Space

Jan 19th, 2026 - Fan-shaped sediments point to shorelines where rivers once met a Martian sea. Mars today is a frozen, dusty desert. But if you look deep inside Valles Marineris, the largest canyon system on Mars and in the Solar System, you find familiar landforms. They resemble river deltas, those fan-shaped deposits that form on Earth where rushing rivers crash into still waters . On our planet, these structures mark a shoreline. Scientists now believe they serve the exact same purpose on Mars. In a new ... [Read More]

Jan 19th, 2026 - Researchers have discovered a strange shape within a well-known nebula, which has offered a potential insight into the fate of the Earth. Astronomers have spotted a mysterious cloud in the shape of a bar 2,600 light-years from Earth. It appears in the Ring nebula, also called Messier 57, which consists of the glowing remains of what was once a sun-like star in the constellation Lyra. Researchers said it is possible the cloud of iron atoms in the shape of a bar is the remnants of a rocky planet ... [Read More]

Jan 19th, 2026 - A research team has successfully imaged a nova in high resolution—and the images suggest that the nova was not a single, impulsive explosion. The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA Array) at Georgia State University has generated detailed images of the early stages of two nova explosions that were detected in 2021. Through near-infrared interferometry, a process that combines light from multiple telescopes, the CHARA Array was able to capture in high resolution the ... [Read More]

Jan 19th, 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 revealed the James Webb Space Telescope's ( JWST ) sharpest-ever image of the area around a black hole. The spectacular view could help ... [Read More]

Jan 19th, 2026 - From surveys of the pre-Sputnik skies to analysis of interstellar visitors, scientists are rethinking how and where to look for physical traces of alien technology. There's no denying the allure of alien artifacts. Science fiction is awash in the material remnants of extraterrestrial civilizations , which surface in everything from the classic books of Arthur C. Clarke to game franchises like Mass Effect and Outer Wilds . The discovery of the first interstellar objects in the solar system ... [Read More]

Jan 19th, 2026 - It is theoretically possible for a particularly massive star to collapse in on itself to form a black hole rather than exploding in a supernova, and we might now have seen the process in action A massive star in a nearby galaxy that reached the end of its life appears to have vanished rather than blown up, forming a black hole in what astronomers think is a rare way. The most common black holes in our galaxy begin as stars. When these stars explode in a supernova, they can leave behind a black ... [Read More]

Jan 19th, 2026 - Scientists finally have an explanation for the mysterious red dots in space. In 2022, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured a rare, similar sight of the cosmos where red lights glimmered like stars, but scientists could not figure out what it was. That's how the adventure to uncover the mystery behind the "little red dots" or LDRs began. The unique bright red color intrigued researchers who wanted to know the secrets it might hold about the early universe. A recent study published in the ... [Read More]

Jan 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Quick facts What it is: The star cluster Westerlund 2 Where it is: 20,000 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Carina When it was shared: Dec. 19, ... [Read More]

Jan 18th, 2026 - On Jan. 18, 2004, the European Space Agency's Mars Express successfully mapped Mars' south pole, and, in a first, revealed the presence of both water ice and carbon dioxide ice. Launched June 2, 2003, the Mars Express orbiter arrived at the Red Planet on Dec. 25 of the same year to begin its mission of studying the planet's atmosphere, surface, and subsurface. The probe is equipped with the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), OMEGA (a visible and infrared ... [Read More]

Jan 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. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Scientists continue to push the boundaries of astronomy and cosmology, thanks to next-generation instruments that can see farther and clearer than ever ... [Read More]

Jan 18th, 2026 - The secret to Earths freezing history might actually lie in the gravitational pull of Mars. Mars is about half Earth's size and roughly a tenth its mass — not really the sort of planet you'd expect to leave fingerprints on Earth's climate history. Yet a new set of simulations by an international group of researchers suggests the Red Planet helps shape some of the slow, repeating orbital patterns like Earth's ice ages and other long-term climate swings. The work, published in the ... [Read More]

Jan 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. A decade of observations of four planets around the young planetary system V1298 Tau revealed a rare, long-sought missing link in planet formation. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter ... [Read More]

Jan 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Recent observations of our corner of the universe suggest we have been living inside a hot, less dense region, and that there may even be a strange "cosmic interstellar channel," or tunnel, connecting us to distant stars. After years of careful mapping, a new analysis reveals what appears to be a channel of hot, low-density plasma stretching out from our solar system toward distant constellations. Astronomers from the Max Planck Institute recently confirmed it using data ... [Read More]

Jan 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A strange, distant galaxy shows signs that suggest astronomers have witnessed the birth of a new supermassive black hole. If confirmed, it would reveal a long-theorized way that the universe can create supermassive black holes far faster than once thought. The evidence comes from combined observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) and ground-based follow-up at the W. M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaiʻi, which together capture the unusual ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2026 - A sleeping black hole erupts, fighting a million-year war against its own galaxy cluster. Deep in the cosmos, about a billion light-years away, a monster with a gargantuan appetite has woken up. For roughly 100 million years, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy J1007+3540 was silent. It sat quietly in the dark, surrounded by the cooling remnants of its past tantrums. But recently (in cosmic terms), it turned back on. Astronomers have captured a vivid portrait of this ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A distant early-universe galaxy is turning out more than 180 solar masses of new stars each year, based on a temperature reading from a Chilean telescope analysis. Known as galaxy Y1, this ultraluminous infrared "star factory" is wrapped in superheated dust  The heat suggests some young galaxies grew fast, while warm dust made them look brighter than their stars alone would allow. Taking galaxy Y1s temperature Dust temperature provides a direct measure of how much ... [Read More]