Space

Dec 27th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers enjoy it when the universe throws a curveball, and this object does exactly that. Working in two teams, they have found the largest, most distant stash of water ever seen in the cosmos. APM 08279+5255 is a quasar – an active galaxy whose central supermassive black hole feeds on gas and releases huge amounts of light. It contains about 140 trillion times the amount in all of Earth's oceans – swaddling a ravenous, supermassive black hole (a quasar) ... [Read More]

Dec 27th, 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 The sun is the biggest object in the solar system ; at about 865,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) across , it's more than 100 times wider than Earth. ... [Read More]

Dec 27th, 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 27th, 2025 - Whether it's giant war-mongering spaceships, green humanoid Martians, or creepy beings slithering across uncharted planets, science fiction has painted a very particular image when it comes to aliens. But while you might think it takes a tin-foil-wearing conspiracy theorist to believe in such life outside of Earth, many highly distinguished scientists are believers too. In fact, when surveyed, 86.6 per cent of astrobiologists recently said they either agreed or strongly agreed that ... [Read More]

Dec 27th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers just discovered the oldest supernova to date. Named GRB 250314A, this ancient star exploded at a time when the universe was still finding its footing. Not long after the first galaxies lit up the dark, something massive collapsed, exploded, and sent its light racing across space for billions of years until it finally reached us. That light didn't arrive in a neat, simple package. It appeared first as a short, violent burst, then later as a slower, swelling ... [Read More]

Dec 26th, 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. From Orion and Taurus to Auriga and Perseus, here are 10 easy sets of stars to find in the Northern Hemisphere's winter night sky. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter On a clear winter night, ... [Read More]

Dec 26th, 2025 - Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, December 26 The Moon passes 4° north of Saturn at 11 P.M. EST, right as the pair is setting along the U.S. East Coast. It's better to observe them earlier in the evening — they are more than 40° high in the southwest around 7 P.M. local time.  The waxing Moon lies to the upper right of Saturn, sandwiched between the giant planet and the Circlet of Pisces. While the Moon itself is in the constellation Pisces, Saturn ... [Read More]

Dec 26th, 2025 - By studying rare meteorites, scientists are uncovering which asteroids might someday fuel humanity's expansion into space. Scientists are assessing the makeup of carbon-rich asteroids to see whether they could one day fuel space exploration—or even be mined for valuable resources. For long duration missions to the Moon and Mars, using materials found in space could significantly reduce the need for supplies launched from Earth. However, improved identification and classification is ... [Read More]

Dec 26th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Every so often, astronomers will witness an incredible and mysterious phenomenon – startlingly bright, electric blue flashes in the night sky that blaze for days and then fade away, leaving behind a whisper of X-rays and radio waves.  With barely more than a dozen on record, these events , which are known as luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs), have defied easy categorization. Were they weird supernovae? Gas slurped by a lurking black hole? The ... [Read More]

Dec 26th, 2025 - As a science communicator, I don't think a week goes by without a press release hitting my inbox informing me of astronomers finding some new record-breaking object. Sometimes it's the smallest planet yet discovered or the most iron-deficient star. But a very common claim is a distance record: the farthest galaxy from Earth ever seen, for example. When it comes to these sorts of record breakers, I have complicated feelings, built over decades of writing about them. Such announcements must be ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - A rare triple system was identified by astronomers about 1.2 billion light-years away from Earth. The system, known as J1218/1219+1035, is found to contain three interacting galaxies with active supermassive black holes at their centers. The research revealed that the black holes are constantly growing, accreting, actively feeding, and shining extremely bright. According to the study published in  The Astrophysical Journal Letters , the scientists used the U.S. National Science Foundation ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 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 A distant exoplanet appears to sport a sooty atmosphere that is confusing the scientists who recently spotted it. The Jupiter-size world, detected by the ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - A star is born out of a giant cloud of gas and dust collapsing under its own gravity. As gravity pulls the gassy material inwards, some material is left swirling around the star. Over time, the momentum of the spinning material flattens it into the shape of a pizza-like disk, often called a protoplanetary disk. If all this makes it look like it's just a giant cookie of gassy debris, then you're incorrect. These celestial disks don't just offer a cradle for the star to be born, but also become ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - Astronomers love a challenge. They place their observatories on the highest mountains , in the driest deserts, on the coldest ice shelves, beneath the deepest oceans, in orbit around Earth and the Sun , and at the farthest-flung outposts of the Solar System . But now, they're planning to build telescopes on the far side of the Moon. These instruments will probe one of the last unexplored windows on the Universe. Here, astronomers hope to get a glimpse of the elusive Cosmic Dawn , the moment ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 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 Scientists may have witnessed a massive, dying star split in two and then crash back together, triggering a never-before-seen double explosion. The explosion ... [Read More]

Dec 23rd, 2025 - The Mars Perseverance rover has been investigating the Jezero Crater and came across something that is not native to Mars at all. It is a meteorite that collided with the red planet. Though various rovers have found meteorites on Mars before, this is the first time NASA's Perseverance rover has found one on its journey to look for signs of life on Mars — though it might be worth mentioning that the Perseverance has been exploring Mars since it landed in February 2021, and the rover ... [Read More]