Space

Apr 24th, 2026 - Comet 3I/ATLAS, an object from another star that was found speeding through our solar system last summer , is now fading from telescopic view as it retreats back to interstellar space. But it continues to offer lessons about its faraway origins —and, consequently, to demonstrate how special our solar system may be. Astronomers caught a glimpse of 3I/ATLAS just days after the icy comet made its closest approach to the sun in late October 2025. With the telescopes of the Atacama Large ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A new study has found that early orbital data from an asteroid reveals a fast, round-trip route to Mars that cuts total mission time to as little as 153 days. That result turns a discarded early trajectory into a possible shortcut for reaching Mars and getting back far sooner than standard plans allow. Asteroid 2001 CA21 and Mars travel In the 2031 Mars window, the proposed route links Earth and Mars through a geometric corridor tied to the asteroid 2001 CA21. Using that ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2026 - NASA scientist says a mysterious "fifth force" may be hiding in our solar system Astronomers are grappling with a cosmic mystery: Why does the Universe behave differently on massive scales compared to our own solar system? While distant galaxies reveal clear signs of something bending the rules of gravity—often attributed to dark energy or a hidden "fifth force"—everything nearby seems to follow Einstein's playbook perfectly. A force refers to an action that can cause an object to ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2026 - CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Sombrero galaxy and its glowing halo of stars have never looked this good. The U.S. National Science Foundation's NOIRLab released the latest photo of the popular hat-shaped galaxy on Friday. A telescope in Chile observed it four years ago, but the color imaging was not completed until this week. Located approximately 30 million light-years away, this spiral galaxy — formally known as Messier 104 — is one of the largest in the constellation ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google One of the universe's earliest known black holes may have outgrown its galaxy for good. New observations of the quasar ULAS J1120+0641 reveal a system so deeply unbalanced that even future galaxy mergers are unlikely to fix it. Despite being surrounded by potential neighbors, the host galaxy still falls far short – raising the possibility that some black holes raced ahead in the early universe and never slowed down enough for their galaxies to catch up. Finding ULAS ... [Read More]

Apr 24th, 2026 - Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, April 24 Venus passes 0.8° due north of Uranus at 1 A.M. EDT. After their close conjunction yesterday , the two remain within 1.5° of each other in the evening sky tonight, offering a second chance to spot them in a single field of view with your telescope. Look west an hour after sunset, and you'll spot a bright point of light just to the left of the slowly appearing Pleiades star cluster. That light is magnitude –3.9 ... [Read More]

Apr 23rd, 2026 - Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The comet that rambled past us from another star last year likely originated in a cold, isolated corner of the galaxy that had yet to gel into its own solar system, astronomers reported Thursday. Comet 3I/Atlas is only the third interstellar visitor to be confirmed and quite possibly the oldest. Scientists estimate it could be up to 11 billion years old, more than twice as old as the ... [Read More]

Apr 23rd, 2026 - Early in 1986, a visitor from deep space graced Earth's skies, and for a few breathless weeks human eyes were snatched from their daily labors and fixated on the heavens. The object of this transitory public veneration was Halley's Comet — the most famous, easily recognizable, and beloved of celestial wanderers. This icy interloper, officially known as 1P/Halley, revisits the inner solar system every 72 to 80 years. Aggregated lumps of frozen water and gases mixed with smaller amounts of ... [Read More]

Apr 23rd, 2026 - Spy satellite hardware has been repurposed to scan the Universe in the infrared. GREENBELT, Md.—On Tuesday, NASA invited the press to look at the fully assembled Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is now ready to join the ranks of the great observatories in orbit, ahead of its September launch. The Roman Space Telescope (NGRST), named after a key figure in the planning of the Hubble Space Telescope, is notably distinct from hardware like the Hubble and Webb, as it's designed around ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Researchers have found that comet C/2025 R3 has shifted onto an escape trajectory after its solar pass, marking a final visible visit before it leaves the solar system.  That change turns a brief window of dawn visibility into a one-time chance to observe a comet that will not return. A faint visitor Before sunrise in mid-April, the comet sat low above the eastern horizon, where its rapid brightening made it briefly accessible to observers.  Observations ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - The solar system's first solids formed in a rush Some 4.6 billion years ago, when the solar system was born from a vast cloud that collapsed to form the sun and a surrounding disk of whirling gas , no planets yet orbited our star. Back then, besides stardust, no solid materials at all drifted through this natal disk. Only as the disk cooled did mineral grains condense from the gas to become the building blocks of space rocks that would eventually form Earth and other planets. Scientists have ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google What if life on other planets doesn't breathe oxygen at all? Scientists are beginning to rethink one of the biggest assumptions in the search for alien life, thanks to a microbe thriving in Chile's extreme Atacama Desert. Instead of relying on oxygen, this organism produces carbon-based gases that could leave detectable fingerprints in a planet's atmosphere. That shift matters because many distant worlds may resemble early Earth – harsh, dry, and low in oxygen ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has now reached a major turning point, with NASA confirming that its final assembly is complete at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The observatory, often described as the next big step after Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope, is now fully built and preparing for launch operations expected in 2026. As reported, engineers recently finished integrating its main systems inside a large cleanroom, marking the end of years of construction ... [Read More]

Apr 21st, 2026 - A record-breaking 3D cosmic map suggests dark energy is changing, challenging standard cosmological models. From a mountaintop in Arizona, an army of robotic eyes has spent the last five years staring into the universe's deep past. They captured ancient light that began its journey across the cosmos up to 11 billion years ago. On Tuesday, April 14, scientists completed the primary mission of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) ahead of schedule. The team successfully built the ... [Read More]

Apr 21st, 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 21st, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes The cold, icy world of Uranus is framed by a pair of rings that orbit the planet at twice the distance of its main ring system. Each ring tells a different story — the outermost ring appears blue, while the inner ring has a reddish hue. For years, astronomers have wondered why the rings are so different and how each of them came to be. By decoding the light from these rings, we may finally have a clue to their unique origin stories. A team of astronomers used the W. ... [Read More]