Moon News

June 25, 2025

Top Headlines

Why Are Some Rocks on the Moon Highly Magnetic?

May 23, 2025 — Scientists may have solved the mystery of why the moon shows ancient signs of magnetism although it has no magnetic field today. An impact, such as from a large asteroid, could have generated a cloud of ionized particles that briefly enveloped the ...

Volcanic History and Clues to Ancient Life on Mars

Apr. 25, 2025 — Researchers use the sophisticated technology on NASA's Perseverance rover to analyze volcanic rocks in Mars' Jezero Crater. Their findings show that some of the same volcanic processes that led to life on Earth happened long ago on Mars, a stunning ...

Innovative Approaches Advance Search for Ice on the Moon

Apr. 23, 2025 — Scientists and space explorers have been on the hunt to determine where and how much ice is present on the Moon. Water ice would be an important resource at a future lunar base, as it could be used to support humans or be broken down to hydrogen and ...

Lunar Trailblazer Blasts Off to Map Water on the Moon

Feb. 28, 2025 — On Wednesday 26 February, a thermal imaging camera blasted off to the Moon as part of NASA's Lunar Trailblazer mission. This aims to map sources of water on the Moon to shed light on the lunar water cycle and to guide future robotic and human ...

Follow the Water: Searching for a Lunar Oasis

Jan. 28, 2025 — As humankind imagines living off-planet -- on the moon, Mars and beyond -- the question of how to sustain life revolves around the physical necessities of oxygen, food and water. We know there is water on the moon, but how do we find it? Researchers ...

A Sustainable Development Goal for Space?

Jan. 11, 2025 — An international team of scientists has called for the creation of an 18th addition to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which would aim to mitigate against the accumulation of space junk in Earth's orbit. They believe a new SDG18 ...

ESA and NASA Satellites Deliver First Joint Picture of Greenland Ice Sheet Melting

Dec. 20, 2024 — Scientists have delivered the first measurements of Greenland Ice Sheet thickness change using data from ESA and NASA ice satellite missions. With global warming causing the Greenland Ice Sheet to ...

A 'Remelting' of Lunar Surface Adds a Wrinkle to Mystery of Moon's True Age

Dec. 18, 2024 — Scientists propose a 'remelting' of the Moon's surface 4.35 billion years ago due to the tidal pull of Earth causing widespread geological upheaval and intense ...

Swirling Polar Vortices Likely Exist on the Sun

Nov. 11, 2024 — Like the Earth, the Sun likely has swirling polar vortices, according to new research. But unlike on Earth, the formation and evolution of these vortices are driven by magnetic ...

Laser Measurements to Track Space Debris and Observe Water Masses

Nov. 3, 2024 — More accurate orbit predictions for satellites and space debris as well as a better understanding of the water masses present on Earth: Researchers at achieved both using satellite laser ...

Liftoff! NASA's Europa Clipper Sails Toward Ocean Moon of Jupiter

Oct. 14, 2024 — NASA's Europa Clipper has embarked on its long voyage to Jupiter, where it will investigate Europa, a moon with an enormous subsurface ocean that may have conditions to support life. The largest spacecraft NASA ever built for a mission headed to ...

Widespread Ice Deposits on the Moon

Oct. 3, 2024 — Deposits of ice in lunar dust and rock (regolith) are more extensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) mission. Ice would be a valuable resource for future lunar expeditions. ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:26pm EDT

Magnetic Mayhem at the Sun’s Poles: First Images Reveal a Fiery Mystery

June 16, 2025 — For the first time in history, we re seeing the Sun from an angle no one ever has: from above and below its poles. Thanks to the European Space Agency s Solar Orbiter and its tilted orbit, scientists ...

Out-of-This-World Simulation Key to Collecting Moon Dust

Oct. 16, 2024 — Teleoperated robots for gathering moon dust are a step closer, according to new ...

Study Coordinates Satellite Swarm for 3D Imaging Inside Clouds

Oct. 2, 2024 — A new program has simulated multiple satellites, collecting images of a cloud from many angles at the same time, which could help us to better understand what's happening inside the ...

How Special Is the Milky Way Galaxy?

Sep. 25, 2024 — The SAGA Survey just published three new research articles that provide us with new insights into the uniqueness of our own Milky Way Galaxy after completing the census of 101 satellite systems ...

Simple Shift Could Make Low Earth Orbit Satellites High Capacity

Sep. 13, 2024 — Researchers have invented a technique that enables low Earth orbit satellite antennas to manage signals for multiple users at once, slashing costs and simplifying designs for communication ...

Hidden Magmatism Discovered at the Chang'e-6 Lunar Landing Site

Aug. 27, 2024 — Lunar igneous activities including intrusive and extrusive magmatism, and their products contain significant information about the lunar interior and its thermal state. Their distribution is ...

Engineers Conduct First in-Orbit Test of 'Swarm' Satellite Autonomous Navigation

Aug. 14, 2024 — With 2D cameras and space robotics algorithms, astronautics engineers have created a navigation system able to manage multiple satellites using ...

Rocks Collected on Mars Hold Key to Water and Perhaps Life on the Planet: Bring Them Back to Earth

Aug. 14, 2024 — Between July and November of 2022, NASA's Perseverance rover collected seven samples of sediment from an ancient alluvial fan in Jezero crater. While ...

