That effort, undertaken by NASA for many years, could be given to the U.S. Space Force, which has a much bigger new budget.

On the other hand, is a Space Force takeover of taking out potentially dangerous asteroids warranted, and what might be the ramifications of this switch?

From detection to deflection

Last May, the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee staged a hearing called "From Detection to Deflection: Evaluating NASA's Planetary Defense Strategy." In the hearing's opening statement, committee chairman Brian Babin (R-Texas) flagged several key facts:

• NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) leads the nation's mission to protect Earth from potentially dangerous near-Earth objects (NEOs) — asteroids and comets that come close to our planet at some point in their orbits. The vast majority of NEOs are harmless, but the big ones could cause serious damage if they line Earth up in their crosshairs.
• The U.S. has been keeping tabs on hazardous NEOs since the 1990s, but our efforts ramped up significantly with a major initiative that was passed as part of the 2005 NASA Authorization.
• That initiative, called the George E. Brown Jr. Near-Earth Object Survey Act, directed NASA to detect, track and catalogue 90% of all NEOs at least 460 feet (140 meters) wide within 15 years. Space rocks of that size can cause significant regional destruction if they hit Earth.
• Though we're five years past the original deadline set by that act, just 44% of those big, dangerous NEOs have been catalogued to date.

"Protecting our planet from threatening asteroids and comets must be a top priority for NASA," Babin said in the statement.

Defensible space

"In my opinion, planetary defense is an operational mission which should be formally tasked to U.S. Space Command, and it should fall to the Space Force to develop an operational capability," said Peter Garretson, a senior fellow in defense studies with the American Foreign Policy Council and a strategy consultant with a focus on space and defense.

Garretson told Space.com that planetary defense is a "whole-of-nation" mission, involving NASA, Department of Energy labs, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Defense and its assortment of research and development agencies.

NASA has taken the initiative and leadership in standing up the PDCO, enhancing detection and executing the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission. DART was the first-ever demonstration of planetary defense technology, successfully altering the orbit of an asteroid by intentionally crashing a spacecraft into it.

DART successfully impacted the asteroid Dimorphos in the fall of 2022 and effectively altered the object's trajectory.

Golden Dome

"Hopefully, the administration and Congress will continue to fund the efforts of the PDCO," Garretson said. However, he added, "this is an obvious defense mission, and U.S. Space Force is tasked with space domain awareness for national security and to protect the nation's interest in space."

In Garretson's view, planetary defense is a natural extension of Golden Dome, President Donald Trump's proposed multi-layer defense system, which includes the use of space-based assets and is intended to detect and destroy various foreign threats.

"We are now at a point where we could develop an operational capability at relatively modest cost," Garretson said, "and that could be a major legacy for this administration."

Soft power

Arguments about NASA's advantage in soft power and international cooperation are nonsense, Garretson suggested.

"The DoD already has among the largest footprints for international cooperation, including regular and formal contact with Russia and China," he said. "Any cooperation on planetary defense is most likely among the spacefaring and nuclear powers, and therefore likely to take place between militaries anyway."

Garretson believes that "it is well past time to move this from a science and discovery additional duty at NASA to an operational space domain awareness and space control mission formally tasked to the Department of Defense."

Ordering this to happen could be via the President's Unified Command Plan, he added.

Public confidence

Not everyone agrees with Garretson. A handover of planetary defense to the U.S. military is a non-starter, according to Rusty Schweickart, who flew on NASA's Apollo 9 mission in 1969 and is now a leader in protecting Earth from having a run-in with a civilization-snuffing space intruder.

"One of the things we realized very early on, after bringing the planetary defense challenge to the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, is that there needs to be very widespread public confidence in the agency or entity in charge of providing legit information, making the critical decisions and actually executing the deflection, if required," Schweickart told Space.com.

Given that these activities will begin four to seven years prior to the predicted impact, the actual impact site will not be precisely known at the time, Schweickart said. "In fact, the probability of Earth impact may well be only one in five, or even one in 20 or so."

Planetary response

But if responsible action is to be taken, and if the public is to have confidence in what it's being told, the information should not come from any nation's military, Schweickart continued. "Any such designation would absolutely guarantee widespread public suspicion of self-serving national interest," he said.

Fundamentally, an asteroid impact and the planetary defense response to that threat, "is a planetary event, and a planetary response is what is demanded, not competing national — and presumably self-serving — entities," Schweickart cautioned.

That case was made clear in a 2008 report issued by the Association of Space Explorers International Panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation, which Schweickart chaired.

Logical thinking is needed, Schweickart concluded. "But if what you want is to dispose of the threat and avoid widespread public chaos and panic, do not have any, and especially the U.S, military involved, other than, for example, internal domestic emergency response."

NEO Surveyor

Meanwhile, in the midst of NASA budget turmoil, the space agency's Near-Earth Object Surveyor (NEO Surveyor) mission is seemingly moving forward for launch no earlier than September 2027.

NEO Surveyor will find potentially hazardous objects because of its optimized sensitivity in the infrared part of the spectrum and observation cadence, according to NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Technical Supplement, which was issued on June 9.

That document notes that NEO Surveyor's primary goals are to: "(1) identify impact hazards to the Earth posed by NEOs by performing a comprehensive survey of the NEO population; (2) obtain detailed physical characterization data for individual objects that are likely to pose an impact hazard; and (3) advance the understanding of potential impact energies of potentially hazardous NEOs through characterizing physical properties, including object size, to inform potential mitigation strategies."

Getting the bright-eyed NEO Surveyor off the ground and on duty assumes, however, that it is not blind-sided by budget cuts.

What is it?

The Dragon spacecraft is SpaceX's workhorse for moving crew and cargo to the ISS in low-Earth orbit. It's large enough to hold seven crew members. In the photo the spacecraft is seen separating from its trunk as it returns to Earth. The streak is a plasma trail created by intense friction between Dragon's heat shield and atmospheric gases arising as the craft reenter's Earth's atmosphere, according to NASA.

Where is it?

The photo was taken aboard the ISS as the Crew Dragon reentered the atmosphere somewhere above Earth as it headed towards its Pacific Ocean splashdown.

Why is it amazing?

The Axiom-4 (Ax-4) mission was a mission of firsts, as it sent the first astronauts from Hungary, India and Poland to the ISS, becoming the first ISS astronauts from their countries on the space station. Additionally, Ax-4 commander and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson extended her record of cumulative days spent by an American in space to 695.

At the ISS, the astronauts spent two weeks running various scientific studies in the microgravity atmosphere. However, their stay was extended by four days to achieve favorable orbital phasing for their return. They flew back to Earth on the SpaceX Dragon capsule before safely landing in the Pacific ocean.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about Axiom Space's private missions, the ISS, and SpaceX's spacecraft.

It turns out that the moss-fueled zombies at an abandoned scientific facility are the least of the crew's worries, as the vengeful Bytha looks to restore her family's honor by killing M'Benga. Their shared history proves to be much more complex than initially meets the eye — as we explain below.

SET PHASERS TO CAUTION! SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU'RE YET TO WATCH "SHUTTLE TO KENFORI"

Why does the Enterprise take a detour to the planet of Kenfori?

It's the one place they're likely to find the rare Chimera Blossom. Spock (Ethan Peck) and Dr. M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) believe that the flower's unique properties are the only way to save Captain Marie Batel (Melanie Scrofano) from the life-threatening Gorn DNA that's been attacking her body since she was infected in the season 2 finale "Hegemony."

Unfortunately, Kenfori is located in a no-fly zone, so paying the planet a visit means violating multiple treaties with the Klingon Empire. Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) therefore decides to lead the off-the-books mission to the planet's surface himself, with just M'Benga for company.

Why is Kenfori restricted?

It's the site of an old Federation science facility that specialized in improving crop longevity on the final frontier. The Klingons invaded during their war with the Federation, but both sides agreed to abandon their claims on the territory once the conflict was over.

Unfortunately, there's no hyperbole in the "Go back or die" message being broadcast by a Klingon communications beacon in orbit. After landing their shuttle, Pike and M'Benga are soon attacked by the re-animated corpses of deceased humans and Klingons, all of whom have an unhealthy appetite for flesh. They don't register as life signs, so it feels totally reasonable when Pike describes them as "For serious lack of a better word… zombies."

These zombies were an unintended side-effect of the Federation scientists' experiments. They'd used the Chimera Blossom to fuse DNA from an incredibly hardy perennial moss with their crops, in theory allowing them to feed vast quantities of colonists. But, after the Klingons invaded, everyone on the base was exposed to mutant moss genomes which gave them a rampant appetite for proliferation.

If Kenfori is out of bounds, why do the Klingons turn up at the exact same time as the Enterprise?

It's safe to say it's no coincidence. Instead, a Klingon named Bytha (Christine Horn) has used a Viridium tracker to follow M'Benga to the planet's surface — much like the one Spock placed on Captain James T. Kirk in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country." She'd previously hired someone to place the device on (or more accurately in) the Enterprise's chief medical officer: "When a R'ongovian offers you a drink, never eat the olives," she says.

What's Bytha's beef with Dr. M'Benga?

Although M'Benga says he's "killed too many Klingons to recognize which house she's from," Bytha knows all about him. She's the daughter of Dak'Rah, champion of House Rah'Ul, and she has a bone to pick with M'Benga for assassinating her father.

However, this isn't your standard "Princess Bride"-style case of "you killed my father, prepare to die." Bytha had serious issues with her dad, a former general in the Klingon war machine. She regards him as a traitor, a war criminal, and a "lapdog to the Federation," and welcomed his death. But the traditions of the Klingon blood feud — as experienced by Worf during "The Next Generation" — mean that Dak'Rah's perceived sins have led to the discommendation of her entire family. "I had to grovel just to charter a ship here," she points out.

She had intended to kill her father herself, but believes that M'Benga's actions denied her that opportunity. Now Bytha intends to defeat M'Benga in a fight to the death to restore honor to her house.

Did Dr. M'Benga really assassinate her father?

Dak'Rah (Robert Wisdom) came on board the Enterprise in season 2's episode "Under the Cloak of War," having defected to the Federation. But, having served in the bloody war with the Klingon Empire — and experienced the brutality of Dak'Rah's forces firsthand — M'Benga refused to accept that this particular leopard had changed his spots.

When Dak'Rah came to Sickbay to persuade M'Benga to join him in a display of unity, M'Benga reminded him that he gave the order that "anyone not a Klingon soldier is the enemy." He also reprimanded the Klingon for claiming he'd killed his own warlords at J'Gal. Dak'Rah had used the story to ingratiate himself with the Federation, even though it was actually M'Benga who was responsible for those deaths.

The two men eventually came to blows, with Dak'Rah ultimately killed by a Klingon blade in M'Benga's possession. How the fight actually unfolded remains unclear, however, as it took place behind frosted glass. Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush), who fought alongside M'Benga during the war, witnessed the end of the scuffle, and told Pike that she'd heard her friend telling Dak'Rah he "didn't want to be involved with a war criminal." Pike subsequently asked M'Benga if he'd started the fight: "I didn't start the fight," he replied. "But I'm glad he's dead."

In "Shuttle to Kenfori," Pike still believes that M'Benga acted in self-defense. Yet the story changes slightly when Bytha has a knife to Pike's throat and asks M'Benga outright if he assassinated her father. Here he confirms that "his blood is on my hands."

What are the repercussions of M'Benga's confession?

It clearly helps having friends in high places (namely Captain Pike) because, as it stands, M'Benga will face no punishment for killing Dak'Rah.

Pike reasons that because the mission to Kenfori was off the books, there will be no report and that, in his eyes, M'Benga simply told a story to save his commanding officer's life when there was a knife to his throat. "You're not a monster, Joseph. Just a man. And my friend."

New episodes of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" debut on Paramount+ on Thursdays.

A group of NASA employees, contractors, their families, friends and other supporters gathered across from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on July 20 — the anniversary of humanity's historic first landing on the moon. Nearly 100 showed up Sunday to protest deep budget cuts and mass layoffs within the nation's space agency, and to urge Congress to take expedient action to reverse or minimize further losses.

"We are here because NASA is under attack," said one of the protest's organizers, NASA contract employee Marshall Finch. "And we are its defense."

Just days earlier, lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology published a scathing letter to interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy, accusing agency leadership of acting outside its legal authority by enacting extensive cuts before a final budget is passed.

Budget cuts

Protesters, including the ad hoc organizing group called NASA Needs Help, gathered to sound the alarm over what they view as broad, preemptive overcompliance with President Donald Trump's 2026 budget proposal, which slashes NASA's science portfolio by roughly 50% — a cut that would cancel more than 40 current and upcoming space missions. While the budget proposal continues to make its way through Congress, NASA officials at the very top of agency leadership seem to have already begun implementing cuts, notifying employees and contractors of impending reductions in force (RIFs) and encouraging people to take advantage of the government's Deferred Resignation Program (DRP).

"They are telling everybody below them to take the Deferred Resignation Program now. To jump ship," said Finch. "This is going to weaken NASA, and it's going to weaken the United States."

Congressional response

Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) and Valerie Foushee (D-North Carolina) of the House Science Committee sent a letter to interim Administrator Duffy on July 16 in which they, too, expressed concern that the agency was treating Trump's budget request as enacted law.

"It now appears that the agency intends to implement funding cuts that were never enacted by Congress in order to 'align' the agency's present-day budget with the Trump Administration's slash-and-burn proposed budget for the next fiscal year, with seemingly no concern for the devastation that will be caused by mass layoffs, widespread program terminations and the possible closure of critical centers and facilities," the letter stated.

"A presidential budget request is just that: a request to Congress," Lofgren and Foushee wrote in the letter. "The notion that any executive branch agency would unilaterally take steps to implement a budget proposal before its budget is enacted by Congress is therefore offensive to our constitutional system. It would be illegal."

NASA is opting to keep the political back-and-forth between the agency and lawmakers, for the time being.

"NASA will handle legislative matters and letters from elected officials directly with the addressing parties," NASA officials told Space.com in an emailed statement on July 23.

The space agency disputed one of the lawmakers' claims — specifically, that NASA leadership had directed at-risk programs to cease public communications regarding mission accomplishments.

"The statement from House Democrats in their letter to Secretary Duffy, alleging that 'NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes appears to have recently ordered scientific missions slated for termination in the FY26 PBR [fiscal year 2026 presidential budget request] to stop issuing press releases celebrating new results and scientific achievements,' is unsubstantiated and untrue," NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens told Space.com. "This is false and it is not the policy."

NASA officials did not comment on other assertions made in the letter.

Protesters at the July 20 demonstration, which coincided with the 54th anniversary of NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969, echoed Lofgren and Foushee's concern. They worried that by the time Congress acts, the damage to NASA may be irreversible.

Congress is pushing back on the proposed cuts, with the Senate Appropriations Committee advancing a measure to fund NASA at a level comparable to fiscal year 2025, and there is apparent bipartisan support for maintaining the space agency's science programs. But many who showed up at the demonstration worried that lawmakers' actions may come too late.

"Congress says they want to save NASA," Finch said. "Let's see them do it now … Let's see them fight."

Growing fear

Meanwhile, protesters described a rising sense of fear and uncertainty within NASA. Many said they feel demoralized by mounting pressure to leave under the DRP and the abrupt departures of their colleagues who already have. As they watch many of their coworkers resign, protesters worry that critical institutional knowledge is leaving with them.

Julie, who, like other protesters interviewed by Space.com, asked that her full name be omitted, also helped organize the demonstration. She thinks these personnel losses could have deeper implications, and used NASA's Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer as an example. "That was set up after [the] Columbia and Challenger [space shuttle disasters] to make sure that we were passing any lessons learned on to the entire community," Julie explained.

"Watching all of this brain drain leave without any kind of backup plan at all, any kind of structure, has been just the most depressing thing. I can kind of see another Challenger, another Columbia happening down the road as a result of this, and it will ultimately be blamed back on us," she told Space.com.

"That knowledge isn't being passed on in any way. So we're going to see the effects of that sooner rather than later," Julie added. She was one of several protest attendees who voiced such sentiments, warning of potential disaster on par with the space shuttle accidents.

The droves of departures at NASA have also fueled some of the urgency that motivated many to attend the weekend's demonstration.

"It's been the hardest to watch all that knowledge slip away," Julie said. "And that really kind of emboldens people to take a little bit of extra risk to come out with something like this on the weekend."

Every protester who spoke at the demonstration, and with Space.com, on Sunday stressed that their actions and remarks were not representative of NASA or their respective contract employers. Even the planning for the July 20 event was carefully and purposefully done outside employees' working hours, organizers said.

"A lot of people here, I think, are pretty scared of any blowback on them at work," another protester, Will, told Space.com. Will indicated that he previously worked for NASA, or a NASA contractor, but that is no longer the case.

The internal climate at the space agency has undergone a dramatic shift this year, with a sense of suspicion guarding people's interactions. "There's a little bit more distrust than there was before, even within the community," Julie said.

The majority of protesters in attendance Sunday work at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Goddard is one of two space agency facilities in the D.C. area, the other being NASA Headquarters. NASA Needs Help organizers held their first protest outside the agency's headquarters on June 30.

Uneasiness within the space agency is particularly evident at Goddard. Approximately 10,000 employees work at the Maryland facility, either through contractors or for NASA directly. In addition to program and workforce cuts in the White House budget proposal, "passback" documents sent to the space agency in April also suggest shuttering Goddard completely.

"Our management, our administration, is doing everything they can to break our will, to make us give up, to make us go do other things," decried one NASA engineer, who asked to remain anonymous, during the protest. "I'm here today because I fear for our astronauts' lives as we lose more and more expertise, and the technical expertise that we need to send them safely on their mission," she said.

"Normally, supervisors say, 'Stay, we need you. You're an expert in your field. We want you to stay.' But right now, the civil servants at the top — that is people like Brian Hughes, like Goddard Center [Director] Mackenzie Lystrup, many more names, they are telling everybody below them to take the Deferred Resignation Program now," Finch told demonstrators.

NASA leadership

After nearly half a year of warnings about impending RIFs, some in management positions are beginning to take their own advice. According to a Politico report, over 2,000 senior leadership staff are expected to resign from the space agency to take advantage of the DRP initiatives. That includes aforementioned Goddard Center Director Mackenzie Lystrup.

One day after NASA employees held their protest, Lystrup announced her resignation. Her abrupt departure intensifies concerns about the state of NASA's leadership, which currently seems more disjointed than ever.

This could be seen during an Artemis Accords ceremony on Thursday (July 24), at which the ambassador of Senegal and other Senegalese officials added their signatures to the growing list of countries committed to the safe, collaborative exploration of the moon and deep space.

Absent from those proceedings was interim NASA Administrator Duffy. Duffy was unexpectedly appointed to the post on July 9 through an announcement by Trump on his Truth Social platform. Duffy, who already serves as Secretary of Transportation, is now wearing both hats. Since his appointment, he has made no public remarks about his NASA role other than a small handful of supportive posts to a newly-created X account focused on his position at the space agency.

Prior to 2025, many Artemis Accord signing ceremonies included past NASA Administrators Bill Nelson or Jim Bridenstine. Rather than Duffy, NASA Chief of Staff Brian Hughes oversaw Senegal's signing on Thursday. Also not in apparent attendance were Acting NASA Associate Administrator Vanessa Wyche and NASA Deputy Associate Administrator Casey Swails, both of whom, like Duffy, sit above Hughes in the NASA leadership hierarchy. Duffy did offer a retweet of NASA's post on X about the event.

Voyager Declaration

Circulating amongst NASA employees in the background leading up to the July 20 demonstration, another letter to Duffy communicated a similar message as that from the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.

