface that formed since 2009, concluding they were most likely triggered by seismic activity. This discovery has significant implications for our understandingContinue reading "Moonquakes are the primary trigger for lunar landslides, study finds"

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Mars’ ice has been disappearing

Michael E. Bakich — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:55:32 +0000

One of the big questions about Mars is how wet was it in the past, and why is it so dry today? A new study published online September 2, 2025, in the journal Geology, examined a number of martian craters. Scientists were looking for past ice deposits, which act like archives where the planet’s geological history can be studied. TheyContinue reading "Mars’ ice has been disappearing"

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A thousand martian dust devils help chart the Red Planet’s winds

Brooks Mendenhall — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:09:20 +0000

For two decades, images from European spacecraft have captured bits of unremarkable digital noise as they photograph Mars. Now, scientists have turned that noise into a breakthrough, cataloging 1,039 martian dust devils to create the first global map of the Red Planet’s surface winds. The new study, published Oct. 8 in Science Advances, details howContinue reading "A thousand martian dust devils help chart the Red Planet’s winds"

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Biosphere 2’s latest mission: Learning how life first emerged on Earth – and how to make barren worlds habitable

Brooks Mendenhall — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 19:31:58 +0000

From a distance, Biosphere 2 emerges from the cacti and creosote of the Sonoran desert like a gleaming oasis, a colony of glass and bright white structures. Despite being just outside Tucson, Arizona, it looks almost like a colony on another planet. When one of the facility’s 100,000 annual visitors steps inside, they see a whole worldContinue reading "Biosphere 2’s latest mission: Learning how life first emerged on Earth – and how to make barren worlds habitable"

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The wind-driven future of Mars exploration

Brooks Mendenhall — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 17:44:17 +0000

What does the next generation of martian exploration look like? The answer, quite literally, is blowing in the wind. The Tumbleweed Mars rover, a spherical robot designed to roll across the martian surface, driven by the martian wind, has passed crucial technical tests, validating its potential for low-cost, large-scale exploration. The concept, developed by TeamContinue reading "The wind-driven future of Mars exploration"

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Why NASA is targeting the Moon’s south pole for Artemis

Michael Carroll — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:00:00 +0000

In 1848, James Marshall was building a lumber mill in northern California for his employer, John Sutter. One January morning, Marshall spotted sparkling pebbles within the mill’s outflow; Sutter and Marshall soon realized they had found gold in “them thar hills.” The chance discovery sparked the California Gold Rush, with treasure-seeking scouts streaming to theContinue reading "Why NASA is targeting the Moon’s south pole for Artemis"

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Organic molecules in Saturn’s rings originated from liquid water, scientists confirm

Brooks Mendenhall — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:45:28 +0000

A new analysis of archival data from the Cassini spacecraft has confirmed that the icy jets shooting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus contain organic molecules — the key building blocks of life. This microscopic ice, sampled directly from a crack in the moon’s surface, strengthens the case that Enceladus’s hidden ocean is potentially habitable. Scientists haveContinue reading "Organic molecules in Saturn’s rings originated from liquid water, scientists confirm"

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Could asteroids near Venus pose a threat to Earth?

Michael E. Bakich — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 14:22:10 +0000

A possible threat to life on Earth has been identified by researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil: asteroids that share Venus’s orbit but which currently can’t be detected. These objects haven’t been observed, but researchers want to expand the search for them. They say that some could strike Earth within a few thousand years. “Our study showsContinue reading "Could asteroids near Venus pose a threat to Earth?"

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