Historically, computer simulations modeling collisions between protoplanetary bodies have treated them largely as fluids. A new study suggests taking into account the material strength of solid bodies drastically changes outcomes.

In the Journal of Applied Physics, researchers explore an eggshell-inspired design as a potential spacecraft protection material. It may seem counterintuitive to use eggshells as a blueprint for strength, but they found that organizing water-filled aluminum eggshells into an array adds useful material properties when placed blunt side down between two aluminum impact plates. Rather than being concentrated within a single eggshell, the energy from an impact gradually dissipates through the material, allowing each shell to sequentially collapse and deform.

SAN ANTONIO — September 8, 2026 — Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists provided simulations to understand the role disruptive impacts play on icy moons with subsurface oceans in our solar system. A recent paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy concludes that disruptive impacts can affect the presence and persistence of subsurface oceans in these moons, but do not seem to create new oceans.

A team led by researchers from Nagoya University in Japan has found a way to check for black hole hair using changes in ringdown waves. They found that hidden matter does not affect these waves uniformly; the frequency and fade-out speed of the waves respond differently. This difference may show us if hidden matter is present, and how its pressure is arranged around a black hole.  

For spinning black holes, hidden matter affects ringdown differently, depending on whether the waves move with or against the black hole’s spin. Published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, the study tells us what pattern in the gravitational wave signal would be a clue that hidden hair is present and may help future observations tell a hairy black hole apart from an ordinary one. 

 

The European Space Agency’s FLEX mission marks the beginning of a new era of plant research from space. The satellite, which was specifically developed to observe photosynthesis, will track how plants react to drought, heat, and other environmental stresses. The insights could help to develop climate-resilient agriculture, better protect natural ecosystems, and increase food security in the long term. Forschungszentrum Jülich operates the German FLEX project office, contributes its scientific expertise to the mission, and supports researchers in using the freely available satellite data.

Reliable battery operation in sub-zero environments is critical for polar exploration, military missions, and space applications. However, conventional lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) face inherent limitations at low temperatures by intrinsic hurdle of poor ionic mobility in liquid electrolytes. All-solid-state batteries (ASSBs), which replace liquid electrolytes with non-flammable and non-freezing solid electrolytes, are considered promising alternatives because these solid electrolytes provide high ionic conductivity at low temperatures, superior temperature stability, and exceptional safety. ASSBs still face practical limitations at extremely low temperatures due to degradation caused by interfacial side reactions and mechanical instabilities that increase resistance and polarization. Addressing these challenges is critical to realize the advantages of ASSBs and enable their practical deployment in low-temperature applications. This review provides an overview of historical developments, critical challenges, and recent progress in advancing the low-temperature performance of ASSBs. The key components of ASSBs, including solid electrolytes, cathodes, and anodes, are systematically investigated to develop strategies for improving ASSBs at low temperatures. By highlighting future perspectives, we emphasize both the potential and necessity of ASSBs to overcome the intrinsic limitations of LIBs and ensure reliable energy storage in harsh environments.

The Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2026 will be held in hybrid format at the Amare arts venue in The Hague, Netherlands, and online, from 6–11 September 2026. Around 1200 planetary scientists from over 40 countries in Europe and around the world are expected to attend the conference.

Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell University have developed AIMe (AI Molecule Explorer), a neuro-symbolic AI tool that predicts, organizes, and searches mass spectra for more than 100 million known small organic molecules—creating a searchable map of chemical space roughly a thousand times larger than existing experimental libraries. Applying AIMe to gut microbiome data, the team identified a previously unknown, ring-shaped polyamine compound also found in human fecal samples, and used the tool to annotate millions of unidentified spectra in a major public mass spectrometry database.