The Voyager Declaration was published July 21 as a formal statement protesting the proposed science cuts and preemptive actions already enacted by NASA leadership. The letter was signed by nearly 300 current and former NASA employees, 150 of whom chose to do so anonymously, "due to the culture of fear of retaliation cultivated by this administration," the letter states.

"Major programmatic shifts at NASA must be implemented strategically so that risks are managed carefully," it states. "Instead, the last six months have seen rapid and wasteful changes which have undermined our mission and caused catastrophic impacts on NASA's workforce." Their grievances were listed in the letter (included verbatim):

• We dissent to changes to NASA's Technical Authority capacities that are driven by anything other than safety and mission assurance.
• We dissent to the closing out of missions for which Congress has appropriated funding.
• We dissent to implementing indiscriminate cuts to NASA science and aeronautics research.
• We dissent to NASA's non-strategic staffing reductions.
• We dissent to canceling NASA participation in international missions.
• We dissent to the termination of NASA contracts and grants for reasons unrelated to performance.
• We dissent to the elimination of programs aimed at developing and supporting NASA's workforce.

Public impact

Protesters at the July 20 demonstration warned of broader impacts that such substantial cuts could have on the public at large. NASA contract employees Justin and Madeline said they attended the protest to raise awareness about all the contributions to society that have come from NASA research and innovations.

"A lot of the stuff we have on Earth, like our cell phones, hurricane coverage, that's all because of NASA. And defunding NASA means defunding all of that and making life worse for everyone," Justin told Space.com. "And I don't think a lot of people realize that."

NASA employee Ben put much of NASA's contributions into perspective by breaking down the numbers:

"In 2023-2024, for every dollar that NASA got in tax revenue, NASA generated $3 in economic output in the United States. Our actual budget was $25 billion and we generated $75 billion from that $25 billion. We generated 300,000 jobs across the country … And setting all of that aside, what about things you can't put a price on?"

His $75 billion output figure, while a reasonable estimate, is not yet confirmed. NASA has not released full economic impact reports for 2023 or 2024.

Ben cited examples of NASA spinoff technology — advances in lasers developed by scientists building the James Webb Space Telescope are helping doctors perform eye surgeries on Earth, and innovations from the Hubble Space Telescope have contributed to mammogram imaging and technology used at hardware stores to match paint colors.

"None of this stuff even is accounted for in that three-to-one benefit that NASA generates directly to the economy," Ben said. "Why, pray tell, in the name of efficiency, so called, is NASA the place you want to start slashing funding from?"

"There's a lot of inventions that NASA has, if not created, at least catalyzed," Will told Space.com. "If we zero out so many things, no longer are we going to have the great leap for mankind that Armstrong is so famously talking about."

Human cost

Julie echoed those sentiments, highlighting not a mission, but a whole department on the chopping block: NASA's Office of STEM Engagement (OSTEM). "OSTEM has been zeroed out completely," she said. "That not only has an effect on what we do at NASA in terms of workforce development, but also kids across the entire country won't have access to those programs, won't have access to scholarships that let them go on to grad school and let them learn other things."

Another protester, who asked to be identified only as "MC", has worked as a teacher across a wide field of age ranges and learning abilities. "Every place I've ever taught, or every program I've ever supported — everybody needs science," she said. "Every curriculum I've ever developed had science … Science of all kinds is incredibly important. And space — space is where we're going."

One protester, who identified herself as the mother of a NASA employee, stressed the value of empowering the next generation. "It's very important that our kids have their dreams and reach those dreams," she said. "If NASA is cut the way it is, STEM education is cut, science is cut, research is cut — we won't have kids who have dreams anymore."

George is part of a team responsible for testing spacecraft at Goddard. He attended Sunday's protest alongside his wife and three daughters. "Goddard is looking at basically being shut down, and we have a whole bunch of people that know how to build individual, specific scientific spacecraft," he told Space.com. "If we lose that [technical knowledge], it's gone."

"Where are we going to learn how to do that again?" George added. "Are we going to have to have another Challenger moment to learn how to do that again? Maybe."

George's daughters said they wanted to attend the protest to support their father. "It's his job, so obviously that's important to us," his eldest, 15, said. But she's also worried about what the future might look like if science takes a backseat at the space agency.

"I think that we should also be concerned about science over the future generations," she said, calling the budget's potential ramifications a "big loss."

Job security is on the forefront of many NASA employees and contractors, many of whom have already received notice that their mission is at "high risk" of cancellation. Justin hasn't received such a notice yet, but says the mission he works on studies climate change by measuring ice caps, "so I am assuming a couple things here," he said.

That insecurity is already pushing some NASA scientists to look outside the agency. Amid potential layoffs, some are considering not just leaving the space agency, but the United States altogether. A lack of stability in the U.S. science community is opening the door for international recruitment.

"Right now, Europe and Asia, every other country in the world, sees what's happening, and they're extending offers," Finch said to the crowd. "The next day, the members of the workforce are gone."

Justin is still mulling over his options if his program gets canceled. But he came to a quick alignment with Madeline's stance that she would "probably work for a different country that values science."

"That would be the one," Justin said in agreement.

Several European institutions have already begun reaching out to scientists and engineers across the U.S. to gauge people's interest in continuing their work abroad. One representative said in an email obtained by Space.com that the responses to their initial outreach were "overwhelming (and worrying)."

With budget negotiations still ongoing in Congress, protesters are urging lawmakers to act before NASA loses the talent and infrastructure that made its past achievements possible.

"I don't want to be a member of the first generation of humans that stops exploring," Finch said. "We are not the ones who will suffer most — it is every generation of humans that will be set back by our abdication."

"You know we haven't done enough research into the effects of cosmic rays!"

Ben Grimm, Fantastic Four #1, 1961

Ben may have been right way back when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him and the rest of the Fantastic Four 64 years ago, but we know a heck of a lot more about cosmic rays today.

Back then, Grimm, who became the Thing, was right to be concerned. After all, it was during his next trip to space as he piloted a rocket built and designed by mission commander Reed Richards and carrying Sue and Johnny Storm that Ben and his comrades were bombarded with cosmic rays that gifted (or cursed in Ben's case) them with fantastic powers.

Thanks to cosmic rays, the Fantastic Four was born, heralding the "Marvel Age of Comics" and a period of unrivaled creativity for Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Romita, and many others.

Now, thanks to a six-minute special sneak peek of the upcoming movie Fantastic Four: First Steps on Disney+, we know that in the latest live-action iteration of these seminal heroes and their introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), the team will also derive their powers from the "cosmic turbulence" or cosmic rays.

It's also how the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes got their powers in Fantastic Four #13, 1963, but let's not worry too much about them (the Fantastic Four never did).

So, before "Fantastic Four: First Steps" arrives in theatres across the globe on Friday (July 25), what better time to ask, what exactly are cosmic rays, and what would happen if a group of four intrepid space explorers were bombarded with this cosmic radiation?

What are cosmic rays made of?

Like the origins of other Marvel characters in the 1960s, Stan Lee plucked the term "cosmic rays" from actual science textbooks. Just like the gamma-rays that belted Bruce Banner to birth the Hulk, Lee and Kirby weren't too concerned with the details of what cosmic rays would actually do to humans.

Though discovered via a series of balloon experiments in 1912 conducted by particle physicist Victor Hess, the term "cosmic rays" emerged in 1925, when it was coined by the University of Chicago scientists Robert Millikan.

Simply put, cosmic rays are high-energy particles from space that travel at nearly the speed of light. They begin life as atoms, which have their outer layers of electrons stripped away in a process called ionization.

Cosmic rays are predominantly composed of protons, accounting for around 90%, helium atomic nuclei (around 9%), with the remaining 1% composed of the nuclei of heavier elements, up to elements like iron and uranium. There is also a tiny fraction of cosmic rays that is made up of antimatter particles like positrons, the antimatter equivalent of electrons.

So when the usually very smart Reed Richards says in Fantastic Four #1 that cosmic rays are "only rays of light," he's wrong. Seems like Ben was right about the further research, Reed!

As for the energy of cosmic ray particles, this can vary from around 1 million electronvolts (1 MeV) to energies equivalent to 100 million times the energies generated by the Large Hadron Collider, Earth's most powerful particle accelerator.

The most energetic cosmic ray particle ever detected was given the brilliant moniker, the "Oh My God" particle. Detected in 1991 via a glowing streak in the sky, it had 320 exaelectronvolts (EeV) of energy, the same energy as a baseball travelling at 55 miles per hour, all packed into a subatomic particle.

Where do cosmic rays come from?

Cosmic rays bounce across the universe in all directions, meaning Earth is bombarded from all sides by trillions of them. That endlessly rebounding effect occurs because, as charged particles, cosmic rays interact with magnetic fields in space that push and pull them in different directions.

This pinball-like effect makes cosmic rays pretty hard to trace back to their source, but the energies of these particles give scientists a good idea of the type of mechanisms that could launch them.

As you might imagine, it takes a pretty violent event or some extreme conditions to create a multitude of high-energy cosmic rays.

Some cosmic rays we receive here on Earth come from the sun, launched during powerful solar flares. However, the majority appear to come from beyond the solar system and from the wider Milky Way. Cosmic rays that come from the sun are often called "solar energetic particles" today, with those from the Milky Way referred to as galactic cosmic rays.

A small sample of cosmic rays that reach Earth seems to have originated from beyond our own galaxy. They are known as "extragalactic cosmic rays."

Events that create cosmic rays that stream into the solar system include the supernova deaths of massive stars, events in which supermassive black holes devour copious amounts of gas, dust and even stars that they have ripped apart with their immense gravity.

Cosmic rays can also be blasted out by highly magnetized stellar corpses called neutron stars, or when entire galaxies smash together and merge.

This means that cosmic rays can provide a window to cosmic laboratories that lie well beyond Earth, serving as "cosmic messengers" for some of the most violent events in the cosmos.

Additionally, when cosmic rays strike material in the solar system, they can create new isotopes of elements. Thus, when these space rocks fall to Earth, these unique decaying isotopes can be used to date their arrival on Earth.

In fact, humanity's discovery of subatomic particles other than electrons, protons, and neutrons, specifically positrons and muons came in 1933 via observations of cosmic rays.

Clearly, cosmic rays aren't as "terrible" as Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, said decades ago. They have a litany of uses for scientists. But that doesn't mean you'd want to be directly exposed to them.

What would cosmic rays do to you?

Particles with high energies are classed as ionizing radiation. That means they have the potential to rip electrons away from the atoms in our bodies.

"Ionizing radiation is like an atomic-scale cannonball that blasts through material, leaving significant damage behind," NASA explains. "More damage can also be created by secondary particles that are propelled into motion by the primary radiation particle."

The results of unprotected bombardment from cosmic rays would be damage to our DNA, which, rather than leaving us with incredible powers, could result in nasty medical conditions, including cancer.

Trillions of cosmic rays hit Earth every day, but the vast majority of them are blocked by our planet's atmosphere and its magnetic field, or magnetosphere. That means we are protected from the harsh effects of cosmic rays.

When these charged particles collide with molecules in the atmosphere, they create showers of secondary particles called "air showers."

These can be used to detect cosmic rays, but scientists can also hunt for ultraviolet light released when secondary particles are created.

To get direct measurements of cosmic rays before they encounter the atmosphere, scientists send balloons to high altitudes right on the edge of space.

Satellites and spacecraft are also sent into Earth's orbit or further afield into the solar system to detect cosmic rays.

NASA and other space agencies are hard at work developing more and more sophisticated and advanced shielding to protect both astronauts and equipment from cosmic rays when they venture beyond the limit of our planet's protective atmosphere.

Clearly, in a spaceship with inadequate shielding, just like Reed's in Fantastic Four #1, cosmic rays could prove to be more troublesome than a Doctor Doom team-up with the Yancy Street Gang.

Like a burst of cosmic rays, "Fantastic Four: First Steps" bombards theaters across the Earth on Friday (July 25).

A Soyuz 2.1b rocket lifted off from Vostochny Cosmodrome in Siberia today (July 25) at 1:54 a.m. EDT (0554 GMT; 8:54 a.m. Moscow time), carrying Russia's Ionosfera-M 3 and 4 satellites toward Earth orbit. The Soyuz also carried 18 secondary payloads, according to RussianSpaceWeb.com, including an Iranian communications satellite called Nahid-2.

Everything went well in the early stages of the launch, which the Russian space agency Roscosmos streamed live. The webcast ended about 10 minutes after launch, however, so news of satellite deployments will have to come via updates from the agency.

The first two Ionosfera-M satellites launched from Vostochny in November 2024. Spacecraft 3 and 4 will round out the mini constellation, which flies about 509 miles (820 kilometers) above Earth.

"The quartet is designed to monitor space weather phenomena, such as the impact of solar wind on the near-Earth space affecting civilian and military systems," RussianSpaceWeb wrote.

As their name suggests, the Ionosfera satellites focus on the ionosphere, a layer of Earth's atmosphere that ranges from about 50 to 400 miles (80 to 645 km) in altitude. The ionosphere interacts strongly with the sun, which explains the layer's name: its atoms and molecules are ionized (have had electrons stripped away) by solar radiation.

Ionosfera-M 3 and 4 are headed for an orbital plane perpendicular to that of their two brethren, "thus greatly expanding the three-dimensional coverage of the Earth's magnetosphere," according to RussianSpaceWeb. "The second pair would also include for the first time the Ozonometr-TM instrument for measuring levels of ozone in the upper atmosphere."

The 17 cubesats flying on the Soyuz this morning are all Russian-built and will conduct remote-sensing and other work in orbit.

One of them is a 16U cubesat and the other 16 are 3U craft, according to RussianSpaceWeb. A "U" is the standard cubesat unit; it consists of a cube measuring 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) on a side.

Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments. Two of us are geophysicists who investigate interactions between solar activity and Earth’s magnetic field.

When we first got together, we wondered whether our unconventional project, linking space weather and human behavior, could actually bridge such a vast disciplinary divide. Now, two years on, we believe the payoffs – personal, professional and scientific – were well worth the initial discomfort.

Our collaboration, which culminated in a recent paper in the journal Science Advances, began with a single question: What happened to life on Earth when the planet’s magnetic field nearly collapsed roughly 41,000 years ago?

Weirdness when Earth’s magnetic shield falters

This near-collapse is known as the Laschamps Excursion, a brief but extreme geomagnetic event named for the volcanic fields in France where it was first identified. At the time of the Laschamps Excursion, near the end of the Pleistocene epoch, Earth’s magnetic poles didn’t reverse as they do every few hundred thousand years. Instead, they wandered, erratically and rapidly, over thousands of miles. At the same time, the strength of the magnetic field dropped to less than 10% of its modern day intensity.

So, instead of behaving like a stable bar magnet – a dipole – as it usually does, the Earth’s magnetic field fractured into multiple weak poles across the planet. As a result, the protective force field scientists call the magnetosphere became distorted and leaky.

The magnetosphere normally deflects much of the solar wind and harmful ultraviolet radiation that would otherwise reach Earth’s surface.

So, during the Laschamps Excursion when the magnetosphere broke down, our models suggest a number of near-Earth effects. While there is still work to be done to precisely characterize these effects, we do know they included auroras – normally seen only in skies near the poles as the Northern Lights or Southern Lights – wandering toward the equator, and significantly higher-than-present-day doses of harmful solar radiation.

The skies 41,000 years ago may have been both spectacular and threatening. When we realized this, we two geophysicists wanted to know whether this could have affected people living at the time.

The archaeologist’s answer was absolutely.

Human responses to ancient space weather

For people on the ground at that time, auroras may have been the most immediate and striking effect, perhaps inspiring awe, fear, ritual behavior or something else entirely. But the archaeological record is notoriously limited in its ability to capture these kinds of cognitive or emotional responses.

Researchers are on firmer ground when it comes to the physiological impacts of increased UV radiation. With the weakened magnetic field, more harmful radiation would have reached Earth’s surface, elevating risk of sunburn, eye damage, birth defects, and other health issues.

In response, people may have adopted practical measures: spending more time in caves, producing tailored clothing for better coverage, or applying mineral pigment “sunscreen” made of ochre to their skin. As we describe in our recent paper, the frequency of these behaviors indeed appears to have increased across parts of Europe, where effects of the Laschamps Excursion were pronounced and prolonged.

At this time, both Neanderthals and members of our species, Homo sapiens, were living in Europe, though their geographic distributions likely overlapped only in certain regions. The archaeological record suggests that different populations exhibited distinct approaches to environmental challenges, with some groups perhaps more reliant on shelter or material culture for protection.

Importantly, we’re not suggesting that space weather alone caused an increase in these behaviors or, certainly, that the Laschamps caused Neanderthals to go extinct, which is one misinterpretation of our research. But it could have been a contributing factor – an invisible but powerful force that influenced innovation and adaptability.

Cross-discipline collaboration

Collaborating across such a disciplinary gap was, at first, daunting. But it turned out to be deeply rewarding.

Archaeologists are used to reconstructing now-invisible phenomena like climate. We can’t measure past temperatures or precipitation directly, but they’ve left traces for us to interpret if we know where and how to look.

But even archaeologists who’ve spent years studying the effects of climate on past behaviors and technologies may not have considered the effects of the geomagnetic field and space weather. These effects, too, are invisible, powerful and best understood through indirect evidence and modeling. Archaeologists can treat space weather as a vital component of Earth’s environmental history and future forecasting.

Likewise, geophysicists, who typically work with large datasets, models and simulations, may not always engage with some of the stakes of space weather. Archaeology adds a human dimension to the science. It reminds us that the effects of space weather don’t stop at the ionosphere. They can ripple down into the lived experiences of people on the ground, influencing how they adapt, create and survive.

The Laschamps Excursion wasn’t a fluke or a one-off. Similar disruptions of Earth’s magnetic field have happened before and will happen again. Understanding how ancient humans responded can provide insight into how future events might affect our world – and perhaps even help us prepare.

Our unconventional collaboration has shown us how much we can learn, how our perspective changes, when we cross disciplinary boundaries. Space may be vast, but it connects us all. And sometimes, building a bridge between Earth and space starts with the smallest things, such as ochre, or a coat, or even sunscreen.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

"Spain wants and can be the home of the future of astronomy and astrophysics," she said, according to a press release translated from Spanish. "We have the capacity and the political will to do so."

Originally, the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) was planned to adorn a mountain in Hawaii called Mauna Kea. This is a very popular observing site because of how strikingly dark its skies are and how great the weather tends to be; indeed, it already is home to several other large, ground-based telescopes like the Keck Observatory and the Very Long Baseline Array. However, the TMT's development has been riding a bumpy road, and the biggest challenge came recently: The Trump administration's fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget proposal for the National Science Foundation (NSF), which is funding the TMT's design and development work, requests removing that funding altogether.

As a result, the Spanish government has offered up its sizeable sum of money with the hopes that the TMT can be moved to the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands and continue construction there.

"If completed, it will involve not only the construction of the telescope, but also decades of scientific operations, the creation of skilled employment and an economic and social boost for the island," Morant said.

Trump's FY26 NSF budget request actually isn't the first time the TMT has been subjected to whispers of a halt. Even before Trump took office, the NSF was facing pressure from the U.S. government to build only one giant, ground-based telescope with a budget capped at $1.6 billion — this was a worry because there are already two giant telescopes in the works. One is the TMT, and the other is known as the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) that's being built in the clear-skied deserts of Chile.

They were meant to work in tandem, with the GMT watching over the Southern Hemisphere while the TMT watches the Northern Hemisphere. They also have complementary skillsets. So, slap their observations together and astronomers believed that'd paint a beautiful picture of the night sky in its totality.

