Sunday, October 11, 2026

NASA's SPHEREx space telescope has detected water, methane, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide in the atmospheres of 37 nearby brown dwarfs, with thousands more being analyzed as the infrared telescope maps the sky.^[1]

Astronomers analyzing archived Hubble Space Telescope data have found evidence of a potential "second-generation" planet orbiting the white dwarf HS 0209+0832, which may have formed from material cast off when the star died — a cosmic first if confirmed.^[2]

A five-year survey has found approximately 183,000 Aldabra giant tortoises living on Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles — the highest population ever recorded and more than the nation's human population — marking a remarkable recovery from fewer than 1,000 individuals in the 19th century.^[3]

JAXA's Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission is scheduled to launch on October 19-20, 2026 from Tanegashima Space Center, aiming to land on Mars's moon Phobos and return the first-ever samples from the Martian system to Earth by 2031.^[4]

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding to accelerate development of nuclear power and propulsion technologies for space, with plans for a nuclear-powered spacecraft beyond Earth's orbit by 2028 and a fission-based surface power system on the Moon by 2030.^[5]

Scientists at the University of Warwick have discovered hidden "in-between" materials that form briefly during heating, including a previously unknown form of bismuth vanadate that could improve solar fuels, batteries, and other clean-energy technologies.^[6]

Researchers at the University of Utah Health have discovered how bacteria detect viral attacks by sensing when a virus-produced enzyme cuts a bacterial sensor protein, triggering a self-destruct immune response — findings that could lead to more effective phage therapies against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.^[7]

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck southern Panama on Friday, triggering tsunami warnings across Central and South America including Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala.^[8]

Researchers at the University of Helsinki have identified five distinct brain activity patterns among people diagnosed with depression, suggesting the condition may represent several biologically different states rather than a single disorder.^[9]

A three-judge panel in Mexico found three men guilty of murdering Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Carter Rhoad during a camping trip in 2024, with sentencing scheduled for October 16.^[10]