POSTECH researchers have developed a “dream battery” using magnetic control of lithium to prevent dendrite formation. The hybrid anode stores lithium safely, offers four times the capacity of graphite, and sustains stable cycling, creating a safer high-energy solution for EVs and energy storage.

South Korean startup Innospace failed during its first orbital launch attempt as the Hanbit-Nano rocket crashed about a minute after liftoff from Brazil. The mission marked the country’s first private orbital launch effort and carried satellites from Brazil and India. The cause of the failure remains unclear, and the company is expected to investigate the anomaly.

A SpaceX Starlink satellite suffered a major in-orbit failure in December 2025, losing communication after venting its fuel tank and beginning an uncontrolled orbital descent. The malfunction caused the satellite’s altitude to drop and produced minor debris, prompting close tracking by SpaceX, NASA and the U.S. Space Force. High-resolution imagery from Maxar/Vantor’s WorldView-3 satellite confirmed the spacecraft was largely intact. The incident highlights both the risks of large satellite constellations and the growing role of rapid orbital monitoring in space safety.

Russia’s Energia rocket company has patented a rotating space station concept designed to generate artificial gravity for astronauts. The system would use spinning habitable modules to simulate half of Earth’s gravity, potentially reducing health risks linked to long missions as the International Space Station nears retirement.

Astronomers have detected strange wobbling jets in the rare sun-facing tail of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Observed as the comet neared the Sun, the shifting jets reveal new details about how material escapes from comets formed around other stars, offering rare insight into alien planetary systems.

Scientists warn global warming may overshoot, triggering extreme cooling and possibly the next ice age through ocean carbon and nutrient cycles.

ISRO successfully launched the US-built BlueBird Block-2 communications satellite aboard its heavy-lift LVM3 rocket from Sriharikota. Weighing 6.1 tonnes, the satellite was placed into a 520-kilometre low Earth orbit to support space-based cellular broadband for smartphones. The fully commercial mission, conducted for AST SpaceMobile, highlights India’s rising stature as a reliable and competitive launch provider in the global space industry.

NASA’s SPHEREx telescope has completed its first all-sky map, revealing hundreds of millions of galaxies and providing data to study the universe’s origin, evolution, and distribution of life-essential elements across cosmic history.

A robotic arm mastered 1,000 manipulation tasks in one day using MT3 imitation learning, requiring only one demonstration per task and minimal data.

Blue Origin has made history by launching the first wheelchair user to space and safely returning her to Earth. Aerospace engineer Michi Benthaus flew aboard the company’s New Shepard rocket on a brief suborbital mission. The successful flight highlights expanding access to space as commercial missions increasingly include diverse passengers.

Astronomers studying aging Sun-like stars have found strong evidence that stars consume their closest planets as they evolve. Using data from NASA’s TESS mission, researchers observed fewer planets around older stars, suggesting worlds are destroyed over time. The findings offer a realistic preview of Earth’s fate billions of years from now.

A new ionic liquid additive developed by researchers at Purdue and Emory universities could transform perovskite solar technology. The compound stabilises crystal growth and buried interfaces, dramatically slowing heat- and light-driven degradation. Solar cells treated with the additive retained about 90% of their efficiency after 1,500 hours at 90°C, outperforming previous records. The approach is compatible with scalable manufacturing, bringing durable, low-cost perovskite photovoltaics closer to real-world use.

Curiosity’s drive through Monte Grande hollow reveals polygon-covered bedrock, enabling detailed imaging, chemical analysis, and 3D modeling of Martian fractures.

Betelgeuse’s unusual dimming and the Crab Nebula’s remnants offer insight into stellar death and rebirth. Composite images from multiple telescopes show gas filaments and a neutron star, illustrating how massive stars explode, enrich space with heavy elements, and seed future star formation. These observations help scientists trace stellar life cycles in the universe.

Hubble has captured a glowing plume of gas escaping the spiral galaxy NGC 4388 in the Virgo cluster. Moving through hot intracluster gas, the galaxy sheds material, partially energised by its central black hole. Multi-wavelength observations reveal the impact of both environmental forces and central activity on galaxy evolution.

NASA’s PUNCH mission has captured striking views of Comet Lemmon as it passed close to the Sun in late 2025. The observations show how solar wind and eruptions reshape a comet’s tail, sometimes causing it to break and regrow. The images provide valuable insight into how solar activity affects objects across the inner solar system.

