Space & Missions
Nearly a millennium ago sky-watchers recorded a new star so bright it was visible…
In July 1054, court astronomers in China recorded a new "guest star" near Tianguan, the star we now call Zeta Tauri.
Universe
In March 2026, a strange 'chirp' from a distant dying star proved to be something…
For the first time, astronomers have found compelling evidence of a magnetar being born inside a supernova.
Space & Missions
James Webb has caught at least five galaxies colliding about 800 million years…
A galaxy merger found by the James Webb Space Telescope has made the early universe look less orderly than the standard picture suggests.
Science & Engineering
Saturn’s moon Enceladus is spraying a hidden ocean into space
Saturn's sixth-largest moon leaks. Through a set of fractures near its south pole, nicknamed the tiger stripes, Enceladus vents a steady plume of water vapour and ice grains into space, feeding one of Saturn's faint outer rings.
Space & Missions
On July 10, 2026, China caught the falling first stage of a Long March 10B in a net…
Early Friday, over the South China Sea, the first stage of a Long March 10B rocket fell back through the sky, deployed four hooks, and let itself be caught by a net strung across the deck of a waiting ship.
Universe
The Sun ejects roughly a billion tons of charged plasma in a single coronal mass…
A coronal mass ejection carries roughly a billion tons of magnetised plasma from the Sun to Earth in as little as 14 to 18 hours — and the same physics that lights the aurora can collapse a continental power grid in under two minutes.
Space & Missions
In May 1986, Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov left the newly opened Mir, crossed…
{"content":"On 5 May 1986, two Soviet cosmonauts closed the hatch on a brand-new space station, fired their Soyuz thrusters, and drifted away from Mir on a trajectory no crew had ever attempted. Th
Space & Missions
In July 2026, German rocket startup Isar Aerospace signed a Nova Scotia launch-site…
In July 2026, Isar Aerospace signed an agreement for a launch complex in Nova Scotia whose disclosed fixed-payment schedule totals US$112.5 million over 10…
Universe
In July 2026, Europe's Euclid telescope found 31 of the oldest quasars ever seen…
Europe's Euclid telescope has found 31 of the oldest known quasars in one go, and the haul roughly doubles the number known from that early stretch of the universe.
Space & Missions
In 2026, the FCC authorized radio operations for Reflect Orbital’s first 18-metre…
The Federal Communications Commission has authorized radio operations for Eärendil-1, a demonstration satellite built around a reflector measuring roughly 18 metres by 18 metres.
Space & Missions
We tend to assume life needs a star to begin, but a 2025 study found that some…
The usual picture of life begins with a star. A planet forms around it, settles into an orbit where temperatures are not too hot or too cold, and receives the steady energy that makes chemistry possible.
Space & Missions
SpaceX has asked to place 100,000 Gen3 satellites into 20 orbital shells split…
SpaceX has applied to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for permission to operate a 100,000-satellite “Gen3” system in low Earth orbit, with…
Space & Missions
An exoplanet 124 light-years away may harbour a global ocean beneath a…
Webb has twice hinted at dimethyl sulfide, a life-linked gas, at the possible ocean world K2-18b. Independent teams re-examining the data doubt the molecule is there at all.
Universe
In June 2026, the James Webb telescope read the dawn and dusk skies of WASP-121b…
The James Webb Space Telescope has tracked how the atmosphere of a distant gas giant changes from longitude to longitude during transit, revealing pronounced differences between its morning and evening regions.
Universe
We assumed water had to be delivered to planets by comets or asteroids
Water was thought to arrive on planets aboard comets and asteroids. A 2025 Nature study shows sub-Neptunes, the galaxy's most common planets, can make their own by reacting hydrogen atmospheres with molten rock.
Space & Missions
Titan has rivers, rainfall, lakes and a slow hydrological cycle exactly like…
Saturn's moon Titan is the only other world with rivers, rain and seas, built from liquid methane running over water-ice bedrock at minus 179 degrees Celsius.