High above Earth’s poles, intense electrical currents called electrojets flow through the upper atmosphere when auroras glow in the sky. In March, NASA plans to launch its EZIE (Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer) mission to learn more about these powerful currents, in the hopes of ultimately mitigating the effects of such space weather for humans on Earth.

A new international study partially funded by NASA on how Mars got its iconic red color adds to evidence that Mars had a cool but wet and potentially habitable climate in its ancient past.

On Wednesday 26 February, a thermal imaging camera built by researchers at the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics will blast off to the Moon as part of NASA’s Lunar Trailblazer mission. This aims to map sources of water on the Moon to shed light on the lunar water cycle and to guide future robotic and human missions.

SAN ANTONIO — February 25, 2025 —Four small suitcase-sized spacecraft, designed and built by Southwest Research Institute headquartered in San Antonio, are poised to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California no earlier than Feb. 28. NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere, or PUNCH, spacecraft is sharing a ride to space with the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory.

In a bid to explore MAX phases with experimental significance across a significantly broader combinatorial space, the researchers of this study pioneered the development of a machine-learning model for predicting MAX phase stability. This model is based on elemental features and can swiftly forecast the stability of MAX phases by simply leveraging the basic parameters of elements. Notably, the model successfully identified 150 MAX phases that met the stability criteria but had not been synthesized previously. It also guided the first-ever experimental synthesis of Ti₂SnN. Ti₂SnN showcases a low elastic modulus, high damage tolerance, and self-extrusion characteristics. This accomplishment not only enhances the screening efficiency by a factor of tens but also uncovers the crucial role of valence electrons. As a result, it provides novel insights into the fundamental principles governing MAX phase formation.

How does a tennis player like Carlos Alcaraz decide where to run to return Novak Djokovic’s ball by just looking at the ball’s initial position? These behaviours, so common in elite athletes, are difficult to explain with current computational models, which assume that the players must continuously follow the ball with their eyes. Now, researchers of the University of Barcelona have developed a model that, by combining optical variables with environmental factors such as gravity, accurately predicts how a person will move to catch a moving object just from an initial glance. These results, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, could have potential applications in fields such as robotics, sports training or even space exploration. 

An international research team led by the University of Vienna has discovered that the Solar System traversed the Orion star-forming complex, a component of the Radcliffe Wave galactic structure, approximately 14 million years ago. This journey through a dense region of space could have compressed the heliosphere, the protective bubble surrounding our solar system, and increased the influx of interstellar dust, potentially influencing Earth's climate and leaving traces in geological records. The findings, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, offer a fascinating interdisciplinary link between astrophysics, paleoclimatology, and geology.