But as the days go by, it's looking more and more like this utopic situation isn't going to work out.

Trump's NSF budget request for the upcoming year specifically states the GMT can move forward to the "final design phase," but the TMT cannot. However, it also states that "NSF has received assurances from the GMT project that it can complete the final design phase without further investments. Moving into the final design phase does not guarantee that a project will be approved for construction, and doing so does not obligate the agency to provide any further funding."

In other words, the future of the GMT may not be 100% certain either.

In fact, the administration's budget proposal for the agency was aggressive all around: It could shut down one of two sites that comprise LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory that studies black holes), completely halt operations for DKIST (Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope), which is the world's most powerful solar telescope that started delivering data relatively recently, and reduce the number of people involved in NSF science from over 330,000 to just around 90,000. And that's just a few of the blows.

"While some countries are cutting back on investments in science and even denying it, Spain is a haven for science, the home of scientists seeking to advance and develop their projects," Morant said.

Furthermore, in addition to allowing the project to move forward, the change of location may be received positively by communities living near Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The mountain isn't only revered for its excellent astronomy observation conditions — it's also considered sacred for many native Hawaiians.

For that reason, it's been rather controversial to have so many telescopes dotting the mountain; the total number currently sits at 13. In fact, back when construction on the TMT was supposed to begin in 2014, protestors blockaded the area, and many activists continue to speak out today.

"Faced with the risk of paralyzing this major international scientific project, the Spanish government has decided to act with a redoubled commitment to science and major scientific infrastructures for the benefit of global knowledge," Morant said.

A new Mars exploration idea seemingly would drop a hornet's nest of helicopters from high above the Red Planet.

The idea comes from the world of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) concepts here on Earth, but is designed for exploring another world: Mars.

AeroVironment of Arlington, Virginia and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory today debuted "Skyfall," a concept for deploying next-generation Mars helicopters that could help pave the way for human landing on Mars through autonomous aerial exploration.

Half-dozen drones

"Skyfall is designed to deploy six scout helicopters on Mars, where they would explore many of the sites selected by NASA and industry as top candidate landing sites for America's first Martian astronauts," AeroVironment said in a statement.

The "Skyfall Maneuver" would see the half-dozen devices let loose from their entry capsule during its plunge through the Martian atmosphere. Viewed as a cost-cutting concept, Skyfall would eliminate the need for a landing platform, which in the past has been one of the most expensive, complex and risky elements of any Mars mission, states AeroVironment.

After deployment, each helicopter would operate independently. Among their duties would be transmitting high-resolution surface images back to Earth, as well as collecting radar data about what lies beneath the Red Planet's rocky surface. That information is key for safely landing crews at areas on the Martian surface that hold water, ice and other resources.

Building on Ingenuity

The Skyfall scheme builds upon the Ingenuity Mars helicopter program within Jezero Crater. It chalked up 72 flights in just under three years and achieved the first powered flight on another world on April 19, 2021.

In an AeroVironment statement, Skyfall is touted as offering a revolutionary new approach to Mars exploration, one that is faster and more affordable than anything that's come before it.

That's the word from William Pomerantz, head of space ventures at AeroVironment. "With six helicopters, Skyfall offers a low-cost solution that multiplies the range we would cover, the data we would collect, and the scientific research we would conduct – making humanity's first footprints on Mars meaningfully closer," he stated.

AeroVironment has begun internal investments and coordination with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to facilitate a potential 2028 launch of Skyfall.

This landmark achievement has been performed by scientists working as part of the BASE collaboration at CERN. BASE is the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment, which is designed to measure the magnetic moment of antiprotons – in essence, how strongly they interact with magnetic fields.

However, while qubits are commonly associated with quantum computing, in this case the antiproton qubit will be used to test for differences between ordinary matter and antimatter. It will specifically help probe the question of why we live in a universe so dominated by ordinary matter when matter and antimatter should have been created in equal quantities during the Big Bang.

They're opposites of one another, right?

A proton and antiproton have the same mass but opposite charges, for example. In physics, the mirror-image properties between matter and antimatter is referred to as charge-parity-time (CPT) symmetry. CPT symmetry also says that a particle and its antiparticle should experience the laws of physics in the same way, meaning that they should feel gravity or electromagnetism with the same strength, for example (that first one has actually been tested, and indeed an antiprotons falls at the same rate as a proton).

So, theoretically, when the universe came into existence, there should have been a 50-50 chance of antimatter or regular matter particles being created. But for some reason, that didn't happen. It's very weird. Even the BASE project found that, to a precision of parts per billion, protons and antiprotons do have the same magnetic moment. Alas, more symmetry.

However, the BASE apparatus has enabled physicists to take things one step further.

Antiproton antics

When matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate one another in a burst of gamma-ray photons, so BASE has to keep them apart. To do so, it uses something called Penning traps, which can hold charged particles in position thanks to the careful deployment of electric and magnetic fields. BASE has two primary Penning traps. One is called the analysis trap, which measures the precession of the magnetic moment around a magnetic field, and the other is the precision trap, which is able to flip the quantum spin of a particle and measure that particle's oscillation in a magnetic field.

Quantum physics tells us that particles are born in a state of superposition. Take, for instance, the property of quantum spin, which is just one example of the weirdness of the quantum universe. Despite the name, spin does not describe the actual rotation of a particle; rather, it describes a property that mimics the rotation. How do we know that it isn't a real rotation? If it were, then the properties of quantum spin would mean particles would be spinning many times faster than the speed of light — which is impossible.

So, fundamental particles like electrons, protons and antiprotons have quantum spin values, even if they are not really spinning, and these values can be expressed either as a whole number or a fraction. The quantum spin of a proton and antiproton can be 1/2 or –1/2, and it is the quantum spin that generates the particle's magnetic moment.

Because of the magic of quantum superposition, which describes how all the possible quantum states exist synchronously in a particle's quantum wave-function, a proton or antiproton can have a spin of both 1/2 or –1/2 at the same time. That is, at least until they are measured and the quantum wave-function that describes the quantum state of the particle collapses onto one value. That's another bit of weirdness of the quantum world — particles have all possible properties at once until they are observed, like Schrödinger's cat being alive and dead at the same time in a box, until someone opens the box. In fact, any kind of interaction with the outside world causes the wave function to collapse in a process known as decoherence.

Why this happens is a subject of great debate between the various interpretations of quantum physics.

Regardless, by giving an antiproton that is held firmly in the precision trap just the right amount of energy, BASE scientists have been able to hold an antiproton in a state of superposition without decohering for about 50 seconds — a record for antimatter (this has previously been achieved with ordinary matter particles for much longer durations). In doing so, they formed a qubit out of the antiproton.

Keep the qubits away!

A qubit is a quantum version of a byte used in computer processing. A typical, binary byte can have a value of either 1 or 0. A qubit can be both 1 and 0 at the same time (or, have a spin of 1/2 and –1/2 at the same time), and a quantum computer using qubits could therefore, in principle, vastly accelerate information processing times.

However, the antiproton qubit is unlikely to find work in quantum computing because ordinary matter can be used for that more easily without the risk of the antimatter annihilating. Instead, the antiproton qubit could be used to further test for differences between matter and antimatter, and whether CPT symmetry is violated at any stage.

"This represents the first antimatter qubit and opens up the prospect of applying the entire set of coherent spectroscopy methods to single matter and antimatter systems in precision experiments," said BASE spokesperson Stefan Ulmer, of the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Japan, in a statement. "Most importantly, it will help BASE to perform antiproton moment measurements in future experiments with 10- to 100-fold improved precision."

Currently, BASE's experiments have to take place at CERN, where the antimatter is created in the Large Hadron Collider. However, the next phase of antimatter research will be BASE-STEP (Symmetry Tests in Experiments with Portable Antiprotons), which is a device that contains a portable Penning trap, allowing researchers to move antiprotons securely away from CERN to laboratories with quieter, purpose-built facilities that can reduce exterior magnetic field fluctuations that might interfere with magnetic moment experiments.

"Once it is fully operational, our new offline precision Penning trap system, which will be supplied with antiprotons transported by BASE-STEP, could allow us to achieve spin coherence times maybe even ten times longer than in current experiments, which will be a game-changer for baryonic antimatter research," said RIKEN's Barbara Latacz, who is the lead author of the new study.

The results are described in a paper that was published on July 23 in the journal Nature.

The study's scientists say tackling this growing climate threat will require better forecasting tools, smarter adaptation strategies, and faster action toward curbing climate change, which is primarily driven by human activities like burning coal for cheap power.

"The North Atlantic [marine heatwave], lasting 525 days, revealed the scale of persistent ocean warming," wrote the research team in the paper published in the journal Science, "whereas the Southwest Pacific [heatwave] surpassed previous records with its extensive spatial coverage and prolonged persistence. In the Tropical Eastern Pacific, [marine heatwaves] peaked at 1.63°C during El Niño development, and the North Pacific sustained an ongoing anomaly over 4 years."

These prolonged periods of abnormally high sea surface temperatures can severely disrupt marine ecosystems, often triggering mass coral bleaching events and ecological stress. Beyond environmental consequences, the impacts ripple into human systems — reducing fishery yields, straining aquaculture and affecting industries that rely on stable ocean conditions.

While the impacts of marine heatwaves are increasingly clear, the processes that drive their onset, persistence and intensification remain only partially understood, though experts have indeed connected them to regional climate shifts as well as global warming.

A climate tipping point?

In their analysis, the researchers based in China explored the regional forces behind these extreme ocean warming events, linking them to broader disruptions in Earth's climate system. To do this, they looked to high-resolution ocean data from the ECCO2 (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean, Phase II) reanalysis project as well as satellite-based OISST (Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature) measurements.

They also incorporated a mixed-layer heat budget to help track where heat in the upper ocean is coming from and where it's going. The goal was to understand how different physical processes contribute to the extreme warming observed.

"This comprehensive approach leverages the strengths of ECCO2's capabilities and OISST's observational accuracy, providing critical insights into the variability and mechanisms sustaining [marine heatwaves] across different regions," they wrote.

They report that several key phenomena were contributing to 2023's record-breaking year. In the North Atlantic, fewer clouds let more sunlight reach the ocean surface, warming the water. At the same time, weaker winds led to a thinner surface layer, which made the ocean heat up more quickly. Together, these changes caused a noticeable rise in sea surface temperatures. In the Southwest Pacific, a similar story played out — less cloud cover meant more solar heating, and changes in wind patterns further helped trap that heat at the surface.

In the North Pacific, stronger sunlight and less heat escaping from the ocean led to steady warming, with these factors accounting for most of the temperature rise. Some additional warming came from deeper waters being pushed upward. In the Tropical Eastern Pacific, marine heatwaves were mainly driven by changes linked to El Niño, which moved warm water around.

Their findings highlight how local ocean-atmosphere dynamics are being reshaped by global warming — potentially setting off feedback loops that could make such events more frequent and severe. Worryingly, these patterns may be early indicators of a 'climate tipping point,' the scientists say, where interconnected systems begin to shift rapidly and irreversibly.

"These events can stress ecosystems beyond recovery thresholds, potentially triggering coral reef collapse, reducing species richness, increasing mortality rates, and causing redistribution of fish species, which has already led to the decline of key fisheries, such as the Pacific cod fishery," wrote the scientists.

Since nearly 90% of the excess heat trapped by Earth's climate system ends up in the ocean, understanding what’s driving these record-breaking marine heatwaves is more important than ever. Protecting marine ecosystems, coastal economies, and the communities that depend on them must be a global priority as ocean heatwaves continue to intensify.

Of 1,380 Marine-Protected Areas (MPAs) focused on in a new study, 78.5% had no commercial fishing activity at all, according to the satellite images, which are able to record fishing trawlers that are running "dark."

"The ocean is no longer too big to watch," Juan Mayorga, who is a scientist with National Geographic Pristine Seas and a co-author of the study, said in a statement. "With cutting-edge satellites and AI, we're making illegal fishing visible and proving that strong marine protections work."

Intensive fishing is hugely damaging to ocean ecosystems, with many fish stocks beginning to dwindle. In an effort to save some of these ecosystems, more than 16,600 MPAs have been established around the world. Those in territorial waters are managed by the governments of those territories, while those in international waters are maintained either by collaborations between nations, or by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

Different MPAs operate under different rules depending upon which nation they belong to. Some ban fishing all year around, while others prohibit it at certain times of year such as breeding times, or permit fishing just for local communities rather than commercial trawling.

Now, the new data shows that MPAs are doing the job that they were designed to do.

"We found that MPAs with strict legal fishing bans work better than critics claim," study lead author Jennifer Raynor, a professor of natural resource economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said in another statement.

Ships are meant to be detectable by a GPS-based transponder, which is monitored by Automatic Identification Systems, or AIS. However, the AIS service is not 100% reliable; for example, there are areas of poor reception in Southeast Asia, while vessels conducting illegal fishing will often run dark with their transponder switched off.

Enter the satellite imagery, principally from the European Space Agency's family of Sentinel 1 Earth-observation satellites. These satellites are armed with synthetic aperture radar, which means that they can cover large swathes of the surface relatively quickly. By analyzing the satellite images with AI algorithms developed by the non-profit Global Fishing Watch, Raynor and her team were able to identify any sea vessel larger than 15 meters (49 feet).

The researchers found that MPAs are successfully deterring illegal fishing. Of the 1,380 MPAs included in the study, 78.5% experienced no commercial fishing activity, and where illegal fishing was detected, it averaged less than 24 hours per year for 82% of MPAs.

The bad news is that some MPAs are still being heavily fished. These include the Chagos Marine Reserve in the Indian Ocean and the MPA around the South Georgia and South Sandwich islands, which is managed by the United Kingdom. Sadly, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park off the coast of Australia is also still heavily fished. Each of these MPAs suffered approximately 900 hours of illegal fishing every year.

The study found that the AIS system was missing 90% of this illegal fishing, and it was only the use of satellite imagery and AI that identified how much illegal fishing was ongoing in these regions.

"No single dataset can solve the challenge of monitoring fishing activity at sea; each has its blind spots," said Mayorga. "But when we combine them, their power emerges. By fusing AIS tracking with satellite radar imagery and AI, we are now much closer to the full picture of human activity across the ocean. That's especially important in the crown jewels of the ocean — the world's most strongly protected areas — where the stakes for enforcement and biodiversity are highest."

The combined information from AIS and Sentinel-1 can better help law enforcement track down illegal fishing by targeting ships running dark in MPAs.

"This is critical for reaching the Global Biodiversity Framework's 30 by 30 target, which aims to protect 30% of oceans by 2030," said Raynor. "MPAs can help regenerate fish populations, which creates strong incentives for illegal fishing, and yet that activity was mostly absent. This is good news for marine conservation."

The study was published on July 24 in the journal Science.

NASA has unveiled a dazzling new collection of cosmic images from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, capturing spectacular stellar, nebular and galactic activity in unprecedented detail.

The collection showcases nine composite images that combine Chandra's X-ray data with observations from other space and ground-based telescopes across the infrared, optical and radio spectrum, according to a statement releasing the new images on Wednesday (July 23).

Among the highlights are spectacular views of the star-forming region N79 in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the vibrant spiral galaxies M83 and NGC 1068, and the Milky Way's own Westerlund 1 — the most massive star cluster in our galaxy and one of the closest super star clusters to our solar system. Each image illustrates Chandra's unique ability to detect high-energy phenomena, such as stellar winds, supernova remnants and black hole activity.

The stunning new image of N79 — a nebula spanning roughly 1,630 light-years, whose vast clouds of gas and dust act as a stellar nursery — was created using X-ray data from Chandra and infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The X-ray data reveals the hot gas created by young stars, which helps astronomers better understand how stars like our sun formed billions of years ago, officials said in the statement.

The spiral galaxy M83 is captured face-on, providing a clear view of its full structure. Chandra's X-ray data reveals remnants from widespread stellar explosions, or supernovas, while ground-based optical observations highlight its sweeping arms and mix of hot, young blue stars and cooler, older red ones.

Another mesmerizing spiral galaxy featured in this latest collection is NGC 1068, located relatively close to the Milky Way. It hosts a central black hole twice as massive as our own, from which a million-mile-per-hour winds stream and light up the galaxy's core in X-rays captured by Chandra.

The composite image of NGC 1068 also includes radio observations from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, as well as optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and JWST. Together, the data reveals different layers of the galaxy's structure and energetic processes, highlighted by bright gold light in the image.

Chandra's latest glimpse of Westerlund 1 offers a dazzling view of the star cluster, abundant with intense star formation. Chandra's X-ray data, combined with observations from the JWST and Hubble, reveals thousands of stars emitting X-rays within this bustling stellar nursery.

Other featured targets include the colliding galaxy pair IC 1623, the starburst galaxy M82 with its X-ray-blown gas plumes, star-forming hotbeds IC 348 and NGC 346, and an edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 2146, which boasts a dusty arm that blocks the view of its center from Earth's perspective.

Now in orbit for over 25 years, Chandra remains one of NASA's most powerful space telescopes, delivering ultra-sharp images that help astronomers map cosmic structures in remarkable detail.

The full collection of new images is available online.

What's likely fueling the confusion is a genuinely spectacular event coming up on Aug. 2, 2027, which we've been rightly calling the "eclipse of the century." On that day, the moon will completely block the sun for up to 6 minutes and 22 seconds, delivering the longest period of totality on land in the 21st century

For comparison, the April 8, 2024, total solar eclipse across Mexico, the U.S. and Canada offered a maximum totality of 4 minutes and 28 seconds — already considered unusually long.

It may seem like hyperbole, but the total solar eclipse on Aug. 2, 2027, is being dubbed the "eclipse of the century" for good reason. It will bring the longest totality on land of the entire 21st century (since 1991, in fact) and will be the longest remaining totality until July. 16, 2114. So while the "won't happen again for 100 years" assertion is false, 2027's totality is the longest for 87 years.

The path of totality in 2027 — where it will "go dark" (though it's actually more like a 360-degree twilight) — is wider than usual, because the moon will be at its closest, but it's still narrow on a global scale. On Aug. 2, 2027, the path will be about 160 miles (258 kilometers) wide and surge across 9,462 miles (15,227 km) of Earth's surface. That's about 1.5 million square miles (2.5 million square km) — a lot, but a tiny fraction of Earth's 197 million square miles (510 million square kilometers).

The path of totality will cross parts of 11 countries, mostly across North Africa and the Middle East. The total solar eclipse will be visible in Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. A partial eclipse will be visible across most of Africa, Europe and southern Asia. For the rest of the world — including North America — it will be business as usual.

To witness a total solar eclipse is a rare and awe-inspiring experience if you're in the right spot — and have clear skies. Within the path on Aug. 2, 2027, are some spectacular places to experience totality, from Tarifa at the southern tip of Spain to the beaches of Tunisia and Luxor, the temple-strewn capital of ancient Egypt.

That's all happening in August 2027, not this August. It's not possible for the entire Earth to simultaneously go dark. Besides, there is no solar eclipse of any type in August. The next one is a partial solar eclipse on Sept. 21, when up to 80% of the sun will be eclipsed by the moon as seen from the Pacific Ocean (including Fiji, Tahiti and New Zealand) and Antarctica.

The world will not go dark this August, but if the century's longest total solar eclipse appeals, circle Aug. 2, 2027, on your calendar and book a trip right now.

