Astronomy

Electric vehicle batteries are typically retired once they reach about 80 per cent of their original capacity, but they could be repurposed in electricity grids to balance out slumps in renewable generation

On 10 February 2026, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a contract with OHB Italia for the development of the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses). Launching in 2028, Ramses will rendezvous with the asteroid Apophis before its rare close encounter with Earth. The mission will provide unique insight into the physical properties and behaviour of asteroids, and strengthen international collaboration and European capabilities in planetary defence.

Image: The Egg Nebula

Satellite data have captured the intensity of rainfall over the Iberian Peninsula during three severe winter storms, and the extent of flooding that followed around the Tejo River and basin in Portugal.

Setting a limit for global warming didn't succeed in galvanising climate action quickly enough – now we should focus on making the annual average temperature rise clear for all to see, says Bill McGuire

Setting a limit for global warming didn't succeed in galvanising climate action quickly enough – now we should focus on making the annual average temperature rise clear for all to see, says Bill McGuire

The Moon has a long history of being smacked by large rocks. Its pock-marked, cratered surface is evidence of that. Scientists expect that, as part of those impacts, some debris would be scattered into space - and that we should be able to track it down. But so far, there have been startlingly few discoveries of these Lunar-origin Asteroids (LOAs) despite their theoretical abundance. A new paper from Yixuan Wu and their colleagues at Tsinghua University explains why - and how the Vera Rubin Observatory might help with finding them.

Physicists cannot access anything that existed before the start of time and space, but they have theories

The rocks used in the Olympic sport of curling come from one island in Scotland and one quarry in Wales. What makes them so special?

Mars’ water disappeared somewhere, but scientists have been disagreeing for years about where exactly it went. Data from rovers like Perseverance and Curiosity, along with orbiting satellites such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ExoMars have shown that Mars used to be a wet world with an active hydrodynamic cycle. Obviously it isn’t anymore, but where did all the water go? A new paper that collects data from at least six different instruments on three different spacecraft provides some additional insight into that question - by showing that dust storms push water into the Red Planet’s atmosphere, where it is actively destroyed, all year round.

A Roman stone board game has been unplayable since its discovery more than a century ago, but AI might have just worked out the rules

Update — 10 February 2026: NASA and SpaceX have announced they are now planning to launch the Crew-12 mission to the International Space Station no earlier than 10:15 GMT / 11:15 CET (05:15 ET) on Friday 13 February, due to forecast weather conditions along the flight path of the Dragon spacecraft. All the dates and times have been updated in the article.

Why are planets rarely found orbiting a pair of stars? UC Berkeley and American University of Beirut physicists find that general relativity makes the orbit of a tight binary pair precess. As the orbit shrinks because of tidal effects, the precesion increases. Eventually the precession matches the orbital precession of any circumbinary planet, creating a resonance that makes the planet’s orbit wildly eccentric. The planet either gets expelled from the system or is engulfed by one of the stars.

The lines worn into an engraved limestone object from the Netherlands are consistent with the idea that it was a Roman game board, according to an AI analysis

The lines worn into an engraved limestone object from the Netherlands are consistent with the idea that it was a Roman game board, according to an AI analysis

A new study suggests that people with obesity have higher rates of mortality and hospitalization from a variety of infections from viruses, fungi, parasites and bacteria

To test it, I want you to imagine rolling up a piece of paper into a tight cylinder. Or, if you happen to be near a source of paper, doing it in real life. The analogy works either way.

While it’s been a frigid winter in the eastern U.S., the western region of the country has seen record warmth

There's been widespread agreement that a supermassive black hole resides in the Milky Way's Center. But that may not be true. Researchers say that a dense clump of fermionic dark matter can also explain the motions of stars and gas clouds in the region. Crucially, it can also explain the famous Event Horizon Telescope image of the SMBH.