Svalbard Melts

High summer temperatures caused record melting of the Norwegian archipelago’s glaciers.

Supermassive Black Hole Caught Doing Something Never Seen Before

As far as supermassive black holes go, the one at the center of the Milky Way is relatively sedate. But on 6 April 2024, the black hole let out a flare observed in mid-infrared wavelengths, followed by a radio flare counterpart.

One half of Mars different to the other. "Marsquakes" may have just revealed the answer

The southern highlands of Mars (which cover about two-thirds of the planet’s surface) rise as much as five or six kilometres higher than the northern lowlands. Nowhere else in the Solar System do we see such a large, sharp contrast at this scale.

Diamond From 400 Miles Deep Reveals a Water-Rich Environment

Deep below the surface of our world, far beyond our feeble reach, enigmatic processes grind and roil.

Last starlight for ground-breaking Gaia

The European Space Agency's Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade.

Antarctica's Ice Melt Could Awaken Hidden Volcanoes

Deep under the frozen desert of western Antarctica, a hidden danger slumbers. Lurking beneath the massive, 1–2 kilometer-thick slab of frozen water lies an active volcanic rift, seething away in the deep, in the darkness.

Blue Origin set for first launch of giant New Glenn rocket

A quarter century after its founding, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin is finally ready for its maiden orbital voyage with a brand new rocket the company hopes will shake up the commercial space race.

Radio pulses from space hint at object that 'shouldn't exist'

Astronomers at the University of Sydney have found the slowest rotating pulsar yet found, a 'cosmic lighthouse' that spins once every 6.5 hours, pushing the boundaries of what was thought possible.

Astronomers discover an oversized black hole population in the star cluster

An international team of astronomers show that distinguishing features of Palomar 5 star cluster are likely the result of an oversized black hole population of more than 100 black holes in the center of the cluster.

JWST Snaps Colossal Waves of Star Dust That Dwarf Our Own Solar System

Carbon-rich cosmic dust comes from different sources and spreads out into space, where it's necessary for life and for the formation of rocky planets like ours.

X-ray flashes from a nearby supermassive black hole accelerate mysteriously

MIT astronomers observed flashes of X-rays coming from a supermassive black hole at a steadily increasing clip. The source could be the core of a dead star that's teetering at the black hole's edge.

Antarctic Ice Core Unlocks 1.2 Million Years of Unbroken Climate History

An international team of scientists has extracted a 2.8 kilometers long ice core in Antarctica, hitting the frozen continent’s bedrock. The core represents a chronological register of Earth’s climate and atmosphere

LA Fires a Catastrophic Example of Study's 'Hydroclimate Whiplash' Warnings

A new review of over 200 papers finds 'hydroclimate whiplash' has increased considerably, most likely due to the atmosphere's rising capacity for absorbing and retaining moisture.

As Los Angeles combusts, 2024 is declared Earth's hottest on record

The year 2024 was the world’s warmest on record globally, and the first calendar year in which global temperatures exceeded 1.5°C above its pre-industrial levels.

Extinction threatens nearly a quarter of all freshwater species

A landmark assessment of the health of nearly 24,000 freshwater species found that just under a quarter are at risk of extinction.