Cheyava Falls: sample with biosignature potential
The mapped sample shows “leopard-eye” spots and sulfate veins compatible with fossil microbial activity; Earth-based analyses to come.
NASA/Perseverance — Perseverance
Science / Discoveries
127 Notable results
41 breakthroughs, 83 major results and 85 highlights from the last 3 years, from 31 spacecraft tracked by TRACKER-1. The feed prioritizes freshness and result type (image, measurement, discovery, milestone).
All discoveries
Euclid Q2: 26 million galaxies
Second data release: an additional 132 deg², shapes and distances of 26 million galaxies for precision cosmology.
ESA/Euclid Q2 — Euclid
Carbon dioxide detected in a protoplanetary disk
NIRSpec identifies gaseous CO₂ in the disk of PDS 70: first direct measurement of carbon chemistry during planetary formation.
Nature 620:516 — James Webb
Observation of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
Five JUICE instruments (JANUS, MAJIS, UVS, SWI, PEP) observe 3I/ATLAS from Nov 2–25, 2025 at ~60 million km. JANUS captures >120 images revealing coma, jets and filaments.
ESA/JUICE — JUICE
DSOC exceeds optical communications goals
The DSOC demonstration completed 65 laser communication passes over 2 years, transmitting 13.6 Tb of data at a record 267 Mbps from 494 million km, validating the reliability of optical communications in deep space.
NASA/DSOC — Psyche
Euclid Q1: cosmological map
First major data release: 14 million galaxies over 132 deg² to constrain dark matter.
ESA/Euclid — Euclid
JADES field: early galaxies
Identification of z > 14 candidates in the Deep Advanced Extragalactic Survey.
ESA/Webb — James Webb
Bennu contains all key ingredients of life
Sample analysis revealed all 5 DNA/RNA nucleobases, 14 of 20 proteinogenic amino acids, sugars (ribose, glucose), evaporites, and nitrogen-rich organic matter, indicating an ancient aqueous environment.
NASA/OSIRIS-REx — OSIRIS-APEX
Discovery of magnetic material inflows toward the Sun
During the closest flyby (3.8 million miles), WISPR observed after a CME blobs of material falling toward the Sun, revealing at fine scale how magnetic fields reconfigure and alter the trajectory of subsequent CMEs.
NASA/Parker — Parker Solar Probe
First images of the solar poles
First high-resolution views of the Sun's poles from a tilted orbit — unprecedented EUI/PHI/SPICE observations.
ESA/Solar Orbiter — Solar Orbiter
Dark volcanic ash in Utopia Planitia
An HRSC image shows that a sheet of dark volcanic ash has spread across Utopia Planitia since the Viking observations of 1976, a rapid surface change on a geological scale.
ESA/Mars Express — Mars Express
"Layered" structure of polar regolith
Study of ChaSTE twilight observations after the hop reveals a two-layer stratigraphy in the top 6.5 cm, with about 3 cm of dust eroded by the engines and cohesion increasing with depth.
ApJ — Chandrayaan-3
Sub-Neptune in the habitable zone of an M dwarf
TOI-4633 c: a planet of radius ~2.6 R⊕ in the habitable zone of a nearby cool star, a candidate for atmospheric characterization.
AJ 167:241 — TESS
Catalogue of 1,039 Martian dust devils
By analyzing 20 years of Mars Express and ExoMars TGO images via neural network, researchers catalogue 1,039 dust devils and measure winds up to 158 km/h, faster than any rover measurement.
ESA/Mars Express — Mars Express
ISS National Lab 2023 year in review
Nearly 40 peer-reviewed publications in 2023 cover in-orbit genome editing (Ax-1 CRISPR), identification of gut bacteria involved in bone loss, and neural network image analysis.
ISS National Lab — Station ISS
First Euclid Sky Atlas
Initial coverage of 132 deg² with unprecedented photometric quality — revealing roughly 11 million galaxies in just a few days.
ESA/Euclid — Euclid
Bennu sample delivered to Earth
122 g of primitive carbonaceous material — the largest sample return since Apollo.
NASA/OSIRIS-REx — OSIRIS-APEX
20 years in orbit: Martian South Pole
Exactly 20 years after orbit insertion on March 10, 2006, HiRISE images the layered terrains of the South Pole, demonstrating the camera's preserved quality after two decades.
HiRISE/UA — Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
First images of Sun's south pole
Thanks to its tilted orbit, Solar Orbiter captures the first direct telescopic images of the Sun's south pole, revealing a complex magnetic field.
ESA/Solar Orbiter — Solar Orbiter
Launch toward Europa
NASA's largest planetary probe en route to Jupiter to map the ocean beneath Europa's ice.
NASA/Europa Clipper — Europa Clipper
Oldest black hole ever observed
Detection of the UHZ1 black hole dating back roughly 470 million years after the Big Bang.
NASA/Chandra — James Webb
Carbon-bearing molecules on K2-18 b
Detection of methane and CO₂ plus a tentative hint of DMS in the atmosphere of a potentially habitable sub-Neptune exoplanet.
NASA/Webb — James Webb
Martian bow shock detection by Psyche magnetometer
During the Mars gravity assist flyby at 4,609 km, Psyche's magnetometer potentially detected the Martian bow shock and multispectral imaging revealed stronger-than-expected atmospheric scattering in the sunlit crescent.
NASA/Psyche — Psyche
Venus stationary wave dynamics
Analysis of 8 years of Akatsuki/LIR thermal data: stationary waves redistribute momentum and heat vertically in longitude, modulating the super-rotation of upper clouds (reduction of about 20 m/s).
