Category: Science

Astronomers have identified dozens of runaway stars moving fast enough to escape the Milky Way. By tracking these hypervelocity stars, researchers can map the galaxy’s gravitational pull and better understand how dark matter is distributed across its vast halo, offering new insight into the unseen structure shaping our cosmic home.

Scientists using a quantum-powered haloscope have advanced the search for dark matter axions by probing higher mass ranges than before. The QUAX collaboration’s experiment, based in Italy, uses a microwave cavity and a strong magnetic field to detect faint axion signals. While no axions were found, the results help refine future dark matter searches.

The most sensitive radio search ever conducted on interstellar object 3I/ATLAS has found no signs of alien technology. Using the Green Bank Telescope, scientists scanned key radio bands during its closest approach to Earth. All detected signals were linked to interference, strengthening the view that 3I/ATLAS is a natural object.

Discovered on New Year’s Eve 2020, the Champagne Cluster is a striking pair of colliding galaxy clusters revealed through combined X-ray and optical observations. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows superheated gas stretched and distorted, exposing a massive cosmic collision hidden from visible light alone. Studied by UC Davis astronomers, the system offers a r…

NASA’s Curiosity rover has released a festive holiday postcard from Mars, blending a Martian sunrise and sunset into a single panoramic image. Captured on November 18, 2025, the view combines a blue-tinted morning sky with a golden afternoon hue, showcasing Gale Crater in striking detail. Created by stitching images taken hours apart, the artistic panorama […]

The TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, located about 39 light-years from Earth, hosts seven rocky worlds orbiting a cool red dwarf star. While several of these Earth-sized planets lie in the star’s habitable zone, new observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest their atmospheres may be too thin to support life. Earlier hints of methane around […]

China made spaceflight history by launching three Long March rockets within just 19 hours, setting a national record. The missions expanded broadband satellite networks and deployed new military and communications spacecraft, highlighting the country’s rapidly growing launch capabilities and ambitious space expansion efforts.

Astronomers have witnessed an extraordinary black hole outburst in the galaxy NGC 3783, where material was blasted into space at nearly 20% the speed of light. Triggered by an intense X-ray flare, the ultra-fast winds reveal how supermassive black holes can violently shape their surroundings and influence the evolution of entire galaxies.

Researchers in South Korea have developed a carbon-titanium composite that significantly enhances the performance of lithium-sulfur batteries. By embedding titanium monoxide nanoparticles into nitrogen-doped porous carbon, the team created a honeycomb electrode that improves conductivity, stabilizes sulfur, and prevents energy-sapping chemical losses. The new design d…

A powerful gamma-ray burst detected in July 2025 has stunned astronomers by lasting nearly seven hours, making it the longest GRB ever recorded. Named GRB 250702B, the event produced repeated pulses and unusual afterglows, raising theories about rare “middleweight” black holes tearing apart stars in deep space.

A massive sunspot complex has appeared on the Sun, covering an area comparable to the legendary Carrington Event region. Known as AR 4294-96, the active cluster features highly tangled magnetic fields that could unleash powerful solar flares and geomagnetic storms, potentially disrupting satellites, power grids, and global communications if Earth-directed eruptions oc…

Engineers at UC Santa Barbara have developed a revolutionary display that allows users to physically feel digital images in real time. The system uses optotactile pixels that expand when struck by light, forming raised bumps that match visual content. This wire-free design relies on heat-activated air pockets, opening new possibilities for interactive screens in smart…

SpaceX has launched 29 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit from California, expanding its broadband constellation to more than 9,100 active spacecraft. The reusable Falcon 9 booster completed its 12th mission with a successful ocean landing, highlighting SpaceX’s push toward rapid, low-cost, global internet coverage.

NASA has successfully completed the full assembly of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, marking a major milestone for the next-generation infrared observatory. With its powerful wide-field camera and advanced coronagraph, Roman is expected to transform our understanding of dark energy, galaxy formation, and exoplanets once it launches later this decade.

A University at Buffalo team has redesigned the truncated Wigner approximation into an easy, plug-and-play template that lets scientists run complex quantum simulations on everyday laptops. The method works for open systems, slashes computing demands, and helps free supercomputers for the hardest quantum problems.

