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A visual of the Euclid spacecraft. Euclid's comet was found in deep field images taken in September 2026.

File photo: Photo: ESA, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.

World · Science

Euclid found a comet it was never looking for

A telescope built to map distant galaxies has discovered its first comet, a streak in September deep field images that software flagged and the Minor Planet Center confirmed on October 8. It could one day be a target for a mission built to meet a comet.

Mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope, whose data produced the measurement, at a NASA facility.

File photo: Photo: NASA / MSFC / David Higginbotham / Emmett Given, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

The Indeks · Science

A planet out of shape: astronomers measure an exoplanet atmosphere in 3D

Using a new method on JWST data, teams at Cornell and Bristol found the hot Jupiter WASP-17b has one side of its atmosphere puffed out by heat and day side winds. It is the first real shape measurement of its kind, and a benchmark for 6,000 known worlds.

An H3 rocket launch from Tanegashima in February 2025. MMX rides the same rocket type on Tuesday.

File photo: Photo: AF991, via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

The Indeks · Science

Japan is going to land on a moon of Mars and bring a piece of it home

The MMX spacecraft launches from Tanegashima on Tuesday, bound for Phobos. No sample has ever been returned from a Martian moon. If the five year mission holds, a capsule carrying at least 10 grams of another world lands in Australia in 2031.

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