The weather on Earth can get pretty messy sometimes. But in space, it can be wild, and the effects can be far-reaching. Solar flares, giant explosions on the sun, can send out streams of energy that block radio communications and fry satellite electronics. Geomagnetic storms, caused by variations in solar wind, can mess with GPS signals and spark current surges on Earth that overload power grids.

Close to 100 scientists from all over Europe, the United States, and Japan are gathering this week at the Institute for Solar Physics (KIS) in Freiburg to present and discuss the first scientific results from the successful third flight of the balloon-borne solar observatory SUNRISE. KIS is a key contributor to the SUNRISE project. The meeting marks a milestone in the study of the sun by bringing together researchers from all over the world who are analyzing unprecedented new data gathered by the SUNRISE III project.

Southwest Research Institute, or SwRI, is studying impact flashes generated by high-speed collisions. One application of understanding impact flashes is to remotely identify what materials are involved in the collisions. Advances in understanding optical impact flashes can be highly beneficial for missile defense, making it possible to determine the composition of an intercepted missile and its payload.

After six months of radio silence, NASA's Maven spacecraft at Mars has been declared dead.

The long, puzzling dwarf planet Ceres, in reality the first named asteroid, has surface features that are much more complex than previously thought. Or at least that's the conclusion of a recent paper presented at the European Geosciences Union 2026 General Assembly in Vienna.