EurekAlert! News by Subject: Space & Planetary - News by Subject: Space & Planetary

Space & Planetary

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-Sep-2025 14:11 ET (18-Sep-2025 18:11 GMT/UTC)

Exoplanets are not water worlds

ETH Zurich
Peer-Reviewed Publication

There is much less water on the surfaces of distant planets outside our solar system than previously thought. These exoplanets do not have thick layers of water, as was often speculated. That’s the conclusion of an international study led by ETH Zurich.

Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Colossal collisions in space send shockwaves through the universe: Gravitational waves break records with new observations

University of Copenhagen
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Gravitational waves shake the very fabric of the universe when black holes collide. Today we measure these events and use them to understand the cosmos. Now University of Copenhagen researchers and their international collaborators have published a treasure trove of new gravitational waves that may challenge our fundamental understanding of black holes, gravity, and the universe itself. Among them the strongest signal and the largest collision ever recorded.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

Researchers uncover how galaxies and their black holes grew 12.9 billion light years ago

Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of researchers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to discover 12 ancient black holes from 12.9 billion years ago.

Journal: Nature Astronomy

Cosmic crime scene: White dwarf found devouring Pluto-like icy world

University of Warwick
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Warwick astronomers have uncovered the chemical fingerprint of a frozen, water-rich planetary fragment being consumed by a white dwarf star outside our Solar System.

Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Funder: European Union’s Horizon 2020, European Union’s Horizon 2020

New Mars research reveals multiple episodes of habitability in Jezero Crater

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research using NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered strong evidence that Mars’ Jezero Crater experienced multiple episodes of fluid activity — each with conditions that could have supported life.

SwRI-built instruments to monitor, provide advanced warning of space weather events

Southwest Research Institute
Business Announcement

SAN ANTONIO — September 17, 2025 — Two instruments developed by Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) are integrated into a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite set to launch into space as a rideshare on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket no earlier than Sept. 23, 2025.

Planets without plate tectonics and too little carbon dioxide could mean that technological alien life is rare

Europlanet
Reports and Proceedings

The closest technological species to us in the Milky Way galaxy could be 33,000 light years away and their civilisation would have to be at least 280,000 years, and possibly millions of years, old if they are to exist at the same time that we do, according to new research presented at the EPSC–DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki last week.

Meeting: EPSC-DPS2025

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