Space & Planetary

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 25-Jan-2026 11:11 ET (25-Jan-2026 16:11 GMT/UTC)

11-Dec-2025

Rare image of Tatooine-like planet is closest to its twin stars yet

Northwestern University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Astronomers discovered a new exoplanet hidden in decade-old data. Planet is bound to binary stars, which orbit each other every 18 days. Planet is six times closer to its stars than other directly imaged planets orbiting binary systems.

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Funder

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

11-Dec-2025

Ultra-hot lava world has thick atmosphere, upending expectations

Carnegie Institution for Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A Carnegie-led team of astronomers detected the strongest evidence yet of an atmosphere around a rocky planet beyond our Solar System. Their work, published in The Astrophysical Journal, used NASA’s JWST to reveal an alien atmosphere in an unexpected place—an ancient, ultra-hot super-Earth that likely hosts a magma ocean.

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

11-Dec-2025

Scientists detect atmosphere on molten rocky exoplanet - study

University of Birmingham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Observations suggest exoplanet is surrounded by a thick blanket of gases above a global magma ocean.

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

11-Dec-2025

Chip-scale magnetometer uses light for high-precision magnetic sensing

Optica
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new precision magnetometer that changes optical properties in response to a magnetic field could advance space missions, navigation and biomedical applications.

Journal

Optica

11-Dec-2025

How gut bacteria could protect young adults from cancer

Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute -
Grant and Award Announcement

Colorectal cancer is considered a disease of old age, but young adults are increasingly affected. The research network “PerMiCCion”, led by Prof. Gianni Panagiotou at the Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology (Leibniz-HKI) and the University of Jena, is investigating why this is the case and what role the microbes in the gut play. The consortium, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), is entering a second four-year funding phase. The project will receive a total of more than four million euros over eight years.

Funder

Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt (BMFTR)

11-Dec-2025

Environmental variability and migration promote the evolution of cooperation among humans: A simulation-based analysis

University of Tsukuba
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at University of Tsukuba have demonstrated, through multi-agent simulations in a two-dimensional space, that the combination of environmental variability and human migration may foster the evolution of human cooperative behavior because their joint effect disrupts non-cooperative groups while facilitating the emergence of cooperative groups.

Journal

Chaos Solitons & Fractals

10-Dec-2025

Lunar soil analyses reveal how space weathering shapes the Moon’s ultraviolet reflectance

Southwest Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

SAN ANTONIO — December 10, 2025 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists are collaborating with researchers at UT San Antonio to study how space weathering can alter the lunar surface materials to help interpret regional and global far-ultraviolet (FUV) maps of the Moon.

Journal

Journal of Geophysical Research Planets