Researchers at TU Delft (The Netherlands) and Brown University have developed scalable nanotechnology-based lightsails that could support future advances in space exploration and experimental physics. Their research, published in Nature Communications, introduces new materials and production methods to create the thinnest large-scale reflectors ever made. ‘This is not just another step in making things smaller; it’s an entirely new way of thinking about nanotechnology,’ explains Dr. Richard Norte, associate professor at TU Delft. ‘We’re creating high-aspect-ratio devices that are thinner than anything previously engineered but span dimensions akin to massive structures.’

In a paper published in National Science Review, a research team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated impact melt rocks from the Chang'e-6 lunar soils and determined that the Moon's South Pole-Aitken basin formed 4.25 billion years ago. China’s Chang'e-6 mission, launched on May 3, 2024, landed on June 2, and returned on June 25, collecting 1935.3 grams of lunar soil samples – the first ever returned from the Moon's far side.

A terrifying glimpse at one potential fate of our Milky Way galaxy has come to light thanks to the discovery of a cosmic anomaly that challenges our understanding of the universe. An international team of astronomers led by CHRIST University, Bangalore, found that a massive spiral galaxy almost one billion light-years away from Earth harbours a supermassive black hole billions of times the Sun’s mass which is powering colossal radio jets stretching six million light-years across. That is one of the largest known for any spiral galaxy and upends conventional wisdom of galaxy evolution, because such powerful jets are almost exclusively found in elliptical galaxies, not spirals. It also means the Milky Way could potentially create similar energetic jets in the future – with the cosmic rays, gamma rays and X-rays they produce wreaking havoc in our solar system because of increased radiation and the potential to cause a mass extinction on Earth.