Space News & Blog Articles

The hunt for habitable worlds has become a hot topic in astronomy. For decades, the search has been focussed on planets in the "Goldilocks zone”; that narrow band around a star where water stays liquid, not too hot to boil away, not too cold to freeze solid. But habitability is far more complex and ruthless than just getting the temperature right. A world needs a protective magnetic field to shield life from radiation, a stable atmosphere thick enough to regulate climate but not so dense it crushes everything beneath it, and the right cocktail of elements forged in the nuclear furnaces of dying stars.

Just when astronomers think they're starting to understand stellar activity, something strange grabs their attention. That's the case with a newly discovered stellar object called ASKAP J1832-0911. It lies about 15,000 light-years from Earth and belongs to a class of stellar objects called "long-period radio transients." That means it emits radio waves that vary in their intensity on a schedule of only 44 minutes per cycle. It does the same thing in X-ray intensities, which is the first time anybody's seen such a thing coupled with long-period radio transits.

You'd think that icy worlds are frozen in time and space because they're - well - icy. However, planetary scientists know that all worlds can and do change, no matter how long it takes. That's true for Europa, one of Jupiter's four largest moons. Recent observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) zero in on the Europan surface ices and show they're constantly changing.

For years, the commercial space sector has been abuzz about the prospect of satellite "super constellations" in Earth's orbit. These satellites would provide everything from communications and navigation to broadband internet services. Meanwhile, developments in small satellites (aka. CubeSats) and rideshare programs have made space more accessible to research institutes, universities, and organizations. With so many satellites in orbit, many are concerned about the impact this could have on space debris and astronomy.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), launched by NASA in 2005, is orbiting Mars tasked with studying its atmosphere, surface, and subsurface in unprecedented detail. Equipped with a suite of advanced instruments—including high-resolution cameras, spectrometers, and the SHAllow RADar (SHARAD) MRO has revolutionised our understanding of Martian geology, climate history, and potential water reservoirs beneath the surface. Beyond science, it also plays a vital role in relaying data from other Mars missions back to Earth.

Betelgeuse is one of the most well known stars in the night sky. Located about 640 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion, it's a red supergiant nearing the end of its life, destined to explode as a supernova. It’s now over 700 times the size of the Sun and has captivated astronomers with its unpredictable brightness. In late 2019, it dimmed dramatically, sparking speculation that it might be on the verge of exploding. While that event turned out to be a massive dust cloud temporarily blocking its light, it highlighted how volatile this dying star truly is.

Exoplanet science is shifting from finding any detectable exoplanets we can to searching for those in their stars' habitable zones. NASA's proposed Habitable World Observatory and other similar efforts are focused on these worlds. The problem is, habitable zones aren't static.

We've been gazing at the Moon for a long time, yet it's still mysterious. We've sent numerous orbiters and landers to our satellite, and even brought some of it back to our labs. Those rocks only presented more mysteries, in some ways. Lunar rocks are magnetic, yet the Moon doesn't have a magnetosphere. How did this happen?

Just because we can find ozone in the atmosphere of other planets doesn't mean there's life. Ozone is a sign of life on Earth, but its detection on Venus shows that it can also be produced abiotically. This indicates that there are different pathways for its creation, not only on Venus but also on other Venus-like exoplanets.

What happens when you see something that just doesn’t make sense? Perhaps you rub your eyes and consider it an anomaly. But what if you see it in an experiment? Say, travelling electrons that make different patterns depending upon whether they were detected? Then, you might want to change your sense of reality. Now, if you can develop a theory for the observations, then maybe you can start a new field of science. It has happened. Quantum mechanics is the name given to this relatively new field and it’s the topic that Sean Carroll writes in his book, “The Biggest Ideas in the Universe – Quanta and Fields”. In his book, there’s much ado about particles, fields, groups and diagrams; all with the aim of enabling any reader to make sense of it.

Asteroids are the ancient remnants of our Solar System's birth, rocky fragments that never formed into planets. Most of these celestial wanderers inhabit the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where Jupiter's immense gravitational influence prevented them from assembling into a single world. Ranging from house-sized boulders to Ceres, a dwarf planet nearly 1,000 kilometres across, asteroids preserve pristine records of the early Solar System's composition and conditions.

Lunar exploration is entering a new era. Long after the Apollo missions, a renewed international interest comes with ambitious plans for a long-term presence on the Moon. NASA’s Artemis program is leading efforts to return humans to the lunar surface, with Artemis III aiming to land astronauts near the Moon’s South Pole as early as 2026. Meanwhile, countries like China and India have successfully conducted robotic missions, including landings and sample returns, while private companies are increasingly involved through partnerships and commercial lander missions. The focus has shifted from short visits to sustainable exploration, with goals that include building lunar habitats, developing on-site resource utilisation, and establishing infrastructure to support future crewed missions to Mars.

For centuries, astronomers have sought to understand the formation and evolution of the Solar System and the dynamics that govern it. In particular, there is the long-standing question of whether or not the planets' orbits will remain stable over time. However, these studies have generally treated the Solar System as an isolated system, focusing solely on the gravitational interactions between the planets. This is in spite of the fact that astronomers have known for some time that stars in the Milky Way make close passes to each other every so often.

Early June sees the Moon occupy a unique position at dusk.