A research team from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) has found that lunar soil samples brought back by China's Chang'e-6 mission (collected from the lunar farside) contain high concentrations of OH/H₂O and low deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H) ratios. These characteristics align with lunar water originating from the solar wind, the team noted.

The Austrian Space Agency and the European Space Agency (ESA) have approved the mission's continuation. In future, the CubeSat PRETTY will operate as part of the OPS-SAT Space Lab. The project management will be transferred to TU Graz.

The Institute for Fusion Science installed the "Hyperspectral Camera for Auroral Imaging (HySCAI)" in Kiruna, Sweden, in May 2023 and commenced full-scale observations in September of the same year. A research group led by Professor Katsumi Iida and Assistant Professor Mikio Yoshinuma from the National Institute for Fusion Science, Professor Yusuke Ebihara from the Institute for Advanced Studies on Human Survival and Environmental Science at Kyoto University, and Professor Kazuo Shiokawa from the Institute for Space and Earth Environmental Research at Nagoya University has now succeeded in observing the altitude distribution of blue nitrogen ion (N₂⁺) auroras emitting light during astronomical twilight using HySCAI. This research developed a completely novel method, utilizing the phenomenon where the altitude at which sunlight illuminates the aurora changes as twilight progresses. This enabled precise observation of the altitude distribution of the nitrogen ion's emission intensity. The peak was found to be located at an altitude of approximately 200 km, exhibiting extremely high intensity.

The universe's expansion may actually have started to slow rather than accelerating at an ever-increasing rate as previously thought, a new study suggests. "Remarkable" findings published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society cast doubt on the long-standing theory that a mysterious force known as 'dark energy' is driving distant galaxies away increasingly faster. Instead, they show no evidence of an accelerating universe. If the results are confirmed it could open an entirely new chapter in scientists' quest to uncover the true nature of dark energy, resolve the 'Hubble tension', and understand the past and future of the universe.

Ageing stars may be destroying the giant planets orbiting closest to them, according to a new study by astronomers at UCL (University College London) and the University of Warwick.