London, UK (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
A powerful solar wind surge that dramatically compressed Jupiter's magnetic boundary has been recorded for the first time, revealing unexpected heating effects across the gas giant's upper atmosphere. University of Reading researchers uncovered this 2017 event in which a dense solar wind stream slammed into Jupiter, crushing its magnetosphere and generating a superheated zone across half t

Tucson AZ (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
Titan, Saturn's largest moon, is a strange, alien world. Covered in rivers and lakes of liquid methane, icy boulders and dunes of soot-like "sand," its topography has long fascinated scientists and invited speculation on whether lifeforms might lurk beneath the moon's thick, hazy atmosphere. An international team of researchers co-led by Antonin Affholder at the U of A Department of Ecolog

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
Body Text: Researchers at Portland State University have demonstrated that signs of microbial life can be consistently detected across a variety of Earth's most extreme habitats, findings that may shape future extraterrestrial life detection strategies. The team used digital holographic microscopy (DHM) to study samples in situ from remote locations, including deserts, Arctic regions, and alkali

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
What if future planetary surveys yield no evidence of life beyond Earth? A research team led by physicist Dr. Daniel Angerhausen from ETH Zurich's Exoplanets and Habitability Group, working in collaboration with the SETI Institute, has explored this very possibility. Their new study, published in The Astronomical Journal under the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research PlanetS, uses Bay

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
BODY TEXT: What if, after decades of scanning the cosmos with cutting-edge telescopes, we still detect no signs of extraterrestrial life? A new study led by researchers at ETH Zurich, including SETI Institute affiliate Dr. Daniel Angerhausen, explores this possibility and argues that such null results can still offer profound insights. Using Bayesian statistical methods, the researchers aimed to

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a prominent developer of space infrastructure, has entered into a strategic memorandum of understanding with ispace technologies-U.S., inc. (ispace-U.S.), an American company focused on cis-lunar transportation and infrastructure, to jointly pursue commercial lunar exploration and scientific missions. The announcement was made during the 40th Space Symposium.

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has provided critical new data on asteroid 2024 YR4, confirming that this near-Earth object poses no significant risk of impact in 2032 or the foreseeable future. The Webb Director's Discretionary Time program enabled principal investigator Andy Rivkin of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory to gather a comprehensive dataset on the aster

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
Roughly 66 million years ago, a colossal asteroid collided with Earth, triggering the mass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and wiping out approximately 70% of marine species. But new research reveals that the aftermath at ground zero, now the Chicxulub Crater in the Gulf of Mexico, became a surprising haven for life. According to a study published in Nature Communications, the impact

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
This study, led by Dr. XIAN Haiyang and Dr. ZHU Jianxi from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presents groundbreaking findings from the Chang'e-6 lunar mission. On June 25, 2024, Chang'e-6 achieved the first successful return of samples from the Moon's farside. Following earlier contributions to the Chang'e-5 program, Dr. Xian was selected in August 2

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Apr 10, 2025
In a breakthrough experiment, scientists have demonstrated that some species of lichens can survive conditions that mimic those on Mars, including intense ionizing radiation, while continuing to function metabolically. The research, published in IMA Fungus, offers compelling evidence that lichens could potentially endure the extreme surface environment of Mars. This finding challenges long