Located about 35 light-years from Earth, L 98-59 is a cool, dim red dwarf star already known to host a compact system of small, rocky planets. The latest discovery, led by researchers at the Université de Montréal's Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets, confirms the presence of L 98-59 f, a super-Earth with a minimum mass 2.8 times that of our planet.

The newly discovered exoplanet follows an almost perfectly circular 23-Earth-day orbit around its star. The world receives roughly the same amount of stellar energy as Earth, placing it in the star's habitable zone — a range of distances where liquid water could exist under suitable atmospheric conditions, according to a statement from the university.

"Finding a temperate planet in such a compact system makes this discovery particularly exciting," Charles Cadieux, a postdoctoral researcher at the university and lead author of the study, said in the statement. "It highlights the remarkable diversity of exoplanetary systems and strengthens the case for studying potentially habitable worlds around low-mass stars."

L 98-59 f was discovered by reanalyzing data from the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) and ESPRESSO (Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations) spectrographs. Since the exoplanet doesn't transit, or pass in front of, its host star from our perspective, astronomers spotted it by tracking subtle shifts in the star's motion that are caused by the planet's gravitational pull.

By combining the spectrograph data with observations from NASA's TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) — and using advanced techniques to filter out stellar noise — researchers were able to determine the size, mass and key properties of all five planets.

The study shows that L 98-59 b, the innermost planet, is just 84% the size of Earth and half its mass, making it one of the smallest exoplanets measured. Tidal forces may drive volcanic activity on the system's two innermost planets, while the third's unusually low density suggests it could be a water-rich world unlike any in our solar system. This diversity offers a rare opportunity to investigate the formation and evolution of planetary systems beyond our own, team members said.

"These new results paint the most complete picture we've ever had of the fascinating L 98-59 system," Cadieux said. "It's a powerful demonstration of what we can achieve by combining data from space telescopes and high-precision instruments on Earth, and it gives us key targets for future atmospheric studies with the James Webb Space Telescope."

Because L 98-59 is small and nearby, its planets are especially well-suited for follow-up atmospheric studies. If L 98-59 f has an atmosphere, telescopes like JWST may be able to detect water vapor, carbon dioxide — or even biosignatures.

The new study was published July 12 in the journal Earth and Planetary Astrophysics.

Over the past year, massive surveys of galaxies by both the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) have revealed that dark energy — the mysterious force that's accelerating the expansion of the universe — might be changing with time. If this observation holds, it would be a paradigm-shifting result because it would mean our simplest model of dark energy, called the cosmological constant, is wrong.

With this new result, there is plenty of room for theoretical exploration into possible explanations and radical new theories of the cosmos. One of those, presented in a paper in June but not yet peer-reviewed, proposes a complex model for dark energy that allows for surprising behavior.

In this model, there are two components that contribute to dark energy. One is an axion, a hypothetical ultralight particle that hardly ever interacts with matter. These particles would soak the entire universe, and their average energy would drive the current period of accelerated expansion.

However, in this model, there's another component: the cosmological constant. This is a bare number in Einstein's theory of general relativity that can also explain dark energy. However, in this model, the cosmological constant has a lower value, as some of the accelerated expansion can be attributed to the axions.

In fact, the researchers behind the new study found that the best way to fit the DES and DESI data was to have the axions working in tandem with a negative cosmological constant. This would mean we are in a temporary period of accelerated expansion, driven largely by the axion field. But as time goes on, the axions will dilute and lose steam, allowing for the negative cosmological constant to take over, the authors propose.

A negative cosmological constant would do the exact opposite as a positive one: It would decelerate the universe's expansion rate instead of accelerating it. This would mean that, at some point in the future, the expansion of the cosmos would slow down, stop and begin to reverse — beginning a new "Big Crunch" phase.

The end of that process would be the mirror image of the Big Bang: Galaxies would merge, and the universe would get smaller, hotter and denser, ultimately meeting its end in a new singularity.

The theorists predict that the beginning of the end will be in about 10 billion years — less than the present age of the universe. The cosmos will then spend another 10 billion years collapsing, with the universe reaching its final singularity state after a total lifetime of just over 33 billion years.

Although this model would mean the universe is not quite at its midlife stage, it is well over halfway to its maximum size.

But this idea is deeply hypothetical. The DES and DESI results are preliminary findings and may not hold up to further scrutiny. And even if we do find that the cosmological constant is lacking, it doesn't make this model correct. We'll just have to wait and see.

The exact timing of the new moon phase happens at 3:11 p.m. Eastern Time (1911 UTC), according to the U.S. Naval Observatory. The new phase of the moon is called that because in many lunar calendar systems, it marks the start of the month. At that time, the sun and moon are in conjunction, meaning they share the same celestial longitude. Unless there is a solar eclipse, the moon itself isn't visible since it is so close to the sun and the illuminated side is facing away from Earth. (The next partial solar eclipse is due in September, and will be visible in the Southern Hemisphere).

The time of a given Lunar phase is measured by where the moon is relative to the Earth, which means any differences are because of one's time zone. For example, the new moon is at 8:11 p.m. in London, 9:11 p.m. in Paris, and 5:11 a.m. July 25 in Beijing.

Visible Planets

For mid-northern latitudes, Mercury will be in the evening sky July 24 but lost in the glare of the sun; the planet sets soon after the sun does – in New York sunset is at 8:19 p.m. and Mercury sets at 8:30 p.m.; the sky background will be too bright to see the planet.

Mars will be low in the southwest on July 24; in New York Mars sets at 10:32 p.m. By 9 p.m. the sky is getting darker and Mars is about 16 degrees high. It will still be a bit hard to spot as the sky will be relatively light – civil twilight ends at 8:50 p.m. Eastern – but the reddish color will help distinguish it from other objects and stars.

Saturn is the first planet to rise after Mars sets, at 10:56 p.m. on July 24 in New York City. As the planet is in the constellation Pisces, it will be quite distinct in its region of sky as Pisces is fainter and hard to see from city locations. As the sky starts to lighten by about 4:30 to 5:00 a.m. (the morning of July 25) it will be about 37 degrees above the south-southeastern horizon.

Following Saturn is Venus, rising in New York at 2:51 a.m. on July 25. Venus is in Taurus, and so bright that it is immediately identifiable; it will look like the brightest "star" in the sky. By about 4:30 a.m. it is prominent in the east-northeast, though still low in the sky at about 17 degrees in altitude.

Jupiter rises at 3:58 a.m. EDT in New York. Jupiter is in Gemini, though the constellation itself will be harder to see as the planet rises so close to sunrise (5:46 a.m.). Jupiter will appear to the left and below Venus.

In the Southern Hemisphere, for example in Melbourne, Australia, (where the new moon is on July 25 at 5:11 a.m.) it is winter, and the sun sets early; at 5:27 p.m. on the evening of July 25; civil twilight ends at 5:55 p.m. so by about 6:30 p.m. the sky is dark enough to see the stars. Mars will be in the northwest about 32 degrees high at that point, in the constellation Leo near the Lion's tail (appearing to be between Leo and Virgo). Mars sets at 9:31 p.m.

Saturn rises in Melbourne at 10:09 p.m. and will be in the east; if it is a dark sky location one can see a "circlet" of Pisces (one of the Fish) to the left of the planet as it rises. The planet transits at 4:16 a.m., and it will be 53 degrees high in the northern sky.

Venus rises in Melbourne at 4:46 a.m. July 26, and as sunrise isn't until 7:25 a.m. it will have a chance to get quite high in the northeast before it fades from view in the dawn light; by 7 a.m. the planet will still look like the "morning star" and be 20 degrees above the horizon.

Jupiter rises last, at 6:03 a.m. local time in Melbourne, and won't be as easy to spot as Venus but if one has an unobstructed horizon (for example one is looking out over a plain or the ocean) one will see Jupiter about 4 degrees high forming a triangle with Jupiter, Venus and Aldebaran being the bottom and making a line up and to the left, with Betelgeuse as the top point above and to the right of Venus.

Summer Stars

For Northern Hemisphere sky watchers, by about 10 p.m. the Summer Triangle is high in the eastern sky; the "top" star is Vega, the brightest star in Lyra the Lyre, and it is about 74 degrees above the horizon. By about 11:30 p.m. local time (in most mid-northern latitude locations) Vega is almost directly overhead, within a few degrees of the zenith from the continental United States. The other two stars in the Summer triangle are Deneb and Altair, both of which are east (to the left) of Vega; Deneb is the more northerly of the two and higher in the sky. From a dark sky site one can see the Milky Way inside the Triangle.

Deneb is the tail of Cygnus the Swan –its name is from the Arabic word for tail, dhaneb  —  and also contains an asterism called the Northern Cross. Cygnus has been associated with more than one legendary swan – one is the form Zeus took to seduce Leda (mother of the twins represented by Gemini) and the other is the form Orpheus was given after being murdered, with the constellation [placed in the sky near Lyra, his Lyre. Chinese astronomers saw Cygnus as the "Black Tortoise of the North."

Turning left – towards the north one will see the Big Dipper to the left (in the northwest) part of the sky. The Big Dipper is an asterism that is part of the Ursa Major, the Great Bear; the end of the Dipper's handle is in the Bear's tail. Following the "pointers" (the two stars in the front of the bowl of the Dipper, called Dubhe and Merak) one can make a line to the left to find Polaris, the Pole Star and the end of the tail for Ursa Minor, the Little Bear, also called the Little Dipper.

Continuing straight across one encounter Cepheus, the king, and just below Cepheus is the "W" shape of Cassiopeia, the Queen (Cepheus' wife) which will be a bit lower in the northeast.

Going back to the Dipper, follow the handle of the big dipper and "arc to Arcturus" the brightest star in Boötes, the herdsman, and continuing downward you hit Spica, the brightest star in Virgo. If you stay at Boötes, and look left of Arcturus and a bit up, one can see a circlet of stars anchored by a brighter one in the middle of the arc; this is Corona Boreallis, the Northern Crown.

Turning south, putting the Big Dipper and Polaris behind you, one sees the bright red star Antares, the heart of Scorpius, and in darker sky locations looking up (north) from Scorpio one sees Ophiuchus the healer, with Sagittarius and its "teapot" shape to the left of Scorpius.

In the mid-southern latitudes one sees the stars of winter. – darkness comes earlier. By 7 p.m. at the latitude of Buenos Aires, Melbourne or Cape Town, the sky is dark and Crux, the Southern Cross is high above the southern horizon, about 60 degrees. To the left of the Cross (east) is Hadar, the second brightest star in Centaurus, the Centaur, and to the left of that is Alpha Centauri, also called Rigil Kentaurus, our nearest stellar neighbor.

Centaurus is a constellation associated with Chiron, who according to legend was Hercules' tutor. Looking east one sees Scorpius, though upside-down (from the point of view of a Northern Hemisphere observer) with its brightest star Antares very high in the sky; a full 60 degrees in altitude. If one looks straight downward from Scorpius one encounters the teapot shape of stars that is Sagittarius; in mid southern latitudes the teapot shape is almost vertical.

Towards the southwest, looking downwards from the Southern Cross is a large circle of seven to eight stars (depending on how dark your local sky is, given city lights) which is Vela, the Ship's Sail. Below Vela is the ship's keel, Carina, setting and marked by Canopus, about 11 degrees above the southwestern horizon. Canopus is the second-brightest star in the night sky after Sirius. Vela and Carina are parts of what was once a giant constellation called Argo, the ship of Jason.

Award-winning creators, executive producers, and showrunners Akiva Goldsman and Henry Alonso Myers are not shy about providing their cast's characters with more "amour" this season. We connected with the creative duo to learn about love in space and hear how much fun it is to sling Cupid's arrows around the USS Enterprise to see what hot hook-ups arise.

"I think it is a lot of fun and I think that because of the stronger genre walls that existed in the '60s, the show was sexy for its time, but it didn’t really entertain romance beyond the sort of Kirk date of the week," Goldsman tells Space.com. "And I use 'date' kindly. We believe that if you put a lot of people close together in a spaceship and hurl them across the galaxy, things will happen, and it's a delight. We're secretly 'Love Stories in Space.' I think that people understand character as revealed during romance. It's a great way in and our actors are good at it."

Myers is also quite enthusiastic regarding the intimate relationships popping up in the series, and it's something he and Goldsman shared a strong affection for in terms of its dramatic effect.

"When Akiva and I first met to talk about the show we were surprised that it was something we both really loved, and that we were looking for lots of ways to bring it out in the show," Myers notes. "It's great for the actors and as viewers understanding the romance makes you think of the characters differently and deeply in a way you may not have thought of them before.

"Things that we've gotten to do with Spock are a little more relatable to today's audience in a cool way. There's not an actor on our show who doesn't have an interesting approach to this. Pike has had a great deep love story that we've followed through the seasons. In the pilot, Akiva had cast an actress [Melanie Scrofano] as Betel and they were really in synch and they worked well together."

The evolving cast chemistry on display is palpable once again in Season 3 and maintaining that connected tone often takes a hands-off approach.

"Having worked on 'Fringe,' and I will include 'Fringe' in this, I have never been part of a cast that is, to the man, woman and child as extraordinary as this cast," Goldsman adds. "Typically there's a weak link somewhere and you write away from that person. It's just not the case. This cast is so extraordinary and versatile and brave and they're constantly showing each other what they can do, showing us what they can do, challenging us to write to see whether they can do it, and always living up to the occasion. I think that's just a function of good luck and good casting."

In the season opener, we return to those aggressive reptilian creatures known as the Gorn when Pike and Co. come to the rescue of his imprisoned crew and Parnassus Beta colonists. These aliens have been fan favorites for the last two seasons but now they're being laid to rest at last.

"Well, the Gorn were my idea and boy are they a pain in the ass," jokes Goldsman. "You'll notice the further into the show you've gotten, the more CG they've become. That's not an accident. That being said, in Melissa's [Ortega] episode this season, which is one of our very best, they're the puppet that is the Gorn as well as the CG Gorn and they're synthesized to create a character. There I think we hit the pinnacle of our ability to present the Gorn and we're very proud of it.

"In part it is also the work the Gorn is doing with a human actor. We've had a lot of Gorn. Here today, Gorn tomorrow. I think it's now time for other scary things to take their place."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 3 is now streaming exclusively on Paramount+ with new episodes each Thursday.

What is it?

4MOST is an instrument made of approximately 2436 individual fibers, with each collecting light from different sources simultaneously. This allows the telescope to scan and analyze many objects at the same time, an incredible superpower astronomers look forward to using.

Where is it?

4MOST is currently located at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Scientists and engineers are working to add the instrument to the 4.1-meter Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, or VISTA for short.

Why is it amazing?

With its thousands of fibers, 4MOST will be able to provide astronomers with key details about our universe. In a recent test, the instrument was able to control each of its 2,436 fibers individually. This is key, as each fiber will analyze an object and break its light down into a spectrum of corresponding colors, which can tell scientists what chemicals something in space is made of, how fast it is moving and other variables.

Over the next five years, 4MOST will analyze around 25 million different sources in a patch of sky bigger than 60, 000 full moons. From this survey and the spectrum breakdown, astronomers can understand what our early universe was made of, and how it has evolved since then.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about the European Southern Observatory's recent research, as well as other telescopes in Chile.

Hints at the evolution of dark energy, which accounts for around 70% of the universe's mass and energy, were first delivered last year by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). This indication was shocking because the best description we have of the cosmos, the standard model of cosmology, or the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) model, predicts that dark energy should be constant over time.

These new results, provided by the Supernova Cosmology Project and consisting of 2,087 detonating vampire stars, otherwise called standardized Type 1a supernovas, constitute another line of evidence that dark energy is not constant and that the LCDM may need revision.

If dark energy is weakening, this would have ramifications for our understanding of how the cosmos will end.

"Dark energy makes up almost 70% of the universe and is what drives the expansion, so if it is getting weaker, we would expect to see expansion slow over time," team leader and University of Hawaii at Mānoa researcher David Rubin said in a statement. "Does the universe expand forever, or eventually stall, or even start contracting again? It depends on this balance between dark energy and matter.

"We want to find out which wins, and we want to understand this underlying piece of our universe."

Exploding vampires and cosmic rulers

Type 1a supernovas involve stellar remnants called white dwarfs that are left behind when stars around the size of the sun die. When in close binary partnerships with other stars, these stellar corpses can steal matter like a cosmic vampire.

This material builds up on a white dwarf until the dead star is tipped over the so-called Chandrasekhar limit, around 1.4 times the mass of the sun. Exceeding this limit means the white dwarf can go supernova.

The resultant explosions are Type 1a supernovas — and they are useful as a measurement tool for astronomers because their light output is uniform from event to event. By comparing Type 1a supernovas at different distances and seeing how their light has been redshifted by the expansion of the universe, the value for the rate of expansion of the universe (the Hubble constant) can be obtained. Then, that can be used to understand the impact of dark energy on the cosmos at different times.

This story is fitting because it was the study of 50 Type 1a supernovas that first tipped astronomers off to the existence of dark energy in the first place back in 1998.

Since then, astronomers have observed a further 2,000 Type 1a supernovas with different telescopes. This new project corrects any differences between those observations caused by different astronomical instruments, such as how the filters of telescopes drift over time, to curate the largest standardized Type 1a supernova dataset ever. It's named Union3.

Union3 contains 2,087 supernovas from 24 different datasets spanning 7 billion years of cosmic time. It builds upon the 557 supernovas catalogued in an original dataset called Union2.

Analysis of Union3 does indeed seem to corroborate the results of DESI — that dark energy is weakening over time — but the results aren't yet conclusive.

What is impressive about Union3, however, is that it presents two separate routes of investigation that both point toward non-constant dark energy.

"I don't think anyone is jumping up and down getting overly excited yet, but that's because we scientists are suppressing any premature elation since we know that this could go away once we get even better data," Saul Perlmutter, study team member and a researcher at Berkeley Lab, said in a statement. "On the other hand, people are certainly sitting up in their chairs now that two separate techniques are showing moderate disagreement with the simple Lambda CDM model."

And when it comes to dark energy in general, Perlmutter says the scientific community will pay attention. After all, he shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering this strange force.

"It's exciting that we’re finally starting to reach levels of precision where things become interesting and you can begin to differentiate between the different theories of dark energy," Perlmutter said.

The team's Type 1a supernova dataset will grow with a further three datasets due to be added next year. Two of these will be high-redshift supernovas seen at great distances, while one will contain more local low-redshift supernovas. That should help better calibrate the new results, the researchers say.

"We wanted to set a baseline before we bring in several hundred new low-redshift supernovas, which is one of the areas where the calibration is most crucial and where we have some of the weakest datasets in the results so far," Greg Aldering, study team member and a researcher at Berkley Lab, said in the statement. "We think we really understand the calibration in a way no one has before, and we’re excited to add more supernovas and see what they can tell us about dark energy."

This analysis will be further bolstered when data starts rolling in from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Rubin is projected to potentially uncover 1 million Type 1a supernovas over its ten-year-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) survey.

This research could really deliver when it is once again combined and compared with observations of fluctuations in the early matter concentrations called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) measured by DESI.

"BAO can look further back in time to when dark energy played less of a role in the universe, and supernovas are particularly precise in the more recent universe," Perlmutter said. "The two techniques are getting good enough that we can really start saying things about the dark energy models.

"We've been waiting to reach this point for a long time."

Although meteorological satellites orbit Earth and scan the skies around it, their imaging range extends into space, allowing them to occasionally catch glimpses of other celestial neighbors, such as the moon, stars and other planets in our solar system.

"This started by chance," explained Gaku Nishiyama, a postdoctoral researcher at the German Aerospace Center (known by its German acronym, DLR) in Berlin in an interview with Space.com. "One of my best friends, who has a Ph.D. in astronomy and is a certified weather forecaster in Japan, found lunar images in Himawari-8/9 datasets and asked me to look."

