Coin-sized camera spots distant planets
The camera lens is no bigger than a quarter. You'd find it in a smartphone, but here it was mounted on the Hayabusa2 probe for asteroid landings.
Magnetic Memory of Asteroid Ryugu
A pebble from a distant asteroid can remember the magnetic field that acted on it billions of years ago. Such pebbles, particles from asteroid Ryugu, were brought to Earth by Japan's Hayabusa2 probe. Inside them, like the needle of an ancient compass, the direction of the magnetic field from the solar system's youth is frozen.
How chemical logic rescues spectra from noise
A spectrum is like a photograph of a material's inner workings, taken with light. When a beam passes through or reflects off a sample, molecules leave characteristic dark bands, peaks, on that photograph. But if the image is overexposed or veiled in gray, making out details becomes nearly impossible.