Featured
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News |
India shoots for the Moon with Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander
The Moon’s south pole is in India’s sights as the nation prepares to launch a robotic lander and explorer.
- T.V. Padma
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News |
Euclid launch: dark-energy mapper poised to probe cosmic mysteries
The European craft could help to investigate why the Universe’s expansion is accelerating, along with other cosmic questions.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
These six distant galaxies captured by JWST are wowing astronomers
See researchers’ favourites from a survey of the deep Universe by the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Alexandra Witze
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Nature Podcast |
A brain circuit for infanticide, in mice
Research reveals system underlying behaviour change towards young, and identifying the source of fast solar wind.
- Noah Baker
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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Article
| Open AccessInterchange reconnection as the source of the fast solar wind within coronal holes
Measurements of fast solar wind streams from the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft provide strong evidence for the interchange reconnection mechanism being responsible for accelerating the fast solar wind.
- S. D. Bale
- , J. F. Drake
- & J. C. Kasper
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News |
Lasers pierce the stunning dark skies of the Atacama Desert
One of the world’s most advanced telescopes, located in Chile, uses the beams to make artificial stars.
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News |
JWST spots the most distant ‘smoke’ molecules ever seen in space
The presence of the molecules in an early galaxy means it must have pumped out stars at a furious pace, researchers say.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Gravitational-wave detector LIGO is back — and can now spot more colliding black holes than ever
The twin gravitational-wave detectors have started a new observation run after a major upgrade.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Does the roar of rocket launches harm wildlife? These scientists seek answers
With rocket lift-offs set to increase drastically, a team will monitor the effects of noise pollution at a California spaceport.
- Nicola Jones
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News Explainer |
China’s mysterious spaceplane returns to Earth — what we know
Specialists speculate that it might be similar to a US spaceplane, and it could have research or military uses.
- Yvaine Ye
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Article
| Open AccessResolved imaging confirms a radiation belt around an ultracool dwarf
This study presents high-resolution imaging of the ultracool dwarf LSR J1835 + 3259 at 8.4 GHz, demonstrating that its quiescent radio emission is spatially resolved and traces a double-lobed and axisymmetrical structure with properties consistent with radiation belt observations and modelling.
- Melodie M. Kao
- , Amy J. Mioduszewski
- & Evgenya L. Shkolnik
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Editorial |
In space, failure is an option — often the only one
Space companies should not lose heart when things go wrong. The first Moon missions failed repeatedly — and provided lessons on how to achieve success in space and beyond.
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Book Review |
Ethics in outer space: can we make interplanetary exploration just?
The prospect of settling the Moon, Mars and elsewhere requires urgent conversations about issues such as labour and reproductive rights far from Earth.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
What Russia’s continued participation in the ISS means for science
The nation’s pledge to support the International Space Station until 2028 is a relief for international scientists who depend on the station for their research.
- Layal Liverpool
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News |
Hard feelings over mission change for NASA’s Pluto spacecraft
US space agency plans to shift the New Horizons planetary probe to studying heliophysics, and some scientists don’t agree.
- Alexandra Witze
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World View |
Every nation needs a space agency
As commercial firms transform the global space economy, each country’s space governance will shape its opportunities for decades to come.
- Carissa Bryce Christensen
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News |
Private ispace Moon landing fails: researchers are investigating
Mission control was unable to re-establish contact with the M1 spacecraft, and early signs suggest it crash-landed on the lunar surface.
- Gemma Conroy
- & Miryam Naddaf
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News |
Private Moon mission prepares for historic landing attempt
The Japanese-built ispace lander, carrying a rover from the United Arab Emirates, could be the first private venture to land on the lunar surface.
- Miryam Naddaf
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News |
SpaceX Starship: launch of biggest-ever rocket ends with explosion
The SpaceX rocket made it partially through its first full test. It could change astrophysics and astronomy, as well as ferry people to the Moon and Mars.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Mega rocket Starship could enable new types of astrophysics
SpaceX’s Starship is poised to launch. As well as ferrying astronauts to the Moon and one day Mars, it could launch heavy science payloads, such as telescopes.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
JWST gets best view yet of planet in hotly pursued star system
Telescope didn’t spot an atmosphere on TRAPPIST-1b, but has kicked off a new era in understanding planetary evolution.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Volcanoes on Venus? ‘Striking’ finding hints at modern-day activity
Discovery highlights need for future missions after NASA puts one on hold.