A&A — Akatsuki
Observation of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
The Europa-UVS spectrograph observes interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS from 164 million km, detecting hydrogen, oxygen and dust in the coma. A unique vantage point inaccessible to ground-based observatories.
NASA/Europa Clipper — Europa Clipper
Origin of the slow solar wind mapped
EUI and SoloHI identify the magnetic structures at the origin of the slow solar wind at the edge of coronal holes.
A&A 694:A71 — Solar Orbiter
Cold atom gyroscope in microgravity
The CSSAI interferometer achieved the first operational cold atom gyroscope in orbit, reaching a rotation resolution of 50 µrad/s, paving the way for space quantum inertial sensors.
CNSA/Tiangong — Tiangong
Rendezvous with Kamoʻoalewa
Tianwen-2 reaches the Earth quasi-satellite asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and begins close-proximity observation in preparation for sample collection.
CNSA/Tianwen-2 — Tianwen-2
30 years in orbit
SOHO celebrates three decades of continuous solar observation, becoming the longest-running solar observatory. Over 50,000 comets and dozens of solar storms catalogued.
ESA/SOHO — SOHO
Data Release 4: astrometry focus groups
Second batch of DR4: positions and proper motions for ~500 million sources, refinement of binaries and astrometric exoplanets.
ESA/Gaia DR4 — Gaia
Year 8 / third extended mission (EM3)
TESS launches Year 8 observations (sectors 97-107) with four-orbit sectors (~54 days) to better detect long-period planets.
NASA/TESS (MIT) — TESS
Vikram landing at the lunar South Pole
Chandrayaan-3 achieves the first soft landing of an Indian mission on the Moon, in the south polar region (Statio Shiv Shakti). The Vikram lander and Pragyan rover begin in-situ exploration of the high-southern-latitude region.
ISRO — Chandrayaan-3
Closest dormant black hole
Gaia BH3: a 33-solar-mass dormant black hole at 1,900 light-years, the most massive ever detected in our galaxy.
ESA/Gaia — Gaia
Data Release 3 — binary stars & spectra
1.8 billion stars plus more than 800,000 binary systems. Detection of Gaia BH1, the closest black hole to the Sun.
ESA/Gaia — Gaia
Ancient ocean and coastal deposits at Utopia
The RoPeR radar identifies 76 oblique reflectors (6-20° slope) at 10-35 m depth over 1.3 km, interpreted as prograded coastal deposits. First direct subsurface evidence of an ancient ocean in the northern plains.
People's Daily — Tianwen-1 / Zhurong
Blood stem cells grown in space
Human pluripotent stem cells were cultured for two weeks in the Wentian module then returned by Shenzhou-15, a world first laying the groundwork for space regenerative medicine.
CNSA/Tiangong — Tiangong
Modern liquid water at low latitudes
Zhurong observes crusts, cracks, aggregates and polygonal ridges on salty dunes (~25°N), dated 0.4-1.4 Ma. First observational evidence of modern liquid water at low Martian latitude.
Science Advances — Tianwen-1 / Zhurong
Complete rice life cycle in microgravity
First seed-to-seed rice cultivation in orbit over 120 days, demonstrating that space-grown seeds can reproduce on Earth. Regenerated rice produced a second harvest in 20 days after cutting.
CNSA/Tiangong — Tiangong
First deep field — SMACS 0723
The deepest infrared image of the universe ever taken: gravitational lensing revealing galaxies dating back 13 billion years.
NASA/Webb — James Webb
Silicate clouds on a brown dwarf
MIRI spectroscopy revealing the composition and dynamics of silicate clouds on the brown dwarf Luhman 16 A/B.
arXiv:2505.00794 — James Webb
Donaldjohanson asteroid flyby
Lucy flies past the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson — a binary — before heading on to Jupiter's Trojans.
NASA/Lucy — Lucy
Rocky planet around an M dwarf
Discovery of an Earth-sized planet around a nearby M dwarf, a potential target for atmospheric characterization.
NASA/TESS — TESS
Fourth flyby — 165 km altitude
A record close flyby. Mapping of previously unseen regions of the south pole.
ESA/BepiColombo — BepiColombo
Liquid-water lake beneath the Martian south pole
The MARSIS radar detects a 20-km briny liquid-water reservoir beneath the south pole.
ESA/Mars Express — Mars Express
Flyby of asteroid Donaldjohanson
Second target in the main belt before the series of Jupiter trojans.
NASA/Lucy — Lucy
Mars flyby and Deimos observation
Hera passes ~5000 km from Mars and 300 km from Deimos, using gravity assist. First scientific use of instruments (AFC, HyperScout-H, TIRI) beyond the Earth-Moon system.
ESA/Hera — Hera
ChaSTE measures polar regolith thermal profile
Publication in Nature Communications Earth & Environment of the first in-situ measurement of lunar regolith temperature (0-10 cm) at high southern latitude, revealing spatial variability at metric scales unprecedented at the poles.
ISRO/Nature Comm. Earth Environ. — Chandrayaan-3
Atmosphere of a brown dwarf exoplanet
MIRI/WFC3 spectroscopy revealing silicate and hydrogen sulfide clouds on WISE 0855.
arXiv:2410.10933 — James Webb
Mercury seen in infrared for the first time (MERTIS)
During the 5th flyby (37,626 km), MERTIS becomes the first instrument to observe Mercury in mid-infrared, revealing temperature and surface composition variations.
ESA/BepiColombo — BepiColombo
Uranus observed as an exoplanet proxy
New Horizons images Uranus at high phase angle (43.9°) from ~70 AU, compared to Hubble's full-phase images. Uranus appears dimmer than expected, constraining atmospheric models for direct imaging of ice-giant exoplanets.
NASA/Hubble — New Horizons