Space

Nov 27th, 2025 - Unlock more this Holiday Season while supporting the journalism you rely on. For a limited time, new Platinum members can unlock one month free. Support the newsroom that works every day to bring clarity and accountability to the headlines. Already a member? CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have detected what they believe to be lightning on Mars by eavesdropping on the whirling wind recorded by NASA's Perseverance rover. The crackling of electrical discharges was captured by a ... [Read More]

Nov 27th, 2025 - 6 min read Tryptophan, the essential amino acid behind the Thanksgiving myth that eating turkey can make you sleepy, has been found to exist on Bennu, a small asteroid that swings by our planet about every six years. The discovery stems from an unprecedented sample collected by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, which landed a spacecraft on the asteroid in 2020, captured 4.3 ounces (121.6 grams) of rocks and dust, and safely returned the cache to Earth in 2023. NASA has since distributed a small ... [Read More]

Nov 27th, 2025 - On Nov. 27, 2001, NASA announced the first detection of an exoplanet atmosphere. Using the Hubble Space Telescope's spectrometer, astronomers observed HD 209458b , orbiting a 7th-magnitude, Sun-like star 150 light-years away in Pegasus. The researchers were able to detect sodium in the exoplanet's atmosphere – though it was less sodium than models had predicted for a planet of that class, a hot Jupiter. (Some theories suggest that high-altitude clouds in the atmosphere affected the ... [Read More]

Nov 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. We know of three interstellar objects (ISO) that have visited our inner solar system . Oumuamua was the first one, and it came and went in 2017. 2l/Borisov , an interstellar comet, was next, appearing in 2019. And right now, the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas is enjoying a visit to the Sun-warmed ... [Read More]

Nov 26th, 2025 - For nearly a century, astronomers have been convinced that most of the universe is made of something we can't see. This invisible "stuff" seems to glue galaxies together and shape the cosmos, yet it doesn't shine, reflect, or block light. Now, fresh analysis of data from a NASA space telescope suggests we may have caught our first real glimpse of it, not directly, but through a very specific kind of high-energy light coming from the heart of our own Milky Way. If this result holds up, it could ... [Read More]

Nov 26th, 2025 - The Gemini South telescope in Chile captured this stunning view of NGC 6302, highlighting the nebula's intricate structure and dynamic gas flows. Reading time 2 minutes This newly released image from the Gemini South telescope captures a well-known planetary nebula—a massive star fizzling out at the end of its life. These celestial displays often take on a circular or globular shape, but NGC 6302, as it's formally known, bears a distinct resemblance to a butterfly. And what a beautiful ... [Read More]

Nov 26th, 2025 - Scientists trace the moon's parent planet to the inner solar system. About 4.5 billion years ago, Earth had a violent neighbor. A young, still-forming planet named Theia slammed into our world with enough force to melt vast portions of its mantle and scatter a huge amount of debris into orbit. This molten debris would eventually coalesce into the Moon we know today. Theia itself didn't survive the impact, but new evidence suggests that it wasn't some distant wanderer from the outer solar ... [Read More]

Nov 26th, 2025 - InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport, landed on Mars Nov. 26, 2018, tasked with a simple yet challenging mission: unlock the mysteries of Mars' interior. Top priorities included uncovering Mars' internal structure by measuring the thickness of the crust, obtaining the size and density of the core, and sussing out the structure and composition of Mars' mantle.  In addition to  bountiful seismic data , which include more than ... [Read More]

Nov 25th, 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. Astronomers have observed a pair of stars locked in a death spiral, and their dance of doom is revealing more about how gravity works. The system, called ZTF J2130, sits about 4,000 light-years away. Although astronomers have known about this system for a while, this is the first time they ... [Read More]

Nov 25th, 2025 - Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars . The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists' understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading. "Dark stars" is one of those unfortunate names that, on the surface, does not accurately describe the objects it represents. Dark stars are not exactly stars, and they are ... [Read More]

Nov 25th, 2025 - black hole with gravitational lens effect in front of bright stars. 3d illustration, Elements of this image are furnished by NASA Perched on the very outer fringes of our solar system, a Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) telescope, sometimes dubbed a Curved Space Telescope, would use the gravity of our own Sun to obtain extraordinary optical images at a focal point some 650 Earth-Sun distances (astronomical units) away. From this vantage point, such a telescope (or telescopes) could, in theory, ... [Read More]

Nov 25th, 2025 - A rigid ice shell over a shrinking interior makes for pressures low enough to boil. Our exploration of the outer Solar System has revealed a host of icy moons, many with surface features that suggest a complex geology. In some cases, these features—most notably the geysers of Enceladus—hint at the presence of oceans beneath the icy surfaces. These oceans have been ascribed to gravitational interactions that cause flexing and friction within the moon, creating enough heat to melt the ... [Read More]

Nov 25th, 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. In space, death can be a beautiful thing. That's certainly the case for the recently deceased "other" comet ATLAS, which is slowly breaking apart after meeting its explosive end earlier this month, stunning new images reveal. C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) is a comet originating from the Oort Cloud beyond ... [Read More]

Nov 24th, 2025 - How will the universe end? Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com . How will the universe end? – Iez M., age 9, Rochester, New York Whether the universe will "end" at all is not certain, but all evidence suggests it will continue being humanity's cosmic home for a very, very long time. The universe – all of space and time, and all matter and energy – began about ... [Read More]

Nov 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. Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) may have discovered the most distant supermassive black hole ever seen. The enormous object, hosted by the galaxy GHZ2, is so far away that astronomers see it as it was just 350 million years after the Big Bang. The team's research, ... [Read More]

Nov 23rd, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google A telescope can show a lot, but astronomers always want to see more detail in the sky. They look not only at stars, but also at the faint structures around them, including thin disks of gas. A new trick with light has now helped capture the sharpest-ever measurement of a disk around a nearby star, beta Canis Minoris. The study revealed a strange, lopsided shape that had never been seen before. The method was used with a ground-based telescope , which is impressive because ... [Read More]