Space

Jan 1st, 2026 - On Jan. 15, 2025, the Gaia spacecraft took its last image. Then the craft ran a final round of engineering tests, fired its thrusters to leave Earth behind, and slipped into an orbit around the Sun, finally turning off on March 27. After more than a decade in operation, 3 trillion observations, and 2 billion stars observed, Gaia has earned its retirement. Launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2013, Gaia's goal was "to map a billion stars," and it succeeded.  Compiling the map of ... [Read More]

Jan 1st, 2026 - New Horizons flew past 2014 MU69, now known as Arrokoth, on Jan. 1, 2019. This composite of high-res images with enhanced color shows approximately how the KBO would appear to the human eye. Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI/Roman Tkachenko At 12:33 A.M. EST on Jan. 1, 2019 New Horizons made its closest approach to 2014 MU69, now named Arrokoth (though at the time, it had been nicknamed Ultima Thule). It was the most pristine distant world ever explored — albeit remotely — by humans. The ... [Read More]

Jan 1st, 2026 - Researchers have confirmed the mass of a free-floating planet thanks to a lucky convergence of ground- and space-based telescopes Nearly 10,000 light years away, a planet the size of Saturn is floating all on its own through empty space. In a stroke of luck, researchers were able to spot this strange, dark world using both ground-based telescopes and the Gaia space telescope , allowing them to measure the mass of a free-floating, or rogue, exoplanet for the first time. Most rogue worlds that ... [Read More]

Jan 1st, 2026 - Saturn is on display in the early-evening sky this month along with Uranus and Neptune, both within reach of binoculars. Jupiter dominates the night, reaching opposition on the 10th. The gas giant is the prime target for the month; the long winter nights offer lots of time to enjoy the view. Mercury continues its year-end showing through the New Year, visible in the morning sky for a brief time. Saturn and Neptune remain in the same binocular field of view all month. Saturn is easy to spot, ... [Read More]

Dec 31st, 2025 - Just in time for the arrival of 2026, NASA has shared a stunning image of a renowned galaxy cluster. The Champagne Cluster holds special significance this time of year because it was discovered on New Year's Eve in 2020. The occasion and the galaxy cluster's bubble-like appearance helped researchers appropriately nickname it the Champagne Cluster, a much catchier name than its official designation, RM J130558.9+263048.4. In a recent announcement,  NASA revealed that its Chandra X-ray ... [Read More]

Dec 31st, 2025 - Reading time 3 minutes Roughly 1,000 light-years away from Earth, a gigantic disk of gas and dust is swirling around a young star and giving rise to new planets. Not only is it the largest planet-forming disk astronomers have ever found, its behavior is different than any seen before. The disk spans nearly 400 billion miles (640 billion kilometers)—that's about 40 times wider than our entire solar system. While it was first identified in 2016, astronomers have now used NASA's Hubble Space ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Researchers studying galaxies built like the Milky Way found that the same strange chemical pattern can emerge through very different histories. The result helps explain why stars near the Sun split into magnesium-rich and magnesium-poor groups, even when their iron content looks almost the same. Chemistry maps in the Milky Way Chemical fingerprints in long-lived stars preserve early galaxy conditions, because new generations lock in the gas mixture at birth. The work was ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - The BepiColombo mission has been on its way to Mercury since 2018 and will finally start orbiting the planet and taking X-ray images in the second half of 2026 We will finally begin to untangle Mercury's mysteries in 2026, as the BepiColombo spacecraft descend into orbit around the solar system's innermost planet. BepiColombo consists of a pair of spacecraft from both the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google The Sun does not like to give up its secrets. Its bright surface is easy to see, but the space just above it tells a deeper story. That glowing outer atmosphere, called the corona, can only be seen during solar eclipses – and even then only briefly. What goes on in the corona controls space weather and sends charged particles racing toward Earth. For decades, scientists could only catch quick, uneven looks at this region. Now that has changed in a big way. Creating ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - If you were to ask a group of dedicated amateur astronomers to list their favorite telescopic targets, few if any would mention asteroids. That's easy to understand. The typical asteroid lacks the jaw-dropping visual impact of the Moon or Saturn. Through the eyepiece, an asteroid is an ordinary-looking stellar speck. In fact, the word asteroid comes from the Greek word asteroeides , which means "starlike." My interest in observing asteroids began in the summer of 1971 when I came across ... [Read More]

Dec 30th, 2025 - Reading time 10 minutes There were many impressive moments in spaceflight this year, but if the industry had a slogan, it would be "onwards and upwards." So, as 2025 comes to an end, it's time to shift our focus toward the launches and mission milestones on deck for 2026. Over the next year, space agencies and companies will push the limits of exploration further than ever before. Planned missions include the first launch of the most powerful rocket ever built, a lunar landing, and a crewed ... [Read More]

Dec 29th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers have found a compact new cluster of objects inside the Kuiper belt, which is a distant band of icy bodies at the edge of our solar system beyond Neptune. The cluster sits 4.0 billion miles from the Sun, about 43 astronomical units. The work was led by Amir Siraj, a doctoral student in astrophysics at Princeton University in New Jersey. His research focuses on how outer solar system orbits store clues about planets that moved long ago. In their analysis, the ... [Read More]

Dec 29th, 2025 - Isn't it amazing that astronomy – humanity's oldest science – continues to generate such a delightful amount of new knowledge? Seeing as we've been studying the motion of the stars for a good long while, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, by now, we would be long past the point of saying "Astronomy? Completed it, mate." Fortunately, the Universe is vast and unknowable. However big our telescope mirrors and however sensitive our detectors, there will always be some light that's too ... [Read More]

Dec 28th, 2025 - 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter QUICK FACTS What it is: Reflection nebula NGC 1333 and binary star system SVS 13 Where it is: 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus When it was ... [Read More]

Dec 28th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Galaxies do not grow alone. Over billions of years, smaller galaxies move closer, pull on one another, and slowly merge. During such encounters, giant black holes at galactic centers often wake up and begin feeding. Astronomers have now confirmed a rare and powerful example of such growth: a system where three galaxies merge while three supermassive black holes feed at the same time and shine in radio light. Known as J1218 1219+1035, such a system offers a clear view into ... [Read More]

Dec 28th, 2025 - Far smaller and closer to the Sun than it should be, Mercury has long baffled astronomers because it defies much of what we know about planet formation. A new space mission arriving in 2026 might solve the mystery. At a cursory glance, Mercury might well be the Solar System's dullest planet. Its barren surface has few notable features, there is no evidence of water in its past and the planet's wispy atmosphere is tenuous at best. The likelihood of life being found amidst its scotched craters is ... [Read More]