At the time, Nishiyama was focused on lunar science, and he began using the Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 weather satellites — which launched in 2014 and 2016, respectively — in an unconventional way: as space telescopes. By analyzing the light the moon emitted in infrared wavelengths, he and his team were able to test the satellites' ability to capture temperature variations across the moon's surface as well as determine its physical properties.

"During this lunar work, we also found other solar-system bodies, namely Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, in the datasets. We were interested in what phenomena were recorded there," Nishiyama explained.

To spot Venus in the Himawari data, the team used the precise imaging schedule and position of the satellites. "Because we know almost exactly when and where Himawari is looking," Nishiyama said, "we can roughly predict where Venus will appear in each image. From there, we isolate the pixels corresponding to Venus."

Nishiyama and his colleagues were analyzing subtle changes in the intensity of light Venus was emitting. Such data allows scientists to track how a celestial body's brightness varies over time, which in turn reveals details about it.

The Himawari satellites ended up capturing one of the longest multiband infrared records of Venus ever assembled. This unique dataset revealed subtle, year-to-year changes in the planet's cloud-top temperatures, as well as signs of phenomena called thermal tides and Rossby waves.

"Thermal tides are global-scale gravity waves excited by solar heating in the cloud layers of Venus," Nishiyama explained. "When the atmosphere is stratified, like on Venus (i.e., a warm upper layer atop a cold lower layer), a restoring force acts upon heated air parcels, and the resulting vertical oscillations propagate as gravity waves. Rossby waves [also seen in Earth's oceans and atmosphere] are also a global-scale wave caused by variations in the Coriolis force with latitude.

"Both types of waves are crucial for transporting heat and momentum through Venus' atmosphere," he continued. "Tracking how these waves change over time helps us better understand the planet's atmospheric dynamics, especially since other data, like wind speeds and cloud reflectivity, have shown variations that play out over several years.

"Specifically, we succeeded in detecting variations in temperature fields caused by Rossby waves at various altitudes for the first time, which is important to understanding the physics behind the years-scale variation of the Venus atmosphere," said Nishiyama.

These new observations help fill a crucial gap in our understanding of Venus' dynamic upper atmosphere and open a new frontier in planetary monitoring from Earth orbit. The team's findings also challenge the calibration of key instruments on dedicated Venus spacecraft, like the LIR camera aboard Japan's Akatsuki Venus orbiter.

"To understand the atmospheric structure of Venus, determination of temperature at infrared wavelengths is crucial," said Nishiyama. "LIR was expected to provide accurate temperature information; however, LIR has faced several issues in instrument calibration."

Comparing images taken by LIR and Himawari satellites at the same time and under identical geometric conditions, the team found discrepancies and suspects that LIR may be underestimating Venus' radiance. "Our comparison between Himawari and LIR sheds light on how to recalibrate the LIR data, leading to a more accurate understanding of Venus' atmosphere," Nishiyama said.

The team is also hopeful that Himawari will complement data from missions such as Akatsuki and BepiColombo, a joint Japanese-European mission that's currently establishing itself in orbit around Mercury. Nishiyama explained that, compared to Akatsuki, Himawari covers a wider range of infrared wavelengths and provides information across various altitudes. In contrast to BepiColombo, which observed Venus only during a flyby, Himawari can monitor the planet over a much longer timescale.

"Earth-observing satellites [like Himawari] are generally calibrated so accurately that they can provide reference data for instrument calibrations in future planetary missions," he said. "Unlike meteorological observation on the Earth, there are often time gaps between planetary missions. Since meteorological satellites continue observation from space for decadal timescales, these satellites can supplement data even when there are no planetary exploration spacecraft orbiting around planets."

Nishiyama said that the team has already archived other solar-system bodies, which are now being analyzed. "We believe that continuing such activities will further expand our horizon in the field of planetary science," he concluded.

The team reported their findings last month in the journal Earth, Planets and Space.

The "Neil Armstrong Space Prize" was announced by Purdue University on Sunday (July 20) — the 56th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing — at an event held in Washington, D.C. The honor is intended to share the same clout as the Nobel Prize, but for advancements in space exploration.

"This prize carries Armstrong's name and Purdue's space legacy," said Mung Chiang, president of Purdue University, in a statement released by the school. "We unveil the creation of a Nobel-level prize for space at a transformational time for the next giant leaps in space."

Eight out of Purdue's 22 living astronaut alums joined Chiang at the National Building Museum to help introduce the prize. The Indiana university has the distinction of being the alma matter for more astronauts than any other school (28 in total). The award's namesake, Neil Armstrong, received his undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from Purdue in 1955.

Led by seven-time space shuttle mission specialist Jerry Ross, the seven other astronauts at the event included fellow shuttle veterans Roy Bridges, Mark Polansky and Charlie Walker, as well as suborbital fliers Sirisha Bandla, Marc Eagle, Beth Moses and Audrey Powers.

Set to be bestowed for the first time next year, the Armstrong Prize will be awarded in three categories: technologies that improve life on Earth, discoveries that increase our knowledge about the universe and achievements in space exploration that inspire future achievements.

Nominations for individuals or teams to receive the inaugural prize will be accepted beginning in August through Nov. 1, 2025.

The selection committee includes former NASA associate administrator Jim Free, SpaceX Starbase manager Kathy Lueders, former president of Blue Origin Rob Meyerson and the former head of NASA's science division Thomas Zurbuchen. The panel is chaired by Dan Dumbacher, professor of engineering practice at Purdue.

"At a time when space is more accessible than ever, this award aims to inspire the next generation of space leaders while highlighting Purdue's enduring role in space research, exploration, security and partnerships with NASA, the U.S. Space Force and the commercial space sector," said Arvind Raman, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Purdue's College of Engineering.

Tianzhou 9 launched July 14 atop a Long March 7 rocket at 5:34 p.m. EDT (2134 GMT; 5:34 a.m. on July 15 China Standard Time), sending the spacecraft into orbit. Just over three hours later, at 8:52 p.m. EDT (0052 GMT; 8:52 p.m. China Standard Time on July 15), Tianzhou 9 docked at the rear docking port of the Tiangong space station's Tianhe core module, according to China's human spaceflight agency, CMSA.

Packed aboard Tianzhou 9 was 7.2 tons (6.5 metric tons) of cargo, including 1.65 tons (1.5 metric tons) of food for the three Shenzhou 20 mission astronauts, who arrived at Tiangong on April 24, and the Shenzhou 21 crew, expected to launch to the space station around October to begin their own six-month-long stay in orbit.

Also aboard Tianzhou 9 were two new sets of Feitian extravehicular spacesuits, which have been upgraded with greater durability and mission lifetime; core muscle exercise equipment for astronaut fitness; and scientific payloads for various fields of research.

Astronaut core strength was highlighted as key to performance and health while in orbit and for recovery back on the ground, as well as for grand future plans.

"The stronger [our astronauts are], the longer and farther we can go. Core strength is crucial not only for space station operations but also for future missions to the moon," Li Yinghui, researcher at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, told China Central Television, regarding the 287-pound (130 kilograms) core exercise device.

Among the science payloads were three sets of samples for cellular biology experiments. These are bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells for studying bone loss caused by the prolonged absence of gravitational stimulation, cells derived from failing hearts with the aim of developing therapeutic measures, and samples related to anti-aging research.

Another experiment will involve cutting-edge biotechnology, using human pluripotent stem cells to build miniature brain-like organoid models on chips roughly the size of a credit card, hosted in the biotechnology experiment cabinet onboard the Wentian lab module.

The Tianzhou 9 spacecraft itself features a number of upgrades over previous models. It has the greatest payload volume of any of the Tianzhou spacecraft so far launched by China. It is also more easily prepared for space launch in the event of an emergency.

"Tianzhou 9 is the first cargo spacecraft capable of emergency launch, able to be launched to the space station within three months if required. This is the significance of an emergency response spacecraft," Li Zhiyong, a member of the Tianzhou spacecraft development team with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), told CCTV.

The first Tianzhou vehicle launched in April 2017 and docked with Tiangong 2, a prototype lab used as a stepping stone toward building the three-module Tiangong, which was constructed across 2021 and 2022.

Tiangong is about 20% as massive as the International Space Station. China has suggested, however, that it will expand the orbital outpost in the coming years.

Hydrogen peroxide forms as a byproduct when energetic particles break apart water molecules, leading to the recombination of OH radicals — highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons.

H2O2 was first observed on Europa by the Galileo Near Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, a scientific instrument aboard NASA's Galileo Jupiter orbiter that was designed to study the composition and surface features of the gas giant's moons and atmosphere using infrared light. Later, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) noticed elevated levels of hydrogen peroxide in unexpected areas on the Jovian satellite.

Lab studies predicted that higher concentrations of hydrogen peroxide would be found in Europa's colder polar regions — but JWST observations showed the opposite, detecting higher levels in the moon's warmer equatorial regions. These areas, known as chaos terrains, are marked by broken blocks of surface ice that appear to have shifted, drifted and refrozen.

"Europa's peroxide distribution does not follow the temperature dependence predicted for pure water ice," wrote the team in their paper. Lab studies consistently show that colder ice has more H2O2, while warmer ice has less.

In a new study, scientists report that they have noticed higher levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the chaos terrains alongside elevated levels of H2O2. This is probably the result of CO2 escaping Europa's subsurface ocean through cracks in the ice, the researchers say.

The team therefore wondered if the presence of CO2 might be changing the ice's chemistry.

"Could the presence of CO2 drive the enhanced peroxide production in Europa's chaos regions, signaling a surface composition more conducive to the formation of this radiolytic oxidant?" they wrote in their paper. "Supporting this hypothesis are preliminary experiments on irradiated H2O-CO2 ice mixtures that show increased H2O2 yields compared to pure water ice."

To find a definitive answer, they "simulated the surface environment of Europa inside a vacuum chamber by depositing water ice mixed with CO2," Bereket Mamo, a graduate student at The University of Texas at San Antonio and a contractor with the Southwest Research Institute, said in a statement. "We then irradiated this ice mixture with energetic electrons to see how the peroxide production changed."

The experiment confirmed what the team had suspected: Even small amounts of CO2 in water ice can greatly boost hydrogen peroxide production at temperatures similar to those on Europa's surface, helping to explain the unexpected JWST observations.

This occurs because CO2 molecules behave as "molecular scavengers," grabbing hold of any stray electrons produced when radiation hits the water ice. By capturing these electrons, the CO2 helps protect hydrogen peroxide from being broken apart by further impacts or reactions.

"Synthesis of oxidants like hydrogen peroxide on Europa's surface is important from an astrobiological point of view," said study co-author Richard Cartwright, from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "In fact, an entire NASA mission, the Europa Clipper, is en route to the Jovian system right now to explore the icy moon and help us understand Europa's habitability.

"Our experiments provide clues to better understand JWST Europa observations and serve as a prelude to upcoming close-range investigations by Europa Clipper and ESA's [the European Space Agency] JUICE spacecraft," Cartwright added.

The new study was published in the Planetary Science Journal on Monday (July 21).

U.S. Space Force General Michael Guetlein, Vice Chief of Space Operations, was tapped by President Trump to lead the Golden Dome project on May 20 and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 17. His role will be to oversee the development and procurement of technologies for Golden Dome, a planned missile defense system that can shoot down incoming hypersonic, cruise and ballistic missiles from space.

At least, that's the plan. Such a system has never before been developed or deployed, but has been envisioned as far back as 1983 when President Ronald Reagan introduced a similar idea known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. At the time, Reagan's was criticized for sounding outlandish, but according to Guetlein, the capabilities needed for such a system are already here. "I firmly believe that the technology that we need to deliver Golden Dome exists today," Guetlein said during his fireside chat at the Space Foundation's Innovate Space: Global Economic Summit held on July 22. "It has just never brought been brought to bear on this problem set to protect the homeland, nor has it been brought to bear on this form factor."

The summit was held at Amazon's corporate headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.

Guetlein said that while the capabilities of making the imagined ballistic missile system already exist, one major challenge will be changing the organizational culture that exists throughout the U.S. military and its associated contractors to make room for the new idea. "How do I take capabilities that were built in stove pipes for different mission areas, amongst different services, different agencies, bring those together as an integrated architecture?" Guetlein asked the crowd.

The Space Force general described the culture during his time in the U.S. Air Force, saying military leaders were wary of trusting private contractors or telling them sensitive information. But as Space Force turns more to commercial industry for new technologies needed to fight a potential conflict in space, military leaders are rethinking that culture. "Space is too big for the Space Force to go it alone," Guetlein said.

Other Space Force leaders have made similar comments in recent months. In April 2025, at the Space Foundation's Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, U.S. Chief of Space Operations General Chance B. Saltzman told attendees the service "must harness the benefits of technological innovation and emerging capabilities if we're going to be able to out-compete our competitors," and that, historically, "military success has hinged on support from commercial industry."

In fact, private aerospace contractors already do appear to be testing technologies that would be required to build a system like Golden Dome. Kathy Warden, CEO of Northrop Grumman, told investors the company is already testing Golden-Dome-related technologies during a quarterly earnings call on July 22, according to The War Zone.

Aside from current capabilities like radar systems and other classified projects, Warden said Golden Dome will "include new innovation, like space-based interceptors, which we're testing now.”

Such technologies are crucial for the development of a space-based missile defense system like Golden Dome, Guetlein said during the summit this week, but emphasized that several necessary capabilities have already been developed for the project. "I think the real technical challenge will be building of the space-based interceptor. That technology exists, I believe. I believe we have proven every element of the physics, that we can make it work," Guetlein said.

But that doesn't mean other challenges don't remain. "What we have not proven is, first, can I do it economically, and then second, can I do it at scale?" Guetlein added. "Can I build enough satellites to get after the threat? Can I expand the industrial base fast enough to build those satellites? Do I have enough raw materials, et cetera?"

The U.S. Space Force general also underscored the need for Golden Dome by describing a few of the weapon capabilities that potential adversaries like Russia and China have been developing —  capabilities in which the U.S. still lags far behind, according to statements from military leaders in recent years.

China and Russia have been "building hypersonic missiles capable of traveling in excess of 6,000 miles an hour and maneuvering in endgame," Guetlein said during the summit. "They've been building satellites or weapons that look like satellites on launch, fly around the Earth, and it can navigate into any point on the Earth that they want.

"And the list of threats keeps going on."

The team also found a mixture of organic molecules, silicates and carbon based minerals on the object, meaning 3I/ATLAS resembles asteroids found at the outskirts of the solar system's main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The team's observations, made with the SpeX instrument on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF), perched upon the mountain Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph equipped on the Gemini South Telescope in Chile.

Discovered on July 1 by the ATLAS survey telescope, 3I/ATLAS is just the third object astronomers have discovered passing through the solar system from outside its boundaries.

The previous two interstellar bodies discovered in the solar system were the cigar-shaped 1I/'Oumuamua, seen in 2017, and the seeming asteroid/comet hybrid 2I/Borisov, detected two years later in 2019.

Some scientists estimate there could be as many as 1 million interstellar visitors in the solar system at any one time. It's thought that many of these could lurk in the Oort cloud, a shell of comets located at the very edge of the solar system. The study of 3I/ATLAS and other interstellar interlopers could reveal what conditions are like in other planetary systems.

"3I/ATLAS is an active comet. It clearly shows a coma and likely contains a significant amount of water ice," Bin Yang, the leader of this new research and a scientist at the Universidad Diego Portales, told Space.com. "Its physical activity confirms its classification as a comet. The most exciting finding was the presence of water ice features in the coma."

Comas are the nebulous envelopes of gas and dust that surround comets. This material has been expelled from within a comet's nucleus — that means analyzing it with a technique called spectroscopy can tell astronomers what the rock and ice of that comet is composed of.

"We obtained visible and near-infrared spectra of 3I/ATLAS as it approached the sun," Yang said. "However, no gas emissions were detected."

Yang and colleagues found that while 3I/ATLAS is undoubtedly a comet, some of its spectroscopic characteristics and its dust composition resemble D-type asteroids. These are bodies from the main asteroid belt with organic molecule-rich silicates and carbon with water ice in their interiors.

"Its reflectance properties are most similar to D-type asteroids and some active comets," Yang said. "The spectrum of 3I/ATLAS can be matched by a combination of Tagish Lake meteorite material and water ice. This suggests a mixture of organics, silicates, carbonate minerals and a significant amount of water ice."

This could also offer deeper insight into the evolution of the Milky Way. That's because separate research has used the trajectory of 3I/ATLAS to infer that it comes from a region of our galaxy with stars that formed around 2.5 billion years prior to our 4.6 billion-year-old sun.

That gives 3I/ATLAS a prospective age of 7 billion years, which would make it the oldest comet humanity has ever seen.

"If the initial water ice detection is confirmed, it could indeed represent some of the oldest and most pristine water ever observed, formed in another planetary system and preserved throughout its interstellar journey," Yang said.

Yang emphasized that there is yet to be a direct detection of individual compounds around 3I/ATLAS, with these results representing an inferred composition.

"3I/ATLAS is only the third confirmed interstellar object. Observing it near perihelion [its closest approach to the sun gave us a rare opportunity to study how interstellar material behaves under solar heating, an exciting and scientifically valuable event," Yang said. "The structure of water ice carries rich information about the object's formation conditions."

Yang and colleagues are now awaiting complementary data from other teams using large telescopes like the Very Large Telescope and the Keck Observatory.

"Our goal is to combine these spectra to confirm the ice detection and to search for gas emissions as the object approaches the sun," Yang concluded.

Clearly, 3I/ATLAS is set to keep scientists busy for years to come.

A pre-peer-reviewed version of the team's research appears on the paper repository arXiv.

Also known as the "Prince of Darkness," Osbourne took the world by storm alongside his Black Sabbath bandmates in the early 1970s, blazing a trail for heavy metal music to ride on.

Their pioneering music was full of dark themes such as those heard in the songs "Paranoid," "Children of the Grave," "Heaven and Hell" and "War Pigs"  — but Ozzy and the band also frequently ventured into science fiction and space.

Songs like "Into the Void" and "Iron Man" expanded the heavy metal genre beyond our Earthly realms. For example, lyrics from the song "Into the Void" from Black Sabbath's 1971 album "Master of Reality" take listeners on a journey through space and time:

Rocket engines burning fuel so fast/ Up into the night sky, they blast/ Through the universe, the engines whine/ Could it be the end of man and time?

Ozzy's unique high pitched vocals stand out over the thick distorted guitar of Tony Iommi, meaty bass tone of Geezer Butler and thunderous drums of Bill Ward. Black Sabbath was a truly collaborative effort with all members involved in the songwriting process.

"Iron Man" is one of the most iconic heavy metal songs ever written. Speaking from over 20 years of performing within the genre, if you didn't play the song at least once, you likely weren't a hard rocker. The song is a true sci-fi epic, featuring standout lyrics describing the cosmos and time travel:

He was turned to steel/ In the great magnetic field/ When he travelled time/ For the future of mankind

Other cosmic tunes from the band included "Planet Caravan," "Symptom of the Universe," and "Hole in the Sky" to name a few.

Ozzy went on to have a lucrative solo career after leaving Black Sabbath, featuring an assortment of amazing players including legendary guitarists Randy Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, and Jake E. Lee. During those years, his songs touched on skywatching themes with lyrics like "I told them I had ridden shooting stars" from the song "Over the Mountain" and who can forget the ominous "Bark at the Moon" from the album of the same name?

