Editorial desk

Science

Solar physics, Earth observation, astronomy and the instruments extending India’s view of the universe.

Four grayscale LRO views of the Falcon 9 impact crater and its bright and dark ejecta rays at different viewing angles

Lunar science

LRO measures 18-metre crater from Falcon 9’s uncontrolled Moon impact

The mark is smaller than two pre-impact academic forecasts. The sharper operational lesson is that uncertainty around the spent stage’s path prompted Danuri’s team to consider a possible close encounter.

20 August 20266 min read

Multi-panel lunar south-pole maps showing modelled microbial survival at Nobile Rim and Connecting Ridge

Science

Models map lunar south-pole shadows where human-associated microbes may survive

A Science Advances study identifies cold, low-UV pockets at three prospective exploration areas. Viability means at least one Earth day in a dormant state, not growth or replication.

20 August 20266 min read

Saguaro at redshift 2, a simulated redshift-7 view and a real little red dot shown side by side

Science

Saguaro simulation shows how a galaxy could fade around a Webb little red dot

When researchers simulated the redshift-2 spiral at redshift 7, its faint host slipped below Webb-like limits while the compact nucleus remained. It is one analogue, not a universal answer.

20 August 20266 min read

Emission-line maps of six Local Volume Mapper targets released in SDSS DR20

Astronomy surveys

SDSS-V DR20 opens more than three million spectra and 18 specialist catalogues

The July 30 release adds the first southern BOSS data, major eROSITA follow-up and six Local Volume Mapper targets; its newly reduced BOSS observations stop at February 2, 2025.

20 August 20266 min read

Line chart showing V557 Mon water-vapour model temperatures near 3,000 kelvin in January and February 2025, falling to 2,000 kelvin by March and April

Science

Researchers trace near-3,000 K water vapour in V557 Mon outburst

Near-infrared spectra and ExoMol-based models track a transient molecular layer as accretion rose about 70-fold, then cooled during the 2025 decline.

20 August 20266 min read

Diagram showing gridded solar magnetic and intensity maps feeding a sliding-window Transformer model

Science

COFFIES model tests early detection of solar active-region emergence

The machine-learning model uses acoustic-power changes and weak magnetic signals to project solar-surface brightness 12 hours ahead, but the result is not yet a real-time solar-storm forecast.

19 August 20265 min read

Webb near-infrared view of orange-gold comet-shaped knots along the Helix Nebula’s inner shell

Science

Helix Nebula’s 22 bow shocks trace stellar debris breaking apart

The arcs’ changing geometry supports progressive stripping and a roughly 10,000-year coherence time, not a direct clock for every stage of interstellar mixing.

19 August 20265 min read

Four-panel research figure showing a JWST image and hydrogen-alpha map of J0148-4214 beside spectra from the outer and central broad-line regions

Science

JWST spectra point to three active black holes in J0148-4214

Two broad-line sources sit 190 ± 40 parsecs apart in projection, while a third is 1.7 kiloparsecs from the primary. The spectra do not show whether that outer object is falling inward or escaping.

19 August 20266 min read

Face-on spiral galaxy Messier 96 surrounded by stars and smaller galaxies in a square field of black sky

Astronomy surveys

DESI releases 5.6-trillion-pixel 2D map of the sky

The public Legacy Survey release combines 263,407 telescope exposures into a catalogue of nearly four billion sources across roughly three-quarters of the sky. It records where objects appear and how bright they are; DESI’s separate spectroscopic survey supplies the redshift measurements used to place selected galaxies and quasars in three dimensions.

18 August 20266 min read

Editorial diagram of IRS 3 surrounded by four modelled dust regions beside a spectrum marking water and silicate absorption

Science

JWST detects water in IRS 3's dust envelope near the Galactic centre

Water absorption and oxygen-rich silicate bands appear in a modelled, multi-shell outflow only 0.55 light-years in projection from Sagittarius A*. The result is about molecular survival, not habitability.

18 August 20266 min read

Plots comparing radio and X-ray intensity, polarization degree and polarization angle across the rotation of magnetar 1E 1547.0-5408

Science

Magnetar polarization strengthens the case for vacuum birefringence

Coordinated X-ray and radio measurements link unusually strong polarization to 1E 1547.0-5408’s magnetic geometry, while model dependence keeps the result short of direct proof.

18 August 20265 min read

Two blue instrumented radiation manikins secured in seats inside the Artemis I Orion crew module

Science

AstroRad study models up to 60% solar-storm dose cut from Artemis I data

Orion encountered no major solar particle event. Researchers validated a transport model against radiation measured inside two manikins, then substituted spectra from the 1972 and 1989 storms.

17 August 20266 min read