Category Archives: Phys.org

An astronomer at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is using data from the Canada–France–Hawaiʻi Telescope (CFHT) on Maunakea to help reconstruct a slow-motion cosmic collision, one that has been unfolding for hundreds of millions of years. A new study from principal investigator R. Pierre Martin, a professor of astronomy at UH Hilo, and international researchers such as Ph.D. student Camille Poitras and colleagues at Université Laval in Québec, Canada, simulates the past, present, and future of two spiral galaxies, NGC 2207 and IC 2163.

Gravitational waves could be responsible for the production of dark matter during the early phases of our universe’s formation, according to results of a new study by Professor Joachim Kopp from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the PRISMA Cluster of Excellence in cooperation with Dr. Azadeh Maleknejad from Swansea University. Their work, published in Physical Review Letters, presents new calculations that explore a novel mechanism for the formation of dark matter through so-called stochastic gravitational waves.

Astrophiles are eagerly awaiting the launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Artemis II on Wednesday, which is set to be the most powerful rocket launch on record and will send human beings back toward the moon for the first time in over 50 years.

The Artemis II mission launches this week as a first step toward returning to the moon and reaching Mars. Materials scientist Debbie Senesky explains the material tech that makes these missions possible.

The Artemis II mission, scheduled to launch on Wednesday, will send four astronauts on a 10-day journey from Earth around the moon—the first time humans will travel that far into space since 1972. While the crew will not land on the moon, the mission marks a major step toward returning people to the lunar surface.

NASA begun fueling its moon rocket Wednesday for humanity’s first lunar trip in more than half a century, aiming for an evening liftoff with four astronauts.

Historical observations from an observatory in Germany have now independently verified evidence for brief, mysterious flashes of light in the night sky, first picked up by an American astronomical survey in the 1950s. Through fresh analysis of a German survey from the same period, independent researcher Ivo Busko, a now-retired developer at NASA, has uncovered striking new support for these puzzling signals. The results have been published as a preprint on arXiv.

On Wednesday three men and one woman are set to embark on the first crewed journey to the moon since 1972, a landmark odyssey that aims to launch the US into a new era of space exploration.

Saturn’s magnetic shield is asymmetrical compared to Earth’s, suggests a new study involving University College London (UCL) researchers, and this is likely a result of its fast rotation coupled with the heavy material it pulls around it.

Jason Heath had ventured with his family from northeastern Maine to the Sunshine State for a vacation—but soon found out they were set to “witness history” with the launch of NASA’s Artemis 2 mission.

After weeks of fuel leaks and other issues, NASA faced a trouble-free countdown Tuesday on the eve of astronauts’ first trip to the moon in more than half a century.

At 13:24:59 Central Standard Time on December 19, 1972, the Apollo 17 command module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, about 350 nautical miles southeast of Samoa, concluding the last mission to the moon.

Eight CubeSats and one payload supported by the European Space Agency (ESA) have reached orbit, where they will demonstrate various applications aimed at improving how data is sent around and processed. Thanks to these demonstrations, practical and—sometimes—even life-saving data enabled from space will move more efficiently and reach the right actors on time in the future.

A Southwest Research Institute-led study found that protons and heavy ions react differently to solar magnetic reconnection events, revealing a more complex magnetic engine powering the solar wind. Magnetic reconnection converts magnetic energy into explosive kinetic energy, powering solar events and causing space weather that impacts Earth. Magnetic reconnection energizes protons and heavy ions, sending them shooting out from the sun at high speeds.

While I was leading a tour of the National Air and Space Museum in January 2026, a visitor posed this insightful question: “Why has it taken so long to return to the moon?”

Meteor impacts may have helped spark life on Earth, creating hot, chemical-rich environments where the first living cells could take shape, according to research integrated by a recent Rutgers University graduate. Shea Cinquemani, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences in May 2025, has published a paper based on research she started during the spring of her senior year.

In the air people breathe, the water on Earth, the stars in the sky and more, atoms are the building blocks that make up the universe. Understanding the structure of the atomic nucleus is crucial for research with implications for astrophysics and in applications such as medical imaging and data storage.

With NASA preparing for the Artemis II launch (expected tomorrow, 1 April), a strong solar flare earlier this week is putting space weather back into focus—and highlighting the unpredictable risks astronauts could face beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Professor Keith Ryden, leader of the Space Environment and Protection research team at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey, has shared new insights into what this flare means for the mission, and why events like this remain difficult to predict.His comment also includes historical context from Visiting Professor at Surrey Space Centre, Clive Dyer, who worked on the Apollo program:

Monash University researchers have captured the exact atomic movements that write data to next-generation memory devices, which could pave the way for smaller, faster and more energy-efficient electronics. Published in Nature Communications, the study was led by Dr. Kousuke Ooe, a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) postdoctoral fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University who is first author of the paper, in collaboration with Australian Laureate Professor Joanne Etheridge and researchers from the Japan Fine Ceramics Center, Kyoto University, and the University of Osaka.

Whenever humans arrive on Mars, they’re going to find it a difficult place to exist. Mars is cold, with an average surface temperature of -55°C; temperatures can plunge to -125°C with dust storms lasting months; its atmosphere is very thin and almost all carbon dioxide; and all the water is frozen and mixed with ice made of CO2. Oh, and solar radiation will be hazardous on Mars’ surface since the planet has no ozone layer to block ultraviolet radiation, especially so during solar flares. Disneyland it is not.