Osbourne also got cosmic with the tunes "Revelation (Mother Earth)" and "Civilize the Universe."

Music didn't seem to be enough later in his career, so in the early 2000s Ozzy took his family on a reality TV spin with MTV smash hit "The Osbournes." He would also go on to star in more reality shows that also took on space and sci-fi. For example, "The Osbournes Want To Believe" on the Travel Channel featured Ozzy venturing into the realm of the paranormal and UFOs.

Osbourne and family got even closer to space travel on another reality show on the A&E network named "Ozzy and Jack's World Detour." One episode featured the father and son duo visiting NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston where they test drove a Mars rover prototype and suffered an anomaly of sorts while driving over some rocks.

In another episode, Ozzy and Jack visited Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama where they were given a tour by NASA astronaut Shannen Walker.

Having closely followed Ozzy's incredible journey through stardom, the upsetting news of his passing so soon after his moving last ever performances with Black Sabbath and his solo band at the "Back to the Beginning" tribute show has been hard to process for his fans. Ozzy's music has been and will continue to be incredibly influential. You can see that with the outpouring of emotions from his band mates and colleagues.

If there is a "great gig in the sky," we can truly expect to see Ozzy reunited with Randy Rhoads rockin' the "Crazy Train" forever.

I was preparing for my early morning class back in January 2025 when I received a notice regarding an asteroid called 2024 YR4. It said the probability it could hit Earth was unusually high.

As defending Earth from unexpected intruders such as asteroids is part of my expertise, I immediately started receiving questions from my students and colleagues about what was happening.

When scientists spot an asteroid whose trajectory might take it close to Earth, they monitor it frequently and calculate the probability that it might collide with our planet. As they receive more observational data, they get a better picture of what could happen.

Just having more data points early doesn’t make scientists’ predictions better. They need to keep following the asteroid as it moves through space to better understand its trajectory.

Reflecting on the incident a few months later, I wondered whether there might have been a better way for scientists to communicate about the risk with the public. We got accurate information, but as the questions I heard indicated, it wasn’t always enough to understand what it actually means.

Numbers change every day

The 2024 YR24 asteroid has a diameter of about 196 feet (60 meters) – equivalent to approximately a 15-story building in length.

At the time of the announcement in January, the asteroid’s impact probability was reported to exceed 1%. The impact probability describes how likely a hazardous asteroid is to hit Earth. For example, if the impact probability is 1%, it means that in 1 of 100 cases, it hits Earth. One in 100 is kind of rare, but still too close for comfort if you’re talking about the odds of a collision that could devastate Earth.

Over time, though, further observations and analyses revealed an almost-zero chance of this asteroid colliding with Earth.

After the initial notice in January, the impact probability continuously increased up to 3.1% on Feb. 18, but dropped to 1.5% on Feb. 19. Then, the impact probability continuously went down, until it hit 0.004% on Feb. 24. As of June 15, it now has an impact probability of less than 0.0000081%.

But while the probability of hitting Earth went down, the probability of the asteroid hitting the Moon started increasing. It went up to 1.7% on Feb. 24. As of April 2, it is 3.8%.

If it hits the Moon, some ejected materials from this collision could reach the Earth. However, these materials would burn away when they enter the Earth’s thick atmosphere.

Impact probability

To see whether an approaching object could hit Earth, researchers find out what an asteroid’s orbit looks like using a technique called astrometry. This technique can accurately determine an object’s orbit, down to only a few kilometers of uncertainty. But astrometry needs accurate observational data taken for a long time.

Any uncertainty in the calculation of the object’s orbit causes variations in the predicted solution. Instead of one precise orbit, the calculation usually gives scientists a cloud of its possible orbits. The ellipse enclosing these locations is called an error ellipse.

The impact probability describes how many orbital predictions in this ellipse hit the Earth.

Without enough observational data, the orbital uncertainty is high, so the ellipse tends to be large. In a large ellipse, there’s a higher chance that the ellipse “accidentally” includes Earth – even if the center is off the planet. So, even if an asteroid ultimately won’t hit Earth, its error ellipse might still include the planet before scientists collect enough data to narrow down the uncertainty.

As the level of uncertainty goes down, the ellipse shrinks. So, when Earth is inside a small error ellipse, the impact probability may become higher than when it’s inside a large error ellipse. Once the error ellipse shrinks enough that it no longer includes Earth, the impact probability goes down significantly. That’s what happened to 2024 YR4.

The impact probability is a single, practical value offering meaningful insight into an impact threat. However, just using the impact probability without any context may not provide meaningful guidelines to the public, as we saw with 2024 YR4.

Holding on and waiting for more data to refine a collision prediction, or introducing new metrics for assessing impacts on Earth, are alternative courses of action to provide people with better guidelines for future threats before adding confusion and fear.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Our solar system orbits within a 100,000-light-year-wide spiral galaxy known as the Milky Way. On clear nights under dark skies, we can see the profile of our galactic home from within — the galactic plane — stretching across the inky darkness as a glowing band of milky light interspersed with dense filaments of cosmic clouds.

Different aspects of the Milky Way become visible to us as Earth makes its year-long circuit around the sun. In the warm summer months of July and August, viewers in the northern hemisphere can gaze directly towards the core of our galaxy, while the winter months give us a better view of the outer spiral arms of the Milky Way.

From a dark sky site, viewers in the northern hemisphere will see the ribbon-like form of our galaxy stretching towards the southern horizon, passing through the constellations of Cygnus and Aquila, before tumbling towards the southern horizon past Sagittarius and the tail of Scorpius.

How to photograph the Milky Way

We asked award winning astrophotographer Josh Dury for some tips on capturing the Milky Way. "When photographing the milky way, it is best to photograph its presence amongst the night-sky from dark-sky locations," Dury told Space.com in an email. "Not only will this result in more contrast and brighter appearance, [but] there are more details to see in the structure of the galactic core and further afield."

Our galaxy will make for a particularly splendid sight on the dark nights surrounding the new moon phase on July 24, at which time the moon appears during the day alongside the sun, leaving the nights blissfully dark for viewing the ancient light of the galactic plane.

Stargazers hoping to get the best view of the Milky Way should head out a few hours after sunset and allow at least half an hour for their eyes to acclimatise to the dark. Observing from a dark sky location will help reveal the true glory of our galaxy, so be sure to check out a website like darksky.org to find the best spot near you.

"Deploy the Milky Way creatively within your image. Think about the context of the image and how the inclusion of the Milky Way can lend itself to your subject matter, framing and story," explained Dury. "Let as much light into your camera that is technically possible, but do not over do it on the ISO - this will result in a grainy image and harder to resolve finer detail."

Further advice on capturing the Milky Way and a range of other night sky targets can be found in Dury's first book, '52 Assignments: Night Photography', which was released earlier this year and can now be purchased through Amazon.com.

Photographers looking to upgrade their gear should check out our guide to the best cameras and lenses for astrophotography in 2025. Those looking for a closer view of the night sky should also read our roundups of the top telescopes and binoculars for exploring the post-sunset realm.

Editor's Note: If you capture an image of the Milky Way and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s) and name alongside your comments and shooting location to spacephotos@space.com.

Evidence of the death-defying star was spotted in the form of a flare that was followed by a near-identical second flare around two years later (700 days). The double-flare has been given the designation AT 2022dbl. The team behind this research ruled out the possibility that it was caused by two stars being devoured by this black hole, leaving them to conclude the flares came from two "bites" of the same stellar snack.

The discovery is the first evidence of a star escaping a destructive encounter with a supermassive black hole and then coming back to let it take a second bite. The big question is, did the star survive to return for a second rematch with the black hole?

It could therefore change our view of so-called "tidal disruption events" or "TDEs" in which black holes rip apart stars and devour their remains, indicating this could just be the first act of a longer cosmic performance.

Some black holes prefer a lighter meal

Supermassive black holes with masses equal to that of millions or billions of suns dwell at the heart of all large galaxies.

TDEs occur when unfortunate stars wander too close to these cosmic titans and experience their immense gravitational influence. This generates terrific tidal forces within the star that simultaneously squash it horizontally while stretching it vertically.

This process, vividly known as "spaghettification," results in shredded stellar pasta, some of which falls around the black hole, wrapping around it like spaghetti around a fork, and is gradually fed to it. The rest of this material is blasted out from around the supermassive black hole.

The material that remains swirls around the black hole at incredibly speeds, generating friction that causes bursts of light, and the ejected material also flares. These flares last weeks to months, illuminating the region around the supermassive black hole, allowing it to be studied.

However, over the last decade, some TDEs have been observed that don't behave the way scientists would expect. That is because both the temperature and brightness of some TDEs have been lower than expected. AT 2022dbl could explain this by implying that some black holes like to savour their stellar meals rather than immediately and totally destroying them.

The team now wants to know if the third time is the charm for this daring star. If it survived its second black hole encounter, the star will swoop back toward the black hole, causing a third flare around 700 days after the second.

"The question now is whether we’ll see a third flare after two more years, in early 2026," team member and Tel Aviv University researcher Iair Arcavi said in a statement. "If we see a third flare, it means that the second one was also the partial disruption of the star.

"So maybe all such flares, which we have been trying to understand for a decade now as full stellar disruptions, are not what we thought."

Should a third flare not erupt in two years, it would indicate that the star's second encounter with the black hole was fatal. Should this be the case, the similarity between the first flare and the second one would imply that non-fatal and fatal TDE flares, or partial and full disruptions, look the same.

That is something that scientists had previously predicted but have never evidenced with observations.

"Either way, we’ll have to rewrite our interpretation of these flares and what they can teach us about the monsters lying in the centers of galaxies," Arcavi concluded.

The team's research was published on July 1 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

What is it?

The Atacama Desert is situated in an area that makes it nearly impossible to receive storms like it recently did. This is due to the Chilean Andes mountain range, which creates a rain shadow over the area.

However, sometimes a cold-based cyclone penetrates the area, bringing precipitation as either snow or rain. In the case of the June 2025 snowfall, meteorologists said it was the first snow in the region for over a decade.

Where is it?

The Atacama Desert is found between the Andes Mountains and the coasts of Chile and Peru to the west.

Why is it amazing?

This image was taken by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite from low Earth orbit. It shows how the snow blanketed the Chilean landscape.

While telescopes in the upper mountains like the Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) Telescope received minimal snow, others lower down like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) received more, forcing it into "survival mode" and temporarily suspending all scientific research.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about telescopes in Chile along with the research happening at ALMA.

Standing for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, NISAR will scan our planet to provide the most detailed map of the surface yet, and the most sensitive, able to see the ground or ice creeping by degrees of less than a centimeter.

This sensitivity, as well as the overall coverage of Earth that NISAR will provide, will be essential for helping to avert, or minimize, the effects of natural disasters, from earthquakes and volcanoes to land subsidence and swelling, plus the movement, deformation and melting of ice sheets and glaciers, and the tracking of wildfires and floods. Even the smallest shifts in the landscape could one day prove to be the precursor to a major disaster. For example there are "slow" landslides, where a mountainside or cliff might move by just a few centimeters per day, before reaching a tipping point and crashing down. NISAR will be able to see that slow creep, or the subtle movement of tectonic plates, and warn when more serious disasters might be about to take place.

"Where moments are most critical, NISAR's data will help ensure the health and safety of those impacted on Earth as well as the infrastructure that supports them," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, in an agency press conference on July 21.

"They can be very small changes, but they can have enormous implications," added Karen St. Germain, the director of NASA's Earth Science Division.

NISAR will achieve this thanks to its dual-frequency band radar. The L-band radar, which transmits microwaves between 1 and 2 gigahertz (GHz), was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, while ISRO provided the S-band radar operating between 2 to 4 GHz. The different frequencies can detect different things on the ground. The S-band is sensitive to vegetation and foliage, for example, whereas the L-band can see through the trees to monitor the bare surface, be that rock or ice. And because neither instrument is encumbered by clouds, the coverage of the surface is total, mapping the entire globe in unprecedented detail every 12 days.

"These two radars work together to accomplish science that neither can see on their own," said Wendy Edelstein, who is NISAR's deputy project manager at JPL.

Both radars feed into NISAR's giant antenna, which is 12 meters (about 40 feet) in length; when unfolded, it's about the size of a tennis court. "The surface material is a lightweight mesh that allows the whole antenna to fold very compactly and be stowed for launch," said Edelstein.

It's this antenna that gives NISAR its special powers of high resolution, thanks to a technique called synthetic aperture radar.

Synthetic aperture radar takes advantage of the fact that NISAR is moving. The spacecraft beams down radar pulses while flying along, and because of this motion, the area on the ground covered by each radar beam while switched on is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) long. This is far larger than the actual size of the antenna on the spacecraft — hence why it's called synthetic aperture radar. Ordinarily, this motion would incur a motion blur, but by beaming thousands of radar pulses per second to capture the fine detail, NISAR is able to see in high resolution.

"We sort of build up a movie, frame by frame, of every point on the Earth's surface," said Paul Rosen, who is NISAR's project scientist at JPL.

By flying in an exact-repeat orbit — meaning it passes over the exact same ground track, every 12 days in this case — NISAR will be able to combine its synthetic aperture radar with another technique called radar interferometry

"We fly along, collect the echoes, make the image, and come back again at a later time and make another image, and count the peaks and troughs of the radar waves and use them as a yardstick to measure how the ground is moving over time," said Rosen.

NISAR will head into space on July 30 on board an Indian Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, which is on India's southeastern coast.

"NISAR is an equal 50/50 partnership between NASA and ISRO," said Edelstein. Fox stated that NASA had spent $1.2 billion on the mission, in particular funding the L-band radar, plus the antenna and its boom. ISRO contributed the S-band transmitter, the spacecraft bus, solar arrays and the launch vehicle.

None of the Indian contingent on the project were in the press conference — because of time zone differences, according to NASA. However, in January, the co-lead of the ISRO science team at the Space Applications Centre in Ahmedabad, Deepak Putrevu, said in a statement. "This mission packs in a wide range of science toward a common goal of studying our changing planet and the impacts of natural hazards."

Ten days after launch, NISAR will be in position to begin unfurling its giant antenna, and by day 65 the first full-frame science images will be produced.

"I've spent my entire career working on radar missions for JPL, and NISAR is the highlight for me," said Edelstein. "I can't wait to see the science that it produces and the impact that it has. I think it will help people around the world."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched two powerful communications satellites today (July 22), then aced its landing on a ship at sea.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT), carrying SES' O3b mPOWER 9 and 10 satellites toward medium Earth orbit (MEO), about 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) above our planet.

That was a day later than originally planned. SpaceX tried to launch the mission Monday (July 21) but aborted the try 11 seconds before liftoff, for reasons that the company did not immediately explain.

The Falcon 9's first stage came back to Earth as planned today roughly 8.5 minutes after launch, touching down on the SpaceX droneship "Just Read the Instructions," which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

According to a SpaceX mission description, it was the sixth launch and landing for this particular booster, which is designated B1090.

If all goes according to plan today, the Falcon 9's upper stage will continue carrying the two mPOWER satellites to MEO, deploying them there across a seven-minute stretch about two hours after liftoff.

Luxembourg-based SES's mPOWER constellation currently consists of eight high-throughput satellites, which reached orbit on four Falcon 9 launches from December 2022 to December 2024.

mPOWER is operational now, providing internet service to customers around the world. But the constellation will continue growing, to a total of 13 satellites. Each is built by Boeing and weighs about 3,750 pounds (1,700 kilograms).

"The remaining three O3b mPOWER satellites are currently being manufactured and are scheduled for launch over the next 12 months," SES representatives wrote in a brief update earlier this month.

Today's launch was the 89th Falcon mission of the year already. SpaceX also has three other liftoffs under its belt this year — test flights of its Starship megarocket, which took place in January, March and May.

The structure, named the Midpoint cloud, is an example of a Giant Molecular Cloud (GMC). It was discovered by the team using the Green Bank Telescope. Peeling back the layers of the Midpoint cloud, they found dynamic regions including several potential sites of new star formation and dense lanes of dust feeding the heart of our galaxy.

"No one had any idea this cloud existed until we looked at this location in the sky and found the dense gas," team leader and National Radio Astronomy Observatory scientist Natalie Butterfield said. "Through measurements of the size, mass, and density, we confirmed this was a giant molecular cloud."

The active region of the GMC and its thick lanes of matter could reveal how material flows from the Milky Way's disk to the very heart of our galaxy.

"These dust lanes are like hidden rivers of gas and dust that are carrying material into the center of our galaxy,” Butterfield continued. "The Midpoint cloud is a place where material from the galaxy’s disk is transitioning into the more extreme environment of the galactic center and provides a unique opportunity to study the initial gas conditions before accumulating in the center of our galaxy."

The gas within the Midpoint cloud exists in a turbulent state, which mirrors conditions found within gas at the Milky Way's center. This chaotic motion could be triggered by material flowing along dust lanes itself or by clashes between the Midpoint cloud and other molecular clouds.

Also within the Midpoint cloud are several clumps of dense gas and dust that could be about to collapse and birth new stars.

One clump, designated Knot E, appears to be a small but dense cloud of gas that is in the process of being eroded by the radiation blasted at it by stars in its proximity. Formations like this are referred to as free-floating evaporating gas globules (frEGGs).

The astronomers also discovered a new source of intense microwave radiation called a "maser" that could be further evidence of intense star formation within the Midpoint cloud.

The researchers didn't just discover evidence of stellar birth with this GMC, however. A shell-like structure in the Midpoint cloud appears to have been caused by the explosive supernova deaths of massive stars.

The research conducted by the team suggests the Midpoint cloud is vital to the flow of matter from the disk of the Milky Way to its heart.

This would feed star formation in the thick central stellar bar that churns around the center of our galaxy. Similar structures of dense stars are found in other barred spiral galaxies.

That means further investigation of this cloud and its surroundings could help develop a clearer picture of how the building blocks of stars gather at the center of galaxies.

"Star formation in galactic bars is a bit of a puzzle," team member and Green Bank Observatory scientist Larry Morgan said. "The strong forces in these regions can actually suppress star formation.

"However, the leading edges of these bars, such as where the Midpoint is located, can accumulate dense gas and trigger new star formation."

The team's research was published on Wednesday (July 16) in The Astrophysical Journal.

Look east around 4 a.m. local time, just before dawn, to see the slender form of the crescent moon climb above the horizon. Jupiter, appearing as a bright "star" will sit about 5 degrees to the right of the moon — roughly the combined width of your index, middle and ring fingers held at arms length against the night sky!

Venus will shine to the upper right of Jupiter in the pre-dawn sky, forming a fleeting cosmic triangle with the red supergiant star Betelgeuse, which will appear low on the eastern horizon before vanishing in the light of the rising sun.

A telescope with an aperture of 6 inches or more will allow viewers to observe Jupiter's four brightest moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, as well as the planet's gargantuan banded cloud layers. However, care must be taken to never point a telescope or binoculars in the direction of the rising sun, as doing so could result in a permanent loss of vision.

On the nights surrounding the new moon on July 24, you might notice a soft light suffusing the lunar disk This phenomenon, often referred to as Earthshine or the 'Da Vinci Glow', occurs when sunlight bounces off Earth and illuminates the moon's nightside and is often visible when the moon is a thin crescent.

This gentle glow reveals the vast basaltic plains of the lunar seas darkening swathes of the lunar surface. The formations were created billions of years ago when ancient lava flows flooded a network of gigantic impact basins left behind by cataclysmic asteroid strikes, which later hardened to renew the lunar surface.

