Editorial desk

Science

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

Annotated Aqua MODIS view of smoke and an overshooting pyrocumulonimbus top above Utah’s Widemouth 2 fire on August 2, 2026

Earth science

INSPYRE aircraft sample Widemouth 2 smoke from inside and above

An NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V crossed the resulting plume at 12 kilometres on August 3; NASA’s ER-2 later logged ten fire overpasses while the campaign was still gathering data.

20 August 20266 min read

Near-infrared Webb image of Neptune's rings and six small moons against a dark field

Planetary science

JWST clay signatures point to shattered interiors around Neptune

Larissa, Galatea and the rings carry a 2.72-micrometre feature associated with magnesium-rich phyllosilicates, but missing water ice and a shredded dwarf-planet alternative keep their origin unsettled.

20 August 20266 min read

Annotated Landsat 9 view of east Greenland and Denmark Strait, with the iceberg and surrounding sea ice labelled

Earth observation

Landsat traces a 17-square-kilometre iceberg into Denmark Strait

NASA followed the berg more than 1,000 kilometres from northeast Greenland, but satellite clues do not settle whether it came from Zachariæ Isstrøm or a remnant ice shelf.

20 August 20265 min read

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