Space

Feb 13th, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes Astronomers have discovered a star system that's out of order, with a late bloomer planet that may have sprung up at a different time than its neighbors. The discovery defies the norms of planet formation across the cosmos, raising questions over how this weird rocky world broke a familiar pattern. The inner planets of our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, are rocky worlds, while the outer solar system is reserved for gas giants like Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 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. ! , Earn Your First Badge Keep Earning Badges See what you've unlocked. Members Exclusive 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 ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Saturn's moon Enceladus has long fascinated scientists for its towering geysers and hidden ocean, but new research suggests this small icy world influences Saturn far more than previously understood. Instead of acting only as a local source of water vapor and ice, the moon appears to function as a powerful electrical generator within the planet's magnetic environment. As charged particles from Enceladus's plumes interact with Saturn's magnetic field, they create ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 2026 - The zodiacal light (left) glows against the nighttime sky, with the Milky Way shining beside it (right). Credit: Sky This Week is brought to you in part by Celestron. Friday, February 13 This dark, moonless Friday the 13th evening is the perfect time to head out after dark and try to catch a glimpse of the zodiacal light. The ethereal, cone-shaped glow is actually the reflected light from tiny particles of dust orbiting the Sun, left over from myriad comets as they swing around our star and ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Supernova explosions are part of how the universe builds matter, but they're not the only cosmic blasts that shape what we're made of. When a massive star runs out of fuel, it ends its life as a supernova. The star's core collapses, its outer layers blast outward, and the explosion scatters heavy elements like carbon and iron into space. There is also a second, much rarer kind of explosion. In a kilonova, two neutron stars collide and produce even heavier elements, ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 2026 - In my January 23, 2026, "The Universe" column , I wrote about some of the biggest bangs the universe has to offer: exploding stars, hiccupping magnetars, stellar disruptions and colliding black holes. These all deserve deeper dives, but perhaps black holes deserve one most of all because, technically speaking, they do provide the deepest dive you can physically take. They also make very big bangs indeed, with their collisions rapidly releasing almost incomprehensible amounts of energy. You ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 2026 - In a study published on Feb. 2 in Communications: Earth & Environment , an international team of researchers reveals how, in 2023, an atypical storm during Mars' northern summer lifted water into the planet's upper atmosphere, allowing hydrogen to escape. This discovery, a first of its kind, has big implications for understanding the evolution of Mars' climate. "The findings reveal the impact of this type of storm on the planet's climate evolution and opens a new path for understanding how Mars ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 2026 - The telescope primarily detects light in the infrared in order to observe sources such as the first galaxies and protostars. Two scientists from the University of Sydney have performed a remarkable space science feat from Earth, the BBC reports . By using AI-driven software, the researchers have successfully corrected image blurring in NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. This innovation, called AMIGO, fixed distortions in the telescope's infrared camera, restoring its ultra-sharp vision without ... [Read More]

Feb 13th, 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. ! , Earn Your First Badge Keep Earning Badges See what you've unlocked. Members Exclusive 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 ... [Read More]

Feb 12th, 2026 - These images show the location (and disappearance) of M31-2014-DS1. (A) is a color composite. The area in the yellow dashed square is the region shown in images (B), (C), and (D), where (D) is the difference between (B) and (C). Images (E) through (J) are zoomed-in shots of the star taken in the labeled years. Astronomers recently watched a massive star die, but fail to explode as a supernova. Instead, it collapsed directly into a black hole, ... [Read More]

Feb 12th, 2026 - Simulations reveal dark matter arranged in a vast, flattened structure beyond the Local Group For nearly a century, astronomers have known that the universe is expanding. Most galaxies are carried outward with the flow of space itself. Yet one stubborn exception has lingered in our cosmic backyard. The Andromeda galaxy is racing toward the Milky Way, while many other nearby galaxies slip away. In fact, the two galaxies are supposed to collide. The Andromeda Galaxy will merge with the Milky Way ... [Read More]

Feb 12th, 2026 - Reading time 2 minutes On February 3, 1966, the Soviet Union's Luna 9 became the first human-made object to touchdown on the lunar surface and beam back a photo of the Moon. Since then, the whereabouts of the spacecraft have remained a mystery, but a team of astronomers believe they're getting close to finding the remains of the long-lost lunar probe. A team led by Lewis Pinault from the University College London designed a machine learning algorithm to scour through hundreds of images of the ... [Read More]

Feb 12th, 2026 - In yet another massive and breathtaking achievement of science and technology, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that its Hubble Space Telescope has captured even more stunning images of the universe. Less than two weeks after the Hubble Space Telescope revealed fascinating images of an "uncommon" lenticular galaxy , it has given scientists clear images of the Egg Nebula, which is located nearly 1,000 light-years away. Science is truly awesome . Why is this ... [Read More]

Feb 12th, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes Of the solar system's planets, Saturn piques the human imagination with its signature rings and impressive moon count of 274. But compelling new research reignites theories of an ancient collision shaping Saturn's environment as we know it today—especially Titan, its biggest moon. The study, accepted for publication in the Planetary Science Journal, addresses a well-known mystery surrounding the unusually young age of Saturn's rings as well as the oddity of Titan's ... [Read More]

Feb 11th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the heavyweight champions of cosmic fireworks – brief, blistering flashes of high-energy light that typically flare and vanish within seconds or minutes. They are so short-lived that catching one in action often feels like cosmic luck. But on July 2, 2025, that script unraveled. NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a GRB that simply refused to stop, firing in repeating pulses for more than seven hours. The event – now ... [Read More]

Feb 11th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google At the center of the Milky Way sits Sagittarius A*, long believed to be a supermassive black hole. But new research suggests the galaxy's heart may instead contain an extremely dense core of dark matter. Rather than treating the center and the surrounding dark matter halo as separate structures, the study proposes that they could be part of one continuous distribution of unseen matter. This material would be dense at the core and more diffuse toward the outskirts. To test ... [Read More]