A new global map of glacier speeds, built from nearly a decade of satellite observations, shows that glaciers consistently move faster in summer and slower in winter. Meltwater acts as a natural lubricant, accelerating flow during warm months. Scientists warn that glaciers with strong seasonal shifts are likely to speed up long-term, adding to future […]

Engineers have transformed discarded crustacean shells into functional biohybrid robots by softening the shell segments, adding elastomers, and attaching motors. These recycled structures can lift weight, grasp delicate items, and even propel small swimmers. The project demonstrates how food waste can become a sustainable robotics resource, though challenges remain wi…

A powerful X5.1 solar flare on November 11, 2025, sent high-speed protons toward Earth, producing the strongest radiation spike detected in nearly two decades. The event caused a rare ground-level enhancement, briefly raising radiation at flight altitude to ten times normal. While not dangerous this time, scientists warn larger flares could threaten avionics and commu…

SpaceX successfully launched 28 Starlink satellites on December 4, 2025, from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Falcon 9 lifted off at 12:42 pm PST and completed a smooth drone-ship landing just 8.5 minutes later, marking the booster’s fourth flight. This mission represents SpaceX’s 156th Falcon 9 launch of the year, continuing the rapid […]

Astronomers studying the dwarf-star system TOI-3884b have uncovered a striking anomaly: the planet’s orbit is sharply misaligned with its star’s rotation. Using multicolour transit observations, researchers detected repeated starspot-crossing events that revealed the planet passes over cooler regions on the stellar surface. Follow-up monitoring showed the star rot…

Researchers are using classical Indian dance, especially Bharatanatyam mudras, to improve robotic hand dexterity. By analysing 30 structured mudras, scientists found they offer more versatile motion patterns than everyday grasps. These dance-derived synergies could enhance prosthetics, assistive robots, gesture-based rehabilitation and future humanoid systems needing …

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope’s final polarisation maps reinforce the long-standing Hubble tension, confirming a slower early-universe expansion rate similar to Planck’s findings. By ruling out several proposed fixes, the new data intensifies the mystery and suggests current cosmological models may be missing key physics.

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have observed a massive helium cloud escaping from the super-puff exoplanet WASP-107b, marking the first direct detection of such atmospheric loss. Webb’s infrared data reveal an enormous exosphere nearly ten times the planet’s radius, with helium streaming both ahead of and behind the planet in its orbit. The […]

A new study suggests that icy moons such as Mimas and Enceladus may host boiling subsurface oceans triggered by thinning ice shells and falling pressure. This low-temperature boiling could still support life beneath the surface. The research also explains geological features on larger icy moons and strengthens their potential as sites for finding extraterrestrial life…

China’s private launch company, LandSpace, successfully sent its Zhuque-3 rocket to low Earth orbit on its maiden flight, delivering its payload with an expendable upper stage. But the mission took a dramatic turn during recovery when one of the booster’s engines stalled in the landing burn, causing the stage to erupt in flames just meters […]

Blue Origin’s NS-37 mission is set to make history as Michi Benthaus, an ESA engineer and wheelchair user, becomes the first person with a mobility disability to travel to space. She will join Hans Koenigsmann and four other civilians on the suborbital flight. The mission underscores a growing push toward inclusive space tourism, as agencies […]

New research shows that shifting Antarctic circulation after the last Ice Age released ancient deep-ocean carbon into the atmosphere. Using Southern Ocean sediment cores, scientists traced how expanding Antarctic Bottom Water mixed long-isolated, carbon-rich waters upward. The findings reveal a major but underappreciated driver of early Holocene warming.

A new study by NIST physicists shows that clocks on Mars run about 477 microseconds faster per day than identical clocks on Earth. The difference comes from Mars’s weaker gravity, orbital eccentricity, and gravitational influences across the solar system. Though tiny, this daily time lead will pose challenges for future Mars navigation and communication networks, […]

The 2025 Geminid meteor shower peaks on December 13–14, offering bright, frequent meteors under dark skies thanks to a thin crescent Moon. Originating from asteroid 3200 Phaethon, the Geminids can produce over 100 meteors per hour. Best viewing is after midnight from clear, dark locations.

A new analysis of Apollo samples and Earth rocks suggests that a nearby rocky planet, not a distant object, collided with early Earth and formed the moon. The study argues that this lost planet, Theia, originated in the inner solar system and shared Earth’s early neighbourhood, offering fresh insight into one of the most important […]