Scientists with NASA’s Lucy mission continue to analyze data collected during the spacecraft’s April 20 encounter with the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson.

A study led by University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite puts forth a new explanation for why Mars never seems to stay balmy for long. Published July 2 in Nature and based on NASA's Curiosity rover findings, their model suggests that the periods of liquid water we see in the past were initiated by the sun brightening, and that conditions on Mars mean it trends towards desert over time—in contrast to Earth, which has stayed habitable.

Astronomers using the European Space Agency’s Cheops mission have caught an exoplanet that seems to be triggering flares of radiation from the star it orbits. These tremendous explosions are blasting away the planet’s wispy atmosphere, causing it to shrink every year.

This is the first-ever evidence for a ‘planet with a death wish’. Though it was theorised to be possible since the nineties, the flares seen in this research are around 100 times more energetic than expected.

For the first time, astronomers have obtained visual evidence that a star met its end by detonating twice. By studying the centuries-old remains of supernova SNR 0509-67.5 with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), they have found patterns that confirm its star suffered a pair of explosive blasts. Published today, this discovery shows some of the most important explosions in the Universe in a new light.