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
73 Notable results
28 breakthroughs, 37 major results and 41 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
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
Closest dormant black hole
Gaia BH3 (~2 kpc): a 33 M☉ stellar black hole detected through pure astrometry.
ESA/Gaia — Gaia
First images of the solar poles
Orbital inclination at 17°: unprecedented view of the polar regions off the ecliptic plane.
ESA/Solar Orbiter — Solar Orbiter
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
First Euclid Sky Atlas
Initial coverage of 132 deg² with unprecedented photometric quality — revealing roughly 11 million galaxies in just a few days.
Bennu sample delivered to Earth
122 g of primitive carbonaceous material — the largest sample return since Apollo.
Launch toward Europa
NASA's largest planetary probe en route to Jupiter to map the ocean beneath Europa's ice.
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
Oldest black hole ever observed
Detection of the UHZ1 black hole dating back roughly 470 million years after the Big Bang.
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.
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
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
Rocky planet around an M dwarf
Discovery of a super-Earth in the habitable zone around a nearby cool star (TOI-715 b).
MNRAS 527:35 — TESS
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.
Cheyava Falls — high-resolution image
Mastcam-Z documents the “leopard” calcium sulfate veins in Neretva Vallis.
NASA/JPL — Perseverance
First deep field — SMACS 0723
The deepest infrared image of the universe ever taken: gravitational lensing revealing galaxies dating back 13 billion years.
Flyby of asteroid Donaldjohanson
Second target in the main belt before the series of Jupiter trojans.
NASA/Lucy — Lucy
Atmosphere of a brown dwarf exoplanet
MIRI/WFC3 spectroscopy revealing silicate and hydrogen sulfide clouds on WISE 0855.
arXiv:2410.10933 — James Webb
Fourth flyby — 165 km altitude
A record close flyby. Mapping of previously unseen regions of the south pole.
Cheyava Falls rock — potential biosignature
"Leopard spot" patterns and organic molecules in Neretva Vallis. A potential biosignature, to be confirmed in the laboratory.
Liquid-water lake beneath the Martian south pole
The MARSIS radar detects a 20-km briny liquid-water reservoir beneath the south pole.
Sole Neptune flyby
Discovery of the Great Dark Spot and the fastest winds in the solar system (2,100 km/h).
Sole Uranus flyby
The only probe to fly past Uranus: 11 new moons, 2 rings and a magnetic field tilted 60°.
Crab Nebula in infrared
Detailed mapping of the supernova remnant: dust filaments and ejecta still invisible in visible light.
ESA/Webb — James Webb
Active volcanism on Io
Close flyby at 1,500 km: plumes and lava flows observed by JunoCam and JIRAM.
NASA/Juno — Juno
First powered flight on another planet
The Ingenuity helicopter performs a 39-second hover.
Historic Pluto flyby
First high-resolution imagery of Pluto and Charon: ice mountains, Sputnik Planitia, blue atmosphere.
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
~10,000 galaxies in a tiny patch of sky, out to 13 billion light-years.
Hubble Deep Field
10 days of exposure on 1/24 millionth of the sky: 3,000 galaxies in an apparently empty patch.
The Pillars of Creation
Iconic image of columns of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula (M16), a cradle of star formation.
Pale Blue Dot
At Carl Sagan's request, Voyager 1 turns back to photograph Earth from 6.4 billion km away.
Focus Group 5 — partial catalogue
First batch of Data Release 4: positions and motions for ~500 million sources.
ESA/Gaia DR4 — Gaia
10,000th exoplanet candidate
The TESS catalogue crosses 7,000 cumulative confirmed TOIs together with partner missions.
ApJ Suppl. (T16) — TESS
First scientific results
5 images & 10 papers, first glimpse of the Sky Atlas.
Euclid — Euclid
First images
Perseus cluster, Horsehead Nebula, NGC 6822.
Euclid — Euclid
First spacecraft in the solar corona
Parker crosses the Alfvén surface in April 2021, the magnetic boundary of the corona.
Interstellar comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
Spectro-imaging follow-up of the “devil” comet during its perihelion passage.
NASA/APOD — Hubble
Binary asteroid Dinkinesh
First Trojan asteroid flyby: revealing an unexpected contact-binary satellite.
Atmosphere of an exoplanet
First chemical detection (sodium) in the atmosphere of an exoplanet: HD 209458 b.
Subsurface water ice map
MARSIS refines the extent of ice deposits at Martian mid-latitudes.
ESA/Mars Express — Mars Express
Seasonal cycle of Martian methane
SAM confirms annual variations of CH₄ correlated with temperature and pressure.
Science (Webster 2018) — Curiosity
El Gordo cluster in X-rays
Mapping of the hot gas of the most massive known cluster at z ~ 0.87.
NASA/Chandra — Chandra X-ray
Organic molecules in mudstone
Detection of thiophenes and organic molecules preserved for 3 billion years.
Martian atmospheric loss quantified
MAVEN measures the erosion of the atmosphere by the solar wind — key to Mars' climate history.
Departure toward the metallic asteroid
The first mission to a primitive metallic body — investigating a possible exposed protoplanet core.
Crossing of the heliopause
The first human-built object to enter the interstellar medium.