Space & Planetary

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 27-Apr-2025 21:08 ET (28-Apr-2025 01:08 GMT/UTC)

11-Mar-2025

Small, faint and 'unexpected in a lot of different ways': U-M astronomers make galactic discovery

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The discovery of the dwarf galaxy Andromeda XXXV—located roughly 3 million light-years away and the smallest yet found in the Andromeda system—is forcing astronomers to rethink how galaxies evolve in different cosmic environments and survive different epochs of the universe.

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Funder

U.S. National Science Foundation, Space Telescope Science Institute

11-Mar-2025

Earth's 'dirty mirror' effect is accelerating climate change

University of Reading
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cloudy areas over oceans are reflecting less sunlight to space than before

Journal

Environmental Research Letters

10-Mar-2025

$100 million investment to expand Cornell's Engineering college

Cornell University
Grant and Award Announcement

A $100 million philanthropic commitment, the largest in Cornell Engineering’s history, from David A. Duffield ’62, MBA ’64, will significantly expand the college’s existing Duffield Hall, creating a new state-of-the-art home for the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and critical new lab space for strategic research priorities.

10-Mar-2025

James Webb Space Telescope reveals unexpected complex chemistry in primordial galaxy

University of Arizona
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Arizona astronomers have peered back to a time when the universe was just less than 300 million years old. The research team, using JWST revealed something extraordinary in the galaxy: significant amounts of oxygen.

Journal

Nature Astronomy

Funder

NASA, NASA, European Research Council, European Research Council, Science and Technology Facilities Council, UKRI Frontier Research, Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, U.S. National Science Foundation

10-Mar-2025

Study: Climate change will reduce the number of satellites that can safely orbit in space

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT aerospace engineers found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can safely operate there. 

Journal

Nature Sustainability

Funder

U.S. National Science Foundation, U.S. Air Force, U.K. Natural Environment Research Council

10-Mar-2025

Rising CO2 likely to speed decrease in ‘space sustainability’ 

University of Birmingham
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The total number of satellites that can orbit in space is likely to decrease as greenhouse gases cause Earth’s upper atmosphere to contract.

Journal

Nature Sustainability

10-Mar-2025

Evidence of a new phenomenon: Quantum tornadoes in momentum space

University of Würzburg
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers from Würzburg has for the first time experimentally demonstrated a quantum tornado. Electrons form vortices in the momentum space of the quantum semi-metal tantalum arsenide.

Journal

Physical Review X