Scientists at the National University of Singapore have developed an electricity-driven method to insert nitrogen into stable carbon rings, enabling greener synthesis of valuable heterocycles. Published in Nature Synthesis, the approach avoids harsh chemicals, reduces waste, and allows access to key drug-ready molecular frameworks under mild conditions.

Astronomers have directly observed a black hole twisting spacetime for the first time, confirming Einstein’s long-standing prediction. The effect was detected during a violent stellar destruction event, where repeating X-ray and radio signals revealed a slow cosmic wobble. The discovery provides new insight into black hole spin, jets, and extreme gravity.

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have witnessed rare collisions between rocky bodies in the Fomalhaut system. The glowing debris clouds created by these impacts offer a unique glimpse into how planets form and highlight challenges in identifying true exoplanets.

After ten years of experiments, physicists found no evidence for the sterile neutrino, once thought to explain unusual neutrino behaviour. The MicroBooNE experiment at Fermilab analysed neutrinos from two beams and ruled out the particle with 95% certainty. The findings narrow the search for new physics and inform future experiments like DUNE.

NASA’s PUNCH mission released images tracking solar eruptions from the Sun’s corona into interplanetary space. The data reveals CMEs and solar wind dynamics and supports better space weather forecasting for Earth and beyond.

A SpaceX Starlink satellite is tumbling toward Earth after an orbital anomaly caused partial breakup and loss of contact. The company says the spacecraft will safely burn up during reentry, while the incident highlights increasing space safety concerns as satellite numbers continue to grow rapidly.

Researchers in China have demonstrated the first high-temperature superconducting diode, operating above liquid nitrogen temperatures without magnetic fields. Using cuprate materials, the device enables clean supercurrent flow and could reduce noise in quantum computers. The breakthrough marks an important step toward practical superconducting electronics and more stable quantum technologies.

NASA’s Perseverance rover, in excellent condition, is ready for long-term Mars exploration. Using autonomous driving, it has travelled nearly 25 miles, studied olivine-rich rocks, and collected samples revealing potential signs of past microbial life. The rover now heads to Lac de Charmes for further scientific investigation, promising years of discoveries about Mars’ geology and habitability.

New research suggests the James Webb Space Telescope could help uncover the true nature of dark matter. By observing strange, elongated galaxies in the early universe, scientists believe JWST may reveal how dark matter shaped cosmic structure, offering clues that could narrow down long-standing theories about this invisible substance.

The James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed the first runaway supermassive black hole, moving at 2.2 million mph through the Cosmic Owl galaxies. Pushing a galaxy-sized shockwave and leaving a long trail of star-forming gas, this discovery confirms long-standing theories about black hole ejections and opens the door to finding more cosmic speedsters.

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19, passing safely at a vast distance. Discovered by NASA-funded telescopes, the rare visitor offers scientists a valuable chance to study material formed around another star. Observations from space telescopes are expected to deepen understanding of interstellar objects.

New research suggests the James Webb Space Telescope could help scientists understand dark matter by studying oddly shaped early galaxies. These elongated galaxies may form due to dark matter’s gravitational behaviour, offering indirect clues about whether ultralight or warm dark matter particles shaped the early universe.

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will make its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 19. Observing the comet provides scientists a rare opportunity to study dust and gases from its icy nucleus and learn more about material forming around other stars, expanding understanding of interstellar objects while posing no threat to our planet.

Europe’s Ariane 6 rocket has launched its first Galileo navigation satellites, joining the 26-satellite constellation. The mission strengthens Europe’s GPS capabilities and reduces reliance on foreign rockets.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe captured solar wind reversing toward the sun, revealing how magnetic fields recycle coronal material. This process, seen during a close flyby, helps refine models of space weather and may allow scientists to better predict solar storms that can impact satellites, communications, and power systems across the solar system.

ESA has captured a city-sized butterfly-shaped crater on Mars with smooth wings likely formed by melted underground ice. Studying this rare structure helps scientists understand asteroid impacts, Mars’ surface ice, and the planet’s ancient watery past while offering insight into how unusual crater formations develop on the Red Planet.

A gamma-ray burst lasting over seven hours was recorded 8 billion light-years away, revealing a rare type of cosmic explosion and challenging current astrophysics models.

