Space sciences

Sweet power nanogenerator, Cosmic fossil, Dopamine and Alzheimer's link, Sustainable 3D printing, Quantum dots for brain diseases, Smart trolley and Bamboo and bone. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus SciCom Coffee talk: Inside a University Merger.

Astronomical observations provide new insights into how galaxies formed and grew during the Universe's first billion years

High-pressure experiments show that majorite can store moderate amounts of ferric iron.

NSF VLA and ALMA observations detect enormous cold molecular gas reserves in a distant galaxy seen 13 billion years ago, a study involving Hiroshima University reports.

The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration published today a new catalog of gravitational wave events. A total of 161 events, detected between April 2024 and the end of January 2025, have been added to the collection, bringing the total number of gravitational wave signals detected to date to 390. Among the most significant findings are: evidence for the existence of second-generation black holes, the most precise sky localization ever achieved for a gravitational wave source, and the first measurement of three vibrational modes of a black hole. A wealth of results that marks the coming of age of gravitational astronomy.

An international team led by Associate Professor Kimihiko Nakajima of Kanazawa University has captured a rare look at the early universe. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST *1) and the power of a gravitational lensing (*2) in space, the team achieved a definitive characterization of LAP1-B, an ultra-faint galaxy from 13 billion years ago. Expanding upon initial detections, this new study utilized deep JWST spectroscopy to reveal a record-breaking low oxygen abundance (*3) -- merely 1/240th that of the Sun. This chemically primitive state, coupled with an elevated carbon-to-oxygen ratio and a dominant dark matter halo, suggests that LAP1-B is the long-sought "ancestor" of the mysterious fossil galaxies found near our Milky Way today, providing a historic window into the earliest, most primitive stages of galaxy assembly.

The LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA (LVK) detector network has a new trick up its sleeve to improve the instruments’ sensitivity to gravitational waves: it’s called Astrophysical Calibration and it plays a role similar to auto-tune in music production.

Observations of a distant object beyond Pluto suggest that it is surrounded by a thin atmosphere, potentially fuelled by ice volcanoes or produced by the impact of a comet-like body.

A mysterious layer of particles that occupies the lower regions of Venus’s atmosphere has long puzzled astronomers. However, a research team has finally solved the mystery of the “lower haze,” discovering that the haze comes from cosmic dust left by shooting stars that constantly rain down on Venus.

The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA), in partnership with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and Thailand’s Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), convened the ASEAN Space Situational Awareness (SSA) and Space Traffic Management (STM) Seminar-Workshop on 12-13 March 2026 in Manila.

The complete set of nucleobases found in terrestrial DNA and RNA have been detected in samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu, offering insights into the early Solar System's chemistry.

Observations of the Rimae Bode region on the Moon reveal five distinct types of terrain and identify several potential landing sites for China’s first crewed mission, according to research published in Nature Astronomy.

Kelli canines, Healthy fats in rice, Mercury and Earth in chorus, AI lights up materials discovery, Radiation detection with phones and Down to one. Read all in the latest Editor's Choice. Plus Women's Month 2026.

We may be closer to unravelling the mystery of how the dry, arid Mars used to be covered in water from new research that focuses on an unexpected event (a powerful dust storm) at an unexpected time (Northern Hemisphere summer).

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An international team from Kanazawa University (Japan), Tohoku University (Japan), LPP (France), and partners has demonstrated that chorus emissions, natural electromagnetic waves long studied in Earth’s magnetosphere, also occur in Mercury’s magnetosphere exhibiting similar chirping frequency changes. Using the Plasma Wave Investigation instrument aboard BepiColombo’s Mercury orbiter Mio, six Mercury flybys between 2021 and 2025 detected plasma waves in the audible range. Comparison with decades of GEOTAIL data confirmed identical instantaneous frequency changes. This provides the first reliable evidence of intense electron activity at Mercury, advancing understanding of auroral processes across the solar system.

Over 10 years of monitoring

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Surface-bound gels may have provided the structure and chemistry for life to take root on Earth, and perhaps beyond

Astronomers have uncovered a previously unknown, extreme kind of star factory by taking the temperature of a distant galaxy using the ALMA telescope. The galaxy is glowing intensely in superheated cosmic dust while forming stars 180 times faster than our own Milky Way. The discovery indicates how galaxies could have grown quickly when the universe was very young, solving a long-standing puzzle for astronomers.

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The University of Hong Kong and collaborators from Nanjing University and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) unveiled signal pointing to the birth of a “millisecond magnetar”—a rapidly rotating neutron star with an ultra-strong magnetic field.

Fluids may have flowed within the parent body of the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu more than one billion years after it formed, according to research published in Nature.

Using XRISM, JAXA’s new high-precision X-ray spectroscopic satellite, researchers observed a stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way and detected highly ionized iron absorption lines — clear signatures of hot gas. Remarkably, this detection was achieved at the dimmest X-ray state ever reported for such a system. The results reveal the complex structure and motion of gas around the black hole, offering new insights into the dynamic behavior of black holes.

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A group of researchers have observed images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The images were like a time machine, allowing the researchers to understand how these galaxies built their disks over history and compare this to how our own Milky Way formed.

Serendipitous discovery of djerfisherite in Ryugu grain challenges current paradigm of the nature of primitive asteroids.

Using AI image recognition, deep learning model efficiently and accurately finds structures related to star formation

Tohoku University researchers are looking underfoot to uncover the mysterious past of Mars: Martian regoliths in the soil. Their water storage capabilities may help us understand the change in water on Mars over time.

Asteroid contains life’s building blocks, How fish detect color, Eco-friendly artificial muscles, Cell imaging gets a glow-up, Quantum gem, Healing skin with milkfish. Plus the 2025 Magazine is here, Read all in the latest Editor's Choice.