Last updated: October 22, 2026.
This guide collects the space and astronomy studies covered on Nexo Science, grouped by topic. Each link goes to a full article about one peer-reviewed paper: what was observed, what it means and what is still uncertain.
Many of these results are first detections or single analyses, and some will be revised as more data arrive. We update this page as new studies come out.
Planets beyond our Solar System
- Astronomers Detect the First Atmosphere on a Rocky, Habitable-Zone Planet, a New Study Finds
A rocky planet 48 light-years away is the first in a habitable zone with a confirmed atmosphere, caught escaping into space. - Astronomers May Have Found the First Moon Ever Detected Outside Our Solar System
A faint, repeating signal recorded in Chile may be the first moon ever detected outside our Solar System. - A Third Planet Was Hiding in Plain Sight in the Beta Pictoris System for 11 Years
Telescopes photographed the third planet of Beta Pictoris for years before anyone recognized it. - No Star to Orbit: This Rogue Planet Just Started Feeding Like a Newborn Star
A rogue planet with no star swallowed gas and dust faster than any planet-sized object on record. - A Saturn-Size Planet Is Wandering the Galaxy Alone, and Astronomers Have Finally Weighed It
A sixteen-hour brightening gave the first direct mass of a starless, Saturn-size planet. - Was Our Solar System Born Tilted?
A survey of 49 young star systems helps explain why the Sun leans six degrees.
Our Solar System: the Moon, Mars, Mercury and asteroids
- One Shattered Asteroid Rained Fire on Earth, the Moon, and Mars at the Same Time
One shattered asteroid may have struck Earth, the Moon and Mars in the same violent period. - An Asteroid NASA Tracked for 27 Years Was Secretly a Comet All Along
A near-Earth asteroid tracked since 1998 turned out to be venting gas like a comet. - A Solar Superstorm Left Behind Radiation Belts in a Zone Textbooks Call Empty
A solar superstorm left a new proton belt in a zone around Earth that is normally empty. - A NASA Probe and a Chinese Orbiter Just Confirmed the Same Invisible Event Near Mars
Two spacecraft, one from NASA and one from China, caught a solar-wind boundary near Mars snapping. - Curiosity’s first wet chemistry experiment on Mars unlocked a hidden library of organic molecules
Curiosity's first wet chemistry experiment revealed a range of organic molecules in Martian rock. - Perseverance’s Martian ‘shoreline’ began as magma, and water kept coming back to it
The “shoreline” rocks at Jezero crater formed from magma and were reworked by water at least three times. - Mercury’s overlooked wrinkles: machine learning shows the planet shrank far more than the cautious estimates said
Counting small ridges shows Mercury lost at least 3.9 miles (6.3 km) of radius as it shrank.
Stars, black holes and the Milky Way
- Astronomers Captured the First Direct Image of the Black Hole at the Center of Our Galaxy
The first direct image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. - Can a Star’s 20 Year Wobble Reveal an Invisible Black Hole? This One Just Did
A star's 20-year wobble gave away a black hole hidden inside a star cluster. - A Cosmic Fossil: This Star Still Carries the Radioactive Fingerprint of a Vanished Galaxy
A star rich in thorium probably came from a galaxy the Milky Way swallowed long ago. - Meet the White Dwarfs That Hid in Plain Sight for Decades
Four white dwarfs hid for decades behind brighter companion stars, one about 25 light-years from Earth. - The Milky Way’s Missing River: Its Stars Were Hiding in Plain Sight
Thirteen faint stars far beyond the Milky Way's edge reveal the missing part of a famous stellar stream. - Stellar cruise control: old stars keep their speed, and the clock that measures their age stops
Old stars timed by their vibrations suggest the spin clock used to date stars stops working late in life.
The universe: expansion, dark energy and the Big Bang
- The Universe’s Runaway Expansion Just Survived Its Toughest Challenge Yet
The accelerating expansion of the universe survived a claim that it was a statistical illusion. - Einstein’s Biggest Mistake Might Be a Mistake Again: Dark Energy Looks Like It Is Changing
The most detailed 3D map of the universe suggests dark energy has weakened over time. - Cosmic Inflation: The Best Measurement Yet Complicates a Favorite Theory
The sharpest data yet on cosmic inflation put pressure on a favorite version of the theory. - New Sky Maps Are Quietly Deflating One of Cosmology’s Oldest Mysteries
Better maps of the cosmic microwave background erase two of five long-debated anomalies. - A Ring That Does Not Fit the Universe We Thought We Knew
A ring of galaxies hundreds of megaparsecs wide does not fit an evenly spread universe. - The Universe’s Earliest Atoms May Be Hinting at a Hidden New Force
The amount of deuterium made in the first minutes may hint at a hidden new force. - The most distant galaxy ever confirmed: the same JWST data allow two readings, and one of them breaks the models
JWST data on the most distant confirmed galaxy allow two readings, and one breaks the models.
Life and the search for it
- Building Blocks of Life: A Sugar Molecule Can Form in Deep-Space Ice
A lab experiment shows a sugar molecule used by living cells can form in interstellar ice. - Astronomers Listened for Alien Signals in a Quieter Corner of the Radio Sky and Heard Nothing
A search for alien signals at high radio frequencies found none, but far less interference.