Space

Apr 27th, 2026 - Astronomers from the University of Cape Town (UCT) – working with colleagues from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France), Swinburne University of Technology (Australia) and the INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (Italy) have mapped a massive structure in the Universe - a huge supercluster, partially obscured from us behind the Milky Way's 'Zone of Avoidance.' This is a region that is about 20 per cent of the night sky - a very large area that contains thick interstellar ... [Read More]

Apr 27th, 2026 - NASA's Mars Rover Is Hunting Ruby-Like Gems — and It Just Found Some on the Red Planet By For decades, Mars has surprised scientists with evidence of ancient rivers, shifting sands and the chemical fingerprints of past water. Now NASA's Perseverance rover may have added something far more dazzling to that list — tiny fluorescent gem grains embedded inside Martian pebbles. According to New Scientist , the grains are made of corundum, the same mineral that forms rubies and sapphires ... [Read More]

Apr 27th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Space is anything but bare. Between the stars lies a quiet mix of gas, dust, and something surprisingly familiar: ice. Not the kind you find in a freezer, but frozen layers of water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide clinging to tiny dust grains drifting through massive clouds. These clouds stretch across hundreds of light-years. Inside them, new stars are born. Now, for the first time, scientists have mapped these icy regions on a truly large scale. The view reveals ... [Read More]

Apr 27th, 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. Want to add more newsletters? Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Subscribe to our newsletter A rock discovered by ... [Read More]

Apr 27th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers have found a nearby Earth-sized planet that could finally help explain how rocky worlds lose – or keep – their atmospheres. Because the system is unusually well understood, it offers a rare, clean test case for studying how intense starlight, stellar activity, and planetary gravity interact over time. That combination could help scientists move beyond theory and better predict which planets can hold onto air – and which ones are stripped ... [Read More]

Apr 26th, 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 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 - 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 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 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 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 - Reading time 2 minutes While scouring a 50-million-year-old crater on Mars, the Curiosity rover stumbled upon a polygon-shaped pattern that sort of looks like a giant reptile had shed its skin across the planet's surface. The rover's recent find adds to the long list of weird and eerie images of the alien world. NASA's six-wheeled robot captured the photo of the strange rocks on April 7 while driving toward a small crater named Antofagasta. "Many of the rocks we've driven over have these ... [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]