The dark nights on either side of the new moon phase present a perfect opportunity to spot the diffuse light cast by the Pleiades open star cluster — a gravitationally bound collection of over 1,000 stellar bodies that orbits within the Milky Way some 410 light-years from Earth. The Pleiades will be visible as a hazy smudge of light from a dark sky location to the upper right of Venus on the night of July 23. A pair of 10x50 binoculars will allow viewers to pick out the most prominent of the blue-white stars, while a small telescope will help resolve a far greater number.

Stargazers hoping to explore the wonders of the night sky should read our guide to the top telescopes and binoculars available in 2025. Those new to the hobby should also check out our roundup of the best smartphone astronomy apps, which use augmented reality technology to pinpoint the locations of the stars, constellations, planets and deep sky objects that populate the night sky.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

With its astonishing neon-saturated visuals and throbbing electronic score by Nine Inch Nails, a new trailer for Disney's "Tron: Ares" has arrived.

Erupting in a rush of ruby reds and rampant A.I. paranoia, this extended "Tron: Ares" trailer exposes humankind's initial contact with an agent from the cyberscape realm, and from the shocked onlookers, it's a meet-and-greet event that might have some devastating ramifications for both sides. The vibrant worldbuilding, design aesthetics of the futuristic vehicles, and the apocalyptic tone feel spot-on and are further punctuated by Jared Leto's charismatic role as a rogue digital soldier. The trailer is already generating speculation that this $150-170 million film powering up on Oct. 10, 2025 will enthrall "Tron" faithful.

"So much talk of A.I. and big tech today," states Evan Peters' sinister Julian Dillinger character in the thrilling trailer. "Virtual worlds, what are they going to look like, when will we get there? Well folks, we're not going there. They are coming here."

Directed by Joachim Rønning ("Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales"), "Tron: Ares" is now seemingly confirmed as a sequel to 2010's "Tron: Legacy" and stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, and Cameron Monaghan, with cameos by Gillian Anderson and Jeff Bridges.

The film's screenplay is based on a story by David Digilio and Jesse Wigutow and centers around Ares (Leto), a revolutionary sentient program conceived by Julian Dillinger. This next-generation creation makes the hazardous leap from the digital Grid to the real world on a crucial mission to discover something it doesn't yet fully comprehend. That might sound ambiguous at the moment but we're sure that further trailers and previews will elaborate more.

"Tron: Ares" is produced by Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, Jared Leto, Emma Ludbrook, and Steven Lisberger, with Russell Allen as executive producer.

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' Grammy Award-winning industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails composed the energetic score "Tron: Ares" . The original soundtrack's debut single, "As Alive As You Need Me To Be," is the group's first material in half a decade and is now available though Interscope Records. We surely won't soon forget Daft Punk's driving score for "Tron: Legacy" but this pulsating soundtrack from Nine Inch Nails certainly provides the proper accompaniment to the sequel.

Directed by Joachim Rønning, "Tron: Ares" will be presented in both IMAX and standard theatrical formats starting on Oct. 10, 2025.

Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical "Skyscapes" that connect both Earth and the night sky.

Last year, at the end of summer, we had a vibrant comet visiting the northern skies, so I took this opportunity to capture a few images over the course of several nights.

On the final night, I caught the comet in a time lapse showing C/2023 A3 Tsuchinshan-Atlas flying across the background starry skies of Dark Sky Alqueva territory in Portugal.

It was visible during a moonless winter night, which revealed both the Milky Way and the comet as it bid farewell to Earth for the next 80,000 years.

Fine art prints

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and if you want to support my work as an independent artist, you can buy one of my images as a print and a piece of art or a wall decor for your sweet home! Explore the size options and different types available on my Print gallery. Meanwhile, you can sign-up my newsletter to get early access of future releases.

Although we may not see it with our eyes or in the photos we capture with our standard cameras or phones, the sun is constantly changing. Structures on the surface or lower atmosphere of the sun can vary from day to day, or even from hour to hour. In this guide, we'll outline what you'll need to safely photograph our ever-changing sun and what structures you can hope to image.

Safety: Take precautions

It is important not to look directly at the sun. Doing so for even short durations can permanently damage your eyes. If you want to look up at the sun for reference, use a pair of certified solar eclipse glasses. Check out some of the best solar viewing gear, but note that some products allow you to photograph the sun safely through a camera or a telescope, but are not rated for direct observation with your eyes. See our guide on how to observe the sun safely.

Cameras, lenses and settings

No matter how you adjust the settings, even on the best cameras for astrophotography, the sun will remain too bright for you to successfully image any detail if you don't use the right equipment. Therefore, to photograph the sun, you must significantly reduce its effective brightness.

You can do this with a neutral-density filter, which attaches to the end of your camera lens. Neutral-density filters are used in all kinds of photography, but many will not have the power to block out enough sunlight to image the sun. Therefore, you should look for a neutral-density filter designed especially for solar photography.

With this filter attached to your camera, you will be able to successfully photograph the sun in optical light. Different filters may also change the apparent color of the sun in your image, with gray/white and orange/yellow being common filter options.

It's important to note that although a purpose-made filter can reduce the sun's brightness enough to image the star, it is not enough to protect your eyes from sunlight. Therefore, while using a neutral-density filter for solar photography, do not look into the optical viewfinder on your camera (if you have one). Instead, use the digital display. Similarly, do not use the filter to look directly at the sun.

The size of the sun in your image will depend on the focal length of your camera lens. At a minimum, you'll need a 200-millimeter telephoto lens. However, as shown in the images below, this will leave a lot of empty space in your camera frame. The longer the focal length, the larger the sun will appear in your image, and thus the higher the resolution of the sun will be. The images below show how the sun looks in a selection of focal lengths on the Nikon D850, a full-frame DSLR camera.

Once your lens and filter are sorted, you can play around with your camera settings.

1. Set your camera to aperture-priority mode. Typically, an aperture between f/5.6 and f/8 will give the best performance for most lenses, but you can play around with it to see what works best for your setup.

2. Adjust your exposure time. The exposure time you set may depend on several factors. If you do not have a tripod or you are using a tripod in strong wind, you will want to shorten your exposure time. This will reduce the total wobble throughout the exposure and lead to a sharper image. If you have a strong tripod and wind is not an issue, you can afford to increase the exposure time, which will decrease the noise levels.

3. Set your ISO. You do not want an ISO sensitivity high enough to saturate the image, but you need it high enough to avoid adding noise. A longer exposure time will allow for a shorter ISO, without introducing too much noise. Play around with these settings to find a combination that works for you. As with nighttime astronomy, another good tip is to not take the photograph immediately by clicking the capture button (if you're using a tripod), as your interaction with the camera will cause the system to wobble. Instead, set a timer for 10 seconds or longer, or use a remote control to take the shot.

Photographing the sun with telescopes

If you are feeling more ambitious, you can photograph the sun with one of the best telescopes. We won't dive much into the camera setup here, as it will be similar to that used in nighttime astronomy. You can either mount your usual camera to the telescope directly or use a purpose-made eyepiece camera. Either way, the important pieces of equipment typically sit at the other end of the telescope that's pointing at the sun.

Different filters allow us to see different layers of the sun, so let's quickly recap these layers of our local star. The surface of the sun is called the photosphere. This is the layer of the sun that emits the sunlight visible to the human eye. Above the photosphere, which has a temperature of around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), is a layer called the chromosphere. The chromosphere is cooler and less dense than the photosphere, with a temperature around 7,200 F (4,000 C). Above the chromosphere, temperatures rapidly increase through a thin transition region, before reaching the solar corona. The corona is the tenuous outer atmosphere of the sun, with temperatures of around 1.8 million F (1 million C), which becomes visible to us during a total solar eclipse.

Just like on your camera, you can attach a purpose-made solar filter to the end of your telescope. Alternatively, you can use a dedicated solar telescope, which utilizes a system of internal filters. Filters block the majority of sunlight, allowing only a small amount of light into your telescope. Different filters allow in light from different layers of the sun, thus changing the features of interest available to your photography. The three primary filter types are white light, H-alpha and Ca K.

A white-light filter removes over 99.9% of the intensity of incoming sunlight, but it does not filter by wavelength. With a white-light filter, you will receive sunlight from the sun's surface. If you have a larger telescope aperture or you plan to point at the sun for a long time, an ultraviolet and infrared (UV/IR) filter is also recommended. This will not affect your photo, but it will remove excess light to prevent it from heating up your telescope system.

Unlike white-light filters, which image the photosphere, H-alpha and Ca K filters image a higher layer of the sun, the chromosphere. These filters work by filtering light by wavelength, instead of just intensity, to allow in light from a narrow part of the solar spectrum.

H-alpha is light emitted by hydrogen plasma at a specific energy level that is dominant in the chromosphere. This light is at a wavelength of 656.28 nanometers, which sits in the red part of the visible spectrum. When you use an H-alpha filter, the sun therefore appears red. H-alpha filters can be broadband (about 1 Å) or narrowband (0.5 Å). These will alter the view of the chromosphere slightly. Some filters are also tunable, which allows you to adjust the wavelength range of the filter. Ca K filters filter a wavelength of light emitted by calcium plasma at 393.4 nm, which appears blue to the human eye.

When you're using an external filter on your telescope, do not remove the eyepiece from the viewfinder scope. Whether you're using a dedicated solar telescope or an external filter on a nighttime telescope, different filters will show different features on the sun. The images below show the sun photographed through the H-alpha and Ca K filters discussed above. White-light images are shown earlier in this article.

Features on the sun

Now that you have your full setup, let's take a look at the structures you can hope to see on the sun.

Sunspots

The easiest feature on the sun to photograph are sunspots. Sunspots are cooler parts of the photosphere created by strong regions of concentrated magnetic field. The intense magnetic field above sunspots is what creates solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

A sunspot looks like a dark structure with a darker inner section (the umbra) and slightly lighter (yet still darker than the surrounding photosphere) penumbra around it. Sunspots can exist for weeks or months, but they can change significantly over a few hours as new magnetic fields emerge, or cancel out, within the region. Sunspots are visible in the photosphere through white-light filters and solar telescopes. They are still visible in chromospheric filters (H-alpha and Ca K), but the contrast is not as stark.

Filaments

At higher altitudes, a different type of magnetic structure is visible. Filaments are twisted magnetic structures full of chromospheric material. They are rooted in the lower solar atmosphere, but they stretch into higher altitudes in the corona. Because they are composed of material from the chromosphere, filaments are not visible with standard white-light filters. Instead, they require either H-alpha or Ca II filters to be seen. At these wavelengths, filaments appear dark against the bright solar disk.

Prominences

Whereas filaments are viewed against the sun's surface, prominences are the same structure but seen over the edge of the sun. Against the background of space, prominences appear bright. They can be photographed with the same filters as filaments, and they can also be seen with the naked eye during the totality phase of a total solar eclipse. A tunable narrow H-Alpha filter will really make prominences and filaments pop against their background. You can also play around with the exposure time to change the contrast of the prominences against the dark background.

Solar eclipses

Although the advice outlined in this article can be used to photograph the sun anytime, it is also valid during the partial phases of a solar eclipse, when the sun is partially blocked by the moon. The moon's edge provides a new feature to photograph, with the intricate irregularities of craters along the moon's silhouette visible. For further advice on photographing the partial or total phases of a solar eclipse, check out our guide on how to photograph a solar eclipse.

If you want to read more about the science of observing the sun and the history of our relationship with it, check out my book "The Sun: Beginner's guide to our local star (Collins, 2023).

NASA announced on Monday (July 21) that Makenzie Lystrup, director of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, will leave the agency on Aug. 1.

It will be the second high-profile departure for the agency in just a two-month span; Laurie Leshin, head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California, left her post in June.

Goddard is home to the nation's largest concentration of space scientists and engineers, according to NASA. The center, which was named after rocket pioneer Robert Goddard, features a workforce of more than 8,000 employees and contractors.

These people do a wide variety of work. Goddard is home to Hubble Space Telescope operations, for example, and served as a proving ground for that iconic observatory's successor, the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope.

The center has particular expertise in Earth observation, but its researchers study objects and phenomena across the solar system and beyond.

"Goddard scientists stare into the sun, grind up meteorites for signs of life's building blocks, look into the farthest reaches of space and untangle the mysteries of our own changing world," NASA officials wrote in a description of the center. "Goddard engineers construct sensitive instruments, build telescopes that peer into the cosmos and operate the test chambers that ensure those satellites' survival."

Lystrup has led Goddard since April 2023. She earned a doctorate in astrophysics from University College London and has used space- and ground-based telescopes to study planetary atmospheres and magnetospheres.

"Having served in a variety of science and aerospace civilian and government roles in her career, Makenzie has led development of, and/or contributed to, a variety of NASA's priority science missions, including successful operations of our James Webb Space Telescope and Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer, as well as development of the agency's Roman Space Telescope, and more," Vanessa Wyche, acting NASA associate administrator, said in a statement on Monday.

"We're grateful to Makenzie for her leadership at NASA Goddard for more than two years, including her work to inspire a Golden Age of explorers, scientists and engineers," Wyche added.

Cynthia Simmons, currently Goddard's deputy director, will take over from Lystrup in an acting capacity, NASA officials said in the statement. The release did not say what Lystrup plans to do next.

The departures of Leshin and Lystrup come during a turbulent time for NASA.

President Donald Trump's proposed 2026 budget, for instance, would slash the agency's overall funding by 24% and cut the money for its science programs nearly in half. The budget, if enacted by Congress, would slash the agency's workforce by about one-third and lead to the cancellation of dozens of missions, including a number that are currently operational.

JPL and Goddard are two of NASA's 10 major research centers. The others are Ames Research Center and Armstrong Flight Research Center in California; Glenn Research Center in Ohio; Johnson Space Center in Texas; Kennedy Space Center in Florida; Langley Research Center in Virginia; Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama; and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

The Sony A7R V is on sale for $3198 at Walmart.

We gave the Sony A7R V four and a half stars in our full Sony A7R V review, where we praised the AI-powered autofocus system, versatile LCD screen and notable upgrades from the Sony A7R IV. The A7R V has a huge 61MP sensor and performed well during our photography testing apart from some noise on higher ISO images of stars.

• We have guides for a range of skywatching gear and astrophotography optics including the best telescopes, best binoculars and best cameras for astrophotography.

In our Sony A7R V review, we were seriously impressed with the advanced autofocus that is now able to identify more objects and makes the camera perfect for versatile subjects. It has exceptional resolution and a robust build quality for detailed shots wherever you are. This camera is also frequently highlighted in our guides to the best cameras for photo and video and the best mirrorless cameras due to its cutting-edge features and outstanding performance, which are crucial for capturing fast-moving meteors and faint nebulas

This Walmart deal on the Sony A7R V is a great saving for anyone serious about upgrading their photography kit, especially with the Perseid meteor shower peaking soon. The Sony A7R V offers unparalleled detail with interval shooting, both of which are essential for capturing the streaks of light in the night sky.

The Sony A7R V is a powerhouse full-frame mirrorless camera, boasting a 61MP full-frame sensor that delivers breathtaking resolution and Sony's latest-generation BIONZ XR image processing engine, which provides phenomenal speed and enhanced image quality. The camera features an upgraded 8-stop in-body image stabilization system, crucial for handheld shooting in low-light conditions. The new multi-angle LCD monitor offers flexibility when composing shots from various angles and weather sealing ensures durability in difficult environments.

Key features: 61MP full-frame sensor, dual BIONZ XR processor, AI tracking, 693-point autofocus, 8-stop in-body image stabilization, multi-angle LCD Monitor, 8K video capability, dual memory card slots (1xCFexpress, 1xSD), wireless and Bluetooth connectivity.

Product launched: December 2022

Price history: The Sony A7R V typically retails around $4200 on Amazon but this Walmart deal brings the price to $3200, with $1000 off the Amazon listed price.

Price comparison: Walmart: $3198 | Amazon: $3798 | BHPhotoVideo: $3798

Reviews consensus: In our full Sony A7R V review we highlight its incredible 61MP resolution, advanced AI autofocus and versatile LCD screen, making it a top choice for professional photographers and astrophotographers.

Space.com: ★★★★½ | TechRadar: ★★★★½ | LiveScience: ★★★★½

Featured in guides: best cameras, best mirrorless cameras, best Sony cameras, best cameras for low light

✅ Buy it if: You're a serious photographer looking for a powerful camera capable of outstanding high-resolution stills with super-powered autofocus.

❌ Don't buy it if: You only shoot tripod-mounted astrophotography. There are other models which perform better at higher ISOs. Take a look at the best cameras for astrophotography.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

Save up to 46% on Disney Plus subscriptions when you sign up via their site.

If you're looking to stream the Marvel movies in order in anticipation of the new Fantastic Four movie, now is your last chance. Disney Plus is among the best streaming services and you can save over 40% on a range of bundles and streaming options in one of the best streaming deals available. You can also watch the Alien movies in order ahead of "Alien: Earth" as Hulu is included in every bundle, and of course, Disney Plus is the home of all Star Wars content, both movies and TV shows.

• We're constantly checking the best prices on our pages for big discounts on the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

With Fantastic Four: First Steps coming out on July 24, now is the last chance for you to catch up on Marvel content before its release. If you're a sci-fi fan, then the Disney and Hulu bundle is exactly what you want as it gives you access to all Marvel content, apart from Spider-Man movies, all Star Wars content and the Alien franchise, ahead of Alien: Earth. Disney is also home to a multitude of other big-name titles, blockbuster movies and TV shows to keep sci-fi superfans glued to the couch.

Of course, the prices of subscriptions change based on which option you opt for. You can have Disney and Hulu, but you can also add ESPN Plus or Max. You can also opt for an ad-supported plan or an ad-free option. Fortunately, all bundle options are over 40% off, so you're saving big whichever option you choose.

Key features: Key features: Access to Disney Plus, Hulu and Max/ESPN Plus if you choose to. Stream Star Wars, Marvel, Alien, other huge titles backed by a massive library of classics and original content.

Price history: Before this deal, the price of having these subscriptions individually would cost you over double what you would if you opted for a bundle.

✅ Buy it if: You want to watch the Marvel movies ahead of Fantastic Four, or the Star Wars movies in order, or if you want to have a cheap way to stream hundreds of top-tier titles from huge libraries of content.

❌ Don't buy it if: We can't think of why you wouldn't buy this, but if you're already subscribed to this bundle, then you will be ineligible for the deal.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

The declaration, organized by Stand Up For Science, criticizes steep budget cuts, the cancellation of missions in development, terminated contracts and grants, and organizational changes that undermine NASA's ability to conduct critical space and Earth science research. One major concern is the weakening of NASA's Technical Authority — a vital internal safety oversight system created after the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster to prevent avoidable accidents, according to the declaration.

In the Voyager Declaration, the 287 signatories warn that political interference and abrupt budget reductions could jeopardize decades of progress in space exploration, aeronautics and climate science. They argue that the Trump administration's efforts to slash NASA's science funding — which includes cutting more than $120 million in grants and proposing nearly a 50% reduction to the agency's Science Mission Directorate budget by 2026 — undermines Congress-approved priorities and threatens the agency's mission.

The declaration, issued on Monday (July 21), also highlights the loss of thousands of civil servant positions and a growing "culture of organizational silence," where employees feel unable to voice concerns without retaliation — which is also why over 150 signatories opted to remain anonymous. This atmosphere, they argue, poses risks not only to scientific discovery but also to astronaut safety and mission success.

Stand Up For Science, a nonprofit advocacy group founded in 2025, has made the full declaration public and opened a petition inviting others to support the agency's employees in their stand for science and safety. The petition emphasizes that NASA's work is a public good that cannot be replaced by private companies and calls on leadership to resist political pressure.

