Key Facts
- Exoplanet Milestone: NASA’s official exoplanet count surpassed 6,000 confirmed planets beyond our solar system, a rapid rise from 5,000 just three years ago space.com. Scientists say this marks “the next great chapter of exploration”, though no single world is labeled the “6000th” since new planets are added continuously space.com. (Quote: Dawn Gelino, NASA JPL).
- Arctic Ice Low: Arctic sea ice reached its annual minimum on Sept. 10, tying 2008 for the 10th-lowest extent on record at ~1.78 million sq. miles nasa.gov. NASA scientists note this is “consistent with the downward trend” of shrinking ice cover observed over the past four decades as global temperatures rise nasa.gov.
- Ozone Recovery: A new WMO report finds Earth’s ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels by mid-century if current policies continue sci.news. The 2024 Antarctic ozone hole was smaller and opened later than in recent years – a “robust indication of initial recovery”, experts said sci.news. (Quotes: WMO Scientific Advisory Group on Ozone).
- Brain Injury Breakthrough: A Nature study of young athletes’ brains shows repetitive head impacts (e.g. in football) can trigger neuron loss, inflammation and vessel damage years before CTE would normally appear eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. “These findings suggest that repetitive head impacts cause brain injury much earlier than we previously thought,” said lead author Dr. Jonathan Cherry eurekalert.org, prompting calls to reduce hits in youth sports eurekalert.org.
- “Chewbacca” Coral: Marine biologists discovered a new deep-sea coral species in the Pacific, Iridogorgia chewbacca, nicknamed for its long, “hairy” branches resembling the Star Wars character mauinow.com mauinow.com. First spotted off Hawaiʻi and later near the Mariana Trench, the coral can reach 4 feet tall. “Seeing this coral for the first time was unforgettable… it immediately reminded me of Chewbacca,” said co-discoverer Prof. Les Watling (Univ. of Hawaiʻi) mauinow.com.
- AI Predicts Solar Storms: Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi unveiled an AI model that forecasts solar storms up to 4 days in advance with 45% greater accuracy than current methods sciencedaily.com. Trained on NASA’s sun images and solar wind data, the system could warn satellites and power grids earlier of disruptive space weather. “This is a major step forward in protecting the satellites, navigation systems, and power infrastructure that modern life depends on,” said lead author Dattaraj Dhuri sciencedaily.com.
Space Exploration: 6,000 New Worlds & Starship Progress
In a milestone for astronomy, NASA confirmed the 6,000th exoplanet – planets orbiting other stars – in its records this week. The official tally of alien worlds crossed the 6k mark after only ~30 years of exoplanet hunting, reflecting an exponential discovery rate space.com. “We’re entering the next great chapter of exploration – worlds beyond our imagination,” a NASA video proclaimed space.com. NASA noted that because new planets are added on a rolling basis by scientists worldwide, “no single planet is considered the 6,000th entry… There are more than 8,000 additional candidate planets awaiting confirmation” space.com. The diversity of these worlds – from lava-covered orbs to gas giants – is helping scientists understand how common Earth-like planets might be. “Each of the different types of planets we discover gives us information about the conditions under which planets can form and, ultimately, how common planets like Earth might be, and where we should be looking for them,” said Dr. Dawn Gelino, head of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program at JPL space.com. “If we want to find out if we’re alone in the universe, all of this knowledge is essential,” she added space.com. This announcement comes almost exactly 30 years after astronomers discovered the first exoplanet around a sun-like star (51 Pegasi b in October 1995), underscoring how far the search for “other Earths” has come space.com.
Meanwhile in rocketry, SpaceX is gearing up for the 11th test flight of its Starship mega-rocket. On Sept. 17, the company rolled the latest Starship upper-stage spacecraft out to the launch pad at Starbase, Texas space.com. SpaceX shared photos of the shiny 52-meter vehicle being lifted by the launch tower’s robotic arms (“chopsticks”), marking a key step toward the next launch space.com. The prototype will undergo pressurization and engine tests alongside its Super Heavy booster in coming days space.com. This will be the first flight since Starship’s landmark Flight 10 test, which successfully reached space but ended with the vehicle’s intentional splashdown in the ocean. With Flight 11, SpaceX aims to push closer to an orbital mission as it advances the Starship program – central to the company’s plans for Moon landings and eventually Mars colonization space.com. No specific launch date has been announced, but CEO Elon Musk has hinted it could be just weeks away. The steady progress indicates significant momentum in the private space sector’s most ambitious launch system.
