Replay of the online media briefing on the total solar eclipse
Video: 00:57:42 ESA experts explain the science of eclipses, including visibility and key opportunities for scientific observation.
Weekly digests · 13 Jul – 19 Jul 2026
Week 29, 2026
42 stories that week, most of them about the solar system, telescopes & instruments, crewed spaceflight.
The week's biggest
Artemis II astronauts visit ESA
Yesterday, the four Artemis II astronauts visited ESA’s technical site in the Netherlands, where they met the team behind the European Service…
Hubble discovers first of star cluster’s missing black holes
The massive globular star cluster Omega Centauri has puzzled astronomers for decades.
ESA’s Mars Express meets NASA’s Psyche
Image: Mars Express image
When the Spacecraft Align: Rescuing Saturated Images of Solar Flares
When a powerful solar flare saturates a detector, the information about the flare is lost — or is it? New research validates…
Faintest planet ever imaged from Earth found after more than 10 years of hide-and-seek
A team of astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting the star Beta Pictoris.
Frames from that week
The Growing Crescent of Mars as NASA’s Psyche Mission Approaches
Photojournal · NASA/JPL-Caltech ·
NASA’s Psyche Mission Images Details of Martian Surface During Flyby
Photojournal · NASA/JPL-Caltech ·
Digitized Sky Survey image of Betelgeuse
ESO ·
Everything else
17:56 UTC
Dating the Dawn of the Milky Way Disk
A recent study used the kinematics, chemical composition, and ages of thousands of stars to determine when the…
AAS Nova
Cosmology
Cosmology
16:00 UTC
Can Arid Planets Keep Their Cool?
Astrobites reports on why dry planets may be missing the critical thermostat of the geologic carbon cycle, which…
AAS Nova
Exoplanets
Exoplanets
07:00 UTC
FLEX and Sentinel-3C arrive at Europe’s Spaceport
With liftoff scheduled for September, excitement is building at Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana as two cutting-edge Earth…
ESA Space Transportation
Launch
Launch
02:30 UTC
New dark matter theory could solve multiple cosmic mysteries at once
Dark matter may be far more complicated than scientists once believed.
ScienceDaily
Cosmology
Cosmology
13:04 UTC
Are there aliens on exoplanet K2-18b? Scientists just scanned it for signals
K2-18b is one of the most promising worlds for the search for extraterrestrial life, so astronomers conducted an…
ScienceDaily
Exoplanets
Exoplanets
16:00 UTC
A Study of HH 270 with the James Webb Space Telescope
A. N. Ortiz Capeles et al 2026 ApJ 1003 65 Using data from JWST, the Subaru Telescope, and…
AAS Nova
Instruments
Instruments
21:26 UTC
NASA Taps SpaceX’s Starlink to Deliver Artemis III Imagery from Orion
NASA has selected SpaceX to deliver laser communications capabilities for next year’s Artemis III mission, enabling the agency…
NASA Artemis
Crewed
Crewed
19:52 UTC
NASA’s Artemis III Flight Hardware Stacks Up at Kennedy
It is full steam ahead at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as teams process and assemble flight…
NASA Artemis
Crewed
Crewed
16:00 UTC
The Starry Night Redux
The 570-megapixel Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera (DECam) captures a vibrant scene, filled with swirls and stars…
NOIRLab
Cosmology
Cosmology
16:00 UTC
Revisiting the Evidence for Double Sequences of Blue Straggler Stars in Globular Clusters
Gourav Kumawat et al 2026 AJ 171 306 Analysis of blue straggler stars in 56 Milky Way globular…
AAS Nova
Stars
Stars
16:00 UTC
Chemical Fingerprints of Accreted Ultrafaint Dwarf Galaxies in the Milky Way Halo
Diala M. Taneenah et al 2026 ApJL 1003 L11 Researchers have discovered two chemically distinct populations in a…
AAS Nova
Cosmology
Cosmology
10:41 UTC
Stephen Hawking's black hole laws just got a major upgrade
Scientists have developed a new framework that could finally apply the laws of thermodynamics to real, ever-changing black…
ScienceDaily
Black Holes
Black Holes
03:09 UTC
NASA’s James Webb catches a supermassive black hole feeding
JWST has captured unusually detailed images of gas feeding the supermassive black hole at the center of NGC…
ScienceDaily
Black Holes
Black Holes
05:32 UTC
NASA's Perseverance just completed a marathon on Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover has reached an impressive new milestone on Mars, completing the equivalent of a full marathon…
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System
15:16 UTC
NSF NRAO EPO Team Joins Global Astronomy Communicators at CAP2026
Seven members of the Education and Public Outreach (EPO) team of the U.S.
NRAO
Instruments
Instruments
16:00 UTC
Seeking Technosignatures in Polluted White Dwarfs
White dwarfs with metals in their spectra preserve a record of planets that once orbited them.
AAS Nova
Stars
Stars
14:00 UTC
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch: What to expect
NASA’s next flagship orbital observatory will reshape what we know about planets throughout the galaxy.
The Planetary Society
Instruments
Instruments
08:00 UTC
Super-loud gravitational waves offer a new way to study black hole event horizons
Region near the "surface of no return" was previously only accessible with theoretical models
Physics World
Black Holes
Black Holes
00:48 UTC
Future moon landings could wipe out clues to how life began on Earth
A new study suggests spacecraft exhaust could quickly contaminate the moon's most scientifically valuable regions, potentially masking ancient…
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System
06:30 UTC
Astronomers just found four hidden white dwarf stars near Earth
Four nearby white dwarf stars have been discovered hiding in plain sight beside brighter red dwarf companions.
ScienceDaily
Stars
Stars
13:21 UTC
NASA captured the Black Sea turning brilliant turquoise from space
NASA's PACE satellite captured the Black Sea glowing turquoise during its annual phytoplankton bloom.
ScienceDaily
Crewed
Crewed
07:43 UTC
NASA selects 41 space technologies for future Moon and Mars exploration
NASA has chosen 41 commercial technology projects that could solve critical challenges for future missions to the Moon…
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System
14:14 UTC
Terraforming Mars may be more realistic than scientists once thought
Scientists say new technologies have reopened the debate over whether Mars could someday be terraformed, turning a once…
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System
04:22 UTC
Scientists identify the rare meteorite that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago
The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was likely an exceptionally rare CO chondrite from a distant region…
ScienceDaily
Small Bodies
Small Bodies