Astronomers have finally weighed a wandering “rogue” planet, uncovering a Saturn-mass world flung into the galaxy after a dramatic planetary breakup.
Category: space
Astronomers Measure The Mass of a Planet With No Star For The First Time
Not all planets are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood like our Solar System – some are doomed to roam the cosmos alone. Astronomers have now, for the first time, measured the mass of, and distance to, one of these lonely worlds.
The planet packs about a fifth of the mass of Jupiter, and is located a little under 10,000 light-years away from Earth, towards the center of our galaxy. That size suggests it most likely formed as part of a planetary system, before being exiled by a game of gravitational billiards.
Related: Record-Smashing Rogue Planet Caught Growing at 6 Billion Tons Per Second.
NASA Confirms It Has Lost Contact With Mars Orbiter MAVEN
NASA has officially lost contact with a spacecraft that has been orbiting Mars since 2014.
The MAVEN spacecraft – Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution – abruptly lost contact with Earth on 6 December 2025 while passing behind the red planet in the normal course of its orbit. When MAVEN re-emerged from behind Mars, however, NASA ground control was unable to reestablish a connection.
On December 9, the space agency announced it is investigating the issue and attempting to locate a signal.
Astronomers measure both mass and distance of a rogue planet for the first time
While most planets that we are familiar with stick relatively close to their host star in a predictable orbit, some planets seem to have been knocked out of their orbits, floating through space free of any particular gravitational attachments. Astronomers refer to these lonely planets as “free-floating” or “rogue” planets.
Recently, a new rogue planet was identified, and, unlike previously identified rogue planets, astronomers were able to calculate both its mass and distance from Earth. A new study, published in Science, describes how a few lucky observations from both ground-based and space-based telescopes made these calculations possible.
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Image: Ball bearings as tools for studying physics in microgravity
In this Oct. 20, 2025, photo, tiny ball bearings surround a larger central bearing during the Fluid Particles experiment, conducted inside the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) aboard the International Space Station’s Destiny laboratory module.
A bulk container installed in the MSG, filled with viscous fluid and embedded particles, is subjected to oscillating frequencies to observe how the particles cluster and form larger structures in microgravity. Insights from this research may advance fire suppression, lunar dust mitigation, and plant growth in space. On Earth, the findings could inform our understanding of pollen dispersion, algae blooms, plastic pollution, and sea salt transport during storms.
In addition to uncovering potential benefits on Earth, research done aboard the space station helps inform long-duration missions like Artemis and future human expeditions to Mars.
NASA’s Chandra rings in the new year with the Champagne Cluster
Celebrate the New Year with the “Champagne Cluster,” a galaxy cluster seen in this new image from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and optical telescopes.
Astronomers discovered this galaxy cluster on Dec. 31, 2020. The date, combined with the bubble-like appearance of the galaxies and the superheated gas seen with Chandra observations (represented in purple), inspired the scientists to nickname the galaxy cluster the Champagne Cluster, a much easier-to-remember name than its official designation of RM J130558.9+263048.4.
The new composite image shows that the Champagne Cluster is actually two galaxy clusters in the process of merging to form an even larger cluster.