Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA's Voyager mission completed humankind's first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system. Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune were far more complex than scientists had imagined. There was a lot more to be learned.

A NASA Hubble Space Telescope observation program called OPAL (Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy) obtains long-term baseline observations of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in order to understand their atmospheric dynamics and evolution.

MIT astronomers have found a way to spot the smallest, “decameter,” asteroids within the main asteroid belt. They used their approach to detect more than 100 new asteroids, ranging from the size of a bus to several stadiums wide, which are the smallest asteroids within the main belt detected to date. 

Eric Stach of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Science and colleagues used neural networks to better identify the characteristics of catalysts that drive the creation of liquid fuels from sunlight.

Nearly 21% of households in states heavily affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton report sometimes or often not having enough to eat within the first seven days of the storms’ impact, according to the November 2024 Consumer Food Insights Report (CFI).

The survey-based report out of Purdue University’s Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability(CFDAS) assesses food spending, consumer satisfaction and values, support of agricultural and food policies, and trust in information sources. Purdue experts conducted and evaluated the survey, which included 1,200 consumers across the U.S.