Science

A collection of 856 posts

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Caltech names astrophysicist Ray Jayawardhana as its next president

The California Institute of Technology has named Ray Jayawardhana, an astrophysicist and the provost of Johns Hopkins University, as its next president. Dr. Jayawardhana, 54, is scheduled to start in July and will succeed Thomas F. Rosenbaum, who led the school for 12 years. Caltech leaders cited Dr. Jayawardhana’s

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Richard Ferrare, NASA lidar specialist in aerosol and water-vapor research

Dr. Richard Ferrare has more than thirty years of experience in lidar remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols and water vapor at NASA. He began work at NASA Goddard in 1985, investigating aerosol optical and physical properties using satellite data and ground-based lidar measurements. He led retrievals of aerosol backscattering and

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NASA to Demolish Three Historic Test Facilities at Marshall Center

NASA is preparing to demolish three iconic structures at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Crews began demolition in mid-December on the Neutral Buoyancy Simulator, a late-1960s facility that enabled near-weightless training and underwater testing for missions including Skylab and Hubble repairs. The other two structures—the Propulsion

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Cetacean morbillivirus found in humpback whales off northern Norway

Scientists in northern Norway have detected cetacean morbillivirus in humpback whales, the first identification of the virus in Arctic waters, according to a study published in mid-December in the journal BMC Veterinary Research led by Helena Costa of Nord University. Researchers used drones to collect more than 50 samples of

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NASA releases a roughly 3-minute animation on solar system formation

NASA Science offers an animated, roughly 3-minute video that explains how the solar system formed. The animation explores the processes that produced the Sun, eight planets, hundreds of moons, and many thousands of asteroids and comets. It also features a downloadable poster available in three sizes: 8.5 x 11

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Geminids meteor shower peaks Dec. 13–14 with moon about one‑third full

The Geminids meteor shower, one of the strongest annual showers, reaches its peak Saturday night into Sunday morning — Dec. 13 to 14 — after being active since Dec. 4 and will remain active until Dec. 17. It is best viewed from the Northern Hemisphere, though observers south of the Equator can

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2025 studies expand picture of Neanderthal life, art, diet and interbreeding

More than a dozen high-profile scientific studies in 2025 renewed attention on Neanderthals, the Eurasian hominids that vanished about 40,000 years ago, exploring their diet, symbolic behavior and interactions with early Homo sapiens. Researchers say the work builds on a shift since 2010, when the Max Planck Institute published

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Ursids meteor shower peaks Dec. 21–22 and will be visible in Northern Hemisphere

The Ursids meteor shower is active and will reach its peak Sunday night into Monday morning, Dec. 21 to 22, with the shower expected to continue through Dec. 26. Only observers in the Northern Hemisphere will have a chance of seeing the display. Meteors from the Ursids appear near the

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Study links genes and environment in side‑blotched lizards' mating cycle

A new study published in Science explains how genetic and environmental factors produce the rock‑paper‑scissors style mating cycle of the side‑blotched lizard, a species long observed in California hills to cycle among three male throat‑color strategies. Early work by Barry Sinervo and Curtis Lively described three

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NASA and CNES release first global river discharge and sediment estimates from SWOT

Science teams at NASA and the French space agency CNES have released the first-ever global estimate of river discharge and suspended sediment observed from space, developed using data from the SWOT (Surface Water and Ocean Topography) satellite. The resource provides estimates of river discharge—the volume of water flowing per

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Hubble and ground telescopes detect gas wake from Betelgeuse companion

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories have detected a trail of dense gas in Betelgeuse’s extended atmosphere created by a recently discovered companion star, Siwarha, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian report. The team tracked changes in the star’s light over

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Expedition 74 Prepares First 2026 Spacewalk to Ready Station for New Solar Arrays

The Expedition 74 crew is preparing for the first spacewalk of 2026 this week as two astronauts work to ready the International Space Station for new roll-out solar arrays. NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman are scheduled to exit the station’s Quest airlock at 8 a.m. EST

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Texas facility hosts more than 550 remotely operated amateur telescopes

