Astronomy

Ribbon worms can grow to enormous lengths, and one named Baseodiscus the Eldest is showing how little we know about them—including how long they live

Inside the cores of ice giant planets, the pressure and temperature are so extreme that the water residing there transitions into a phase completely unfamiliar under the normal conditions of Earth. Known as “superionic water”, this form of water is a type of ice. However, unlike regular ice it’s actually hot, and also black. For decades, scientists thought that the superionic water in the core of Neptune and Uranus is responsible for the wild, unaligned magnetic fields that the Voyager 2 spacecraft saw when passing them. A series of experiments described in a paper published in Nature Communications by Leon Andriambariarijaona and his co-authors at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and the Sorbonne provides experimental evidence of why exactly the ice causes these weird magnetic fields - because it is far messier than anyone expected.

Spiders scare off predators by seemingly supersizing themselves

Why the EPA’s air pollution rule change could make the air dirtier, how cancer survival hit a record-high, and what we know about the first-ever medical evacuation from the International Space Station

Image: Proba-3: our eyes on the Sun’s inner corona

Eruptions from volcanic arcs, found where tectonic plates converge, are one of the major drivers of natural carbon emissions, but a model of Earth’s ancient carbon cycle suggests this is a relatively recent phenomenon

Eruptions from volcanic arcs, found where tectonic plates converge, are one of the major drivers of natural carbon emissions, but a model of Earth’s ancient carbon cycle suggests this is a relatively recent phenomenon

Dreaming of a career in space? The 2026 ESA Graduate Trainee opportunities are launching soon! It’s time to polish up your CV, craft your motivation letter and get ready to reach for the stars.

What's happening to this meteor?

A new census of more than 8,000 galaxies finds active black holes rising in frequency with galaxy mass, jumping sharply in galaxies similar in mass to the Milky Way.

This floating ring is the size of a galaxy.

NASA rolled out the fully stacked Artemis II rocket and Orion capsule on Saturday, embarking on a four-mile journey to the launch pad

Scientists are just beginning to understand the signals that determine the length of dogs’ ears

Why today’s AI systems struggle with consistency and how emerging world models aim to give machines a steady grasp of space and time

A United Nations agreement to protect the open oceans from unsustainable fishing practices has now taken effect, in a huge win for marine conservation

A United Nations agreement to protect the open oceans from unsustainable fishing practices has now taken effect, in a huge win for marine conservation

Our nearest neighbor, the Moon, is still something of a mystery to us. For decades, scientists have wondered why it appears so lopsided, with dark volcanic plains on the near side (the side we see) and rugged, cratered mountains and a thicker crust on the far side. Now we might be closer to knowing why.

Physicists at the University of Oxford have contributed to a new study which has found that iron-rich asteroids can tolerate far more energy than previously thought without breaking apart - a breakthrough with direct implications for planetary defence strategies.

This collection of new images taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope showcases protoplanetary disks, the swirling masses of gas and dust that surround forming stars, in both visible and infrared wavelengths. Through observations of young stellar objects like these, Hubble helps scientists better understand how stars form. These visible-light images depict dark, planet-forming dust disks […]