SAN ANTONIO — March 10, 2025 — Using data collected by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it flew past Jupiter’s highly volcanic moon Io in late 2023 and again in early 2024, a Southwest Research Institute-led team identified electrons with energies enhanced by processes in the region connecting the moon to Jupiter’s ionosphere, called an Alfvén wing. A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters emphasizes how these electrons, and their variation within that region, shape the plasma environment around Io.

Hypervelocity impacts from space debris pose significant risks to spacecraft and satellites in outer space. To address this challenge, Prof. SU Zhongqing, Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Chair Professor of Intelligent Structures and Systems at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), as well as a key member of the Research Centre for Deep Space Explorations, along with his research team, has developed an innovative sensing technology to efficiently evaluate the health of space systems under hypervelocity impact of space junks. In recognition of this translational research and development (R&D) work, he has been awarded the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF) (Special Call for Aerospace Technology) by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC).

The Antarctic Meteorite Collection at the National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR) in Japan has been recognized as a Geo-collection by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). An IUGS Geo-collection is a museum collection of global importance because of its particularly high scientific, historical, or educational relevance for geological sciences. With over 17,400 meteorites, the Antarctic Meteorite Collection offers invaluable insights into the early solar system, planetary bodies, the Moon, and Mars. Carefully classified and stored, these samples complement space mission findings, advancing global research on planetary evolution and solar system history.

Tokyo, Japan – The XRISM collaboration have discovered flows of hot gas in the core of the Centaurus Cluster. By comparing state-of-the-art X-ray measurements from the XRISM satellite with numerical simulations, they showed this is evidence for collisions between galaxy clusters, causing gas inside to “slosh”. This solves the longstanding mystery of how cluster cores stay hot, and sheds light on how our universe continues to evolve.