TRACKER-1
48.8566°N / 2.3522°E

Science / Discoveries

146 Notable results

41 breakthroughs, 93 major results and 92 highlights from the last 3 years, from 48 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

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

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

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

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

Supercomputer sneak peek

Supercomputer simulations preview the depth of Roman's future surveys, offering a glimpse of its cosmic mapping power.

NASA/GSFC SVS — Nancy Grace Roman

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

Earth and Moon imaging

First science images from a distant Earth orbit.

ESCAPADE — ESCAPADE

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

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

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

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

Pandora reaches orbit

Pandora launched on January 11, 2026 with the BlackCAT and SPARCS CubeSats, to study exoplanet atmospheres.

NASA/Pandora — Pandora

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

Lancement d'ESCAPADE

New Glenn lance pour la première fois une charge utile interplanétaire : deux orbiteurs vers Mars.

NASA/Rocket Lab — ESCAPADE

Aurores protoniques en imagerie globale

Hope cartographie les aurores protoniques sinueuses — la première imagerie globale de ce phénomène.

UAESA/EMM — Hope (EMM)

SPHEREx image la comète interstellaire 3I/ATLAS

Premier spectre infrarouge complet de la troisième comète interstellaire découverte : mesure du CO et du CO2.

NASA/SPHEREx — SPHEREx

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

Bennu sample delivered to Earth

122 g of primitive carbonaceous material — the largest sample return since Apollo.

NASA/OSIRIS-REx — OSIRIS-APEX

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

3I/ATLAS observation

The interstellar comet imaged in infrared by SPHEREx.

SPHEREx — SPHEREx

Ryugu samples returned to Earth

The re-entry capsule delivered more than 5 g of asteroid Ryugu material, including presolar grains and organic molecules.

JAXA/Hayabusa2 — Hayabusa2

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

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

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

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

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