Science & Space Digest — Jul 17, 2026

Week of: Jul 17, 2026

Discovery of the Week

Oldest known Mars rock reveals a watery past — A meteorite called Teghaza, the oldest known piece of Mars, shows the Red Planet had a granitelike crust and was already losing its water 4.1 billion years ago, offering a rare glimpse into its early, wet youth. Significance: High. (Science Magazine News)

Space Missions & Astronomy

• SpaceX aborts Starship Flight 13 launch attempt — The company scrubbed its latest Starship test flight on July 16 after some of the vehicle's engines failed to ignite, delaying the next step in developing its fully reusable mega-rocket. Significance: High. (SpaceNews)
• SpaceX launches 21 satellites for military data network — With this launch, the Space Development Agency has now placed half of its planned Tranche 1 Transport Layer constellation in orbit, a low-Earth-orbit network designed to provide resilient military communications. Significance: Medium. (SpaceNews)
• NASA finds near-Earth asteroid is actually a comet — Scientists at JPL used precise tracking and powerful observatories to reveal that an object previously classified as an asteroid has a dual personality, showing faint cometlike activity that had gone undetected. Significance: Medium. (NASA News)
• Serbia signs the Artemis Accords — Serbia became the 69th nation to join the U.S.-led framework for peaceful, transparent space exploration, doing so more than two years after also signing onto China's lunar base project. Significance: Low. (SpaceNews)
• New crew arrives at ISS on Soyuz — NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina launched from Baikonur on July 14, with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attending in person. Significance: Medium. (SpaceNews)
• Webb captures young galaxy cluster 4.4 billion light-years away — A July 3 image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows MACS J0553.4-3342, a cluster of two actively merging sub-clusters, each anchored by a massive elliptical galaxy. Significance: Medium. (NASA News)
• Upcoming solar eclipse still vital for science — Despite advanced solar probes, the August eclipse will allow low-cost experiments to study the Sun and Earth's atmosphere, proving that old-fashioned celestial events remain valuable research tools. Significance: Medium. (New Scientist)
• Nature study proposes new way to spot nuclear weapons in orbit — A paper in Nature Astronomy describes a satellite design and technique to detect thermonuclear warheads in space, funded in part by the U.S. government. Significance: High. (SpaceNews)
• NASA's Artemis III lander test will pave way for Moon landings — Before astronauts land on the Moon in 2028, NASA will conduct a 2027 demonstration mission to practice rendezvous and docking between commercial landers and the Orion spacecraft. Significance: Medium. (NASA News)

Life Sciences & Medicine

• Restoring ability to remove 'zombie' cells may keep us sharp as we age — Senescent (zombie) cells accumulate in the body with age, but a study in mice suggests a drug could restore the body's natural ability to clear them, potentially improving cognitive aging outcomes. Significance: High. (New Scientist)
• Space-station study points to mitochondria as cause of astronaut muscle wasting — New research suggests that mitochondria, the energy-producing structures inside cells, malfunction in microgravity, explaining why astronauts' bodies waste away in space. Significance: Medium. (Nature News)
• 'Explosive diarrhoea' outbreak grips US — Researchers are racing to identify the source of a widespread gastrointestinal illness outbreak, using genomic tools to track the pathogen. Significance: High. (Nature News)
• 'Holy grail' of naked mole-rat research reveals how queens rule — Scientists have finally uncovered the biological mechanism that allows naked mole-rat queens to suppress reproduction in other females, solving a long-standing puzzle in animal behavior. Significance: Medium. (Nature News)

Physics & Materials

• Universal gates from braiding and fusing anyons on quantum hardware — Researchers demonstrated a key step toward topological quantum computing by braiding and fusing anyons (exotic quasiparticles) on actual quantum hardware, a milestone for error-resistant computation. Significance: High. (Nature News)
• Quantum statistical plasmonic metacrystals — A new class of materials called quantum statistical plasmonic metacrystals was created, blending quantum mechanics with plasmonics (the study of light-driven electron waves) to control light at the nanoscale. Significance: Medium. (Nature News)

Climate & Earth Science

• National Academies report: Climate attribution science is maturing — A new report finds that scientists' ability to link extreme weather events to climate change is improving, but still has limits — a finding that oil companies are closely watching as it could strengthen legal liability cases. Significance: High. (Ars Technica Science)
• Climate scientists sharpen tools for linking global warming to extreme weather — A separate National Academies report says the fast-growing field of attribution science can boost confidence with more rigorous methods, potentially reshaping how we assess climate damages. Significance: High. (Science Magazine News)

Technology-Driven Science

• AI is set to completely transform cybersecurity — Researchers outline how artificial intelligence will revolutionize cybersecurity, but warn that the field must prepare for new kinds of attacks and defenses. Significance: Medium. (Nature News)
• Space Force awards $69 million for AI-enabled training technology — Slingshot Aerospace received a 4½-year contract to develop simulated satellite-defense scenarios using artificial intelligence. Significance: Low. (SpaceNews)
• NASA uses subscale aircraft to accelerate flight innovation — The Dale Reed Subscale Flight Research Lab uses small, remotely piloted aircraft as cost-effective platforms to test new aerospace concepts and reduce risk before full-scale development. Significance: Low. (NASA News)

Upcoming: Launches & Publication Dates

• SpaceX Starship Flight 13 — A new launch attempt is expected after the July 16 abort, though no specific date has been announced. (SpaceNews)
• Solar eclipse experiments — Scientists will conduct low-cost experiments during the August solar eclipse to study the Sun and Earth. (New Scientist)