Researchers have created sub-millimeter autonomous robots with onboard sensors and computing, capable of independent decision-making, opening possibilities for medicine, manufacturing, and environmental monitoring.

Earth’s atmosphere has been leaking atoms and molecules to the moon for billions of years, preserving a historical record and potential resources for future lunar missions.

Researchers reveal some hot Jupiters drifted inward smoothly through protoplanetary disks, offering clues to planetary system formation and stability.

Private satellites tracked methane emissions from thousands of oil, gas, and coal facilities globally, revealing major hotspots and providing crucial data for targeted climate action.

NASA’s Webb Telescope detects a hidden atmosphere on ultra-hot super-Earth TOI-561 b, revealing gases above its molten surface, challenging previous assumptions about small planets surviving intense stellar radiation.

Astronomers observed a neutron star known as P13 suddenly brighten after years of inactivity. The decade-long study shows how changes in accretion can drive extreme X-ray power, offering new insight into ultraluminous X-ray sources and neutron star physics.

Data-driven forecasting can help governments and companies make better clean energy investment decisions. Involving stakeholders and validating models improves reliability and increases success in climate, economic, and societal outcomes.

A Starlink satellite narrowly avoided a collision after a spacecraft launched by a Chinese rocket passed within 200 meters in orbit. SpaceX warned that the incident highlights growing safety risks caused by poor coordination as Earth’s orbital environment becomes increasingly crowded with satellites.

New research shows time on Mars runs faster than on Earth by 477 microseconds per day. The variation poses challenges for astronauts, navigation, and creating interplanetary communication networks. Scientists say understanding Martian time differences is key for future missions and testing Einstein’s relativity.

Scientists have discovered that Earth’s deep mantle may have stored an ocean’s worth of water during the planet’s earliest years. New experiments show that bridgmanite, a dominant mantle mineral, can hold much more water under extreme heat, offering fresh insight into how Earth retained water and became habitable.

Comet 3I/ATLAS, a rare interstellar visitor from beyond the solar system, is putting on a striking celestial show as it nears Earth. After passing perihelion in October, the comet brightened nearly tenfold and shifted from red to green due to glowing carbon molecules. Tracked closely by astronomers worldwide, this ancient object offers a unique opportunity to study the chemistry and origins of material formed around distant stars in the Milky Way.

A spider-like scar on Jupiter’s moon Europa may indicate briny water beneath its icy crust. Researchers suggest impact-driven flows of salty liquid created starburst patterns resembling Earth’s lake stars. Future observations by NASA’s Europa Clipper mission could confirm these features, offering new insights into Europa’s subsurface oceans and potential habitability.

Scientists have identified a hidden rainfall pattern that could reshape global farming. Research shows crops suffer greater drought stress when rain comes mainly from land rather than oceans. The findings highlight rising risks in the U.S. Midwest and East Africa and suggest that forest conservation and better land management could help protect rainfall and food security.

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have discovered compelling evidence of a thick atmosphere surrounding TOI-561 b, an ultra-hot rocky exoplanet orbiting its star every 11 hours. Despite extreme radiation and molten surface conditions, the planet appears cooler than expected, suggesting heat-redistributing atmospheric winds and volatile gases. The finding challenges long-standing theories of planetary evolution and shows that even the most hostile worlds may sustain dynamic atmospheres.

Scientists have directly observed solar neutrinos altering matter for the first time, confirming a decades-old prediction in particle physics. This landmark result provides the lowest-energy measurement of a neutrino–nucleus interaction ever recorded and opens a powerful new way to study elusive neutrinos, nuclear reactions, and the inner workings of the Sun and the wider universe.

Uranus and Neptune may not be true ice giants after all. New research using advanced hybrid simulations suggests the distant planets could be dominated by rocky material rather than water-rich ices. The findings challenge decades of planetary models and may help explain the planets’ unusual, non-dipolar magnetic fields. Scientists say future dedicated spacecraft missions will be essential to confirm what truly lies beneath the blue atmospheres of these mysterious outer worlds.

More than 6,000 exoplanets (planets orbiting other stars), one of the most rapidly expanding frontiers in science, have now been confirmed by astronomers. Their search of other worlds has been transformed within a span of thirty years, which started as a form of speculation, to accurate detection. However, in the midst of this wave of discoveries, scientists believe that the most exciting period is ahead. The following decade might not only change the exoplanet study to counting planets, but also analysing their atmospheres - and possibly even, their habitability.