Space

Jan 6th, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes The bizarre dimming patterns of Betelgeuse , an enormous red supergiant star in the constellation Orion, have bewildered astronomers for decades. Now, researchers are closer than ever to proving that a companion star is the cause of this strange behavior . Researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) detected a pattern of changes in Betelgeuse using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. They observed changes in the star's ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - When a galaxy is born, it is cool and immature, much like a baby. Over the initial million years of its life or so, it feeds on the heat energy of neighboring stars and celestial objects, often getting excited by interactions with nearby black holes. Over time, the pool of gas grows into a reservoir, and the reservoir becomes hotter. Adulthood arrives, and the galaxy is then entitled to a "mature" status.  However, a recent galaxy cluster scientists detected via radio telescopes defies ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A recent analysis of the Sapphire Canyon mudstone core, drilled by NASA's Perseverance rover in July 2024, adds new and convincing evidence to the ongoing search for life on Mars. The study describes minerals and textures that, on Earth, are often linked to microbial activity. At the same time, the authors stress that some unknown, nonbiological chemistry could also explain the signals. "This finding by Perseverance is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. A new study reveals that tiny fragments of Earth's atmosphere are transported to and absorbed by the moon via gusts of solar wind and our planet's magnetic field, upending a 20-year-old theory based on NASA's Apollo lunar samples. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - A potential new type of celestial object has all the makings of a normal small galaxy. It's rich with the same hydrogen gas that births suns and planets, and it lies within a halo of dark matter , the same invisible stuff that holds galaxies together. Yet it's missing one key component of glittering galaxies like our own Milky Way: stars. Nicknamed Cloud-9, the gas cloud is technically the best-yet example of a RELHIC, or Reionization-Limited H I Cloud. The "H I" stands for Cloud-9's bounty of ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - This is a first for planetary researchers. Most planets can be described in at least one respect: They circle a star, making them somewhat easy(ish) to find. A transit dips the star's light. A wobble nudges the star's spectrum. Even a direct image, rare as it is, usually leans on the star's glare and the planet's reflected or thermal glow. However, a free-floating (or "rogue") planet offers none of that. It drifts through a galaxy without an obvious host star, cold and dark enough to blend into ... [Read More]

Jan 5th, 2026 - Scientists might have found the first direct evidence of Einstein's centuries-old prediction. According to his theory of relativity, rotating black holes can twist spacetime around them. In a new study, published in  Science Advances , astronomers observed wobbles around a fast-spinning black hole. The phenomenon called Lense-Thirring precession, or frame-dragging, explains how a rotating black hole can pull nearby objects in, disrupt the paths of stars, make the gas in the space wobble, ... [Read More]

Jan 5th, 2026 - Reading time 2 minutes In May 2024, Earth was slammed by the worst geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years, which disrupted radio signals, power grids, and satellites. The storm originated from an active solar region known as NOAA 13664, which emitted a slew of solar flares in our direction. Today, scientists revealed that they observed this region for 94 days, watching it evolve from birth until decay. An international team of researchers tracked the active solar region using the Solar Orbiter ... [Read More]

Jan 5th, 2026 - In 2003, Palomar Observatory astronomers were in the midst of their search for planet-sized objects beyond Neptune when they imaged Eris – but because they'd limited their search based on the speed that objects were moving, and Eris was quite sedate, it went undetected. It wasn't until they discovered the likewise pokey Sedna the following month that the researchers realized they needed to go back through their data and search for slower-moving objects. On Jan. 5, 2005, Mike Brown of the ... [Read More]

Jan 3rd, 2026 - For nearly a month, NASA has been scrambling to make contact with a spacecraft in orbit around Mars that abruptly fell silent. The space agency lost communication with the MAVEN probe (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) on Dec. 6, and efforts to re-establish a connection have been futile. Based on bits of data received that day, mission controllers think the probe was spinning unexpectedly. NASA now has to wait until Jan. 16 before it can again try to revive MAVEN, because Mars ... [Read More]

Jan 3rd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers recently pointed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope at a familiar target, the bright nearby star Fomalhaut, and saw something that looked like a new world. A compact, reflective speck glimmered just beyond the star's main dust belt – exactly where you might expect an exoplanet. Then the speck disappeared. Later, a different bright spot flared up nearby. That one, too, faded. What looked like planets turned out to be something much more dramatic: expanding ... [Read More]

Jan 2nd, 2026 - The Sun has captivated humanity for millennia. And yet, despite being our closest star, studying it is not easy. Its blinding brilliance long defied detailed study. But over the centuries, astronomers have developed ingenious tools to unveil its secrets. From crude sketches of sunspots to today's stunning images, the journey of solar imaging reflects both human curiosity and technological ingenuity. Each advance has deepened our understanding of how dynamic our star is — and how it ... [Read More]

Jan 2nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers often find exoplanets that look strange, but few discoveries challenge science as deeply as PSR J2322-2650b. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope revealed a world with an atmosphere unlike any seen before. Carbon dominates the air, hydrogen almost disappears, and powerful winds race across the surface. Gravity stretches the planet into a lemon-like shape while intense radiation heats one side far more than the other. Every detail forces scientists to rethink how ... [Read More]

Jan 2nd, 2026 - Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, January 2 The Moon officially reaches the Full phase early tomorrow morning shortly before sunrise. However, our satellite will appear essentially Full in the evening sky tonight, as it is more than 99 percent lit late this evening. You may also notice that the Moon appears slightly brighter than average, as it is still nearer to Earth than average and shines as a Super Moon.  Given the bright moonlight, most fainter targets ... [Read More]

Jan 2nd, 2026 - As this interstellar object approached its closest point to Earth, a massive radio telescope attempted to sniff out a technosignature. Reading time 3 minutes From the moment astronomers discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS , they became fixated on one question: What is it? Months of research have led to overwhelming scientific consensus that it is a comet from beyond our solar system, yet some still speculate that this cosmic visitor isn't natural at all. In July, shortly after the ... [Read More]

Jan 2nd, 2026 - Astronomers were puzzled by a black hole around 50 million times the mass of the sun with no stars, spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope – now simulations suggest it could be a primordial black hole, something we have never seen before An unusually massive black hole in the very early universe may be a kind of exotic, star-less black hole first theorised by Stephen Hawking . In August, Boyuan Liu at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues spotted a strange galaxy from 13 ... [Read More]