The upper stage of a SpaceX rocket that delivered two lunar landers in early 2025 is set to come crashing down on the lunar surface several months after it ended its mission. According to Japan Today, the large piece of rocket debris is expected to hit the moon at an estimated 5,400 mph or 8,690 kph, which is seven times the speed of sound.
While a piece of debris hitting the moon might seem like an inconsequential event for most people, scientists and astronomers are keeping a close eye on it because this will be one of the few times that an object will impact the moon while being observed. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and South Korea’s Danuri lunar orbiter will take before-and-after photos of the impact site, while the latter will also fly close to the stricken SpaceX rocket a few minutes before it begins its final descent.
NASA has previously deliberately crashed objects on the moon — it did this with sections of the Saturn V rocket and discarded Lunar Landers to conduct seismic experiments during the Apollo missions in the 70s. It repeated the experiment in 2009 with its LCROSS mission, where it crashed the probe near the south pole of the moon in search of ice.
What interests researchers this time is how the impact will affect the surface of the moon, which is expected to deliver energy that’s equal to about three tons of TNT. Even though this might seem like a huge amount of energy, we likely cannot see the actual crash from Earth. But because the moon does not have wind or an atmosphere, the ejected material could stretch for miles and be visible on telescopes.
“The gravity on the moon is low and there is no wind to blow the dust away,” said Benjamin Fernando of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Part of the reason for our interest in this event is to figure out how much of a hazard debris impacts pose to future astronauts.”
Space debris is not a major concern for the moon as it is for our planet at the moment, but this might change in the near future. As the U.S. and China are locked in a space race to see who will be the first one to land on people on the moon again after more than half a century, there will soon come a time when operators cannot just leave their rocket debris in an orbital decay, lest it come crashing down on their settlements and data centers.
"Scientists say they have detected promising signs that a planet orbiting a star 49 light-years from Earth could have an atmosphere," reports CNN, "making it potentially suitable for life."
Called LHS 1140b, the object is about five times the mass of our planet, or a "super-Earth." This planet orbits around its star in the "Goldilocks zone," also known as the habitable zone, meaning its surface temperature is not too hot or too cold for liquid water to exist... "It appears to be consistent with Earth, meaning it might have an iron core and a silicate mantle, plus some sort of low-density component, which is probably a combination of water and, now we know, an atmosphere," [said Collin Cherubim, a planetary scientist and lead author of a paper on the finding, published July 16 in the journal Science]... If further observations confirm the findings, LHS 1140b would mark the first discovery of an atmosphere on a rocky planet in the habitable zone of another star...
There is no evidence of life or a life-supporting atmosphere on LHS 1140b now, but Cherubim said he believes it's a formidable candidate for potential signatures of extraterrestrial life. "I think it's the best place to look for life outside the solar system at this point," he said. "It's mostly rocky, it's at the right temperature to support liquid water on the surface, and it has an atmosphere — those are the three key ingredients we look for..." Confirming the existence of an atmosphere on a rocky planet orbiting a red dwarf would be particularly exciting, Cherubim said, because the possibility of that happening is an open question in astronomy. "Can rocky planets have atmospheres around red dwarfs? This is the first bona fide yes," he said. "It's kind of a sigh of relief for a lot of us. But the jury's still out. Maybe this is a weird planet, and it's an oddball, or maybe it's the first of many. We don't know yet."
Now "The James Webb Space Telescope is going to look at it," Cherubim told CNN, and "Hubble's going to look at it. Basically, everybody who can see it is going to be training their eyes on it."
Michaël Gillon, research director of the Astrobiology Research Unit at Belgium's University of Liège warned CNN that no definitive proof exists that LHS 1140b possesses a substantial atmosphere. But if the detection of helium can be confirmed, the implications would be profound. "Until now, we had only limited evidence for atmospheres on temperate rocky exoplanets. Demonstrating that LHS 1140 b has retained a substantial atmosphere over billions of years would show that at least some habitable zone Super-Earths around red dwarfs can survive the intense early activity of their host stars."