Medicine & Health: Early Brain Damage in Athletes Before CTE
A groundbreaking medical study published in Nature on Sept. 17 reveals that repetitive head impacts from contact sports can cause severe brain degeneration much earlier than previously believed eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. Researchers from Boston University’s CTE Center analyzed brain tissue from young deceased athletes (ages 25–51) and found a cascade of injuries – including 56% loss of neurons in vulnerable regions, chronic inflammation, and blood vessel damage – even in athletes who had not developed chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. This suggests the damage from football, soccer, hockey and other high-impact sports begins years before CTE would normally be detectable (CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem) eurekalert.org.
“These results have the potential to significantly change how we view contact sports,” said Dr. Jonathan Cherry, the study’s lead author and a BU pathology professor eurekalert.org. “They suggest that exposure to [repetitive head impacts] can kill brain cells and cause long-term brain damage, independent of CTE” eurekalert.org. Notably, athletes with no signs of CTE still showed extensive neuron loss and inflammation, equal to those with early-stage CTE eurekalert.org eurekalert.org. The damage was focused in the cortical sulci – folds of the brain that endure the greatest mechanical forces during head injuries – exactly where CTE lesions first appear eurekalert.org.
Co-author Dr. Ann McKee, a renowned neuropathologist, called it “a groundbreaking study [showing] repetitive hits to the head… cause brain damage in young people even before CTE”. She added, “These findings should serve as a call to reduce head hits in contact sports at all levels, including youth, high school and college” eurekalert.org. The researchers emphasize the urgency of developing diagnostics to detect these brain changes in living athletes and of strengthening concussion protocols. With millions of youth and adults playing collision sports each year, this evidence that the “silent” phase of CTE-related damage begins earlier than thought eurekalert.org could spur new safety measures – such as limiting contact practices or adopting safer helmets – to protect athletes’ brains long before any symptoms emerge.
Climate Science: Arctic Sea Ice Hits Low Mark
Climate scientists are closely monitoring the Arctic after sea ice extent hit its annual low for 2025, continuing a decades-long decline. The NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center reported that on Sept. 10 Arctic sea ice coverage shrank to just 1.78 million square miles (4.60 million km²) nasa.gov. That is tied with 2008 as the 10th smallest minimum ice area in the satellite record. Each year, Arctic sea ice melts through the summer to a minimum around September, then refreezes. Since tracking began in 1978, these yearly minimums have shown a clear downward trend as global temperatures rise nasa.gov. In fact, the 19 lowest summer ice extents have all occurred in the last 19 years (since 2007), reflecting how dramatically the “new normal” has shifted nasa.gov.
While 2025 did not set a record, scientists underscore that this level is well below the historical average. “This year’s Arctic sea ice area did not set a record low, but it’s consistent with the downward trend,” said Dr. Nathan Kurtz, chief of the Cryospheric Sciences Lab at NASA Goddard nasa.gov. After an early summer melt rate similar to the record-setting 2012 season, a late-season slowdown kept 2025 from breaking that record nasa.gov. Still, Walt Meier of NSIDC noted that for nearly two decades now, the Arctic’s minimum ice extent has remained persistently under the pre-2007 levels nasa.gov. “That continues in 2025,” Meier said, emphasizing that despite year-to-year variability, the long-term trajectory is one of significant ice loss nasa.gov.
In the Antarctic, the opposite season is underway – sea ice there is approaching its winter maximum. However, researchers report Antarctic ice is also tracking well below levels seen before 2016 nasa.gov nasa.gov. “This year looks lower than average… the Antarctic system as a whole is more complicated,” Dr. Kurtz explained, noting it’s harder to predict trends at the South Pole nasa.gov. Scientists are watching closely to see if recent Antarctic lows persist or if they recover.
Overall, the polar ice news underscores the impacts of global warming on Earth’s frozen regions. With the Arctic warming roughly four times faster than the rest of the planet, continued ice decline is expected. The loss of reflective ice exposes darker ocean water that absorbs more solar heat, fueling further warming – a feedback loop climate experts have long warned about. The 2025 data, consistent with that pattern, adds urgency to calls for reducing greenhouse emissions to mitigate climate change.
