Space

Jan 8th, 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 Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter A shock wave, far away in space, might be the telltale sign of the first confirmed "runaway" supermassive black hole , escaping its host galaxy at 2.2 ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - An artist's rendition of a precessing jet erupting from the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy VV 340A, based on combined optical, infrared and radio observations. For decades, astronomers have known that supermassive black holes lurk at the hearts of essentially all large galaxies, occasionally feasting on infalling material and burping out powerful jets . But what's been less clear is how, exactly, this activity shapes their surrounding galaxies . Now researchers have found a ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - Astronomers may have discovered a previously unknown type of astronomical object, nicknamed "Cloud-9," that could shed light on dark matter, one of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Dark matter is an enigmatic substance that shapes the cosmos and provides it with structure. While it has never been directly observed, dark matter is believed to make up 85% of the total matter in the universe and can be detected due to its gravitational effects . Cloud-9 is thought to be a dark matter cloud ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - Could this be a gateway to subterranean shelters for future explorers? Scientists have discovered a mysterious hole on the surface of Mars, and they have no idea what lies inside it. This pit, located in the Arsia Mons region — one of Mars' giant volcanoes — could potentially be a skylight leading to a vast network of lava tubes. Lava tubes are natural caverns formed by flowing lava. Here on Earth, they provide shelter for many life forms, and on Mars, they could offer human ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - About 1.1 billion light-years away from Earth, an unfortunate star strayed too close to a  black hole and was ripped apart to death. While the star, a.k.a. "super Sun," was 30 times the mass of the Sun, the giant was hundreds of millions of times the mass of the Sun. The ill-fated star might be playing around in space when its edges brushed against the boundary of the black hole. The black hole had found its next victim for the day's "lunch," according to researchers. With enormous mass ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google For years, scientists have wrestled with a basic mystery. The most common planets in the galaxy sit in an awkward size range, bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. We see them everywhere around other stars, yet we've never had a clear view of how they take shape.  Now, observations of a young planetary system offer a rare glimpse of that transformation in progress. The new results come from an international team of astrophysicists including researchers from ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - "This is now the fastest-spinning asteroid that we know of, larger than 500 meters [1,640 feet]," astronomer Sarah Greenstreet revealed at the recent American Astronomical Society's winter meeting held in Phoenix. Named 2025 MN45, the asteroid was discovered by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, and it makes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes. It has been declared as the asteroid that rotates faster than any other asteroid of that size (nearly half a mile in diameter). Its discovery ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - Science Inside Donald Trump's Attack on NASA's Science Missions During his first year back in office, the president tried to bring America's age of discovery to an end. A test model of the Perseverance rover, designed to explore the surface of Mars, sits in a garage at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, near Pasadena, California, in October. Save O n Mars , in the belly of a rover named Perseverance, a titanium tube holds a stone more precious than any diamond or ruby on Earth. The robot spotted ... [Read More]

Jan 8th, 2026 - The expansion of Kepler's Supernova Remnant over the past 25 years is summed up in 40 seconds in a new video released by NASA. The stunning time-lapse was created using data from  NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory . It goes back to 1604, when the German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovered the supernova in the sky. Thus began the research, and scientists learned that Kepler's Supernova (SN 1604) is a Type Ia supernova, where a little white dwarf star exploded after exceeding a critical ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google NASA's Perseverance rover has spotted a desk-sized rock, nicknamed Phippsaksla, on Mars that looks suspiciously like an iron-rich meteorite. Roughly 31 inches wide (80 centimeters) wide, the lonely boulder sits in the Vernodden area just beyond Jezero Crater. Metal-rich Phippsaksla rock The work was led by Candice Bedford, a research scientist at Purdue University , whose studies focus on Martian rocks. The unusual Phippsaksla rock has a sculpted shape and raised position ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 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 Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Half a year after first opening its eyes to the cosmos, NASA 's SPHEREx spacecraft has unveiled its first complete, all-sky mosaic of the universe. The first ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Betelgeuse is a massive red star that's easy to spot in the night sky. Located on Orion's shoulder, it glows red and oversized compared with most stars. For as long as astronomers have observed it, Betelgeuse has shown noticeable changes rather than steady, predictable behavior. The star's brightness rises and falls, its surface looks lumpy, and its atmosphere stretches far out into space and then shifts again. For years, astronomers have argued over why this happens. ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 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 Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Astronomers have spotted an unexpectedly hot galaxy cluster in the early universe that's challenging theories of galactic evolution. The scorching cluster ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 2026 - This is a first for planetary researchers. Most planets can be described in at least one respect: They circle a star, making them somewhat easy(ish) to find. A transit dips the star's light. A wobble nudges the star's spectrum. Even a direct image, rare as it is, usually leans on the star's glare and the planet's reflected or thermal glow. However, a free-floating (or "rogue") planet offers none of that. It drifts through a galaxy without an obvious host star, cold and dark enough to blend into ... [Read More]

Jan 6th, 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 new study reveals that tiny fragments of Earth's atmosphere are transported to and absorbed by the moon via gusts of solar wind and our planet's magnetic field, upending a 20-year-old theory based on NASA's Apollo lunar samples. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add ... [Read More]

Jan 5th, 2026 - Reading time 2 minutes In May 2024, Earth was slammed by the worst geomagnetic storm in more than 20 years, which disrupted radio signals, power grids, and satellites. The storm originated from an active solar region known as NOAA 13664, which emitted a slew of solar flares in our direction. Today, scientists revealed that they observed this region for 94 days, watching it evolve from birth until decay. An international team of researchers tracked the active solar region using the Solar Orbiter ... [Read More]