🚀 Fascinating Frontiers - Space & Astronomy News
| Astronomers have discovered the youngest known exoplanet, a baby world still forming at just one million years old. |
Top 15 Space & Astronomy Stories
- Nearly Eighty Companies Join IRIS² Low-LEO Activities — European Space Agency
They are exploring future secure connectivity services and mission concepts for Europe. The European Space Agency announced the expansion of its secure connectivity programme. This phase focuses on low Earth orbit activities for future services. The initiative aims to enhance Europe's space-based secure communications. Source: esa.int - Russia Launches Soyuz from Plesetsk with Possible Glonass Satellite — Jonathan McDowell
Russia appears to have launched a Soyuz from Plesetsk at around 1650 UTC on September 17. The launch probably carried another Glonass navigation satellite. No official confirmation has been released yet. Orbital launch tracker Jonathan McDowell reported the event. This would add to Russia's navigation constellation. Source: x.com - NASA to Carry Medicine Biology Experiments and Solar Arrays to Space Station — NASA
NASA will carry new experiments in medicine and biology along with solar arrays for the Space Station. The agency shared details ahead of an upcoming launch. These experiments will support ongoing research aboard the orbiting laboratory. Solar arrays will help maintain power systems on the station. Source: x.com - UTM Preparing to Launch New Moldovan Satellite — Moldova 1
UTM is preparing to launch a new Moldovan satellite following the success of TUMnanoSAT. The project builds on prior nanosatellite achievements by the Technical University of Moldova. This next satellite will continue Moldova's contributions to space research. Launch preparations are now underway. Source: moldova1.md - Astronomers Discover Youngest Baby Exoplanet Yet — Mashable
Astronomers have discovered their youngest baby exoplanet yet. The world is still forming around its host star. Elias 2-24 b sits roughly 450 light-years away. Observations captured the planet in its earliest stages of growth. This find resets the record for the youngest known exoplanet. Source: mashable.com - Lake Powell Drops to Record-Low Levels — NASA Science
Snow drought and unusually warm temperatures in the Colorado Basin in 2026 drove down reservoir water storage in the U.S. West. Lake Powell reached record-low levels as a result. NASA Earth observations tracked the decline across the basin. The data highlight ongoing drought impacts on western water supplies. Source: science.nasa.gov - Researchers Develop Way to Check Weather on Exoplanet — Universe Today
Scientists from Trinity developed a powerful way to unravel changing weather patterns on distant worlds. The approach was tested on the well-studied brown dwarf SIMP 0136. Weather on this object is largely shaped by changes in temperature and the vertical structure of its clouds. The method separates temperature effects from cloud dynamics. Source: universetoday.com - New Krypton-88 Data Narrow Key Gap in Stellar Strontium Models — Phys.org Space
An international research team reported the first experimental investigation of a nuclear physics reaction essential for understanding how strontium is produced in stars. The study used indirect experimental techniques to extract information about how krypton-88 absorbs neutrons. The work was published in Communications Physics. These data help close gaps in models of element formation in stellar environments. Source: phys.org - A Zombie White Dwarf Star is Born Again — Universe Today
Thirty years ago an amateur astronomer noticed a white dwarf star suddenly getting brighter. New research shows this is due to a Very Late Thermal Pulse, a type of helium flash. The star has heated up and become brighter and is now called a born-again star. It has evolved into a Wolf-Rayet type star. Astronomers will get to watch its continued evolution on human timescales. Source: universetoday.com - Glimpse of Solar System Origins in Meteorite Molecules — Phys.org Space
Researchers at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory teamed up to examine the complex makeup of meteorites. The work provides a fresh look at molecules preserved inside these ancient rocks. The study offers new glimpses into our solar system's past chemistry. Source: phys.org - Ancient Mars Rocks Reveal Buried Carbonate Stores — Phys.org Space
Carbonate minerals form when water carrying dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with rock. Mars has surprisingly little carbonate on its surface compared with climate model predictions. The study examines what ancient Mars rocks reveal about hidden carbonate stores. Composition of these minerals reflects past water and atmospheric chemistry. Source: phys.org - NASA Astronaut Captures Milky Way from International Space Station — Nonstop Local News Montana
A NASA astronaut captured an image of the Milky Way from the International Space Station. The photo shows the galaxy's structure against the backdrop of Earth. Such images highlight the unique vantage point offered by the station. Source: montanarightnow.com - NASA SpaceX Continue Crew-13 Prep as Crew Enters Quarantine — NASA Science
The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission entered quarantine late Thursday at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Mission preparations continue ahead of an early October launch to the International Space Station. NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney along with CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk are part of the crew. Source: nasa.gov - Ad ASTRA Post-Workshop Debrief and Next Steps — NASA Science
Participants joined the Ad ASTRA Community Science Workshop in Pasadena California. The workshop brought together community members to discuss future directions. NASA Science shared a debrief and outlined next steps following the event. Source: science.nasa.gov - ESA Begins Low-LEO Study Phase for IRIS² Secure Connectivity Programme — space & defense
ESA has begun the Low-LEO study phase for the IRIS² secure connectivity programme. The phase examines mission concepts and service options in low Earth orbit. This work supports Europe's plans for secure satellite communications. Source: spaceanddefense.io
Cosmic Spotlight
The discovery of Elias 2-24 b gives astronomers a direct view of a planet still assembling from its birth disk. At roughly one million years old the world is far younger than any previously confirmed exoplanet and sits about 450 light-years away. Observations captured the object while it was still embedded in gas and dust, allowing researchers to study how material accretes onto a forming planet. This snapshot challenges existing timelines for when planets can begin to clear gaps in their disks and opens a new window into the earliest stages of planetary growth. The find also raises questions about how quickly atmospheres can develop around such young bodies. What other infant worlds might current surveys be missing because they form even faster than models predict?
Cosmic Deep Dive: How Neutron Capture Shapes the Elements We See
Imagine holding a single teaspoon of material from the heart of a red giant star; that tiny volume would contain more neutrons passing through it in one second than all the atoms in the entire Pacific Ocean. Inside these stars, the slow neutron capture process steadily builds heavier elements by adding one neutron at a time to existing nuclei, with each addition followed by a beta decay that turns a neutron into a proton. The recent krypton-88 measurements show exactly how often a nucleus absorbs a neutron before decaying, and that rate controls how much strontium ends up in the star’s outer layers and later in the planets that form around it. The process runs at temperatures around one hundred million kelvin and densities where a single nucleus might wait centuries between captures, yet over millions of years the chain climbs from iron all the way past strontium. We can measure the resulting abundance patterns in ancient stars, but nobody yet knows why the observed strontium levels sometimes exceed what the best nuclear data predict.
That covers today's space and science news. | 