Missions, planets, the cosmos
Curved arcs of light around XLSSC 122, some 10.4 billion light-years away, confirm strong gravitational lensing for the first time. The cluster's dense core is hard to square with models predicting slower growth at that stage of cosmic history.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Halzen the 2026 prize for his decisive role in building IceCube, a cubic kilometre of South Pole ice lined with light sensors that detects high-energy neutrinos from deep space. Halzen first proposed the idea in 1988, and it took until 2013 for the observatory to confirm its first astrophysical neutrinos.
The agency has issued a 360-page request for proposals, its third change of approach this year. It plans to select at least two contractors, with a final decision intended for April.
Rare charged oxygen and carbon particles inside the structure carried a 'smoking gun' fingerprint of their origin. The find adds to efforts to understand space weather that can disrupt GPS, satellite communications and electrical grids.
The 124-metre rocket hit 26,300 kilometres per hour and an altitude of 277 kilometres, carrying 26 advanced Starlink satellites. The milestone comes ahead of NASA's Artemis III lunar mission, expected as soon as next summer.
A new study finds that collisions reshape subsurface oceans on icy moons rather than creating them. Size is decisive: larger moons gain heat that can sustain an ocean for up to two billion years, while smaller ones may lose the insulating layer that keeps water liquid.
Elias 2-24 b is still embedded in the gas and dust around its host star, actively gathering material. The discovery challenges models that say a Jupiter-sized planet takes at least 5 million years to form.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launched in August 2026 with a 10-year fuel budget. A highly accurate first thruster burn and a lighter-than-expected launch mass each added years to the estimate, though two more manoeuvres could yet change it.
McGetchin crater on the Moon is 728 feet wide and formed in spring 2024, when an asteroid or comet the size of a small building struck the surface. Events on this scale are estimated to occur only once every 132 years.
Analysis of hills and ridges mapped by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft puts Mercury's total contraction 10 to 30 percent higher than earlier estimates. The findings suggest the planet's surface has compressed significantly as it cooled over 4.5 billion years.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope reached orbit ten minutes after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 30 August 2026. Scientists say it is built to tackle some of the universe's biggest unsolved questions.
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope lifted off from Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy on Sunday, beginning a five-year mission. It will probe dark energy and dark matter, survey planetary systems across the galaxy, and test equipment that could one day detect worlds like our own.
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