Space

Jan 7th, 2026 - Most planetary systems contain worlds larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, and the low-density planets around one young star should help us understand how such systems form Four planets orbiting a newly born star in our galaxy are so light that they have the density of polystyrene, and could provide a key missing link in helping us understand how the most common planetary systems form. This solar system is unusual when compared with most other planetary systems in the Milky Way, which ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - Skywatchers might have observed a 'star' shining bright in the eastern sky recently. However, it is not a star at all but the planet Jupiter, and according to NASA , it will be at its brightest on January 10, 2026. The planet will reach opposition, which is a phenomenon that occurs when Earth lies directly between the Sun and the celestial body. Jupiter will be the most visible planet in the sky on the day, outshining all the other stars in the sky, apart from the Moon and Venus. It can be ... [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 - Decades in the making, NASA's X-ray timelapse shows a stellar explosion expanding into space at up to 2% the speed of light. Reading time 2 minutes A mind-blowing video shows the remnant of an ancient cosmic explosion bleeding out into the universe, pushing against gas and other material, over the span of more than two decades. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured 25 years' worth of observations of Kepler's supernova remnant , revealing the glowing debris field as it grows over time. ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - During a press conference at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix, Devesh Nandal from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) and lead author of the study revealed that the universe's most mysterious distant objects, known as little red dots, may actually be gigantic, short-lived stars. Before he started the main part of his lecture, Nandal asked his audience a question: "How massive do you think a star can truly get?" He ... [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 7th, 2026 - Astronomers say they've found an asteroid that spins faster than other space rocks of its size . The asteroid, known as 2025 MN45, is nearly half a mile (710 meters) in diameter and makes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes, based on an analysis of data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory . "This is now the fastest-spinning asteroid that we know of, larger than 500 meters," University of Washington astronomer Sarah Greenstreet said today at the American Astronomical Society's winter meeting in ... [Read More]

Jan 7th, 2026 - An enormous cloud of gas and dark matter shows what happens when galaxies fail. Astronomers think they may have identified a new class of astronomical object — something that looks like a galaxy in every way except the one that usually matters most. This object has gas. It has gravity. It sits inside a massive halo of dark matter, the invisible substance that shapes galaxies across the universe. But what it does not have, as far as anyone can tell, is stars. Known as Cloud-9, the object ... [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 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 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. 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 - Follow Earth on Google A recent analysis of the Sapphire Canyon mudstone core, drilled by NASA's Perseverance rover in July 2024, adds new and convincing evidence to the ongoing search for life on Mars. The study describes minerals and textures that, on Earth, are often linked to microbial activity. At the same time, the authors stress that some unknown, nonbiological chemistry could also explain the signals. "This finding by Perseverance is the closest we have ever come to discovering life on ... [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]

Jan 5th, 2026 - Scientists might have found the first direct evidence of Einstein's centuries-old prediction. According to his theory of relativity, rotating black holes can twist spacetime around them. In a new study, published in  Science Advances , astronomers observed wobbles around a fast-spinning black hole. The phenomenon called Lense-Thirring precession, or frame-dragging, explains how a rotating black hole can pull nearby objects in, disrupt the paths of stars, make the gas in the space wobble, ... [Read More]

Jan 3rd, 2026 - For nearly a month, NASA has been scrambling to make contact with a spacecraft in orbit around Mars that abruptly fell silent. The space agency lost communication with the MAVEN probe (short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) on Dec. 6, and efforts to re-establish a connection have been futile. Based on bits of data received that day, mission controllers think the probe was spinning unexpectedly. NASA now has to wait until Jan. 16 before it can again try to revive MAVEN, because Mars ... [Read More]