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Of the more than 4,500 stars known to have planets, one puzzling statistic stands out. Even though nearly all stars are expected to have planets and most stars form in pairs, planets that orbit both stars in a pair are rare. Of the more than 6,000 extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, confirmed to date - most of them found by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) - only 14 are observed to orbit binary stars. There should be hundreds. Where are all the planets with two suns, like Tatooine in Star Wars? ... ... Over time,...

Scientists watching the nearby Fomalhaut star system have directly seen two protoplanets smash together for the first time. Then, they saw it happen again...The Fomalhaut system is no stranger to such crashes. It's famously known as the "Eye of Sauron" due to its resemblance to the fiery, all-seeing eye from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of The Rings franchise. The likeness comes from the spectacular dust belt that surrounds Fomalhaut at a distance of 133 astronomical units (AU), with one AU being equal to 93 million miles (150 million km) — the average distance between the sun and Earth.

Jupiter is slightly smaller and flatter than scientists thought for decades, a new study finds. Researchers used radio data from the Juno spacecraft to refine measurements of the solar system's largest planet. Although the differences between the current and previous measurements are small, they are improving models of Jupiter's interior and of other gas giants like it outside the solar system, the team reported Feb. 2 in the journal Nature Astronomy. "Textbooks will need to be updated," study co-author Yohai Kaspi, a planetary scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, said in a statement. "The size of Jupiter...

A monster sunspot is taking aim at Earth after firing off dozens of powerful flares Sunday and Monday (Feb. 1-2) — including the most intense solar eruption in years. Elevated geomagnetic activity — possibly resulting in vibrant northern lights at lower latitudes than usual — is possible Thursday (Feb. 5), according to an alert from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). However, it's still too soon to know for certain. The sunspot, called region 4366, appeared suddenly several days ago and has rapidly grown to roughly half the size of the infamous Carrington Event sunspot,...

BREAKING: SpaceX wants to turn Space into the World’s Biggest AI Data Center. • SpaceX is seeking approval to launch and operate up to one million satellites designed to function as orbital data centers. • These satellites would provide massive computing power to support advanced artificial intelligence and data processing. • The system would rely on near constant solar energy in space, reducing operating costs and environmental impact compared to Earth based data centers. • Satellites would operate between 500 km and 2,000 km in altitude, across multiple orbital shells, to handle global demand. • High speed laser links would...

Artemis II Wet Dress Rehearsal Delayed, SpaceX to Merge with xAI!? | 4:42 Ellie in Space | 216K subscribers | 4,773 views | January 30, 2026

A new study reveals that tiny fragments of Earth's atmosphere are transported to and absorbed by the moon via gusts of solar wind and our planet's magnetic field, upending a 20-year-old theory based on NASA's Apollo lunar samples... This surprising case of cosmic cannibalism is thanks to supercharged solar winds and, more importantly, our own planet's magnetic field...Ever since NASA's Apollo missions first returned lunar samples to Earth in the early 1970s, scientists have been puzzled by traces of volatiles -- substances that vaporize at relatively low temperatures, including water, carbon dioxide, helium, argon, and nitrogen -- that they found...

In a remarkable twist that bridges ancient ambition with cutting-edge science, physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider have achieved what medieval alchemists only dreamed of: turning lead into gold. While attempting to recreate conditions moments after the Big Bang, researchers on the ALICE experiment in Switzerland inadvertently produced minuscule quantities of the precious metal, marking an unexpected breakthrough in particle physics. The Accidental Discovery The extraordinary transformation occurred during experiments where beams of lead nuclei were fired at each other at velocities approaching the speed of light. While the primary goal was to study the primordial state of the...

Explanation: A mere 56 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is an enormous barred spiral galaxy about 200,000 light-years in diameter. That's twice the size of our own barred spiral Milky Way. This sharp image from the James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals stunning details of this magnificent spiral in infrared light. Webb's field of view stretches about 60,000 light-years across NGC 1365, exploring the galaxy's core and bright newborn star clusters. The intricate network of dusty filaments and bubbles is created by young stars along spiral arms winding from the galaxy's central bar....

A solar storm has just impacted Earth that's been one of the strongest in the last 20 years, with an immediate G4 geomagnetic storm starting whilst a S4 radiation was already blasting the Earth with high-energy solar particles. With bulk solar wind velocity greater than 1000 km/s and magnetic field values currently creater than 60 nT, this is a near-Carrington level impact and certainly a historic solar storm. Geophysicist Stefan Burns forecasting this possibility more than a year in advance based on the latest space science and more, and now he reports for you LIVE on the current historic space...