This statement from NASA personnel marks one of the most significant acts of internal dissent in recent years, underscoring the importance of protecting science from political influence. The declaration, list of named signatories and more information can be found online.

We've known since the teaser trailer that Predator: Badlands has strong ties to the Alien universe in the shape of Weyland-Yutani-owned synthetics. Now, the full trailer shows the movie will follow a young Predator warrior as he teams up with a synth who's seen better days.

After watching the new trailer, it's safe to say writer-director Dan Trachtenberg – who revived the movie series with Prey in 2022 – wasn't lying when he said the entire pitch behind Predator: Badlands was telling a Conan-like story through the eyes of a Yautja hunter (subtitles for the alien language included). It's a bold angle for a new entry in the long-running Predator movie franchise, but at this point, you either reinvent yourself or die slowly chasing the safety and warmth of nostalgia.

Last month, Predator: Killer of Killers – an animated anthology-format movie with a twist – proved Prey wasn't the result of the beginner's luck. This is why we're quite optimistic about Badlands and what it's gunning for. Let's break down the hottest and biggest moments in this new trailer, shall we?

Things are off to a strong start when the first thing we see is Elle Fanning's Thia (or her long-rumored twin character) being repaired in a Weyland-Yutani lab after encountering what we can only guess was a gnarly beast. The MU/TH/UR (Mother) system from the Alien movies is back too, and we see mention of Weyland-Yutani's huge bio-weapons division, which suggests both the Predator protagonist (Dek) and the company's synths might be after the same thing on this alien planet.

The pace picks up right after with all sorts of exciting shots of the young Yautja preparing for his biggest hunt yet. It all looks properly badass, with new weapons like a bow and a sword with a heat blade. Then, the big twist is he comes across Thia, who appears to be far friendlier than the other synths deployed to capture aliens on the "most dangerous planet in the universe." It appears that Thia's lower half is entirely missing, which creates an even more interesting dynamic as she attempts to collaborate with a Yautja who's trying to regain his honor.

There are no humans in sight, which might also confirm Trachtenberg's claims of having zero Homo sapiens in this movie. Can Predators and synths alone carry a brutal action-adventure rollercoaster ride? We say signs point to yes.

At some point (we don't know if it's a flashback or part of the central journey), an elder Predator is battling Dek, but by all accounts, the main objective seems to be a massive monster that could tear even a Xenomorph apart. Plus, bulky mechs are being brought over from the Alien timeline too.

Disney and 20^th Century Studios have also shared an all-new poster with Dek jumping straight into the maw of the unknown alien beast:

At this moment it's hard to predict whether Predator: Badlands will make big moves towards setting up a new Alien vs. Predator movie (that some voices at 20th Century Studios have been teasing for a while). For now, we're just excited to have another great-looking Predator flick with a fresh twist looming on the horizon.

Predator: Badlands releases in cinemas on November 7, 2025.

NASA's TRACERS mission blasted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base on Wednesday (July 23), after a 24-hour delay caused by airspace concerns.

TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) is composed of twin satellites that will study how surges in the solar wind trigger magnetic reconnection in Earth's magnetosphere; such reconnection leads to charged particles being funneled down the magnetic cusps over the poles, sparking auroral lights and geomagnetic storms.

By having two satellites in close proximity to one another, TRACERS will be able to see how areas of Earth's magnetic field that are undergoing reconnection — the snapping and recombining of field lines — change over short time frames. This reconnection happens as activity between the sun's solar wind (a continual stream of charged particles from our star) occasionally moves around denser patches stemming from coronal mass ejections. Meanwhile, Earth's magnetic field waxes and wanes during this process.

TRACERS launched atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg on Wednesday at 2:13 p.m. EDT (1813 GMT; 11:13 a.m. local California time). SpaceX and NASA had originally targeted Tuesday (July 22) for the liftoff but called that attempt off due to worries about the airspace over the launch range.

The Falcon 9's first stage came back for a landing at Vandenberg just under eight minutes after liftoff as planned. It was the 16th mission for this particular booster, according to SpaceX.

The rocket's upper stage, meanwhile, continued hauling the TRACERS duo to low Earth orbit, targeting an altitude of 367 miles (590 kilometers).

TRACERS isn't flying alone. Also on board the Falcon 9 today are two private spacecraft, called LIDE and Skykraft 4, and three additional NASA-involved missions.

One of these ride-along NASA efforts is the Athena EPIC (Economical Payload Integration Cost) SmallSat, which will demonstrate a new way of more efficiently placing remote-sensing (or rather, Earth-observing) instruments into orbit.

Another NASA-related mission is the Polylingual Experimental Terminal, which is a new technology that will demonstrate how spacecraft can roam between communication networks in space, improving satellite connectivity.

Finally, a cubesat called the Relativistic Electron Atmospheric Loss (REAL) mission will explore how high-energy particles in Earth's Van Allen radiation belts are scattered into the atmosphere, with the aim of eventually mimicking this natural scattering to remove potentially harmful particles from getting in the way of satellites and damaging their circuitry.

All of these payloads — TRACERS and the ridealong satellites — are scheduled to be deployed during a 50-minute stretch beginning about 55 minutes after launch.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. ET on July 22 with the new launch date of July 23, then updated again at 2:35 p.m. ET on July 23 with news of successful launch and rocket landing.

A giant parachute built for Europe's beleaguered ExoMars mission has aced a drop test with a mock lander during a test campaign in the Arctic.

The double parachute system consists of a 50-foot-wide (15-meter) first-stage chute and a secondary 118-foot-wide (35m) chute, which is, according to ESA, the largest ever designed to land an object on Mars.

If all goes well, it will lower the 683-pound (310-kilogram) Rosalind Franklin rover to the surface of the red planet in 2028, so that it can commence its delayed search for traces of Martian life.

The parachute system had had a complicated journey with many test failures but was deemed ready for the planned launch in 2022 before the mission was suspended after Russia invaded Ukraine. Since Europe withdrew from its collaboration with Russia, who had provided the landing platform and a few other bits of technology for the mission, the parachute has been stored waiting for a new landing platform to be built in Europe.

"We are running this campaign to confirm our readiness for Mars, and to verify that the parachutes are still performing as expected after the long storage," Luca Ferracina, ESA's ExoMars Entry Descent and Landing Module system engineer, said in a statement.

That's good news for the mission, which has been in limbo since the Trump administration's draft NASA budget was released in May. NASA committed to provide a few hundred million dollars to help ESA get ExoMars off the ground in 2028, but the Trump budget culled that funding as part of its widespread science mission cuts. But the U.S. Senate's Appropriations Committee rejected those cuts in its report published on Friday, July 18, suggesting that Trump's budget may not find support among legislators.

ESA is surely following the discussions closely as NASA's withdrawal would likely cause further delays to the heavily delayed mission.

Earlier this year, ESA signed a $194 million contract with the European aerospace giant Airbus to build the new landing platform. During the parachute tests, its mock-up descended to the ground at Sweden's Esrange Space Center in Kiruna from the altitude of 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) after having been dropped from a high-altitude balloon. The capsule, according to ESA, experienced about 20 seconds of free fall before the first of the parachutes unfurled.

Although the atmosphere of Mars has only about 1% of the density of Earth's atmosphere, the engineers fine tuned the test to recreate the forces the landing assembly will experience on Mars.

"The combination of velocity and low atmospheric density in this test is exactly the same as what the parachutes will experience on Mars," Ferracina said.

During the Mars landing, the capsule will hit the red planet's tenuous atmosphere at a mind-boggling speed of 13,050 mph (21,000 km/h) but will slow down to about 1,000 miles per hour from natural drag before the first parachute opens. During the tests, the mock-up capsule reached about that speed after its short freefall through the thin stratospheric air.

"We are happy to confirm that we have a parachute design that can work on Mars — an ambitious system with the largest parachute ever to be flown outside Earth," Ferracina said.

In June 2021, Sun — the billionaire founder of the blockchain platform Tron — won an auction for a seat aboard Blue Origin's first-ever crewed spaceflight.

That mission launched on July 20 of that year, carrying Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three other people to and from suborbital space on the company's reusable New Shepard vehicle. Sun was not on board, however; he had to back out due to scheduling conflicts, the company said at the time.

Sun had not identified himself as the winning bidder when that flight lifted off. The big reveal came in December 2021, when the crypto billionaire went public and said he now planned to fly in 2022 with five other "space warriors."

That didn't happen, either. But Sun's long-deferred spaceflight is now just around the corner: He is officially on the manifest for NS-34, New Shepard's next human spaceflight, Blue Origin announced on Monday (July 21). The company has not yet disclosed a target launch date for the flight but is expected to do so soon.

Here's a brief profile of the 34-year-old Sun and his five NS-34 crewmates, using information provided by Blue Origin.

• Arvinder (Arvi) Singh Bahal, a real estate investor and adventurer who was born in India but is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He has visited every country in the world, as well as both the north and south poles.
• Gökhan Erdem, a Turkish businessman, photographer and space enthusiast who "dreams of one day traveling to the International Space Station and possibly even beyond," Blue Origin wrote.
• Deborah Martorell, a journalist and meteorologist from Puerto Rico who has taken a microgravity-inducing airplane flight and reported on a number of space missions, including NASA's Artemis 1 moon flight. She's also a Solar System Ambassador for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
• Lionel Pitchford, an Englishman who has long lived in Spain and traveled the world. After losing his sister and her family in a 1992 plane crash in Nepal, he founded a nonprofit in the nation devoted to helping disadvantaged children. Pitchford has also run an orphanage in Kathmandu for the last 30 years.
• James (J.D.) Russell, an entrepreneur who founded the venture capital firm Alpha Funds. He also established the Victoria Russell Foundation, a nonprofit that honors the memory of his deceased daughter by "supporting children's education and assisting the families of first responders," Blue Origin wrote. Unlike the other NS-34 passengers, Russell is not a spaceflight rookie; he flew on the NS-28 mission in November 2024.
• Justin Sun, who is worth about $8.5 billion, according to Forbes. In addition to his Tron work, Sun is the ambassador and former Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization and serves as an advisor to the HTX crypto exchange. "A protege of Alibaba's Jack Ma, Sun was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine in April 2025, where he was recognized as one of the most dynamic and outspoken figures in crypto and earning the moniker 'Crypto's Billionaire Barker' for his bold approach to innovation, advocacy and industry leadership," Blue Origin wrote. Sun's winning $28 million bid for the New Shepard seat in 2021 was donated to Club for the Future, Blue Origin's education nonprofit.

NS-34 will be the 14th crewed New Shepard flight to date, and the fifth such mission of 2025. The most recent, NS-33, lifted off on June 29.

New Shepard missions fly from Blue Origin's launch site in West Texas, near the town of Van Horn. Each one lasts 10 to 12 minutes from launch to the parachute-aided touchdown of the New Shepard crew capsule. (New Shepard's rocket also comes back down to Earth for a safe landing and eventual reuse.)

New Shepard is an autonomous vehicle, so the passengers can sit back and simply enjoy the flight. That experience includes a few minutes of weightlessness and great views of Earth against the blackness of space, from an altitude of more than 62 miles (100 kilometers).

What is it?

The Vera Rubin Observatory is designed to study dark matter, which makes up 85% of our universe but is still unknown to scientists. Dark matter can create various effects in space thanks to its gravity, such as lensing, which astronomers can capture with the observatory's telescopes, hoping to find more about what makes up dark matter.

Astronomers are also using these telescopes to study dark energy as well as the Milky Way galaxy and other structures in our universe.

Where is it?

The Vera Rubin Observatory is located in Cerro Pachón in Chile at an elevation of 5,200 feet (1,600 meters) above sea level.

Why is it amazing?

In this image, the observatory's opening can be seen thanks to the glow of its its calibration LEDs. As the telescope scans the skies once every three days with the world's largest digital camera, the calibration process helps ensure all the equipment is working properly.

The observatory has just begun its decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) mission, where it will repeatedly scan the southern sky. Using the largest camera, the observatory captures detailed images that are so large they require a "data butler" to help manage them. Despite the size, the images could be the key to cracking the case of what dark matter truly is.

Want to learn more?

You can read more about the Vera Rubin Observatory, the legacy of Vera Rubin, and the hunt for dark matter.

Prior to 3I/ATLAS, the previous two "interstellar invaders" were 1I/'Oumuamua, spotted in 2017, and 2I/Borisov, detected in 2019. Both have now left the solar system, though other interstellar bodies are predicted to dwell undetected in our cosmic backyard.

As Space.com reported on July 11, recent research suggested that 3I/ATLAS could be even more exciting than initially perceived, as its trajectory through the solar system indicates it comes from a region of the Milky Way older than our 4.6 billion-year-old solar system. With an estimated age of 7 billion years, that would make 3I/ATLAS the oldest comet we've ever seen.

Astrophysics undergrad student astrafoxen alerted his followers to the Hubble images of 3I/ATLAS via this Bluesky feed.

"Hubble Space Telescope images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are out! These were taken 5 hours ago. Plenty of cosmic rays peppering the images, but the comet's coma looks very nice and puffy. Best of luck to the researchers trying to write up papers for this... " the post reads.

Hubble Space Telescope images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS are out! These were taken 5 hours ago. Plenty of cosmic rays peppering the images, but the comet's coma looks very nice and puffy. Best of luck to the researchers trying to write up papers for this... archive.stsci.edu/proposal_sea... 🔭

— @astrafoxen.bsky.social (@astrafoxen.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-07-22T09:45:35.680Z

One such paper is already available, albeit as a preprint. Describing optical and near-infrared spectroscopy performed on 3I/ATLAS, the research reveals that: "3I/ATLAS is an active interstellar comet containing abundant water ice, with a dust composition more similar to D-type asteroids than to ultrared trans-Neptunian objects."

D-type asteroids are space rocks packed with organic molecule-rich silicates and carbon with water ice in their interiors.

The arrival of 3I/ATLAS into the solar system has initiated an exciting period for astronomers. Since the solar system interloper was spotted on July 1, 2025, by the ATLAS survey telescope, an array of other instruments have attempted to get in on the act by spotting the comet.

One project that will be trying to get a good look at 3I/ATLAS is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which observes the universe near and far with the largest digital camera ever built. That is fitting, as the comet from beyond the solar system was actually first spotted as scientists were preparing to make observations with Rubin.

The new observatory, which released its first images of the cosmos on June 23, 2025, is expected to discover between 5 and 50 interstellar objects as they zip through the solar system during the observatory's decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

In the meantime, 3I/ATLAS can enjoy the undivided attention of astronomers aiming to study interstellar bodies with a view to painting an intimate picture of planetary systems beyond our own.

The Hubble images of 3I/ATLAS are available to download from this database.

SpaceX aborted the launch of two communications satellites just before liftoff on Monday evening (July 21).

A Falcon 9 rocket topped with two of SES' O3b mPOWER internet spacecraft was set to launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 5:27 p.m. EDT (2127 GMT) on Monday.

But it didn't quite happen: SpaceX called an abort just 11 seconds before liftoff. The launch window extended for another 90 minutes or so, but the company soon decided to stand down for the day.

"Standing down from today’s launch of the @SES_Satellites O3b mPOWER mission and now targeting tomorrow, July 22 for liftoff. Vehicle and payload remain healthy," SpaceX said via X on Monday evening.

At the time of this article's publication, the company had not yet explained what caused the abort.

The two-hour launch window on Tuesday opens at 5:12 p.m. EDT (2112 GMT). SpaceX will stream the action live via its website and X account, beginning about 15 minutes before liftoff.

Luxembourg-based SES' mPOWER constellation consists of eight satellites in medium-Earth orbit, all of which have been launched by SpaceX.

The network is already operational, but it's not complete; it will eventually feature 13 spacecraft.

For decades, scientists pictured Europa's frozen surface as a still, silent shell. But the new observations reveal that it's actually a dynamic world that's far from frozen in time.

"We think that the surface is fairly porous and warm enough in some areas to allow the ice to recrystallize rapidly," Richard Cartwright, a spectroscopist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and lead author of the new study, said in a statement.

Perhaps even more exciting is what this surface activity reveals about Europa's subsurface ocean. The presence of geologic activity and ongoing cycling between the subsurface and surface make "chaos terrains" — highly disrupted regions where blocks of ice seem to have broken off, drifted and refrozen — especially valuable as potential windows into Europa's interior.

The study focused on two regions in Europa's southern hemisphere: Tara Regio and Powys Regio. Tara Regio, in particular, stands out as one of the moon's most intriguing areas. Observations from JWST detected crystalline ice both at the surface and deeper below — challenging previous assumptions about how ice is distributed on Europa.

Related: Explore Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa in NASA virtual tour (photos)

By measuring the spectral properties of these "chaos" regions using remotely sensed data, scientists could gain valuable insight about Europa's chemistry as well as its potential for habitability, they explained in the paper, which was published May 28 in The Planetary Science Journal.

"Our data showed strong indications that what we are seeing must be sourced from the interior, perhaps from a subsurface ocean nearly 20 miles (30 kilometers) beneath Europa's thick icy shell," Ujjwal Raut, program manager at the Southwest Research Institute and co-author of the study, said in the statement.

Hidden chemistry

Raut and his team conducted laboratory experiments to study how water freezes on Europa, where the surface is constantly bombarded by charged particles from space. Unlike on Earth, where ice naturally forms a hexagonal crystal structure, the intense radiation on Europa disrupts the ice's structure, causing it to become what's known as amorphous ice — a disordered, noncrystalline form.

The experiments played a crucial role in demonstrating how the ice changes over time. By studying how the ice transforms between different states, scientists can learn more about the moon's surface dynamics. When combined with fresh data from JWST, these findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that a vast, hidden liquid ocean lies beneath Europa's icy shell.

"In this same region […] we see a lot of other unusual things, including the best evidence for sodium chloride, like table salt, probably originating from its interior ocean," Cartwright said. "We also see some of the strongest evidence for CO₂ and hydrogen peroxide on Europa. The chemistry in this location is really strange and exciting."

These regions, marked by fractured surface features, may point to geologic activity pushing material up from beneath Europa's icy shell.

JWST's NIRSpec instrument is especially well suited for studying Europa's surface because it can detect key chemical signatures across a wide range of infrared wavelengths. This includes features associated with crystalline water ice and a specific form of carbon dioxide called ¹³CO₂, which are important for understanding the moon's geologic and chemical processes.

NIRSpec can measure these features all at once while also creating detailed maps that show how these materials are distributed across Europa's surface. Its high sensitivity and ability to collect both spectral and spatial data make it an ideal tool for uncovering clues about what lies beneath Europa's icy crust.

The team detected higher levels of carbon dioxide in these areas than in surrounding regions. They concluded that it likely originates from the subsurface ocean rather than from external sources like meteorites, which would have resulted in a more even distribution.

Moreover, carbon dioxide is unstable under Europa's intense radiation environment, suggesting that these deposits are relatively recent and tied to ongoing geological processes. "The evidence for a liquid ocean underneath Europa's icy shell is mounting, which makes this so exciting as we continue to learn more," Raut said.

Another intriguing finding was the presence of carbon-13, an isotope of carbon. "Where is this ¹³CO₂ coming from? It's hard to explain, but every road leads back to an internal origin, which is in line with other hypotheses about the origin of ¹²CO₂ detected in Tara Regio," Cartwright said.

This study arrives as NASA's Europa Clipper mission is currently en route to the Jovian moon, with an expected arrival in April 2030. The spacecraft will perform dozens of flybys, with each one bringing it closer to Europa's surface to gather critical data about the ocean hidden beneath the moon's icy crust.