More than 6,000 exoplanets have now been confirmed beyond our Solar System, but only a handful truly redefine what astronomers thought was possible. Over the past few years, observatories such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), and NASA’s TESS mission have uncovered alien worlds that are evaporating into space, forming before our eyes, or hiding in plain sight for more than a decade. Here are seven of the most fascinating exoplanets discovered or dramatically redefined in recent years.
1. Beta Pictoris d: The planet that hid for more than a decade
Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope recently announced the discovery of Beta Pictoris d, a giant planet that had remained hidden in archival observations for over ten years. The world is about 100 times fainter than its famous sibling, Beta Pictoris b, making it one of the faintest exoplanets ever directly imaged from Earth. Its discovery also makes Beta Pictoris only the second known planetary system with three directly imaged planets, providing astronomers with an exceptional laboratory for studying planetary formation.
2. BD+05 4868 Ab: A planet literally evaporating away
Few exoplanets are as dramatic as BD+05 4868 Ab. Located about 140 light-years away, this rocky world orbits so close to its host star that its surface is believed to be molten. Intense heat strips away rock from the planet, creating spectacular comet-like mineral tails stretching millions of kilometers into space. Astronomers believe they are witnessing the slow destruction of an entire planet in real time, making it one of the most unusual planetary systems ever observed.
3. WISPIT-2 b: Watching a planet being born
Most exoplanets are discovered long after they have formed. WISPIT-2 b is different. It was directly imaged while still embedded within the gas-and-dust disk surrounding its young star. The planet appears to have carved a visible gap inside the protoplanetary disk, giving astronomers one of the clearest views yet of planetary formation in progress. Systems like WISPIT-2 are exceptionally rare and provide valuable insights into how giant planets emerge from stellar nurseries.
4. TOI-561 b: A lava world that challenged expectations
The rocky exoplanet TOI-561 b circles its star in less than half an Earth day, making its surface hot enough to sustain vast oceans of molten rock. Recent observations have suggested that this extreme world may retain an atmosphere despite temperatures that should have stripped lighter gases away long ago. Understanding how such planets survive under these conditions could improve scientists’ understanding of rocky planets orbiting close to their stars.
5. 2M1510 (AB) b: A real-life Tatooine
Science fiction imagined planets orbiting two suns decades before astronomers found one. 2M1510 (AB) b goes a step further by orbiting two brown dwarfs instead of ordinary stars. Brown dwarfs are often described as “failed stars” because they never became massive enough to sustain hydrogen fusion. The discovery has challenged existing theories of planet formation, suggesting planets can emerge in environments previously considered unlikely.
6. K2-18 b: The exoplanet that keeps scientists debating life
Few planets have generated as much discussion as K2-18 b. Located within its star’s habitable zone, the super-Earth has been studied extensively by the James Webb Space Telescope for signs of atmospheric chemistry that could hint at biological activity. While recent observations sparked excitement over possible biosignature gases, subsequent analyses have emphasized that no evidence of extraterrestrial life has been confirmed. Even so, K2-18 b remains one of the most important targets in the search for potentially habitable worlds.
7. L 98-59 d: A volcanic world unlike anything in our Solar System
Among the newest additions to this growing list is L 98-59 d, an exoplanet about 35 light-years away that appears to host a global molten magma ocean beneath an atmosphere rich in sulfur compounds. The discovery offers astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to study how rocky planets evolve under extreme conditions. Unlike Earth, where volcanic activity is largely localized, L 98-59 d may represent an entire planet shaped by continuous volcanism, making it one of the most hostile—and scientifically valuable—worlds ever identified.
The golden age of exoplanet discovery
Every year, astronomers uncover hundreds of new worlds, but the most exciting discoveries are no longer just about adding another dot to the catalog. Today’s observatories are beginning to reveal how planets form, how they die, what their atmospheres contain, and whether any could potentially support life.
With the James Webb Space Telescope, next-generation ground observatories, and future missions on the horizon, these seven worlds are unlikely to remain the most astonishing for long. The next truly extraordinary exoplanet could already be waiting in the data.
