Apr 30th, 2026 - A Falcon 9 upper stage has been stuck in a highly elliptical Earth orbit for over a year—and now it's on a collision course with the Moon. Reading time 3 minutes When SpaceX's Falcon 9 launched a pair of commercial lunar landers in January 2025, the rocket's upper stage was supposed to return to Earth. Instead, it got stuck in a highly elliptical orbit, and an astronomer now says it's going to hit the Moon. Bill Gray, an independent orbital analyst and creator of the Project Pluto object-tracking software, used this program to analyze the upper stage's orbit and predict its future ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2026 - Scientists have identified a new type of cellular organelle inside microbes that live in the guts of ruminant animals such as sheep and cows. In a paper published in Science on 30 April 1 , researchers describe an oval-shaped structure that they discovered inside rumen ciliates — a type of single-celled organism that lives inside ruminants. These subcellular structures, called hydrogenobodies, were found to contribute to the generation of methane livestock. The organelle removes oxygen and releases hydrogen, which archaea in the rumen use as fuel to produce methane. Burping livestock ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2026 - Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched from Kennedy Space Center on Wednesday after taking a year and half break between missions. Flying the ViaSat-3 F3 mission with a satellite headed for geosynchronous transfer orbit, the heavy-lift rocket took off from KSC's Launch Pad 39-A at 10:13 a.m. Two of its three boosters made recovery landings back at neighboring Cape Canaveral Space Force Station touching down about eight minutes after liftoff at Landing Zones 40 and 2, and blanketing the Space Coast in a pair of sonic booms during reentry. The rocket flew for ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2026 - NATIONAL REPORT—Agencies and utilities frequently promote replacing lawns with xeric landscapes, artificial turf, or gravel, often framing turfgrass removal as the most straightforward solution for reducing outdoor water use. These efforts have promoted turf removal as a water-saving strategy, but they overlook the important role turfgrass systems play in maintaining soil carbon storage and supporting urban carbon sequestration. Managed turfgrass systems represent one of the most widespread opportunities for soil carbon sequestration in developed environments. Dense fibrous root ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2026 - The United States Department of Energy (DOE) announced last month that it had selected Virginia Tech and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) to manage and operate the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF or Jefferson Lab) in Newport News. SURATech will assume operations of the facility, one of the country's leading nuclear physics research laboratories, on June 1. The initial base-term contract is for five years, running through May 31, 2031, and it offers an award-term incentive "for exemplary performance," which could see the DOE extend the contract ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 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. Want to add more newsletters? Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Subscribe to our newsletter Research suggests we are on the brink of crossing several ecological "tipping points" that could derail ecosystems like ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2026 - HSBC has collaborated with quantum middleware developer Haiqu and a team of academic researchers on an efficient way to run financial models on commercially available quantum computing hardware. The publication of joint research in Physical Review Research discussed an approach to encoding real-world probability distributions into quantum circuits. HSBC is among the financial institutes looking at how to secure financial transactions as quantum computing evolves into commercially viable products, such as protecting financial systems using post quantum cryptography. Quantum computers also ... [Read More]

Apr 29th, 2026 - Anant Ambani revives offer to transport 80 animals, all descendants of Colombian drug kingpin's pets, to India It remains one of the strangest conundrums in modern zoological history – what to do with the descendants of Pablo Escobar's hippos? The animals – herbivores native to sub-Saharan Africa – were originally imported into Colombia by the drug kingpin for his own entertainment. But the beasts and their offspring were left to roam free after his death in 1993. Now, the expanding population of feral hippopotamuses have become such an environmental blight, they are facing ... [Read More]