The rolled-up piece of lead contains inscriptions that are barely visible to the naked eye. (Image credit: Archeology in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (AIM-V)) The discovery came from a place no one expected to yield anything remarkable. During routine excavation work for an extension to Rostock’s town hall, archaeologists lifted an unassuming, tightly rolled strip of lead…
Breakthroughs in scientific research are not always made in experienced laboratories and research teams. Occasionally, they are made by new eyes that are eager to challenge how data is analysed. This is exactly what happened when Matteo Paz, a teenager from the United States, used AI to re-analyse data from NASA’s now-retired research project. Given…
Meteor showers promise a diverse and exciting year for sky gazing in 2026, ranging from brief and bright outbursts at rapid rates to prolonged and faint displays spread throughout the year. These phenomena are produced when Earth intersects with trails of debris trailed by comets and asteroids, which then result in the fragmentation and ignited…
There is a moment each year when the Arctic stops reflecting light and starts holding it. It does not announce itself. Satellites notice first. Then, researchers begin to compare notes. By late summer, the ice that once covered much of the Arctic Ocean has thinned and retreated again, but this time the loss feels sharper….
Some questions arrive quietly. When is the next full Moon 2026 is one of them. It usually turns up while scanning a calendar or noticing the moon hanging a little brighter than usual. The full moon does not announce itself loudly. It simply shows up, round and pale, pulling attention for a few nights before…
Winter often feels like a long stretch of weak light and cold air. The idea that Earth is actually closest to the Sun during this time can sound wrong, almost misleading. January mornings do not feel warmer because of a smaller gap in space. Yet every year, quietly and without drama, Earth reaches that closer…
Credit – NASA39037_Mars-viking-orbiter-olympus-mons-volcano On some Mars images, Olympus Mons does not look dramatic at first glance. It sits there quietly, a wide pale rise against rust coloured plains. No sharp peak. No obvious violence. Only when scale is added does it begin to feel strange. This single volcano rises higher than anything on Earth and…
It could be the largest lunar impact event in 5,000 years.If it hits in December 2032, asteroid 2024 YR4 — believed to be 60 metres in diameter — may release the energy equivalent of six million tonnes of TNT, 400 times the power of the bomb over Hiroshima, and leave the Moon with a new…
1 Ship to breach Earth’s CRUST Next year, a 600-foot Chinese research vessel will set sail to find the perfect site from where it will start drilling down to the Mohorovicic Discontinuity (Moho), the boundary between Earth’s crust and mantle. Scientists have been trying to breach Moho since 1961 to study tectonic activity. Moho lies…
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has recently discovered a rare exoplanet, whose composition has baffled scientists as it defies all explanations. Officially named PSR J2322-2650b, the Jupiter-sized planet is outside our solar system and its atmospheric composition challenges our understanding of how it was formed. It orbits a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star,…
Wormholes are one of science fiction’s favourite cheats. Need characters to cross impossible distances? Skip years of travel? Break reality without saying “magic”? Introduce a wormhole.By Season 5 of Stranger Things, the show finally joins a long cinematic tradition. Up to Episode 8, it reframes the Upside Down not as a spooky parallel world but…
Source: Babraham University Implantation, one of the most poorly understood phases of early human development, occurs in the depths of the womb, at a time when embryos are microscopic and well out of reach. Until recently, much of what was known about this critical moment came from limited indirect evidence. Babraham University researchers have taken…
The asteroid Apophis, also known as 99942 Apophis, will have its historic close approach to Earth on Friday, the 13th of April 2029. With its diameter at approximately 375 meters, this NEA will be reaching Earth at a distance of about 32,000 kilometres, just over a tenth of the distance to the Moon. Initial estimates…
Source: Don Pettit via X (formerly Twitter) A single photograph taken from orbit has managed to make a rare visual connection between the mundane life on Earth and the vastness of the universe outside. Framed from the International Space Station, the image shows a softly glowing planetary horizon illuminated by colours of the aurora, clusters…
A new hypothesis from Columbia University astrophysicist David Kipping suggests humanity’s first sign of alien life won’t be a greeting For most people, the idea of alien contact has been shaped less by astronomy than by cinema. Films have taught us to expect intention: visitors who arrive either with open hands, as in E.T., or…
Whether it be with naked-eye viewing, through a pair of binoculars, or with a beginner’s telescope, a certain amount of planning can make way for viewing enthusiasts to fully enjoy the spectacular events that take place in the sky in 2026. Be it eclipses, aligned planets, or an eight-year supermoon, there are plenty of spectacular…
Photographs taken from directly above the Pacific Ocean have shown large areas of red light emitted against the backdrop of the surrounding environment, enough to rival the scale of a large city. These images, taken by pilots and circulated on the internet, raise questions about whether this phenomenon could be a product of the atmosphere,…
Radio waves from Earth have been moving through space for more than a century. They did not start as part of any grand plan to reach the stars. They began quietly, as a new way for humans to speak across oceans. Since then, those signals have continued outward, spreading slowly into space at the speed…
Astronomers noticed something odd while reviewing radio data from distant space. Three bright signals appeared close together. At first, it looked like a coincidence. It was not. Each signal came from the centre of a different galaxy. All three galaxies were interacting. The result stayed the same. Each galaxy contained a supermassive black hole that…
Planetary systems begin in chaos. In their primitive form, many rocky and icy objects are careening through space, smashing into each other, breaking apart, and accumulating to form planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. For many decades, planetary scientists assumed this “history of violence” ended abruptly after a relatively quick passage after planets achieved stable orbits….
