Space Exploration

Astronomers have identified massive rings of plasma around young M dwarf stars that function as built-in monitors for stellar space weather. These structures, presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting, could help assess conditions for habitable planets orbiting these common stars. The findings come from research by Carnegie's Luke Bouma and Moira Jardine of the University of St Andrews.

March 27, 2026 በAI የተዘገበ

Scientists have found that localized dust storms on Mars can drive water vapor into the upper atmosphere, where it breaks apart and escapes into space. The discovery, based on observations from multiple Mars orbiters, challenges prior assumptions about when and how the planet loses water. Researchers link the effect to an intense regional storm during the Northern Hemisphere summer.

US company ExLabs announced that its ApophisExL mothership passed a key review ahead of a 2028 launch to rendezvous with asteroid Apophis. The spacecraft will deploy two landers as part of multiple missions studying the asteroid during its close pass by Earth on 13 April 2029. Apophis, 400 metres across, will come within 32,000 kilometres, visible to the naked eye.

March 19, 2026 በAI የተዘገበ

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has observed an unusually thick haze on the exoplanet Kepler-51d, obscuring its atmospheric composition. This super-puff planet, part of a rare low-density system around the star Kepler-51, challenges standard models of planetary formation. The findings, led by Penn State researchers, were published on March 16 in the Astronomical Journal.