Scientists have uncovered new evidence that tiny grains of ancient stardust may have played a key role in creating the first solid material in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The discovery suggests that these microscopic particles, left behind by stars that lived and died before our Sun existed, acted as the […]
Mars is slowly losing parts of its atmosphere to space, and scientists have discovered that the process may be driven by giant waves created where the solar wind meets the planet’s upper atmosphere. The new research, led by Boston University, shows that these waves act much like wind blowing across the surface of a lake, […]
The Moon’s far side is overturning a long-held theory, revealing that the early Solar System’s asteroid assault may have faded slowly instead of exploding in one catastrophic burst. For decades, scientists have debated whether the early Solar System endured one sudden, catastrophic wave of asteroid strikes or a much longer period of gradually fading violence. [...]
Curiosity has found a vast sea of Martian polygons that may reveal how water and climate once reshaped the Red Planet. NASA’s Curiosity rover has encountered an enormous field of honeycomb-shaped fractures while climbing through a Martian valley known as “Valle Grande.” Each geometric feature measures roughly 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) [...]
Neptune’s small inner moons may actually be the broken remains of a much older family of icy worlds that were destroyed billions of years ago, according to a new study using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Scientists believe the evidence points to a dramatic event in the distant past, when Neptune captured its largest […]
From how galaxies form to the beginnings of the universe, the images from the space telescope are giving cosmologists new data to explore—and theories to build out.
From how galaxies form to the beginnings of the universe, the images from the space telescope are giving cosmologists new data to explore—and theories to build out.
Where it is: 2.5 million light-years away, in the constellation Andromeda
When it was shared: July 27, 2026
Andromeda is the only major galaxy in the universe that is speeding closer to the Milky Way as all the others rush away. Now, a new analysis of Hubble Space Telescope data hints that our galactic next-door neighbor may be winding down from a big burst of activity as it draws toward a possible collision with our galaxy.
The new study found that the Andromeda galaxy (M31) has been steadily slowing its production of new stars over the past 500 million years. The findings suggest that the galaxy is naturally winding down after a more active period, offering astronomers valuable clues about how large spiral galaxies evolve.
Andromeda is a giant spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way, but with around twice its mass. As the nearest large spiral galaxy to Earth, it provides an ideal laboratory for studying galaxy formation and evolution. An understanding of when and where stars form is essential for explaining how galaxies develop and change over time.
The new research, published July 27 in The Astrophysical Journal, combines two major Hubble surveys that mapped roughly two-thirds of Andromeda's disk, including around 200 million stars. It's already known that Andromeda experienced a dramatic burst of star formation about 2 billion years ago, which is thought to have formed about a fifth of all the stars in the galaxy. That starburst is thought to be the result of a merger with another galaxy, probably the compact elliptical galaxy M32, which now orbits Andromeda.
The new study found that Andromeda formed stars at a rate of around one solar mass per year 500 million years ago. By 40 million years ago, that rate had halved, while today the rate has fallen to just one-fifth of a solar mass each year. Researchers found that most recent star formation in Andromeda has been concentrated within a ring about 32,000 light-years from the galaxy's center and that the decreasing activity within this region is largely responsible for the overall decline. That suggests the galaxy is gradually winding down from its previous burst of star formation rather than suddenly running out of material.
Scientists also investigated whether M32 may have contributed to the slowdown. Regions closest to M32 show a more recent decline in star formation, making the companion galaxy a possible influence, although the evidence remains inconclusive.
"We need to measure the individual stars because they are the fossil record of the galaxy's formation," study co-author Ben Williams, an astronomer at the University of Washington, said in a NASA statement. "Hubble is the only telescope that can give you high enough spatial resolution over a large enough area to be able to do that in Andromeda."Although the team will continue studying Hubble's archive, they will also target observations from NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket as soon as Aug. 30. With a field of view at least 100 times larger than Hubble's, Roman will survey the entire Andromeda galaxy and its surrounding halo in unprecedented detail.
Andromeda is best observed in November and is visible to the naked eye, even from locations with moderate light pollution. The galaxy may collide with the Milky Way about 5 billion years from now, though its ultimate trajectory is still uncertain.
A Jupiter-mass object orbiting a brown dwarf could become the first confirmed moon beyond our Solar System. A massive object appears to be circling a brown dwarf in the CD-35 2722 system, but calling it a moon is not straightforward. Unlike moons in our Solar System, it does not orbit a planet. Instead, it travels [...]
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