Solar System News

September 9, 2025

Top Headlines

Hit the Wrong Spot and an Asteroid Returns on a Collision Course

Sep. 9, 2025 — Scientists caution that asteroid deflection must be precise, as striking the wrong spot risks sending it through a gravitational keyhole that sets up a future collision with Earth. Using lessons from NASA’s DART mission, researchers are developing ...

A Record-breaking Antenna Just Deployed in Space. Here’s What It Will See

Aug. 18, 2025 — NASA and ISRO s NISAR satellite has just reached a major milestone: the successful deployment of its enormous 39-foot antenna reflector in orbit. Folded up like an umbrella during launch, the reflector is now fully extended and ready to support ...

NASA’s PREFIRE Satellites Reveal a Secret Glow Escaping from Our Planet

Aug. 18, 2025 — With its two tiny CubeSats, NASA’s PREFIRE mission is capturing invisible heat escaping from Earth, offering clues to how ice, clouds, and storms influence the climate system. The insights could lead to better weather forecasts and a deeper ...

NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Just Learned How to Multitask

Aug. 14, 2025 — Thirteen years after landing on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover is running smarter and more efficiently than ever. With new autonomy and multitasking capabilities, it’s maximizing the output from its long-lasting nuclear power source while ...

Trapped by Moon Dust: The Physics Error That Fooled NASA for Years

July 27, 2025 — Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison uncovered a critical flaw in how lunar and Martian rovers are tested on Earth. Simulations revealed that test results have been misleading for decades because researchers only adjusted rover weight to ...

Martian Dust to Dream Homes: How Microbes Can Build on the Red Planet

June 25, 2025 — Imagine printing your Martian home from dust, sunlight, and a bit of biology. A new synthetic lichen system uses fungi and bacteria to grow building materials directly from Martian soil, completely autonomously and without human ...

Millions of New Solar System Objects to Be Found and 'Filmed in Technicolor' -- Studies Predict

June 3, 2025 — Astronomers have revealed new research showing that millions of new solar system objects are likely to be detected by a brand-new facility, which is expected to come online later this ...

Particles Energized by Magnetic Reconnection in the Nascent Solar Wind

June 3, 2025 — Scientists have identified a new source of energetic particles near the Sun. These definitive observations were made by instruments aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe, which detected the powerful phenomena as the spacecraft dipped in and out of the ...

Webb Reveals the Surprising Origin of Ultra-hot Exoplanet WASP-121b

June 2, 2025 — WASP-121b may have been born in a frozen zone and later migrated into its current inferno-like orbit. A surprise discovery of methane in the wrong place suggests intense vertical winds are reshaping how we understand planetary ...

Scientists Discover New Evidence of Intermediate-mass Black Holes

May 30, 2025 — A series of studies sheds light on the origins and characteristics of intermediate-mass black ...

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 ...

Saturn's Moon: Mysterious Wobbling Atmosphere Like a Gyroscope

May 22, 2025 — The puzzling behavior of Titan's atmosphere has been revealed. The team has shown that the thick, hazy atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon doesn't spin in line with its surface, but instead wobbles like a gyroscope, shifting with the ...

Latest Headlines

updated 10:48pm EDT

Enceladus’s Plumes May Be Fooling Us About Life

Sep. 9, 2025 — Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus has long fascinated scientists with its spectacular water plumes, which NASA’s Cassini spacecraft once revealed to contain organic molecules. Many hoped these ...

Planet Birth Photographed for the First Time

Sep. 9, 2025 — Astronomers have directly spotted a rare young planet, WISPIT 2b, still forming within the gap of a dusty ringed disk around a star like our sun—something long theorized but never observed until ...

Astronomers Uncover a Hidden World on the Solar System’s Edge

Sep. 6, 2025 — Astronomers have uncovered a massive new trans-Neptunian object, 2017 OF201, lurking at the edge of our solar system. With an orbit stretching 25,000 years and a size that may qualify it as a dwarf ...

MIT Scientists Uncover Shocking Origin of the Moon’s Magnetic Scars

Sep. 6, 2025 — For decades, scientists have puzzled over why lunar rocks show signs of strong magnetism when the moon itself has no global magnetic field today. New simulations suggest the answer may lie in a ...

The Sun’s Hidden Particle Engines Finally Exposed

Sep. 3, 2025 — Solar Orbiter has identified the Sun’s dual “engines” for superfast electrons: explosive flares and sweeping coronal mass ejections. By catching over 300 events close to their origin, the ...

Warped Planet Nurseries Rewrite the Rules of How Worlds Are Born

Sep. 2, 2025 — Astronomers using ALMA have discovered that planet-forming discs are not flat and serene but subtly warped, reshaping our understanding of how planets form. These slight tilts, similar to those seen ...

Distant Suns Covered in Dark Spots Could Shape the Search for Life

Sep. 2, 2025 — A new model called StarryStarryProcess lets scientists map star spots with precision, improving how exoplanets are studied. By factoring in both transits and stellar rotation, it provides richer ...

NASA Finds Titan’s Alien Lakes May Be Creating Primitive Cells

Sep. 1, 2025 — Saturn’s moon Titan may be more alive with possibilities than we thought. New NASA research suggests that in Titan’s freezing methane and ethane lakes, simple molecules could naturally arrange ...

Dark Matter Could Be Turning Giant Planets Into Black Holes

Sep. 1, 2025 — Astronomers have found over 5,000 exoplanets, and now scientists think these distant worlds could unlock one of the universe’s greatest mysteries: dark matter. A new study suggests that ...

