Space

Apr 15th, 2026 - An asteroid the size of three football fields will pass near Earth in three years, giving scientists a rare chance to study a colossal space rock from close range. Named Apophis — after the ancient Egyptian deity known as the "god of chaos" — the asteroid is expected to zoom past the planet on April 13, 2029, according to NASA . It will come within about 20,000 miles of Earth's surface, which is closer than many orbiting satellites, the agency said. The highest satellites typically ... [Read More]

Apr 15th, 2026 - Studying the star, called SDSS J0715-7334, could give astronomers insights into how the universe's first stars were formed In the exurbs of the Milky Way, near a satellite galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud, researchers have discovered the most metal-poor, chemically primitive star ever found, according to new research from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Findings from the survey are published in the journal Nature Astronomy . Composed primarily of hydrogen and helium and containing less ... [Read More]

Apr 15th, 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 comprehensive new study combines decades of research to reveal that we're missing an essential component in our understanding of how the universe works. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Sign up for the Live Science ... [Read More]

Apr 15th, 2026 - Astronomers have spotted what appears to be two supermassive black holes locked in a death spiral at the heart of a distant galaxy – and they could collide in as little as 100 years.  The pair, discovered at the centre of the galaxy Markarian 501 around 500 million light-years away, was identified after researchers analysed decades of radio telescope observations. Rather than finding one jet of particles blasting out from the galactic core – as is the case in most galaxies ... [Read More]

Apr 14th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google The universe feels simple at first glance: stars, gas, dust, and the gravity that binds it all. Then you look more closely and realize that nothing could be farther from the truth. For decades, the standard picture has said that most of what is out there is not what we can see. It is a mix of ordinary matter and two invisible components often called dark matter and dark energy. That picture has guided textbooks, space missions, and how we read the sky. It has also raised ... [Read More]

Apr 14th, 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & ... [Read More]

Apr 14th, 2026 - Reading time 2 minutes The Moon is constantly being bombarded by traveling space rocks, its surface recording each collision in the form of craters that never fade in the absence of wind or surface water. Most lunar craters that we know of date back millions, if not billions, of years, making evidence of a recent impact a rare glimpse into a process that is shaping the Moon today. Scientists identified a new crater on the Moon that formed in the late spring of 2024, revealing the violent ... [Read More]

Apr 14th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A space telescope has captured the earliest optical rise of a black hole outburst with unmatched timing precision. The observations indicate the eruption begins near the black hole, with the outer disk lighting up afterward – changing how scientists sequence these events. A black hole system awakens In TESS Sector 19, consecutive images captured the system's first faint rise – before most astronomers even knew it was active. Using those measurements, Alyana ... [Read More]

Apr 14th, 2026 - It was beginning to get embarassing but vast clouds of hydrogen may finally resolve a cosmic mystery. For decades, scientists have known that ordinary matter — everything made of atoms — accounts for just 15% of the universe's matter. The rest is mysterious dark matter. But even that modest slice didn't fully add up. More than half of it was missing. Now, by stacking millions of galaxies like poker chips, a team of astronomers has located what may be the universe's long-lost ... [Read More]

Apr 13th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Giant planets may spin faster than heavier brown dwarf companions, confirming a decades-old prediction. The divide suggests spin holds clues to how these worlds formed, deepening the mystery of where planets end and brown dwarfs begin. Results of a large survey At the W. M. Keck Observatory (KPIC) on Maunakea, astronomers isolated light from 32 faint objects and watched rotation broaden their spectral fingerprints. Working through Northwestern University and its CIERA ... [Read More]

Apr 13th, 2026 - Artemis II is NASA's first crewed lunar mission in over 50 years, marking a pivotal step toward sustainable human exploration of the Moon and future missions to Mars. The successful completion of NASA's Artemis II mission saw four astronauts on a 10-day journey to fly above the dark side of the moon and return to Earth, the first crewed expedition to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972. The Orion capsule's journey served as a test run for future lunar missions. Virginia Tech aerospace engineer ... [Read More]

Apr 12th, 2026 - Even as NASA's Artemis II was in the middle of its epic sling around the moon , scientists like Brown University's James Head III and John "Jack" Mustard said the mission had already changed what we know about our nearest neighbor in space. From live meteoroid impact flashes to ancient far-side lava flows, scientists anticipate groundbreaking discoveries from Artemis's unprecedented lunar observations. "It's very much like Apollo 8 ," said Head, a planetary research professor who helped train ... [Read More]

Apr 12th, 2026 - One of the most remarkable discoveries made by astronomers in recent years is the identification of an extremely strong "mega-laser" signal that has travelled over 8 billion light-years without losing its strength and reaching Earth. It is worth noting that this signal has been detected with the help of the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. The signal defies all scientific predictions regarding the behaviour of signals over such great cosmic distances. In general, signals tend to ... [Read More]

Apr 11th, 2026 - It's an exciting time to be a space fan! The safe return of the Artemis II crew has marked a historic milestone – humans have travelled to the Moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. Though the mission didn't land on the lunar surface, its crew of four completed a breathtaking figure-of-eight flightpath around our nearest celestial neighbour and made it home safely. That success has now paved the way for Artemis III, which should make a lunar landing and see the first woman set ... [Read More]

Apr 11th, 2026 - Astronomers have proposed a theoretical model suggesting that the object at the centre of the Milky Way, widely identified as the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, could instead be explained by an extremely dense concentration of dark matter. The idea challenges the long-standing interpretation based on observations of fast-moving stars near the galactic core, which have traditionally been used to infer the presence of a black hole with a mass of around four million Suns. As reported by ... [Read More]

Apr 11th, 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter now Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & ... [Read More]