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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Boiling oceans may lurk beneath the ice of solar system’s smallest moons

    November 26, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Looking inside icy moons
    Saturn’s moon Mimas, imaged by the Cassini spacecraft. A new study shows how such small ice moons could sustain a liquid ocean beneath an icy shell, and how that could give rise to surface features. Credit: By NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute – This image or video was catalogued by Jet Propulsion Laboratory of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: PIA12570., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10371541

    The outer planets of the solar system are swarmed by ice-wrapped moons. Some of these, such as Saturn’s moon Enceladus, are known to have oceans of liquid water between the ice shell and the rocky core and could be the best places in our solar system to look for extraterrestrial life...

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    Scientists may have found the planet that made the Moon

    November 25, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s impression of the collision between the early Earth and Theia. Since Theia originated in the inner Solar System, in this perspective the Sun can be seen in the background. Credit: MPS / Mark A. Garlick

    Researchers have traced chemical clues in rocks from Earth and the Moon to uncover the origins of Theia, the body that struck Earth billions of years ago. About 4.5 billion years ago, a colossal impact between the young Earth and a mysterious planetary body called Theia changed everything—reshaping Earth, forming the Moon, and scattering clues across space rocks. By examining subtle isotopic fingerprints in Earth and Moon samples, scientists have reconstructed Theia’s possible composition and birthplace.

    Reconstructing Theia’s makeup: A new study in Science identifies t...

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    Scientists track recent solar flare disruptions in Earth’s ionosphere

    November 24, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    auroras
    Credit: Pexels User from Pexels

    As this month’s string of powerful X-class solar flares sparked brilliant auroras that lit up skies across an unusually wide swath of the globe—from northern Europe to Florida—researchers at NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) captured a less visible, but crucial, record of the storm’s impact on Earth’s upper atmosphere.

    Recent measurements recorded by NJIT’s new network of radio telescopes show how a rare sequence of intense flares from Nov. 9–14, including an X5.1 event marking 2025’s strongest flare so far, jolted the ionosphere—the plasma-filled atmospheric layer essential for radio signals, GPS accuracy and satellite orbits.

    The flares triggered R3 (strong) radio blackouts across Africa and Europe, with several coronal ...

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    Moss spores survive 9 months outside International Space Station

    November 24, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space, Biology/Biotechnology

    This moss survived 9 months directly exposed to the elements of space
    A reddish-brown sporophyte can be seen at the top center of a leafy gametophore. This capsule contains numerous spores inside. Mature sporophytes like these were individually collected and used as samples for the space exposure experiment conducted on the exposure facility of the International Space Station (ISS). Credit: Tomomichi Fujita

    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.

    Their results, published in the journal iScience on November 20, show that more than 80% of the spores survived nine...

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