space research

On June 6, 2025, Japanese space startup ispace announced it had lost contact with its uncrewed lunar lander, Resilience, just minutes before a planned touchdown at Mare Frigoris. If confirmed, this would mark the second consecutive crash for ispace, following its inaugural mission in 2023. The failure underscores the formidable challenges faced by private companies in mastering lunar landing technology—and raises questions about the future of commercial lunar exploration.

On Friday, June 6, Japanese space startup ispace announced a critical failure in its second lunar landing attempt. The uncrewed spacecraft, named Resili

The James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) has once again demonstrated its transformative power by capturing a near-infrared portrait of the Sombrero galaxy (Messier 104). Located approximately 30 million light-years away at the edge of the Virgo Cluster, the Sombrero galaxy’s distinctive shape—an enormous bulge of stars surrounded by a thin, dark dust lane—has long captivated astronomers and stargazers alike. While Hubble’s visible-light images revealed the galaxy’s sweeping, edge-on disk and luminous central bulge, and Webb’s mid-infrared observations in late 2024 showcased the dust glowing warmly, this latest near-infrared image provides fresh insights into the interplay between stars and dust. By examining the galaxy at multiple wavelengths—visible, near-infrared, and mid-infrared—researchers can piece together a more complete narrative of the Sombrero’s formation, evolution, and turbulent history.

For decades, planetary scientists have puzzled over a major Martian mystery: why are the strongest traces of Mars’ ancient magnetic field found almost exclusively in the planet’s southern hemisphere? A new study may finally have the answer—and it lies at the heart of the Red Planet.

In a groundbreaking experiment simulating Martian conditions, lichens have demonstrated remarkable resilience, opening new possibilities for understanding survival in extreme extraterrestrial environments. Researchers from Jagiellonian University and the Polish Academy of Sciences revealed that certain lichens remained metabolically active despite being subjected to harsh Martian-like conditions.

In an exciting breakthrough for the field of astronomy, a team of researchers has managed to track down the source of a mysterious type of radio pulse emanating from deep space, and the discovery is far from what astronomers had anticipated. For the past three years, astronomers have been grappling with the enigmatic phenomenon of long period transients – objects that emit bright radio signals at intervals ranging from a few minutes to several hours. These objects were puzzling, as they did not align with known sources like pulsars or white dwarfs, leaving the scientific community to wonder what exactly could be producing these peculiar emissions.

In a historic achievement for commercial space exploration, Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost Mission 1 has successfully landed on the Moon, delivering a suite of NASA science and technology instruments. The lander touched down at 3:34 a.m. EST on Sunday near Mons Latreille, a volcanic feature within Mare Crisium, a massive basin more than 300 miles wide on the Moon’s near side.

Explore the origins of water on Earth, tracing its journey from the planet's extreme formative conditions to the potential contributions of extraterrestrial sources such as comets and asteroids. Discover evidence from ancient terrestrial rocks and understand the importance of the water cycle in sustaining life and shaping climates. This comprehensive analysis illuminates Earth's hydrological history and its implications for astrobiology in the search for life beyond our planet.