Environmental Science: Ozone Layer on the Mend
There’s a rare piece of good news on the environmental front: the ozone layer – Earth’s vital UV shield – is recovering, according to a report released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) this week. The WMO’s assessment found that the infamous “ozone hole” over Antarctica was smaller in 2024 than in recent years and formed later in the season, suggesting the global phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals is paying off sci.news. The depth of the Antarctic ozone hole (which opens every spring in the Southern Hemisphere) was below the 1990–2020 average this year, and it reached its maximum size later than usual, followed by a rapid recovery sci.news. “This persistent later onset has been identified as a robust indication of initial recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole,” WMO experts said in a statement sci.news.
Thanks to the Montreal Protocol – the 1987 global agreement banning chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone-depleting substances – atmospheric ozone has been steadily rebuilding. If current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to heal back to 1980 levels (before the ozone hole) by around 2066 over Antarctica, 2045 over the Arctic, and 2040 for the rest of the world sci.news. This timeline was reaffirmed by the latest scientific assessment in 2022, and so far observations in 2023-2024 remain on track.
WMO leaders cautioned, however, that we can’t become complacent. “Despite the great success of the Montreal Protocol in the intervening decades, this work is not yet finished,” said Matt Tully, chair of WMO’s Scientific Advisory Group on Ozone, emphasizing the need for continued monitoring of both ozone and the chemicals that affect it sci.news. WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo highlighted the international cooperation that made this environmental success possible, noting it’s “underpinned by trust, collaboration and commitment to free data exchange – all cornerstones of the world’s most successful environmental agreement” sci.news.
Encouragingly, over 99% of ozone-depleting substances have been phased out globally under the treaty sci.news. As a result, stratospheric ozone is on track to recover to its pre-1980 strength in the coming decades, “significantly reducing risks of skin cancer, cataracts, and ecosystem damage due to excessive UV exposure,” according to the WMO report sci.news. Environmental scientists celebrate the ozone layer’s healing as proof that unified global action can reverse atmospheric damage. However, they also warn that ongoing vigilance is needed: newer chemicals (like certain replacement refrigerants) and climate change itself can influence ozone’s future, so monitoring and research must continue sci.news. In a world of many environmental challenges, the ozone layer’s comeback stands out as a hopeful example of science-driven policy making a difference.
Biology: New Deep-Sea “Chewbacca” Coral Discovered
Even as humans explore the depths of space, Earth continues to yield astonishing new life forms. Marine biologists announced the discovery of a new deep-sea coral species humorously dubbed “Chewbacca coral” for its shaggy appearance mauinow.com mauinow.com. Officially named Iridogorgia chewbacca, the coral’s long, flexible brown branches – covered in hair-like polyps – evoked the famously furry Star Wars character when researchers first spotted it. “Seeing this coral for the first time was unforgettable. Its long, flexible branches and shape immediately reminded me of Chewbacca,” said Dr. Les Watling, professor emeritus at the University of Hawaiʻi and a co-author of the discovery mauinow.com.
The newly identified species belongs to the genus Iridogorgia, a group of deep-sea fan corals with distinctive spiral structures. In fact, I. chewbacca was first observed as early as 2006 during a submersible survey off the coast of Molokaʻi, Hawaiʻi mauinow.com. Another sighting in 2016 near the Mariana Trench (the Pacific’s deepest abyss) confirmed its presence across the western Pacific. Scientists only recently determined these specimens represented a distinct species, after detailed comparisons of their morphology and DNA with known corals. The Holotype from Molokaʻi stands about 4 feet tall, while the Mariana specimen was ~20 inches – indicating the species can vary in size but is impressively large for a coral mauinow.com. Each colony consists of thousands of tiny polyps working together, and the colonies typically live solitary, anchored on deep rocky seafloor.
