Image of 2024 YR4 obtained on 27 January 2025. (NASA/Magdalena Ridge 2.4m telescope/New Mexico Institute of Technology/Ryan)Asteroid 2024 YR4 is making headlines again, but there's still no reason to panic—at least for Earth. The asteroid remains no threat to our planet, with collision odds stuck at a minuscule 0.001 percent. However, the Moon might not...
Spectrum ending on a bangIsar AerospaceContinental Europe’s initial attempt at an orbital space launch came to an unexpected end when Isar Aerospace’s Spectrum rocket returned to Earth with a bang just 30 seconds after takeoff. The rocket crashed and exploded in the Norwegian Sea near the launch pad.Details of the Inaugural Flight from Andøya...
Artist impression of a glowing 'little red dot' surrounded by dust. (Xuanyu Han/Getty Images)The James Webb Space Telescope has provided an unprecedented glimpse into the earliest stages of galaxy formation. Alongside these discoveries, it has also unveiled a few unexpected phenomena—among them, the appearance of small, highly redshifted objects known as "little red dots" (LRDs).While...
Credit: PixabayOur Solar System moves through the Milky Way at about 200 km/s, following a complex orbit around the galaxy's center. Along its journey, it has encountered different cosmic environments, some of which may have influenced Earth's climate. New research suggests that around 14 million years ago, the Solar System passed through the Orion...
Earth shines above as the Sun slowly sinks below the Moon's horizon. (Firefly Aerospace)A private U.S. lander has captured striking high-definition images of a lunar sunset, offering NASA a new opportunity to investigate the mysterious haze first observed on the Moon in the 1960s.Texas-based Firefly Aerospace, which released the images on Tuesday, recently became the...
Since its first synthesis in a post-WWII American lab in 1949, berkelium has stood out on the periodic table, defying quantum mechanics by adopting an extra positive charge that its relatives typically avoid.Now, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory—berkelium's birthplace—have successfully bonded this elusive element with carbon, creating a rare organometallic complex. This breakthrough...
SpaceX Crew-10 members arriving at the ISS. (ISS/X)SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft successfully docked at the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday, paving the way for NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to finally return home after more than nine months in space.The Crew-10 mission, which launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on Friday evening, reached...
Mars' surface rocks have been quietly preserving secrets about the planet’s past. The unusual mineral composition of pale rocks in Jezero Crater indicates they formed under extremely warm and wet conditions, challenging previous assumptions about Mars' history."On Earth, these minerals develop in regions with heavy rainfall and warm climates or in hydrothermal environments like...
Globular clusters, such as NGC 1866, contain very old Population II stars, the generation that followed Population III. (ESA/Hubble & NASA)Long before stars illuminated the cosmos, the Universe existed in a vast sea of hydrogen and helium. Only when these gases clumped together under immense pressure did the first stars ignite, forging heavier elements in...
Artist's concept of Voyager 1NASANASA engineers have recently made adjustments to extend the lifespans of the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, which have been traveling beyond our solar system for nearly 50 years. In a bid to save power, the team has ordered these deep-space probes to shut down two of their instruments.Originally...
