Watch the total solar eclipse with ESA in León
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Weekly digests · 20 Jul – 26 Jul 2026
Week 30, 2026
32 stories that week, most of them about the solar system, the sun & space weather, galaxies & cosmology.
The week's biggest
Artemis II crew at ESTEC
Video: 00:19:14 The four Artemis II astronauts visited ESTEC, ESA’s technical centre in the Netherlands, on 13 July as the first stop…
Plato's electronics ready for space
Image: The European Space Agency’s terrestrial planet hunter Plato has recently completed a series of key tests inside the Maxwell Test Chamber…
New ‘exomoon’ detection challenges cosmic labels
Observations made with the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) have revealed evidence for a moon-like object in the CD-35…
Earth from Space: Agricultural patchwork
Image: The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over Australia’s southwestern corner in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia.
Call for interest: media programme for FLEX and Copernicus Sentinel-3C launch at Europe’s Spaceport
Press Release N° 35–2026 Media representatives are invited to express their interest in attending the media programme at Europe's Spaceport in French…
Frames from that week
Tranquility and Serenity
APOD · Tranquility ·
RCW 86: Historical Supernova Remnant
APOD · Chinese astronomers ·
The Large Magellanic Cloud
APOD · Monica Mesa ·
Everything else
16:00 UTC
Researchers Spot Hydrocarbons Surprisingly Close to a Quasar Pair
Hydrocarbons keep turning up in surprising places. This time, they've been found near a pair of accreting supermassive…
AAS Nova
Black Holes
Black Holes
16:00 UTC
Nonthermal X-Ray Emission Associated with Supra-Arcade Downflows in the Late Decay Phase of a Solar Flare
Hanya Pan et al 2026 ApJ 1001 89 Researchers show a connection between non-thermal hard X-ray emission and…
AAS Nova
The Sun
The Sun
16:00 UTC
Featured Image: A Rare Pair of Galaxies Lacking Dark Matter
The galaxies FCC 224 and FCC 240 appear to be a rare example of a dark-matter-poor, globular-cluster-rich pair…
AAS Nova
Cosmology
Cosmology
08:08 UTC
A hidden “switch-off” signal could predict solar storms seven years early
A newly discovered turning point in the Sun’s 11-year cycle could allow scientists to predict future solar activity…
ScienceDaily
The Sun
The Sun
10:57 UTC
Astronomers find the first atmosphere on a rocky world in the habitable zone
Astronomers have found the first confirmed atmosphere around a rocky planet in another star’s habitable zone.
ScienceDaily
Exoplanets
Exoplanets
16:00 UTC
Noble Gases Along for the Ride
How did neon end up inside Earth's mantle, and what does that tell us about how our planet…
AAS Nova
Solar System
Solar System
11:01 UTC
ExoMars ramps put up with cold, shaking and vacuum
Image: ExoMars ramps put up with cold, shaking and vacuum
ESA Exploration
Crewed
Crewed
16:00 UTC
What if Mars Were a Stranger (Thing)?
Astrobites reports on whether we'd even know what we were looking at if our familiar red neighbor were…
AAS Nova
Exoplanets
Exoplanets
02:40 UTC
New quantum gravity theory links entropy, dark energy, and life
A new theoretical study offers a possible explanation for how the Universe can grow more complex without violating…
ScienceDaily
Cosmology
Cosmology
12:39 UTC
China’s Chang’e-6 reveals why solar wind hits the Moon’s two sides differently
China’s Chang’e-6 samples have uncovered a surprising difference between the Moon’s two hemispheres.
ScienceDaily
The Sun
The Sun
16:00 UTC
Turbulence-Coupled Electrodynamics of the Martian Year 34 Global Dust Storm on Mars
Chali Idosa Uga et al 2026 Planet. Sci. J. 7 126 Researchers show that the global martian dust…
AAS Nova
Solar System
Solar System
17:09 UTC
Euclid opens a new window on the first billion years of cosmic history
One of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy is how the Universe managed to grow enormous black holes…
Astronomy Now
Cosmology
Cosmology
13:17 UTC
The Universe can outrun light without breaking Einstein’s rules
Cosmic expansion allows distant galaxies to move away faster than light, while still letting us see ancient light…
ScienceDaily
Cosmology
Cosmology
16:00 UTC
Trajectory-Agnostic Asteroid Detection in TESS with Deep Learning
Brian P. Powell et al 2026 AJ 172 14 Unlike traditional “shift and stack” algorithms, a newly developed…
AAS Nova
Small Bodies
Small Bodies
10:14 UTC
Venus may be tearing itself apart from within
Scientists have uncovered new evidence that Venus may still be tearing itself apart from within.
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System
16:00 UTC
Postperihelion Optical Low-Resolution Spectroscopy of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
Hideyo Kawakita et al 2026 ApJL 1000 L60 Spectra of 3I/ATLAS as it retreated from its encounter with…
AAS Nova
Small Bodies
Small Bodies
05:58 UTC
NASA’s Webb telescope discovers giant planet hiding in one of astronomy’s most famous systems
A giant planet had been hiding inside one of astronomy’s most closely studied planetary systems, concealed by a…
ScienceDaily
Instruments
Instruments
10:58 UTC
GPS particle detectors track space radiation over two decades
Cross calibration combines data from 25 satellites
Physics World
The Sun
The Sun
06:14 UTC
NASA will test SpaceX and Blue Origin Moon landers before the next lunar landing
NASA is preparing for future astronaut landings on the Moon with an unusually ambitious orbital rehearsal.
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System
14:30 UTC
Portraits of the red planet
See Mars from Viking 1 and Psyche, or with your own two eyes.
The Planetary Society
Solar System
Solar System
15:05 UTC
Discovery of giant ‘exosatellite’ challenges our notion of what makes a moon
In a novel three-tiered hierarchical system, the star CD-35 2722 is orbited by a brown dwarf that, in…
Physics World
Solar System
Solar System
01:55 UTC
Scientists discover the Sun contains 55% more silver than expected
A new analysis suggests the Sun holds far more silver than earlier estimates indicated.
ScienceDaily
The Sun
The Sun
16:00 UTC
An Enhanced Formation Channel for Galactic Dual-Line Gravitational-Wave Sources: von Zeipel–Lidov–Kozai Effect in Triples Involving Sgr A*
Wen-Fan Feng et al 2026 ApJL 1003 L35 According to calculations, in a 4-year period researchers may detect…
AAS Nova
Stars
Stars
07:47 UTC
China’s Tianwen-1 captures interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS near Mars
China’s Tianwen-1 orbiter captured a faint but remarkable view of 3I/ATLAS as the interstellar comet raced past Mars.
ScienceDaily
Solar System
Solar System