Do you think that the U.S. federal government might be a good place to seek reasonable guidance on matters involving science? If so, I question your sanity. In recent years the part of the federal enterprise masquerading as “science” has suffered one debacle after another resulting from acceptance and promotion of pseudoscience, examples being Covid lockdowns and school closures, let alone the entire catastrophic climate change fiasco. Do you remember the CDC ordering (on no authority) a nationwide eviction moratorium (until struck down by the Supreme Court)? And of course, the acceptance of pseudoscience by a federal bureaucracy is somehow...

The asteroid, 2025 MN45, completes a full rotation once every 1.88 minutes, meaning it must have a very high strength to keep itself together. An artist's impression of the asteroid 2025 MN45. NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC/AURA/P. Marenfeld ===================================================================== The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has observed a record-breaking ultra-fast-rotating asteroid. The space rock is the fastest-spinning asteroid larger than 500 meters (0.3 miles) to have ever been observed. The asteroid, designated 2025 MN45, completes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes. Announced at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory First Look event in June 2025, it was one of 1,900 new...

She is a star of American science. A Stanford chair. A NASA collaborator. A role model for a generation of young researchers. But a chilling congressional investigation has found that celebrated geologist Wendy Mao quietly helped advance China's nuclear and hypersonic weapons programs – while working inside the heart of America's taxpayer funded research system. Mao, 49, is one of the most influential figures in materials science. She serves as Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University, one of the most prestigious science posts in the country. Her pioneering work on how diamonds behave under...

Explanation: In 2011, on January 20, NASA's NanoSail-D2 unfurled a very thin and very reflective 10 square meter sail becoming the first solar sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by astronomer Johannes Kepler, who had observed comet tails blown by the solar wind. But modern solar sail spacecraft designs, like NanoSail-D2, Japan's interplanetary spacecraft IKAROS, or the Planetary Society's Lightsail A, rely on the small but continuous pressure from sunlight itself for thrust. Glinting in the sunlight as it circled planet Earth, NanoSail-D2's solar sail...

Coming off back-to-back blockbusters — “Top Gun: Maverick” and “F1: The Movie” — director Joseph Kosinski can likely make just about any movie he wants. Call it carte blanche. In fact, that’s exactly what he’s doing, as he’s set to helm two projects: a “Miami Vice” reboot at Universal Pictures, written by Dan Gilroy, and, more intriguingly, an untitled UFO film centered on government whistleblowers. Speaking to Deadline’s Pete Hammond, Kosinski discussed his hopes of securing Michael Mann’s involvement in the “Miami Vice” reboot, given that Mann was behind both the original television series and the 2006 feature film starring...

It’s not quite burning-scientists-at-the-stake bad, but it’s close — or at least feels that way. President Donald Trump’s administration is openly waging war against universities, closing independent science review panels, funding fewer grants, and shutting down or raising concerns about the closure of important centers of government research (even though in some cases, they’re probably not supposed to). The evidence is now clear that the modern American structure of science can no longer survive as an apolitical entity that enjoys consistent, bipartisan support. Science is now suffering a generational catastrophe, not just in terms of funding, but in terms of...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 February 29 Julius Caesar and Leap Days Credit: Rune Rysstad Explanation: Today, February 29th, is a leap day - a relatively rare occurrence. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar, pictured above in a self-decreed minted coin, created a calendar system that added one leap day every four years. Acting on advice by Alexandrian astronomer Sosigenes, Caesar did this to make up for the fact that the Earth's year...

Diamonds aren't just for jewelry. From their cosmic origins in dying stars to their formation deep within the Earth, these gems possess unique properties that could revolutionize our world. This documentary uncovers the science behind both natural and man-made diamonds, exploring how scientists are creating "super diamonds" that are tougher and more efficient than anything found in nature. Discover how these new diamonds could replace silicon in our electronics, power space exploration, and usher in a new technological age. How This Gem Could Be The Future Of Technology | 45:38 | 284K subscribers | 777,488 views | August 2, 2025

Asteroid 2024 YR4, has sparked concern about its chance of hitting Earth in December 2032. How worried should we be? Scientists Warn Asteroid YR4 May Impact Earth - What We Know So far | 20:22 Dr Ben Miles | 2.17M subscribers | 462,064 views | February 23, 2025 0:00 The Discovery 2024 YR4 0:56 How to Spot an Asteroid 3:07 Ad Read 4:33 Why Are We So Bad at Predicting Asteroid Impacts? 11:42 How Much Damage Could YR4 Do? 13:04 How Could We Stop Asteroid YR4? 16:34 Conclusion

The infamous Black Death -- a pandemic that killed as many as one third to one half of Europeans within just a few years -- may have been aided in its devastation by an unknown volcanic eruption.That's the hypothesis presented in research published December 4 in Communications Earth & Environment, which argues that the eruption triggered several seasons of climate instability and crop failures. That instability, in turn, forced several Italian states to import grain stores from new sources -- specifically, from regions surrounding the Black Sea. Riding along on those grain stores, the researchers posit, were fleas infected with...