SPACE.com: Japan’s IKAROS is the first spacecraft to be propelled by sunlight. Short for Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun, IKAROS was launched on 21 May by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. IKAROS‘s solar sailâmdash;successfully deployed in early June—is embedded with thin-film solar cells, and, when struck by light photons, can move the craft through space. The probe felt its first accelerating push from sunlight earlier this month. IKAROS even captured a photograph of itself by deploying a small, free-floating camera.
The finding that the Saturnian moon may host layers of icy slush instead of a global ocean could change how planetary scientists think about other icy moons as well.
Modeling the shapes of tree branches, neurons, and blood vessels is a thorny problem, but researchers have just discovered that much of the math has already been done.
January 29, 2026 12:52 PM
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