NASA has taken a significant step forward in its Artemis campaign with the selection of three cutting-edge scientific instruments to travel to the Moon. These instruments will be integrated onto an innovative Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV), designed to transport up to two astronauts across the lunar surface, while also operating remotely without human presence.

The LTV is part of NASA’s efforts to explore the lunar frontier in a way that combines the best of human and robotic exploration. The vehicle will enable scientists to achieve more of their goals over a wide swath of lunar terrain, making discoveries about Earth’s nearest neighbor and benefiting the health and safety of astronauts and spacecraft on the Moon.

The Artemis Infrared Reflectance and Emission Spectrometer (AIRES) will identify, quantify, and map lunar minerals and volatiles, such as water, ammonia, or carbon dioxide. This instrument will capture spectral data overlaid on visible light images of specific features of interest and broad panoramas to discover the distribution of these materials across the Moon’s south polar region.

The Lunar Microwave Active-Passive Spectrometer (L-MAPS) will help define what lies beneath the Moon’s surface, searching for possible locations of ice. Containing both a spectrometer and ground-penetrating radar, this instrument suite will measure temperature, density, and subsurface structures to over 131 feet below the surface.

When combined, the data from these two instruments will paint a picture of the components of the lunar surface and subsurface, supporting human exploration and uncovering clues about the history of rocky worlds in our solar system. The instruments will also help scientists characterize the Moon’s resources, including its composition, potential ice locations, and how it changes over time.

In addition to these instruments integrated onto the LTV, NASA has selected the Ultra-Compact Imaging Spectrometer for the Moon (UCIS-Moon) for a future orbital flight opportunity. This instrument will provide regional context to the discoveries made from the LTV, mapping the Moon’s geology and volatiles and measuring how human activity affects those resources.

Together, these three scientific instruments will make significant progress in answering key questions about what minerals and volatiles are present on and under the surface of the Moon. With these instruments riding on the LTV and in orbit, NASA will be able to characterize the surface not only where astronauts explore but also across the south polar region of the Moon, offering exciting opportunities for scientific discovery and exploration for years to come.

As NASA prepares to send astronauts back to the Moon, it is clear that this new era of lunar exploration holds great promise for advancing our understanding of the Moon and its resources. The selection of these cutting-edge instruments marks a significant step forward in the Artemis campaign, one that will ultimately lead to human missions on Mars and beyond.

The discovery of 3I/ATLAS, a mystery interstellar object, has sent shockwaves through the scientific community. This ancient visitor is likely to be the oldest comet ever seen, possibly predating our solar system by more than three billion years. According to University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins, 3I/ATLAS could be more than seven billion years old and may be the most remarkable interstellar visitor yet.

Unlike previous objects that entered our solar system from elsewhere in the cosmos, 3I/ATLAS appears to be traveling on a steep path through the galaxy. Its trajectory suggests it originated from the Milky Way’s ‘thick disk’ – a population of ancient stars orbiting above and below the thin plane where the Sun and most stars reside.

Hopkins explained that all non-interstellar comets, such as Halley’s comet, formed with our solar system and are up to 4.5 billion years old. However, interstellar visitors have the potential to be far older, and 3I/ATLAS is likely to be the oldest comet ever seen.

The object was first spotted on July 1, 2025, by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, when it was about 670 million kilometers from the Sun. As 3I/ATLAS approaches the Sun, sunlight will heat its surface and trigger cometary activity, or the outgassing of vapor and dust that creates a glowing coma and tail.

Early observations already suggest the comet is active, and possibly larger than either of its interstellar predecessors, 1I/’Oumuamua (spotted in 2017) and 2I/Borisov (2019). If confirmed, this could have implications for how many similar objects future telescopes, such as the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, are likely to detect.

The discovery of 3I/ATLAS has sparked excitement among astronomers, who believe it may provide clues about the role that ancient interstellar comets play in seeding star and planet formation across the galaxy. As the comet continues on its journey towards the Sun, scientists will be closely monitoring its activity and behavior.

The Red Planet’s Hidden Past Revealed: Scientists Discover 15,000 Kilometers of Lost Rivers on Mars

A groundbreaking study has shed new light on Mars’ history, suggesting that the planet was once much wetter than previously thought. Led by PhD student Adam Losekoot and funded by the UK Space Agency, researchers have identified over 15,000 kilometers of ancient riverbeds in the Noachis Terra region of Mars’ southern highlands.

The discovery was made possible by analyzing fluvial sinuous ridges, also known as inverted channels, which are believed to have formed when sediment deposited by rivers hardened and was later exposed as the surrounding material eroded. These features have been found across various terrains on Mars, indicating that flowing water was once widespread in this region.

The new research focuses on fluvial sinuous ridges as an alternate form of evidence for ancient surface water, rather than relying on valley networks, which are branching erosional features that have traditionally been used to infer historical rainfall and runoff. The study’s findings indicate that surface water may have been stable in Noachis Terra during the Noachian-Hesperian transition, a period of geologic and climatic change around 3.7 billion years ago.

“This is an exciting discovery because it shows that Mars was once a much more complex and active planet than we thought,” said Losekoot. “Studying Mars, particularly an underexplored region like Noachis Terra, is really exciting because it’s an environment which has been largely unchanged for billions of years. It’s a time capsule that records fundamental geological processes in a way that just isn’t possible here on Earth.”

The researchers used data from three orbital instruments: the Context Camera (CTX), the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA) and the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). These datasets allowed the team to map the locations, lengths, and morphologies of ridge systems across a wide area.

Many of the features appear as isolated ridge segments, while others form extensive interconnected systems. The spatial distribution and extent of these ridges suggest that they likely formed over a geologically significant period under relatively stable surface conditions.

“Our work is a new piece of evidence that suggests that Mars was once a much more complex and active planet than it is now,” said Losekoot. “The fact that the ridges form extensive interconnected systems suggests that the watery conditions must have been relatively long-lived, meaning Noachis Terra experienced warm and wet conditions for a geologically relevant period.”

These findings challenge existing theories that Mars was generally cold and dry, with a few valleys formed by ice-sheet meltwater in sporadic, short periods of warming. The discovery of ancient riverbeds on Mars provides new insights into the planet’s history and suggests that it may have been more similar to Earth than previously thought.