A study led by Professor Nicolas DAUPHAS of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Dr Timo HOPP of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany, together with their collaborators reveals that Theia—the planet-sized body that collided with the early Earth to form the Moon—was not an icy wanderer from the outer Solar System, but a rocky neighbour born close to the Sun. 

The SETI Institute is pleased to open the call for applications for the 2026 Mino Postdoctoral Fellowship. This research program offers an exceptional opportunity for talented early-career scientists worldwide to contribute significant advances in the following fields:

- Origins of life and prebiotic chemistry

- Biophysics and the nature of life

- Planetary habitability and environmental limits on life

- Coevolution of life and planetary environments across spatiotemporal scales

- Modeling and theory of life-environment systems

- Comparative studies of Earth, solar system worlds, and exoplanets

- AI/ML applied to origins, nature of life, and habitability research

Mosses thrive in the most extreme environments on Earth, from the peaks of the Himalayas to the sands of Death Valley, the Antarctic tundra to the lava fields of active volcanoes. Inspired by moss’s resilience, researchers sent moss sporophytes—reproductive structures that encase spores—to the most extreme environment yet: space. Publishing in the Cell Press journal iScience on November 20, their results show that over 80% of the spores survived 9 months outside of the International Space Station (ISS) and made it back to Earth still capable of reproducing, demonstrating for the first time that an early land plant can survive long-term exposure to the elements of space. 

MIT astronomers used the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer to identify key features in the innermost region of a white dwarf system called an intermediate polar. This extremely energetic environment has been inaccessible to most telescopes until now.

- Universities of Exeter and Leicester collaborate on mission to send nematode worms to the International Space Station

- The experiment is based upon a concept and early development by the University of Exeter over more than 8 years

- A ‘Petri Pod’ designed and built at Space Park Leicester developed from that earlier work will allow scientists on Earth led from the University of Exeter to study the worms in space

- Will provide insights into the effects of space microgravity and radiation on biological material, and help inform future human space travel

A geomagnetic superstorm is an extreme space weather event that occurs when the Sun releases massive amounts of energy and charged particles toward Earth. These storms are rare, occurring about once every 20-25 years. On May 10-11, 2024, the strongest superstorm in over 20 years, known as the Gannon storm or Mother’s Day storm, struck Earth.  

A study led by Dr. Atsuki Shinbori from Nagoya University's Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research has captured direct measurements of this extreme event and provided the first detailed observations of how a superstorm compresses Earth's plasmasphere—a protective layer of charged particles that encircles our planet. Published in Earth, Planets and Space, the findings show how the plasmasphere and ionosphere react during the most violent solar storms and help forecast disruptions to satellites, GPS systems, and communication networks during extreme space weather events. 

Researchers from HSE University and the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences analysed seven years of data from the ERG (Arase) satellite and, for the first time, provided a detailed description of a new type of radio emission from near-Earth space—the hectometric continuum, first discovered in 2017. The researchers found that this radiation appears a few hours after sunset and disappears one to three hours after sunrise. It was most frequently observed during the summer months and less often in spring and autumn. However, by mid-2022, when the Sun entered a phase of increased activity, the radiation had completely vanished—though the scientists believe the signal may reappear in the future. The study has been published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics.