Space

Dec 8th, 2025 - Some of the elements used by living systems are far more abundant in Cassiopeia A than we thought, hinting that some parts of our galaxy might be more suitable for life than others Hidden within Cassiopeia A, the youngest known exploded star in our galaxy, astronomers have found surprisingly high levels of chlorine and potassium. These elements carry an odd number of protons in their atomic nuclei, and though they are thought to be less abundant in the universe, they are essential for planet ... [Read More]

Dec 8th, 2025 - The universe has no shortage of mysteries, many of which have puzzled us for ages. One of the biggest is the existence of something called dark matter. First theorized in 1933 by Fritz Zwicky, dark matter is a theoretical type of matter that can't be seen because it doesn't interact with light or any other form of electromagnetic radiation. After nearly 100 years, and with help from NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, researchers may have finally "seen" dark matter for the first time.  ... [Read More]

Dec 8th, 2025 - Wonder Bound, the product of a collaboration between Johns Hopkins University, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the Vatican Observatory, brings images from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes to a historic venue For millennia, the act of gazing at the night sky has connected us not only to the stars but also to one another. This simple, shared experience ignites our curiosity, inspiring philosophical and scientific quests to peer deep into the cosmos so we can better understand ... [Read More]

Dec 8th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers have spotted one of the largest rotating structures ever reported. It's a knife-edge chain of hydrogen-rich galaxies, threaded inside a giant cosmic filament, about 140 million light-years away. The structure stretches 5.5 million light-years yet spans only about 117,000 light-years across. It seems to move in two ways at once – each galaxy spins on its own axis, and the whole filament rotates together. The discovery offers a rare laboratory for testing ... [Read More]

Dec 7th, 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. Quick facts What it is: Emission nebula NGC 6820 and open star cluster NGC 6823 Where it is: 6,000 light-years away in the constellation Vulpecula When it was shared: Nov. 19, 2025 This spectacular image of an emission nebula — a cloud of gas and dust lit up by nearby stars — and a ... [Read More]

Dec 7th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google An international team has revealed parts of the Milky Way that ordinary star counts have missed. The researchers read elemental clues in stars to outline two inner spiral arms and a faint bridge between them. The experts worked with a carefully selected set of roughly 5,000 stars, focusing on patterns in their chemistry rather than just positions. The result reframes how we chart the galaxy's most crowded regions. Spiral arms concealed in the Milky Way The work was led by ... [Read More]

Dec 6th, 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. The celebrity comet 3I/ATLAS is showing itself out of our solar system for good — but not before the cosmic paparazzi at Earth's space agencies snap some of the clearest photos of it yet. Discovered in late June and confirmed to be the third known interstellar object in July, 3I/ATLAS ... [Read More]

Dec 6th, 2025 - There is plenty to keep stargazers amused through the rest of December. From a planetary conjunction to the astronomical start of winter to some of 2025's most prolific meteor showers. The month has already got off to a stunning start with a third consecutive supermoon lighting up night skies with the added interest of a rare double lunar halo and the Northern Lights also putting on a dazzling show. Of course these delights rely on clear weather conditions. Check the viewing potential where you ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - This Martian dust devil on Amazonis Planitia towers 2,133 feet (650 m) high, casting a long shadow over the volcanic plains. A new study using Perseverance's microphones reveals these common vortices can be electrically active. As dust grains collide within the plume, they generate triboelectric friction, creating small lightninglike discharges. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona In a study published Nov. 26 in Nature , Baptiste Chide, a postdoctoral fellow in planetary acoustics at ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - Mars Express mission has uncovered a remarkable geological formation on Mars that resembles a butterfly. Situated in the Idaeus Fossae region, this unusual crater has intrigued scientists across the globe, providing valuable insights into the planet's complex geological history. The butterfly shape was formed by a shallow-angle impact, which caused debris to be ejected in two distinct lobes, creating wing-like structures. Some of the ejected material appears fluidised, suggesting possible ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google On July 23, 2025, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA launched two satellites called TRACERS from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The pair will study the invisible magnetic shield that surrounds Earth and track the bursts of energy that force their way through it. Flying about 360 miles above Earth, the two craft will chase each other through a gap in the magnetic field near the pole. Their goal is to capture detailed snapshots of a process ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - A paper, published in  Astronomy and Astrophysics , details the discovery of a grand-design spiral galaxy that formed just 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. Grand design galaxies are similar to the Milky Way in that they display well-formed spiral arms. Prior to this discovery, astronomers thought such objects took billions of years to achieve grand-design status. Apparently not. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers Rashi Jain and Yogesh Wadadekar, working at the ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google A new NASA mission is sending twin spacecraft toward Mars to watch the planet's upper atmosphere as space weather hits it in real time. The ESCAPADE mission to Mars launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Nov. 13, 2025. The goal is to see how charged particles from the Sun peel away Mars' thin air, effectively "killing" the Red Planet. Those measurements should help explain how a once wetter planet turned into the dry place we see today. How Mars lost its atmosphere The ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - On Nov. 25, engineers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center successfully joined the two main segments of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope , officially completing the construction of an observatory designed to help scientists study dark energy and hunt for alien worlds. While the mission is formally scheduled to launch by May 2027, the project has been running ahead of schedule. In June, Roman mission office head Kristen McQuinn said at the American Astronomical Society's summer meeting in ... [Read More]

Dec 5th, 2025 - Astronomers have discovered that 3I/ATLAS is carrying methanol and other chemicals that were probably important in the origin of life The interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS is belching out carbon-rich chemical compounds at higher rates than almost any other comet in our solar system. One of these compounds is methanol, a key ingredient in prebiotic chemistry that hasn't been seen in other interstellar objects. 3I/ATLAS , which is only the third visitor to our solar system from elsewhere in the galaxy, ... [Read More]

Dec 4th, 2025 - Time actually runs slightly faster on Mars. This temporal lag is a direct consequence of Albert Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. The rule is simple: the weaker the gravity, the faster time passes. Mars's surface gravity is a weakling, approximately five times weaker than Earth's. That deficit speeds up time. Four hundred seventy-seven microseconds sounds minuscule. It's about one-thousandth of the time it takes you to blink. But for the advanced communication networks of the future, ... [Read More]