Jupiter's Lightning Could Be Almost Unbelievably Powerful

Juno observations show that Jupiter's lightning, already known to be powerful, is far more energetic than thought. Lightning triggered by a stealth superstorm in 2021-22 could be up to one million times more powerful than terrestrial lightning.

How Did Venus Become a Hellscape? 234,000 Simulations Reveal Four Possible Paths

Venus is increasingly becoming a touch point for our studies of the exoplanets, as missions like the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)and the upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) begin to characterize rocky exoplanets around other stars. Understanding the difference between the evolutions of Venus and Earth, which ended up with such different results, is a key to understanding whether we might be looking at an Earth-analogue or a hellish landscape like Venus. A new paper by Rodolfo Garcia of the University of Washington and his colleagues, which is available in pre-print form on arXiv, simulates Venus’ 4.5 billion year evolution as part of the solar system to try to understand some of those differences.

NASA's Webb and Hubble Telescopes Look at Saturn in a Different Light

NASA is serving up a double scoop of delicious Saturn imagery in two flavors — near-infrared from the James Webb Space Telescope, and visible light from the Hubble Space Telescope.

NASA's Dragonfly Rotorcraft Begins Integration and Testing Ahead of Mission To Titan

We’re getting close to launch day for Dragonfly! Engineers at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, have officially kicked off the integration and testing stage for the car-sized, nuclear-powered helicopter bound for Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. According to a press release for APL, after years of designing, tweaking, and testing individual components in laboratories and on computer simulations, various organizations have started testing actual hardware ahead of the mission’s planned 2028 launch.

Mars Plant Growth from Cyanobacteria-Based Fertilizer

You’re the Lead Botanist on the third human mission to Mars whose primary job involves growing food for the crew throughout the long mission. While you’re very familiar with the infamous “poop potatoes” from the 2025 film The Martian, the greatest minds in science had since devised a more efficient, and less messy, method for growing food on Mars: cyanobacteria.

NASA Lays Out Ambitious Plans for Moon Base and Nuclear Mars Mission

NASA has outlined an ambitious strategy to start working on a moon base and send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars by the end of 2028 — leading some observers to wonder whether the timeline was realistic or wise.

Extragalactic Archaeology: A New Method To Understand Galaxy Growth and Evolution

Galactic archaeology uses chemical fingerprints in the Milky Way to trace its formation and evolution. Now a team of researchers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have employed it for the first time in a distant galaxy. This is the first example of extragalactic archaeology, and it relies on help from the powerful Illustris TNG simulations.