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
STEVE is smearing green 'streaks' across the sky, and nobody knows why
By Brandon Specktor published
Astronomers report a strange new feature of the aurora-like STEVE, which they are calling 'streaks.'
Earth is fighting a laser duel with the exploding Carina Nebula
By Brandon Specktor published
An epic photo shows the ESO's Very large Telescope firing four orange lasers at a distant star system.
Ghostly 'UFO cloud' hovering over mountains wows judges in weather photo contest
By Brandon Specktor published
Lenticular clouds look like saucers and form when wind meets mountains. This photo is one of the Royal Meteorological Society's favorites of the year.
Climate scientists uncover new record-low temperature in Greenland
By Brandon Specktor published
Climate archivists have found the coldest day ever in the Northern Hemisphere, set by Greenland in 1991
Climate fires and hurricanes collide in this shocking NASA satellite image
By Brandon Specktor published
An epic series of satellite images shows smokes from the California wildfires clashing with hurricanes in the Eastern United States and Gulf Coast.
Earth barreling toward 'Hothouse' state not seen in 50 million years, epic new climate record shows
By Brandon Specktor published
Scientists used marine fossils and orbital data to recreate 66 million years of climate history. Its shows that climate change is anything but 'normal.'
Two Canadian ice caps have completely vanished from the Arctic, NASA imagery shows
By Brandon Specktor published
New NASA imagery shows that the St. Patrick bay ice caps have vanished from Arctic Canada, two years sooner than scientists predicted
Mysterious 'fast radio burst' detected closer to Earth than ever before
By Brandon Specktor published
Scientists traced a fast radio burst (FRB) to a known star inside the Milky Way for the first time.
US Space Force hires a horse to boldly go where rockets can't. (The beach)
By Brandon Specktor published
The United States Space Force has a new recruit in their mission to keep planet Earth safe. His name is Ghost, and he likes to go clip-clop on the beach.
Scientists unveil largest 3D map of the universe ever
By Brandon Specktor published
Scientists unveiled the largest 3D map of the universe ever, showing its expansion rate over 11 billion years.
Incredible time-lapse video shows 10 years of the sun's history in 6 minutes
By Brandon Specktor last updated
NASA combined 10 years of solar observations into a single, gorgeous time-lapse video.
The monstrous 'blobs' near Earth's core may be even bigger than we thought
By Brandon Specktor published
Using thousands of seismic wave recordings, researchers mapped the mysterious 'blobs' deep below the Pacific Ocean and found they are even bigger than imagined.
Mysterious 'Fermi Bubbles' may be the result of black hole indigestion 6 million years ago
By Brandon Specktor published
Twin shock waves produced by the galaxy's central black hole could have inflated the gargantuan Fermi Bubbles about 6 million years ago, a new study suggests.
The sky is full of weird X-shaped galaxies. Here's why.
By Brandon Specktor published
Researchers figured out why this galaxy looks like an enormous X in invisible radio light.
New image captures 'impossible' view of the moon's surface
By Brandon Specktor last updated
Photographer Andrew McCarthy photographed the demarcation between the moon's light and dark sides for two weeks to create this unbelievably crisp image of our satellite's Earth-side craters.
North Pole's largest-ever ozone hole finally closes
By Brandon Specktor published
An unusually strong polar vortex kept an ozone hole open over the North Pole for nearly a month — now, it's finally shut again.
Mysterious 'disappearing' exoplanet was just a big cloud of asteroid trash, study suggests
By Brandon Specktor published
The alleged exoplanet Fomalhaut b was discovered in 2004 and disappeared in 2014. Astronomers now say it was never a planet to begin with.
Ozone hole three times the size of Greenland opens over the North Pole
By Brandon Specktor published
A record-size hole in the ozone layer has been detected over the North Pole, but it should disappear in a few weeks.
Antarctica's Denman Glacier is sinking into the world's deepest canyon
By Brandon Specktor published
Antarctica's Denman Glacier is falling into the world's largest land canyon.
Distant 'quasar tsunamis' are ripping their own galaxies apart
By Brandon Specktor published
In six studies published March 16 in a special edition of The Astrophysical Journal supplemental series, astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to spy on 13 quasar outflows.
Melting ice in Antarctica reveals new uncharted island
By Brandon Specktor published
Researchers discovered an uncharted island beneath melting Antarctic ice. Its rocky underbelly could hold clues to the continent's response to climate change.
Possible new 'minimoon' discovered orbiting Earth
By Brandon Specktor published
Astronomers discovered a 'minimoon' that's been orbiting Earth for about three years, and may soon leave our planet's orbit.
See record-high temperatures strip Antarctica of huge amounts of ice
By Brandon Specktor published
Antarctica saw two record-high temperatures set between Feb. 6 and Feb.9, and that took a huge toll on the continent's ice, as seen in NASA images.
One of Antarctica's fastest-shrinking glaciers just lost an iceberg twice the size of Washington, D.C.
By Brandon Specktor published
A huge chunk of ice twice the size of Washington, D.C., just broke off of Antarctica's Pine Island glacier, continuing a troubling trend that could signify glacial collapse.