Starfront Observatories, in Rockwood, Texas, has become a hub for remote amateur astronomy, allowing owners to rent space in sheds to mount their telescopes and control them over a high-speed data connection. In about a year and a half the site has grown from zero to more than 550 telescopes,

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Huíla plateau rises above Angola's southwestern coastal plains

NASA Earth Observatory imagery shows the Huíla plateau rising to around 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) above the coastal plains of southwestern Angola, where a sharp cliff line marks a sudden shift from arid lowlands to more-temperate highlands. The featured mosaic was assembled from scenes acquired on June 19

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NASA launches ESCAPADE twin orbiters to study how Mars lost its atmosphere

NASA’s ESCAPADE mission launched to space on Thursday aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, sending two small twin orbiters bound for Mars. The pair, named Blue and Gold, are each about the size of a mini fridge and are designed to study how Mars went from having a

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Study maps 'ghost' roads to flag tropical forests at risk

A study published Dec. 22, 2025 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences analyzed roads across tropical forests in Brazil, the Congo and Southeast Asia and identified areas most at risk from illegal, unmapped "ghost" roads. Researchers examined 137 million hectares (about 338 million acres)

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January 2026 sky: Jupiter opposition, Moon–Saturn conjunction, Beehive Cluster

In January 2026, skywatchers can look for three highlights: Jupiter at opposition on Jan. 10, a Moon and Saturn conjunction on Jan. 23, and the Beehive Cluster visible throughout the month. On Jan. 10 Jupiter will be at opposition, meaning Earth is directly between Jupiter and the Sun. In that

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NASA releases spacecraft images of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS near Mars

NASA on Wednesday released images captured by a fleet of government spacecraft of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS as it passed by Mars in early October, agency officials said. The pictures remained out of sight during a 43-day U.S. government shutdown and had not been acknowledged by NASA while

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PhysCOS at AAS 247: NASA booth image and Tuesday sessions in Phoenix

If you’re attending the American Astronomical Society’s 247th Winter Meeting in Phoenix, stop by the PhysCOS table in the NASA booth in the Exhibition Hall from 5 to 6:30 pm this evening (Monday 5 January) to view a just‑released image that the page says "brings

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Perseverance rover records centimeter-scale electrical discharges on Mars

NASA’s Perseverance rover recorded audio evidence of small electrical discharges in Mars’s atmosphere, scientists reported in a paper published in the journal Nature. The researchers said the sparks were not Earth-like cloud-to-ground bolts but centimeter-scale short circuits, described by Baptiste Chide of the Research Institute in Astrophysics and

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NASA selects industry teams to advance Habitable Worlds Observatory technologies

NASA announced Monday it has selected industry proposals to advance technologies for the agency’s Habitable Worlds Observatory concept, a flagship space telescope that would aim to directly image Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars and study their atmospheres for signs of life. The selected proposals are three-year, fixed-price contracts awarded

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IXPE measures accretion column on white dwarf EX Hydrae

NASA’s Imaging X-ray Polarization Explorer (IXPE) has been used for the first time to study a white dwarf star, focusing on the intermediate polar EX Hydrae in the constellation Hydra about 200 light-years from Earth. IXPE spent nearly one week in 2024 observing the system. The nearly week-long observation

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UC Davis geneticist says NIH denied grant renewal over South Africa collaboration

Brenna Henn, a geneticist at the University of California, Davis, said the National Institutes of Health declined to renew a five-year grant because it involved a collaboration with South Africa. Her program officer told her, according to Henn, that “because your grant involves a collaboration with South Africa, it will

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NASA to broadcast two January ISS spacewalks, including solar-array prep

NASA will conduct two spacewalks outside the International Space Station on Thursday, Jan. 8, and Thursday, Jan. 15, and will provide live coverage. The agency said these will be the first two ISS spacewalks of 2026 and the first by Expedition 74. U.S. spacewalk 94 is scheduled to begin

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Damage at Baikonur launchpad halts Russia’s ability to launch crews

Russia’s launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is out of commission after a mishap during the liftoff of a Soyuz rocket last week. The rocket itself reached orbit and carried three astronauts — Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev of Russia and Chris Williams of NASA — to the International Space