August 2025

NASA launched its twin TRACERS satellites on July 23, 2025, to study how solar wind causes magnetic reconnection in Earth’s magnetosphere. However, a power issue on one spacecraft, SV1, has caused intermittent communication. Engineers believe the issue relates to sunlight availability on its solar panels and plan recovery efforts in August. Meanwhile, the second satellite, SV2, is healthy and undergoing final instrument commissioning. Once ready, SV2 will begin its science mission independently, while NASA works to recover SV1 and resume full dual-satellite operations critical to the mission’s original research goals.

A new study proposes that life may exist far from sunlight in a “radiolytic habitable zone” deep beneath the icy surfaces of Mars, Europa, and Enceladus. Cosmic rays, which can penetrate rock and ice, break water molecules apart to release hydrogen, oxygen, and energy-rich electrons. These can fuel microbes in subsurface water, much like bacteria living deep below Earth. Simulations show Enceladus has the strongest potential for such life, followed by Mars and Europa. This expands the search for life to darker, colder environments—even on rogue planets adrift in space.