Space

The James Webb Space Telescope has unmasked a pair of cosmic impostors lurking within our own galaxy: two ultra-cool brown dwarfs that had been mistaken for some of the most distant galaxies ever observed. The discovery, published in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters (arXiv:2604.23668), serves as a cautionary tale for astronomers hunting […]

The Aeolus orbiter will carry four NASA-built scientific instruments to Mars to study the planet’s atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The instruments include a Doppler Wind and Temperature Sounder (DWTS-Ozone) to measure wind and temperature profiles, a Thermal Limb Sounder (TLS) for vertical temperature and dust measurements, a Surface Radiometric Sensor Package (SuRSeP), and a Wide-Field […]

Jio Platforms, the digital and telecommunications arm of Reliance Industries, has announced plans to develop a sovereign low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation to extend broadband connectivity to every corner of India. The announcement, made by managing director Akash Ambani at Reliance Industries’ 49th annual general meeting on June 19, coincides with Jio filing draft […]

A new study published in Physical Review D has systematically calculated the probability of detecting gravitational wave signals from primordial black holes (PBHs) interacting with neutron stars in the Galactic center, concluding that current observatories face extremely long odds. Despite the theoretical appeal of PBH-neutron star encounters as a window into dark matter, the probability […]

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have detected for the first time the subtle signature of a planet’s rotation during transit, revealing dramatic temperature and chemical asymmetries across the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-121 b. The findings, published in Nature Astronomy, open a new window into the three-dimensional structure of exoplanet atmospheres. WASP-121 […]

Astrophysicists have shown that tiny deviations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum can place some of the most stringent limits yet on whether ultrahigh-energy neutrinos interact with one another, opening a new observational avenue for physics beyond the Standard Model. The study, published in Physical Review D by researchers from India’s Institute of Physics […]

Date: 2026-06-19 Featured image: Katalyst Space’s Link robotic servicing satellite awaits encapsulation inside a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket on June 8, 2026, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA/Ron Beard Just 10 months ago, NASA asked three companies if they could do something nobody had done before: build and launch a satellite […]

“The rocket is to be powered by the self-developed Lieyan-2 electric-pump-fed engine, with Spark Space aiming for a debut flight in 2027,” the company said in a statement. ### Funding and investors Spark Space announced a Pre-A round of nearly 100 million yuan ($14.8 million) on June 1, led by Yunze Capital and Orbital Chenguang, […]

A new study combining James Webb Space Telescope observations of the earliest galaxies with cosmic microwave background data and baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument has resolved the long-standing Hubble tension to just 1.0 sigma — the closest astronomers have come to eliminating the decade-old crisis in cosmology. The Hubble tension […]

Quantum Space has secured a contract from the Department of Defense to develop an orbital refueling spacecraft, marking another step in the Pentagon’s push to treat satellite fuel as a replenishable resource rather than a finite commodity that determines mission lifetime. The contract, awarded by the DoD’s Operational Energy Capability Improvement Fund (OECIF), calls for […]