Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

In honor of Global Astronomy Month, we’re exploring the science of space. Learn how astronomy connects us through curiosity, discovery, and a shared wonder for what lies beyond.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 25-Jul-2025 03:11 ET (25-Jul-2025 07:11 GMT/UTC)

11-Jun-2025

Rice students develop an award-winning adaptive exercise harness for astronauts to use in space

Rice University
Grant and Award Announcement

A team of Rice engineering students has designed an innovative space exercise harness that won this year's Technology Collaboration Center’s Wearables Workshop and University Challenge. Their design answered a challenge posed by the HumanWorks Lab and Life Science Labs at NASA and Johnson Space Center.

11-Jun-2025

Solar Orbiter gets world-first views of the Sun’s poles

European Space Agency
Reports and Proceedings

Thanks to its newly tilted orbit around the Sun, the European Space Agency-led Solar Orbiter spacecraft is the first to image the Sun’s poles from outside the ecliptic plane. Solar Orbiter’s unique viewing angle will change our understanding of the Sun’s magnetic field, the solar cycle and the workings of space weather.

11-Jun-2025

How scientists fixed orbit errors in China’s beidou satellites

Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two BeiDou-3 satellites, once plagued by puzzling orbit errors, are now operating with newfound precision thanks to a breakthrough modeling strategy. 

Journal

Satellite Navigation

11-Jun-2025

Earth-based telescopes offer a fresh look at cosmic dawn

Johns Hopkins University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For the first time, scientists have used Earth-based telescopes to look back in time over 13 billion years to get a clearer picture of one of the least understood epochs in the history of the universe, the Cosmic Dawn. 

Journal

The Astrophysical Journal

Funder

Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, U.S. National Science Foundation

10-Jun-2025

The Solar Close Observations and Proximity Experiments (SCOPE) mission

Beijing Zhongke Journal Publising Co. Ltd.

In a paper published in Astronomical Techniques and Instruments, the Solar Close Observations and Proximity Experiments (SCOPE) mission will send a spacecraft into the solar atmosphere at a low altitude of just 5 R☉ from the solar center. It aims to elucidate the mechanisms behind solar eruptions and coronal heating, and to directly measure the coronal magnetic field.

Journal

Astronomical Techniques and Instrument

10-Jun-2025

Title: A near-real-time data-assimilative model of the solar corona *UNIQUE EMBARGO*

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Special Embargo Note: The embargo on the report, “A Near-Real-Time Data-Assimilative Model of the Solar Corona,” will lift at 6:15 pm U.S. E.T. on Tuesday, 10 June, as a service to journalists who may plan to cover the 246th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Anchorage, Alaska, where a related press briefing will take place. The briefing will be held just after the embargo lifts, on Tuesday, 10 June at 2:15 p.m. U.S. AKDT (or 6:15 U.S. Eastern Time). It will be live-streamed on the AAS Press Office YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@AASPressOffice.

Journal

Science