Brandon Specktor
Brandon has been a senior writer at Live Science since 2017, and was formerly a staff writer and editor at Reader's Digest magazine. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, CBS.com, the Richard Dawkins Foundation website and other outlets. He holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona, with minors in journalism and media arts. He enjoys writing most about space, geoscience and the mysteries of the universe.
Latest articles by Brandon Specktor
12 trippy objects hidden in the zodiac
By Brandon Specktor last updated
The 12 constellations of the Zodiac contain some of the weirdest, most wonderful objects in the universe. Here are our favorites.
Ancient solar storm smashed Earth at the wrong part of the sun's cycle — and scientists are concerned
By Brandon Specktor last updated
An extremely powerful solar storm pummeled our planet 9,200 years ago, leaving permanent scars on the ice buried deep below Greenland and Antarctica.
US government report proposed nuking the moon, newly released documents reveal
By Brandon Specktor published
The U.S. government's UFO program, AATIP, was funding secret research into invisibility, wormholes, and antigravity, newly released documents reveal.
Nearly 200K People Have Signed Up to Steal Alien Secrets from Area 51 in Late-Summer Raid
By Brandon Specktor last updated
More than 200,000 Facebook users say they're interested in joining a raid on Nevada's infamous Area 51 air base this summer.
UFOs left 'radiation burns' and 'unaccounted for pregnancies,' new Pentagon report claims
By Brandon Specktor published
1,500 pages of UFO related research has been declassified by the US government following a FOIA request by The Sun
An interstellar object exploded over Earth in 2014, declassified government data reveal
By Brandon Specktor published
A fireball that blazed through the skies over Papua New Guinea in 2014 was actually a fast-moving object from another star system
'Magnetic anomalies' may be protecting the moon's ice from melting
By Brandon Specktor published
'Magnetic anomalies' may be shielding ice in the moon's pitch-black craters, new research suggests.
Ultra-fast electron rain is pouring out of Earth's magnetosphere, and scientists think they know why
By Brandon Specktor published
Scientists discovered the mechanism that causes electrons to 'downpour' into Earth's atmosphere.
Rare 'black widow' star system could help unlock the secrets of space-time
By Brandon Specktor published
Scientists found a remarkably stable 'black widow ' pulsar that could be used to help detect gravitational waves.
Largest shock wave in the universe is 60 times larger than the Milky Way, new study finds
By Brandon Specktor last updated
A new study shows what happens when the two largest objects in the universe collide.
Three galaxies are tearing each other apart in stunning new Hubble telescope image
By Brandon Specktor published
A Hubble Space Telescope image shows a stunning triple galaxy merger in the constellation Cancer.
Mysteries of Stephen Hawking's doodle-filled blackboard may finally be solved
By Brandon Specktor published
A new museum exhibit hopes to uncover the secrets behind the doodles, in-jokes and coded messages on a blackboard that Stephen Hawking kept for more than 35 years.
Astronauts spot an ancient heart-shaped oasis in Egypt just in time for Valentine's Day
By Brandon Specktor published
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station snapped this picture of an ancient heart-shaped oasis near the Nile River in Egypt
Mt. Everest's highest glacier lost 2,000 years worth of ice since the 1990s
By Brandon Specktor published
The highest glacier on Mount Everest is losing ice at an alarming rate, new research finds.
Greenland lost enough ice in last 2 decades to cover entire US in 1.5 feet of water
By Brandon Specktor published
Satellite data shows that Greenland’s ice sheet has lost enough water over 20 years to submerge the entire United States.
Scientists discover lost range of 'supermountains' three times longer than the Himalayas
By Brandon Specktor published
Scientists detected two ancient ranges of 'supermountains' that criss-crossed the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago — and may have jump-started animal evolution.
Astronomers detect powerful cosmic object unlike anything they've seen before
By Brandon Specktor last updated
Astronomers have discovered a mysterious, flickering object in the Milky Way that belches enormous amounts of energy toward Earth three times an hour.
Weird structures near Earth's core may be scars from a primordial interplanetary collision
By Brandon Specktor last updated
A collision with a Mars-size planet 4.5 billion years ago may have left a permanent impact on our planet's deep mantle.
The 10 strangest space structures discovered in 2021
By Brandon Specktor published
The closer we look at the universe, the more beautiful and baffling it becomes. Here are the 10 most epic space structures discovered in 2021.
9 things we learned about aliens in 2021
By Brandon Specktor published
A bombshell UFO report, the "alien junk" in our solar system, and more new clues about extraterrestrial life.
Frozen tardigrade becomes first 'quantum entangled' animal in history, researchers claim
By Brandon Specktor published
A new pre-print study claims to have quantum entangled a tardigrade with two superconductor qubits, though experts are skeptical.
NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2030 — and you can help
By Brandon Specktor published
NASA and the Department of Energy hope to put a nuclear fission reactor on the moon by 2030, and they need your help.
This hot 'stream' of star gas will collide with our galaxy sooner than we thought
By Brandon Specktor published
Researchers rewound the history of the Magellanic Stream, and found it is 5 times closer to Earth that previously thought