Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
Jarosite, a sulfate mineral widely detected on Mars, records interaction between acidic, oxidizing waters and the planet's surface rocks, but the halogen chemistry of those fluids has been difficult to reconstruct. New experimental work examines how bromine and chlorine enter jarosite under Mars-like conditions, using them as tracers of fluid evolution and environmental conditions. Researc

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
Researchers from China, Canada, and Japan have established a quantitative method to read the impact histories recorded in enstatite chondrites using micro X ray diffraction measurements. Enstatite chondrites are rare meteorites that formed in highly reducing conditions close to the young Sun and are chemically similar to the material that built Earth, making them key samples for reconstructing e

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 12, 2025
NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has released detailed plans for a major survey that will reveal our home galaxy, the Milky Way, in unprecedented detail. In one month of observations spread across two years, the survey will unveil tens of billions of stars and explore previously uncharted structures. "The Galactic Plane Survey will revolutionize our understanding of the Milky

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
Images captured by NASA's Parker Solar Probe as the spacecraft made its record-breaking closest approach to the Sun in December 2024 have now revealed new details about how solar magnetic fields responsible for space weather escape from the Sun - and how sometimes they don't. Like a toddler, our Sun occasionally has disruptive outbursts. But instead of throwing a fit, the Sun spews magneti

Orlando, FL (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
Mission Space will launch its second payload in orbit in partnership with Rogue Space, extending its commercial space weather measurement network. The companies announced the mission during the Spacepower Conference in Orlando. The first Mission Space payload, ZOHAR-I, launched in March 2025 and recently received the 2025 Global Tech Award for advances in high-cadence radiation monitoring

Cambridge, MA (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
Astronomers have assembled the first continuous, two-dimensional maps of the outer edge of the Sun's atmosphere, tracing the boundary where the solar wind escapes the Sun's magnetic control. By combining these global maps with close-up measurements, researchers at the Center for Astrophysicshysics | Harvard and Smithsonian report that this boundary expands and becomes more irregular and spiky as

Sydney, Australia (SPX) Dec 14, 2025
NASA engineers are continuing efforts to restore contact with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter after the spacecraft fell silent during a routine pass behind Mars on December 6 2025. Before the loss of signal, telemetry from MAVEN indicated that the spacecraft and its subsystems were operating within expected parameters as it approached occultation by the planet. A

On 17 December, two Galileo satellites will be launched on an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana in the 14th launch of operational satellites for the Galileo programme. This will be Galileo’s first launch on Ariane 6 and the fifth launch of Europe’s heavy-lift launcher.