Full-halo CME from the X1.9 flare. The three bright specks of light (left to right) are Venus, Mercury and Mars. (Image credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center)
The sun sure has woken up this week, unleashing a powerful X-class solar flare on Jan. 18 that hurled a colossal, fast-moving coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward Earth. That CME has now arrived, triggering severe (G4)…
Astronomers discover an enormous iron bar in the famous Ring Nebula: 'We definitely need to know more'
January 20, 2026
Sometimes, even the most familiar astronomical objects can hold surprises for researchers. Take the well-known Ring Nebula, which astronomers have now discovered harbors a mysterious “bar” of iron atoms.
Also known as Messier 57 (M57), the Ring Nebula is a…
Jupiter has more oxygen than the sun, new simulations reveal
January 19, 2026
Deep beneath Jupiter’s stormy skies lies a crucial clue to how all the planets in our solar system formed.
In a new study, scientists used advanced computer models to peer beneath Jupiter’s dense swirling cloud tops and tackle a question that has lingered for…
Hubble Telescope sees baby stars hard at work | Space photo of the day for Jan. 16, 2025
January 19, 2026
Stars don’t start out fully formed. Instead, they begin when clouds of diffuse gas and dust clump together, becoming denser than their surroundings. Gravity does the rest, pulling material inward until a collapsing knot becomes a compact, warming core: a protostar, still feeding on the cloud that created it.
That’s exactly what was seen in a recent image from NASA’s and the…
After a month of no answer, NASA will try hailing its silent MAVEN Mars orbiter today
January 19, 2026
After waiting out a planned two-week communication blackout, NASA is set to listen again for a Mars orbiter that abruptly went silent more than a month ago.
The renewed contact attempt for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN, comes after the end of a…
DJI Neo 2 drone review
January 16, 2026
Just a year after the DJI Neo was released, DJI hasn’t wasted any time in producing a new and seriously improved version, the DJI Neo 2. It’s not often we see a drone model replaced so quickly, but it seems that DJI is keen to dominate the selfie drone market.
What are 'dark' stars? Scientists think they could explain 3 big mysteries in the universe
January 16, 2026
“Dark stars” could help solve three seemingly disconnected mysteries that emerged at cosmic dawn — mysteries recently discovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. The puzzles include the surprising overabundance of supermassive black holes in the early universe, the unexpected existence of “blue monster” galaxies, and the so-called “little red dots”…
Four astronauts are safely back on Earth after the first-ever medical evacuation of the International Space Station.
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying NASA’s Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov splashed down in the…
Some newly found stars in a small galaxy called Sextans A are forming without some of the usual “ingredients” — raising questions about how the early universe evolved.
The astronomers behind a new study of these stars likened the stars’ environment to a…
Satellite sees snowy Greenland peaks from space | Space photo of the day for Jan. 14, 2026
January 15, 2026
Tucked into the Arctic, Greenland’s mountains do far more than provide stunning scenery. They steer winds and weather, shape regional climate patterns, and help dictate how the Greenland ice sheet moves by funneling ice into fast-flowing outlet glaciers and directing meltwater toward the coast. Those outlet glaciers matter globally because they are among the main pathways by which ice from…