Dr. Watling recognized the unusual coral while reviewing samples provided by colleagues in China, and helped formally describe it in a study published in Zootaxa. The research also introduced a second new species, Iridogorgia curva, and documented an unexpected rich diversity of Iridogorgia corals in the tropical Pacific (10 species in that region alone) mauinow.com. This finding shows that even in 2025, new species lurk in Earth’s oceans, especially in deep and under-explored habitats. The discovery highlights the value of international collaboration and exploration: even well-studied marine areas can surprise us with never-before-seen organisms mauinow.com. Beyond the sci-fi nickname, I. chewbacca adds to scientists’ understanding of deep-sea ecosystems and the overall biodiversity of our planet – underscoring how much of Earth’s oceans remains a frontier full of “alien” life forms awaiting discovery.
Technology & Innovation: AI Forecasts Solar Storms
Artificial intelligence is breaking new ground in space weather forecasting. Scientists at NYU Abu Dhabi have developed an AI model that can predict solar storms – disturbances caused by the Sun’s charged particles – up to four days before they hit Earth, a major improvement in early warning time sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com. The research, published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement, uses a neural network trained on massive datasets of ultraviolet images of the Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, combined with historical solar wind measurements sciencedaily.com. By analyzing complex visual patterns on the Sun’s surface (like coronal holes that emit high-speed solar wind), the AI can forecast the speed of the solar wind reaching Earth with about 45% better accuracy than current physics-based models, according to the team sciencedaily.com.
This breakthrough could significantly bolster our defenses against “space weather” impacts. Solar storms – especially coronal mass ejections and high-speed solar wind streams – can trigger geomagnetic disturbances at Earth. These events have the potential to knock out satellites, disrupt GPS and radio communications, and even overload power grids. (Notably, a geomagnetic storm in 2022 caused SpaceX to lose 40 newly launched Starlink satellites due to increased atmospheric drag sciencedaily.com.) With more advance notice, satellite operators could put spacecraft into safe mode, and grid operators could prepare or temporarily reconfigure systems to mitigate damage.
Lead author Dattaraj Dhuri and colleagues at NYUAD’s Center for Space Science trained the AI model to recognize subtle precursors of solar wind changes. Instead of analyzing text data like popular chatbots, this AI “looks” at the Sun. “By combining advanced AI with solar observations, we can give early warnings that help safeguard critical technology on Earth and in space,” said Dhuri sciencedaily.com. “This is a major step forward in protecting the satellites, navigation systems, and power infrastructure that modern life depends on.” The model outperformed both traditional space-weather forecasts and prior AI attempts, achieving about a 20% improvement even over earlier machine-learning models sciencedaily.com.
Experts say this demonstrates the growing power of AI to tackle complex scientific challenges. Shravan Hanasoge, co-principal investigator, noted that predicting the solar wind has been one of space science’s toughest problems – but the new approach shows promise in “strengthening resilience against disruptions to critical infrastructure” sciencedaily.com. The next steps will be integrating the AI into operational forecasting systems and expanding it to predict other solar phenomena like flares or CMEs. As the Sun approaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle in 2025-2026, such tools arrive at a crucial time. Improved solar storm forecasts give us a better chance to protect astronauts, satellites, and Earth-based tech from the Sun’s outbursts – an excellent example of technology and science innovating together to guard our modern society.
Sources
- NASA – “Arctic Sea Ice Reaches Annual Low.” (Sep 17, 2025) nasa.gov nasa.gov
- NASA / JPL – “NASA’s Tally of Planets Outside Our Solar System Reaches 6,000.” (Sep 17, 2025) space.com space.com
- Space.com – Ravisetti, M. “We’ve officially found 6,000 exoplanets, NASA says: ‘We’re entering the next great chapter of exploration’.” (17 Sept 2025) space.com
- Space.com – Wall, M. “SpaceX moves next Starship spacecraft to launch pad for testing.” (17 Sept 2025) space.com
- EurekAlert (Boston Univ.) – “BU study of young athletes finds neurodegeneration might begin before CTE.” (17 Sep 2025) eurekalert.org eurekalert.org
- Sci.News – “Earth’s Ozone Layer Remains on Track to Recovery in Coming Decades, Experts Say.” (17 Sep 2025) sci.news sci.news
- Maui Now – “Chewbacca coral: New deep-sea species spotted in waters off Hawai‘i, Mariana Trench.” (17 Sep 2025) mauinow.com mauinow.com
- ScienceDaily (NYU) – “This new AI can spot solar storms days before they strike.” (17 Sep 2025) sciencedaily.com sciencedaily.com
