Starless and Alive: How Rogue Planet Moons Could Harbor Life for Billions of Years
A team at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich calculated in 2026 that life may not need a star to survive. Moons orbiting rogue planets, which drift through space untethered to any sun, could maintain liquid oceans for up to 4.3 billion years, roughly the same span that life has existed on Earth, through internal heat alone.
One Shattered Asteroid May Have Reshaped Life on Earth 800 Million Years Ago
Scientists believe a massive asteroid that broke apart near Jupiter around 800 million years ago may have showered Earth, the Moon, and Mars with rocky fragments. The event likely sent an enormous number of debris pieces hurtling through the inner solar system. Researchers say studying this ancient impact event helps explain crater patterns observed on the Moon and other nearby planets.
A Dying Atlantic Current Could Unleash Catastrophic Storms on California
Scientists are warning that a major ocean current system is nearing collapse, with potential consequences that could extend as far as California. Earth’s climate systems are deeply interconnected, meaning a disruption in ocean circulation could trigger widespread and unexpected effects on weather patterns, sea levels, and temperatures across regions far beyond the immediate area.
How NASA Caught a Comet in a Jar and Rewrote the History of Our Solar System
NASA’s Stardust spacecraft made history on January 2, 2004, when it flew through the cloud surrounding comet 81P/Wild 2 at 6.1 kilometres per second. Using a collector filled with silica aerogel, the probe captured cometary particles and transported them across 4.6 billion kilometres back to Earth, where they were dropped into the Utah desert, marking the first time solid comet material had ever been returned for scientific study.
NASA Pinpoints the Exact Second Voyager 1 Will Be One Light-Day From Earth
NASA has pinpointed the exact moment Voyager 1 will reach one light-day from Earth: 2:16 a.m. on November 18, 2026. At that point, the probe will be roughly 16 billion miles away. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 continues to set records as the most distant human-made object ever sent into space.
The Milky Way’s Most Mysterious Structure Was Never What We Thought
Scientists have finally solved a 40-year-old mystery surrounding a massive structure that towers over the Milky Way galaxy. The discovery brings long-awaited answers to a puzzle that has puzzled researchers for decades. While the structure’s unusual appearance has been compared to an enormous feature rising above our galaxy, the findings shed new light on the complex forces shaping the Milky Way.
One Writer Fired Tiny Pottery in Her Microwave and Learned Some Hard Lessons
When Ceramics Gets Even Smaller — and More Chaotic Ceramics, it turns out, is an emotionally devastating hobby. Pieces get ruined at every stage — on the wheel while throwing, on the wheel while trimming, with a paintbrush while glazing. For writer Nicole Carpenter, the…
Space Is Bad for Making Babies, New Chinese Research Confirms
A Major Hurdle for Humanity’s Space Ambitions If humanity ever hopes to build permanent colonies on the Moon or Mars, we’ll need to figure out how to reproduce beyond Earth. A landmark new study from Chinese scientists has delivered a sobering reality check: space is…
Curiosity Rover Finds Giant Honeycomb Formations on Mars That Defy Easy Explanation
An Unexpected Pattern in Gale Crater Nearly 14 years into its mission on the Red Planet, NASA’s Curiosity rover has stumbled onto something that stopped scientists in their tracks. The rover encountered a baffling pattern of polygonal shapes in Gale Crater, described by researchers as…
Space Rock That Crashed Into a New Jersey Bedroom Holds Clues to the Origins of Life
A Cosmic Intruder Lands in a Bedroom On July 16, 2024, observers across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania reported seeing a fireball streaking across the daytime sky. As the object whizzed by just south of the Statue of Liberty, it caused…