- Myriam Vidal Valero
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Where I Work |
Water-play on the space station isn’t just fun and games
Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti sloshed fluids around in the International Space Station to gather information for designing fuel tanks.
- Linda Nordling
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Research Highlight |
SpaceX satellites and others are marring Hubble’s vision
A rising number of images by the famed telescope include satellite trails — a trend that will ultimately affect its science.
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News |
Europe’s backlog of space missions worsened by rocket woes
Vega C launch failure, tracked to a Ukraine-made part, could further delay a handful of missions.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Are telescopes on the Moon doomed before they’ve even been built?
Booming exploration and commercial activity could ruin the quiet environment of the lunar far side.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News & Views Forum |
JWST opens a window on exoplanet skies
An unprecedented glimpse of a distant planet reveals clues about how it might have formed. Scientists explain why it’s a win for atmospheric chemistry, and celebrate the technology that made it possible.
- Julia V. Seidel
- , Louise D. Nielsen
- & Subhajit Sarkar
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Book Review |
How NASA’s breakthrough ‘class of ’78’ changed the face of space travel
The inclusion of women and people of colour in NASA’s astronaut cadet programme was unprecedented — and met sometimes fierce resistance.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Weird supernova remnant blows scientists’ minds
Fireworks display from rare dying star is unlike anything astronomers have seen.
- Shannon Hall
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Nature Podcast |
Amino acid slows nerve damage from diabetes, in mouse study
Experiments show the role that serine may play in a common diabetes complication.
- Nick Petrić Howe
- & Shamini Bundell
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News |
What time is it on the Moon? Scientists are working that out
Satellite navigation systems for lunar settlements will require local atomic clocks. Researchers are figuring out what time they will keep.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Why the Hubble telescope is still in the game — even as JWST wows
NASA’s nearly 33-year-old observatory still has plenty of top science to do, and astronomers want to extend its lifetime.
- Alexandra Witze
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Research Briefing |
The mass distribution of newborn stars depends on age and amount of metal
The variation in the mass of newly born stars has been debated for decades. A star-count analysis now reveals that the initial mass of stars varies with their levels of metal elements, and that populations of stars born earlier in the Universe’s history contain fewer low-mass stars than do younger populations.
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These ‘green pea’ galaxies might have helped to end the Universe’s dark age
JWST has spotted three tiny, distant galaxies that could solve a long-standing cosmic mystery.
- Shannon Hall
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News |
2022 was a record year for space launches
180 rockets lifted off successfully, with SpaceX driving the pace.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Round-Up |
Dog genetics, Moon capsule and skewed sports science
The latest science news, in brief.
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World View |
Why I’m leaving NASA and the job I’ve loved most
Stepping down well is an important leadership skill — and one that is rarely named or valued.
- Thomas H. Zurbuchen
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News |
JWST gets first glimpse of 7-planet system with potentially habitable worlds
Astronomers have been eager for the landmark telescope to study the TRAPPIST-1 system.
- Alexandra Witze
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Essay |
Fifty years after astronauts left the Moon, they are going back. Why?
The launch of NASA’s Artemis I mission aims to rekindle the spirit of Apollo a half century after the United States left the lunar surface. As ever, science is the least of the driving forces.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
NASA’s Orion Moon capsule splashes down! Here’s what’s next
Engineers will learn from the Artemis I test flight as they gear up to put astronauts back on the Moon later this decade.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
How nuclear waste will help spacecraft explore the Moon — and beyond
European researchers are developing batteries that use a radioactive isotope to power long missions in the Solar System.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
‘Great scientific step forward’: Construction of world’s largest radio observatory is finally under way
Two giant telescopes — one in Australia, the other in South Africa — will comprise the supersensitive Square Kilometre Array.
- Sarah Wild
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News |
JWST’s best images: spectacular stars and spiralling galaxies
Nature’s pick of the sharpest science shots this month is dedicated to the James Webb Space Telescope, which began peering into the Universe earlier this year.
- Alexandra Witze
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News Round-Up |
Moon flyby, European Mars rover and elites’ advantage
The latest science news, in brief.
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News |
NASA’s Orion spacecraft reaches the Moon — in pictures
The capsule, which is designed to carry people, will now travel farther from Earth before returning in December.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
NASA really, really won’t rename Webb telescope despite community pushback
Investigation by agency historian finds no evidence explicitly linking former director James Webb with anti-LGBT+ actions.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
JWST spots some of the most distant galaxies ever seen
Premier observatory offers a glimpse of the early Universe.
- Alexandra Witze