Scientists Pin Down the Origins of the Moon's Tenuous Atmosphere

Aug. 2, 2024 — Scientists say they have identified the main process that formed the moon's atmosphere and continues to sustain it today. The team reports that the lunar atmosphere is primarily a product of 'impact ...

Astronomers Spot a 'Highly Eccentric' Planet on Its Way to Becoming a Hot Jupiter

July 17, 2024 — The newly discovered planet TIC 241249530 b has the most highly elliptical, or eccentric, orbit of any known planet. It appears to be a juvenile ...

Moon 'Swirls' Could Be Magnetized by Unseen Magmas

July 3, 2024 — Mysterious, light-colored swirls on Moon's surface could be rocks magnetized by magma activity underground, laboratory experiments ...

Geologists Expect Chang'e-6 Lunar Surface Samples to Contain Volcanic Rock and Impact Ejecta

June 24, 2024 — On June 25, China's Chang'e-6 (CE-6) lunar probe is set to return to Earth, carrying the first surface samples collected from the farside of the Moon. In anticipation of this historic ...

In New Experiment, Scientists Record Earth's Radio Waves from the Moon

June 10, 2024 — Odysseus, a tenacious lander built by the company Intuitive Machines, almost didn't make it to the moon. But an experiment aboard the spacecraft managed to capture an image of Earth as it might ...

New Technique Offers More Precise Maps of the Moon's Surface

May 29, 2024 — A new study may help redefine how scientists map the surface of the Moon, making the process more streamlined and precise than ever ...

Robotic 'SuperLimbs' Could Help Moonwalkers Recover from Falls

May 15, 2024 — SuperLimbs, a system of wearable robotic limbs, can physically support an astronaut and lift them back on their feet after a fall, helping them conserve energy for other essential ...

New Discoveries About Jupiter's Magnetosphere

May 6, 2024 — New discoveries about Jupiter could lead to a better understanding of Earth's own space environment and influence a long-running scientific debate about the solar system's largest ...

How the Moon Turned Itself Inside out

Apr. 8, 2024 — Linking analyses of the moon's gravity field with models of its earliest evolution, scientists tell a story of the moon turning itself inside out after it solidified from a primordial magma ...

Study Determines the Original Orientations of Rocks Drilled on Mars

Mar. 4, 2024 — Geologists determined the original orientation of many of the Mars bedrock samples collected by the Perseverance rover. The findings can give scientists clues to the conditions in which the rocks ...

Could Fiber Optic Cable Help Scientists Probe the Deep Layers of the Moon?

Feb. 29, 2024 — An increasing number of seismologists are using fiber optic cables to detect seismic waves on Earth -- but how would this technology fare on the Moon, and what would it tell us about the deep layers ...

Three Years Later, Search for Life on Mars Continues

Feb. 22, 2024 — Scientists suspect Mars once had long-lived rivers, lakes and streams. Today, water on Mars is found in ice at the poles and trapped below the Martian surface. Researchers now reveal that Mars also ...

Understanding the Moon's History With Chang'e-5 Sample

Feb. 6, 2024 — China's Chang'e-5, the first lunar sample return mission since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, delivered 1.73 kilograms of regolith from the Oceanus Procellarum, a plane named for ...

Moon Rocks With Unique Dust Found

Jan. 18, 2024 — A research team has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties -- such as magnetic anomalies. ...

Discovery Changes Understanding of Water's History on the Moon

Jan. 16, 2024 — New research shows the early lunar crust which makes up the surface of the Moon was considerably enriched in water more than 4 billion years ago, counter to previously held ...

Research Sheds New Light on Moon Rock Formation Solving Major Puzzle in Lunar Geology

Jan. 15, 2024 — New research has cracked a vital process in the creation of a unique rock type from the Moon. The discovery explains its signature composition and very presence on the lunar surface at all, ...

Scholars Say It's Time to Declare a New Epoch on the Moon, the 'Lunar Anthropocene'

Dec. 8, 2023 — According to anthropologists and geologists, it's time to acknowledge humans have become the dominant force shaping the moon's environment by declaring a new geological epoch for the moon: ...

Studies of Geologic Faulting on Icy Moons Aid Exploration of Extraterrestrial Watery Worlds

Nov. 6, 2023 — Earth and space scientists document and reveal the mechanisms behind strike-slip faulting on the largest moon of Saturn, Titan, and Jupiter's largest moon, ...

Source of Largest Ever Mars Quake Revealed

Oct. 17, 2023 — Scientists have announced the results of an unprecedented collaboration to search for the source of the largest ever seismic event recorded on Mars. The study rules out a meteorite impact, suggesting ...

Removal of Magnetic Spacecraft Contamination Within Extraterrestrial Samples Easily Carried Out, Researchers Say

Oct. 11, 2023 — By demonstrating that spaceflight doesn’t adversely affect the magnetism of moon rocks, researchers underscore the exciting potential of studying the magnetic histories stored in these ...

Study Quantifies Satellite Brightness, Challenges Ground-Based Astronomy

Oct. 3, 2023 — The ability to have access to the Internet or use a mobile phone anywhere in the world is taken more and more for granted, but the brightness of Internet and telecommunications satellites that enable ...

Electrons from Earth May Be Forming Water on the Moon

Sep. 14, 2023 — Planetary scientists have discovered that high energy electrons in Earth's plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon's surface and, importantly, the electrons may ...