Science

Another U.S. military mini shuttle blasted off Thursday night to conduct classified experiments in space. Launched by SpaceX, the space plane with no one aboard took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It’s the eighth such flight for the test vehicles known as X-37B. This one will test laser communications and safe navigation without GPS, according to the U.S. Space Force. …

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket streaks away from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to begin the USSF-36 mission with the X-37B spaceplane onboard. More than eight minutes after liftoff, the first stage booster, tail number 1092, landed with a sonic boom at Landing Zone 2. Image: John Pisani/Spaceflight Now Update Aug. 22, 9:47 a.m. EDT: Added quotes …

The last seasonal black moon occurred on May 19. 2023. “It’s mostly just folklore,” Chris Elledge, treasurer of the amateur telescope makers of Boston, or ATMOB, said in a phone interview Thursday. “We don’t pay attention to that.” This black moon will rise in the sky on Saturday beginning about 2 a.m., but because it’s a new moon — the …

There has been much hype and discussion surrounding 3I/ATLAS since it was first spotted in our Solar System back in 1 July 2025. Unlike the vast majority of comets we observe from Earth, which originate from the outer edges of our Solar System, 3I/ATLAS is an ‘interstellar visitor’. That means it was born out in deep space, it’s temporarily passing …

Astronomers have directly observed the transformation of a dying star over a span of 130 years, marking one of the most extraordinary long-term studies in stellar astrophysics. The results, published in The Astrophysical Journal in August 2025, focus on the planetary nebula IC 418, also known as the spirograph nebula. Researchers documented a dramatic rise in the temperature of the central …

Scientists have discovered possible hints of an undiscovered world in the solar system—nicknamed “Planet Y”—orbiting about 100 to 200 times farther from the Sun than Earth, according to a new study.   The newly proposed planet, assuming it exists, is predicted to be somewhere between Mercury and Earth in scale, which would likely make it detectable within the next few years. …

As carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s upper atmosphere continue to increase, there are growing concerns about how this shift will affect the behavior of geomagnetic storms and their impact on Earth’s technological infrastructure. A new study led by scientists at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) explores these changes in atmospheric dynamics and their …

Your genome carries quiet traces of meetings your ancestors once had with other kinds of humans. Some of those traces come from the Denisovans, a population that science met first in DNA, then slowly in bone. A new wave of research is turning these strangers into neighbors by stitching together where they lived, when they thrived, and what they left …

Scientists Found 13 Ancient Teeth That May Rewrite Human Evolution  AOL.com Fossils show two types of ancient human ancestors lived at the same place and time. One was possibly an unknown species  CNN New discoveries of Australopithecus and Homo from Ledi-Geraru, Ethiopia  Nature Researchers Discover Fossilized Teeth That May Have Come From an Unknown Hominin Species  Smithsonian Magazine Fossil teeth may come from a …

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Researchers believe that an odd pair of merging black holes first detected in 2019 were “dancing” around a third supersized singularity that was lurking in the background. . | Credit: CNAS/SHAO Chinese astronomers may have discovered a never-before-seen triple black hole system. The …