Space

Mar 16th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Life on Earth depends on sunlight, but scientists are discovering that warmth and water may survive far beyond the reach of any star. A new study suggests that moons orbiting rogue planets – worlds ejected from their original solar systems – could keep liquid oceans for billions of years while drifting through interstellar space. The research shows that a thick hydrogen atmosphere and tidal heating could allow an Earth-sized moon to remain habitable for as ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com NASA 's DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft intentionally crashed into a small asteroid called Dimorphos in September 2022. The goal of the mission was to "prove that if a killer space rock ever threatened Earth in the future, humans could deflect it," said The New York Times . The hit was quite the success, altering not only the orbit of Dimorphos around a larger asteroid, ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - The planet, named L 98-59 d, is covered with magma and ​enveloped by a noxious and fiercely hot, sulfur-rich atmosphere. Astronomers have spotted a molten alien planet orbiting a star in our neighbourhood of the Milky Way galaxy that has a surface not unlike a vision of hell.  The planet, named L 98-59 d, is covered with magma and has a noxious and fiercely hot sulfur-rich atmosphere. It has a diameter more than 60% greater than that of the Earth, though its density is only about ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google When a black hole and a neutron star spiral toward collision, theory predicts that their orbit should become almost perfectly circular before the final impact. Gravitational waves steadily drain energy from the system, tightening the orbit and smoothing out any stretched shape along the way. By the time the objects finally merge, astronomers usually expect to see a clean circular path. But one recent event broke that pattern. In the gravitational-wave signal GW200105, ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - One of the longest-standing techniques in humanity's search for life beyond Earth may be causing scientists to miss alien signals entirely, a new study finds. Since the very beginnings of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), narrowband radio signals have been the focus of these searches. Narrowband radio signals are considered ideal technosignatures — signs of technology that could indicate intelligent life — because they travel long distances, require low power, and ... [Read More]

Mar 16th, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes Early Earth was a brutally hot, volcanically active, radiation-bathed wasteland. Somehow amid this hostility, the necessary ingredients for life must have appeared, but where did they come from? Astronomers have been working to answer that question for decades. They have developed several hypotheses, one of which suggests that asteroids and comets delivered the ingredients to Earth over the course of many collisions. A study published today in Nature Astronomy adds to a ... [Read More]

Mar 15th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Scientists have identified evidence that the Sun migrated outward through the Milky Way as part of a large-scale movement of similar stars about 4 to 6 billion years ago.  The finding recasts the Sun's current position as the outcome of a broader galactic migration rather than a solitary journey through space. A large migration of stars Across a vast population of Sun-like stars in our region of the Milky Way, astronomers detected an unusually strong concentration of ... [Read More]

Mar 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Get the Live Science Newsletter Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and ... [Read More]

Mar 15th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Scientists using the Rubin Observatory as a sky-monitoring system report detecting about 800,000 distinct changes across the night sky in a single observation period. The discovery reveals how much of the universe is constantly flashing, brightening, or moving in ways that were previously too brief or faint to notice. Rubin as a night sky monitor High above the Andes on Cerro Pachon in northern Chile, a survey telescope has begun capturing the night sky as a continuous ... [Read More]

Mar 13th, 2026 - A new comet has been discovered by astronomers that could put on a pretty impressive sky show in the next few weeks. Officially called C/2026 A1 (MAPS), the object might even turn into an "Easter comet" if it survives the flyby past the scorching Sun. It was first photographed on January 13 at the AMACS1 Observatory in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. Four French astronomers, Alain Maury, Georges Attard, Daniel Parrott, and Florian Signoret, discovered the space rock . Together, they run a program ... [Read More]

Mar 13th, 2026 - This artist's concept shows a runaway supermassive black hole plowing through intergalactic space. Newborn stars trail in its wake, formed from the black hole's compression of tenuous gas in front of it. There is something inherently terrifying about a supermassive black hole hurtling through space at an excess of three million kilometers per hour. Normally these behemoths squat at the centers of galaxies and for good reason; they're usually the single most massive objects in their host galaxy ... [Read More]

Mar 13th, 2026 - French astronomer Charles Messier did not intend to be remembered for his discoveries of galaxies, nebulae, and stars clusters when he looked to the sky in the 1750s. Dubbed the "Ferret of Comets" by French King Louis XV after Messier's acceptance into the French Academy of Sciences in 1770, he discovered 13 comets and observed many more, expecting to be remembered for his comet work. One night while searching the sky to recover Halley's Comet on its predicted return in 1758, he came across a ... [Read More]

Mar 13th, 2026 - Frame-dragging may explain an odd pattern seen in the brightest supernovae. Some of the most extreme explosions in the universe are Type I superluminous supernovae. "They are one of the brightest explosions in the Universe," says Joseph Farah, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For years, astrophysicists tried to understand what exactly makes superluminous supernovae so absurdly powerful. Now it seems like we may finally have some answers. Farah and his colleagues ... [Read More]

Mar 12th, 2026 - The world's first commercial space science telescope, Mauve, just sent back data from low-Earth orbit, achieving "first light" — and signaling a potential new era for low-cost observation. Launched Nov. 28, 2025, aboard SpaceX's Transporter-15 , Mauve was created by British space company Blue Skies Space to observe stars in ultraviolet light and help astronomers study how stellar flares affect whether exoplanets can support life. The small, suitcase-sized satellite and its 5-inch-aperture ... [Read More]

Mar 12th, 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 Get the Live Science Newsletter Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and ... [Read More]

Mar 12th, 2026 - Although we may be loath to admit it, there sometimes appears to be a little magic in science. By magic, I refer to an overwhelming sense of wonder that accompanies surprising outcomes. Events over time — perhaps billions of years — can be folded together to produce a fascinating story. This is one of those stories. It begins in the early solar system, when violent impacts shaped a small world — and ends with those same forces leaving their mark on Earth, in ways that would ... [Read More]