For more than two decades, the Global Positioning System (GPS) constellation has silently monitored high-energy electrons in Earth's radiation belts—but inconsistencies among its satellites have prevented scientists from fully trusting the combined data. 

The effects of extreme space weather may be larger than previously thought reveals research in Nature led by Dr Nithin Sivadas of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. An example of space weather are extreme geomagnetic storms which are temporary disturbances in the plasma and magnetic field around the Earth causing disruptions in global satellite communication, extensive power outages, and even how much radiation astronauts and pilots are exposed to.

The team found evidence from more than a million solar wind measurements taken by Earth-orbiting NASA spacecraft, very close to our planet. Analysis of these observations showed a direct relationship between the strength of the solar wind and the currents in the upper atmosphere, suggesting there is no upper limit but rather Earth’s response will continue to increase along with the solar wind strength, and impacts to technology can increase as well.

SAN ANTONIO — July 15, 2026 — A Southwest Research Institute-led study has proposed a connection between a specific collision in the main asteroid belt and an inner-solar-system-wide bombardment episode that may have had measurable biological and geological consequences on Earth. The research suggests that the catastrophic breakup of the Eulalia parent body could be linked to an impact shower that struck the terrestrial planets about 800 million years ago.

A team of astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris. The new planet, Beta Pictoris d, is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b — the first planet discovered in the same system — and is among the lightest exoplanets ever to be imaged from the ground. After spotting the planet using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), the team found it had been hiding in archive observations spanning more than a decade.

Researchers from LunaSCOPE, Brown University’s NASA-funded lunar science collaboration, have mapped the thickness of the loose dirt and rock layer that could help or hinder lunar explorers, depending on the task at hand.

A team of crew members aboard a commercial spaceflight acquired the first diagnostic X-rays during an orbital flight.

The cost of reaching orbit is now falling faster than that of steamship freight during the 1800s, a shift that economists say will once again transform global commerce.