Space

Feb 20th, 2026 - Colliding galaxies can create a beam of focused microwave radiation known as a maser, and astronomers have discovered the brightest one ever seen Astronomers have spotted a laser-like beam of microwaves produced by two galaxies smashing together, which is the brightest and most distant example of this phenomenon ever seen. To produce a laser, first atoms need to be stimulated into an unstable, higher-energy state. Then particles of light, or photons, fired at these atoms will cause them to ... [Read More]

Feb 20th, 2026 - What scientists thought were four separate star clusters are actually part of one nearly invisible system. Astronomers have just identified what appears to be a cosmic anomaly: a faint galaxy with so few visible stars that, according to calculations, as much as 99.9 percent of its mass is dark matter . The remaining 0.1 percent is conventional matter. This galaxy, located about 300 million light-years away, is practically invisible. Only four globular clusters, small concentrations of stars ... [Read More]

Feb 20th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google The Egg Nebula looks peaceful at first, but it marks a turbulent stage in a star's final years. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a sharp new image of this strange object, showing light breaking through thick clouds of dust. Some areas remain completely dark. In others, narrow beams cut across the haze. That contrast gives the nebula its power. The patterns look precise and almost deliberate, yet the star driving it all is hidden from view. Hubble's latest image ... [Read More]

Feb 20th, 2026 - Reading time 3 minutes is a reddish, snowman-shaped asteroid in the Kuiper Belt and the most distant object explored by a spacecraft. You don't need to be an astrophysicist to assume the asteroid formed via a slow, gentle collision—but the detailed physics involved aren't that simple. Astronomers had long struggled to fully explain the exact physical mechanism behind the formation and survival of multi-lobed objects like Arrokoth, formally known as contact binaries. A new paper published ... [Read More]

Feb 20th, 2026 - Although both moons orbit Mars much closer than our own Moon orbits Earth, they also are very small: Phobos measures only 12 miles (19 kilometers) across and Deimos is half that. Their apparent sizes to an observer on the surface of Mars are 11′ and 2′, respectively. The Sun itself spans 21′ on average, which means that neither moon is capable of blotting out the entire solar disk. So while these events are sometimes referred to as eclipses, they are technically transits. But ... [Read More]

Feb 20th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google It started as another exoplanet in a group labeled "ordinary." No one expected that a world, once thought to be a mini-Neptune, would reveal traits of a super-Venus and change how we see certain planetary types. Astronomers used JWST data to learn more about an unusual place called Enaiposha, that orbits a red dwarf star about 47 light-years away from the Sun. A surprising "super-Venus" Enaiposha, that also goes by the identifier GJ 1214 b , was first placed in a category ... [Read More]

Feb 19th, 2026 - Built, integrated, tested, and launched in 22 months at under $80 million, the Clementine probe was devised jointly by NASA and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, and epitomised the "faster, better, cheaper" management ethos, testing miniaturized sensors, multimode propulsion and attitude-control systems, and gallium arsenide solar cells in deep space. When the spacecraft rose from Space Launch Complex 4 West at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base atop a Titan IIG rocket at 8:34 ... [Read More]

Feb 19th, 2026 - An exotic type of dark matter could explain some of the characteristics of our galaxy's central supermassive black hole, but many cosmologists are leery of the idea At the centre of our galaxy lies a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* – but one group of researchers is suggesting it may not be a black hole at all. The team says that it, and other black holes around its size, may actually be clumps of dark matter. Dark matter , so named because it doesn't seem to interact with ... [Read More]

Feb 19th, 2026 - Amateur astronomers, take note: A wonderful celestial event known as a total lunar eclipse will occur in the skies above North America during the morning hours of Monday, March 3.  Lunar eclipses happen when the Sun, Earth, and the Moon align, in that order. When this alignment is precise, Earth's shadow falls upon the Moon, obscuring it from direct sunlight. This doesn't happen every month, because the Moon's orbit is tilted to that of the Earth-Sun plane. So, most months our ... [Read More]

Feb 19th, 2026 - As humanity looks to the moon for science and economic opportunity in the coming years, understanding potential dangers lurking on the lunar surface could become increasingly important. Ridges on the moon that signify moonquakes are the subject of a recent research  paper , which delves into tectonic activity across the lunar maria, a vast network of dark plains that arose from ancient volcanic activity. A team of researchers analyzed lunar formations called small mare ridges to create a ... [Read More]

Feb 18th, 2026 - A study led by SETI Institute scientist Matija Ćuk proposes that Saturn's bright rings and its largest moon, Titan, may have both originated in collisions among its moons. This study was accepted for publication in The Planetary Science Journal  and the preprint is available here . Near the end of its 13-year mission, NASA's Cassini spacecraft measured how Saturn's internal mass was distributed. That has an effect on the planet's precession, which is the change in the ... [Read More]

Feb 18th, 2026 - Last month, Earth was treated  to a massive aurora borealis that reached as far south as Texas. The event was attributed to a solar storm that lasted nearly a full day and will likely contend for the strongest of 2026. Such solar storms are usually fun for people on Earth, as we are protected from solar radiation by our planet's atmosphere, so we can just enjoy the gorgeous greens and pretty purples in the night sky. But solar storms are a lot more than just the aurora borealis we see, and ... [Read More]

Feb 18th, 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. Following a massive cryovolcanic eruption, the mysterious Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann has been morphed into a giant spiral and is now shining 100 times brighter than normal. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Get the ... [Read More]

Feb 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Astronomers have been searching for water ice outside of our solar system for years. They expected to find it. They knew it existed on moons and dwarf planets around Jupiter, Saturn, and beyond. But they couldn't confirm it around other stars. Until now. The James Webb Space Telescope just changed everything. Researchers aimed its Near-Infrared Spectrograph ( NIRSpec ) at HD 181327, a Sun-like star 155 light-years away. What they found was crystalline water ice swirling ... [Read More]

Feb 17th, 2026 - Scientists may be one step closer in their hunt for signs of past life on Mars after . Nearly a year ago, – one of two – came across an intriguing rock sample that contained some interesting features. On the rock, Curiosity's instruments detected organic compounds that on Earth are most often produced by living things. Though geological processes can also make the material present, researchers concluded in a study Feb. 4 in the journal Astrobiology that such non-biological processes ... [Read More]

Feb 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google For decades, scientists suspected that Venus might hide massive lava-formed tunnels beneath its scorched surface, but clear evidence had remained elusive. Now, a newly analyzed radar signal has confirmed what researchers long suspected: an empty volcanic tunnel lies beneath one of the planet's collapsed surface pits. The discovery offers the first direct indication that Venus hosts intact underground lava tubes, turning a long-standing geological hypothesis into an ... [Read More]