EurekAlert! News by Subject: Space & Planetary - News by Subject: Space & Planetary

Space & Planetary

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-Nov-2025 08:11 ET (1-Nov-2025 12:11 GMT/UTC)

9-Sep-2025

Study questions ocean origin of organics in Enceladus’s plumes

Organic molecules detected in the watery plumes that spew out from cracks in the surface of Enceladus could be formed through exposure to radiation on Saturn’s icy moon, rather than originating from deep within its sub-surface ocean. The findings, presented during the EPSC–DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki this week, have repercussions for assessing the habitability of Enceladus’s ocean.

Funder: European Commission, European Cooperation in Science and Technology, Research England
Meeting: EPSC-DPS2025

8-Sep-2025

UZH device searches for light dark matter

University of Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Superconducting sensors can detect single low-energy photons. UZH researchers have now used this capability to search for light dark matter particles in the universe.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

8-Sep-2025

USF study: Reptile tongue movements could inspire biomedical and space tools

University of South Florida
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Salamanders and chameleons, despite evolving in different habitats, use the same “slingshot” tongue mechanism powered by ordinary tissues, tendons and bone. This biological design could be scaled for human applications, from biomedical devices that clear blood clots to large-scale tools for disaster recovery or space exploration. The findings underscore how nature’s solutions can guide technological innovation.

Journal: Current Biology

8-Sep-2025

Physicists devise an idea for lasers that shoot beams of neutrinos

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MIT physicists introduce a concept for a “neutrino laser” — a burst of neutrinos that could be produced by laser-cooling a gas of radioactive atoms down to temperatures colder than interstellar space. Such a laser could be used as a new form of communication or a new source of radioisotopes in medicine.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

7-Sep-2025

Improved propulsion system may help remove space debris without contact

Tohoku University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Just like litter is a big problem on Earth, space junk is cluttering up outer space. To dispose of this junk, a Tohoku University researcher demonstrated the utility of a special plasma thruster.

Journal: Scientific Reports

5-Sep-2025

Reminder: Final media invitation for EPSC-DPS2025 and details of media briefings on RAMSES and Juno missions

Europlanet
Meeting Announcement

The Europlanet Science Congress 2025 will be held jointly with the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division of Planetary Science (EPSC-DPS2025) from 7–12 September 2025 at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland. With around 1800 participants expected to join in person and online, it will be the largest planetary science meeting held to date in Europe. Press briefings will be livestreamed and press notices on presentations of interest to the media will be issued by the EPSC-DPS2025 Press Office during the meeting.

Meeting: EPSC-DPS2025

5-Sep-2025

Rice, Waseda engineers’ space-time computational breakthrough powers solutions from medicine to aerospace

Rice University
Book Announcement

When most people think of computer simulations, they imagine sleek graphics or Hollywood-style animations. But for Tayfun Tezduyar, the James F. Barbour Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice University, accuracy is everything.