Astronomers Stunned as James Webb Finds a Planet Nursery Flooded With Carbon Dioxide

Aug. 31, 2025 — Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a planet-forming disk shockingly rich in carbon dioxide but nearly devoid of water, ...

Scientists Uncover Hidden Shards of Mars’ Violent Birth, Frozen for Billions of Years

Aug. 31, 2025 — Mars isn’t the neatly layered world we once imagined — its mantle is filled with ancient, jagged fragments left over from colossal impacts billions of years ago. Seismic data from NASA’s ...

Astronomers Capture Breathtaking First Look at a Planet Being Born

Aug. 27, 2025 — WISPIT 2b, a gas giant forming around a young Sun-like star, has been directly imaged for the first time inside a spectacular multi-ringed disk. Still glowing and actively accreting gas, the planet ...

Scientists Finally Pinpoint Jupiter’s Birth Using “molten Rock Raindrops”

Aug. 26, 2025 — Billions of years ago, Jupiter’s violent growth transformed the young solar system, smashing icy and rocky bodies together at incredible speeds. These cataclysmic collisions created tiny molten ...

Strange Ripples Frozen in Mars’ Sands Could Hold Keys to Human Survival

Aug. 24, 2025 — Perseverance is exploring Mars’ sandy ripples, strange frozen waves that could reveal how wind still shapes the planet. Along the way it uncovered unusual helmet-shaped rocks, sparking new ...

Are We Accidentally Broadcasting Our Location to Alien Civilizations?

Aug. 23, 2025 — Earth may already be broadcasting its presence to alien civilizations without realizing it. A new study shows that our deep-space transmissions, especially those aimed at Mars and interplanetary ...

Jupiter’s Core Isn’t What We Thought

Aug. 24, 2025 — For years, scientists thought Jupiter’s strange interior was the result of a massive collision in its youth. But new research suggests that the planet’s diffuse, “fuzzy” core wasn’t born ...

These Asteroids Share a Strange Fingerprint from Billions of Years Ago

Aug. 23, 2025 — Scientists studying asteroids found that two seemingly unrelated types share a strange dusty coating of troilite. By using polarization of light instead of traditional spectra, they uncovered ...

Astronomers Uncover Enormous Bubble Bigger Than Our Solar System

Aug. 21, 2025 — A giant bubble of gas and dust surrounds the red supergiant DFK 52, likely created in a powerful outburst 4,000 years ago. Astronomers are baffled at how the star survived without going supernova, ...

Astronomers Stunned by the Strangest Supernova Ever Seen

Aug. 21, 2025 — Scientists have identified a never-before-seen supernova, SN2021yfj, which exploded after losing nearly all of its outer layers. Instead of light elements, it revealed silicon and sulfur from deep ...

Voyager Missed It, but James Webb Just Found Uranus’ Hidden Moon

Aug. 21, 2025 — Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have uncovered a tiny new moon orbiting Uranus, increasing the planet’s moon tally to 29. The object, only about six miles wide, escaped Voyager ...

Ancient Solar System Crash May Explain Bennu and Ryugu’s Origin

Aug. 21, 2025 — Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute have found strong evidence that near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu share a common origin with Polana, a much larger asteroid in the main belt. By ...

After 70 Years, the Sun’s Explosive Mystery Is Finally Solved

Aug. 20, 2025 — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has directly observed magnetic reconnection in the Sun’s atmosphere for the first time, confirming decades-old theories about solar explosions. This discovery bridges ...

The Disappearing Planet Next Door Has Astronomers Intrigued

Aug. 14, 2025 — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected strong evidence for a giant planet orbiting Alpha Centauri A, the nearest Sun-like star to Earth. Located just 4 light-years away, this possible ...

Strange Spotted Rock on Mars Could Reveal Signs of Ancient Life

Aug. 15, 2025 — A curious red Martian rock nicknamed Sapphire Canyon has scientists excited, as its spotted appearance hints at possible organic origins. On Earth, researchers tested a powerful laser technique, ...

How NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer Was Lost Before Reaching the Moon

Aug. 11, 2025 — NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer, a mission designed to create high-resolution maps of water on the Moon, ended after losing contact with the spacecraft just one day after its February 26 launch. Despite ...

Hubble Just Exposed a Rare and Violent Star Collision

Aug. 7, 2025 — Hubble has helped uncover a white dwarf that’s likely the result of two stars crashing together. Carbon traces in its atmosphere tell a story of a cosmic merger, a rare phenomenon previously ...

Voyager Missed It, but Now We Know Uranus Has a Fiery Secret

Aug. 13, 2025 — For decades, scientists puzzled over why Uranus seemed colder than expected. Now, an international research team led by the University of Houston has solved the mystery: Uranus emits more heat than ...

Radar That Could Find Life on Europa Just Nailed Its First Big Test

Aug. 3, 2025 — NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft just aced a key radar test while flying past Mars, proving its ability to detect structures beneath planetary surfaces—something that couldn’t be tested on ...

Underground Life on Mars? Cosmic Rays Could Make It Possible

Aug. 3, 2025 — Cosmic rays from deep space might be the secret energy source that allows life to exist underground on Mars and icy moons like Enceladus and Europa. New research reveals that when these rays interact ...

Astronomers Detect Life’s Building Blocks Around a Young Star

Aug. 2, 2025 — Astronomers using ALMA have discovered complex organic molecules, including potential precursors to life's building blocks, in the protoplanetary disc of a young star, V883 Orionis. This finding ...