An iceberg has quickly escaped from the Weddell Sea in Antarctica, on its way to an icy new destination.

What is it?

As captured by a satellite in orbit, the Antarctic iceberg A-81 has quite quickly (for an iceberg) parted ways from its icy home, breaking off to drift toward a shallow underwater shelf in Georgia.

The 600-square-mile (1,550-square-kilometer) iceberg first broke off from the Brunt Ice Shelf in January of 2023. Now, generally speaking, giant icebergs don't travel that fast. But In just three years, this massive iceberg has traveled 1,400 miles (2,300 kilometers) north of the Brunt Ice Shelf. For an iceberg, that's really fast.

Over this time period, the iceberg drifted through the Weddell Sea in Antarctica's Southern Ocean before reaching the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, floating further into the Scotia Sea and then finally now reaching the edge of a remote island in South Georgia.

In this satellite snapshot captured on Oct. 20, 2026, we can see the iceberg in its current location near an underwater shelf off the coast of South Georgia. While it isn't abnormal for icebergs like A-81 to break off from larger ice shelves, Brunt has recently had multiple large icebergs break off one quickly after the other, according to a statement from NASA.

Why is it incredible?

This image was captured by the MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), an instrument on board NASA's Terra satellite.

Earth-observing satellites like Terra keep a close eye on changes on our home planet. In addition to this image, observations from Terra have showed how the iceberg has traveled over the last few years.

With satellites like Terra, scientists can keep a close eye on these changes in Antarctic ice, which is becoming increasingly important as climate change continues to progress across the globe, affecting everything from Arctic ice to sea levels rising, worsening natural disasters and more.

In 1927, Norwegian civil engineer and amateur radio operator Jørgen Hals made an unusual discovery: while monitoring transmissions from a shortwave radio station in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, he began hearing odd, "delayed" radio echoes, arriving approximately three seconds after the original transmissions, that sometimes accompanied the station's signals.

"From where this echo comes I cannot say for the present," Hals wrote of his peculiar discovery, adding that he could "only confirm that I really heard it."

Almost a century after Hals' discovery, the exact cause of this unusual phenomenon — known today as long delayed echoes, or LDEs — remains unknown. Their baffling nature has prompted a range of potential explanations, most of which focus on a variety of unexplained natural phenomena occurring in Earth's atmosphere. However, a few more far-out possibilities, including potential evidence of extraterrestrial technology, have also been considered.

What do we know?

A curious discovery

The enigma of long-delayed echoes has perplexed scientists since their initial detection by Hals, who at the time reported his odd findings to Norwegian physicist Carl Størmer. This prompted an investigation by Størmer with physicist Balthasar van der Pol, during which the duo was able to reproduce the phenomenon but were unsuccessful in determining its cause.

Since those early observations, ongoing reports of long-delayed echoes have continued to be recorded. Under normal conditions, radio echoes occur whenever a radio signal reflects or "bounces" off an object, although other conditions such as signals traveling through a delayed path can also cause echoes to occur.

Long delayed echoes, by contrast, are generally characterized by radio signals that return after more than 2.7 seconds following their original transmission, although the terminology has sometimes been applied more broadly.

Complicating investigations into this unusual brand of radio phenomena over the years has been their unpredictable nature, along with significant reported variances in the timing and nature of the delays, which has made it difficult for researchers to narrow down a single cause.

Possible explanations

Despite the challenges presented by this unique class of space mysteries, there are several theories that have been put forward over the years about what could cause long-delayed echoes.

In the mid 1980s, researchers R. J. Vidmar and F. W. Crawford conducted experiments in Alaska that aimed to detect long-delayed echoes, which built on earlier research they published involving possible detections in 1970. According to their findings at the time, Vidmar and Crawford hypothesized that radio signals could be captured between ionized layers in the atmosphere and "guided" over long distances.

More recently, University of Oslo researcher Sverre Holm has advanced a similar concept that he calls magnetospherically ducted echo (MDE), in which radio waves may become trapped within electrically charged regions of Earth's upper atmosphere and guided along magnetic field lines extending far into the magnetosphere. Under certain conditions, these signals may reach as far away as the opposite hemisphere before they are "bounced" back toward Earth, resulting in the delayed echo effect.

According to Holm, MDE "is the best understood mechanism for long delayed echoes" out of five promising explanations he outlines, adding that based on the MDE model, such long delayed echoes "can be predicted to what seems like about 5 ms accuracy using a simple model for the magnetic field lines."

Still, one problem that arises involves the relatively short delays associated with this mechanism, which may not necessarily account for the much longer, multi-second echoes reported in some historical observations. Since radio waves travel at close to the speed of light, a signal could theoretically cover distances equivalent to the planet's circumference several times in a single second. While this doesn't prove the signals actually followed such paths, it does imply that some of the reported instances of long-delayed echoes might correspond to dozens of journeys around the planet.

Speaking with Space about historical cases involving much lengthier long-delayed echoes, Holm was clear in expressing that the MDE theory also has its limitations.

"In my view," Holm told Space in an email, "Magnetospheric Duct Echoes cannot [account] for those historical LDEs at all."

To illustrate this, Holm points to two primary differences. First, the historical echoes were detected at approximately 9.55 MHz, well above the 1–4 MHz frequency range typically associated with MDEs. Additionally, historical LDEs reportedly exhibited delays ranging from 3 to 30 seconds, whereas MDEs generally produce delays of only a few hundred milliseconds.

By contrast, "MDES are only a few hundred milliseconds," Holm explained, meaning that they cannot account for all the characteristics of the earlier historic observations of long-delayed echoes.

Other theories that might be capable of filling some of the gaps in the long-delayed echo mystery include the idea that electromagnetic radio energy could be coupled into slower plasma-wave "modes" while traveling through Earth’s upper atmosphere, which, according to Holm’s review of the earlier work by Vidmar and Crawford, could potentially create much longer delays than ordinary radio propagation would allow.

After this proposed coupling into a plasma-wave mode, the signals may be converted back to ordinary electromagnetic signals and bounced back down to lower levels of Earth's atmosphere. Finally, a similar line of investigation has looked at whether clouds of plasma originating from the sun might also be able to produce the well-characterized echo effect.

What remains unknown?

Extraterrestrial origins?

Although scientific research has identified several promising explanations for long-delayed echoes, the mysterious nature of these events has also inspired more speculative theories over the decades, including some involving the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

This unique dimension to the LDE mystery has its roots in the theories of Australian physicist Ronald Bracewell, who was the first to propose the idea that autonomous interstellar probes might be used by an advanced civilization as a means of establishing contact.

According to Bracewell, the initiators of such a hypothetical contact scenario might choose to reveal their presence by intercepting and re-transmitting radio signals rather than engaging in direct communication. Carl Sagan explored a similar concept in his novel "Contact", in which transmissions from the 1936 Olympics — the earliest broadcast signals to leave Earth's ionosphere — are intercepted and rebroadcast back to Earth as a data-encoded message originating from the Vega system.

However, more than a decade before the publication of Sagan's famous novel, Scottish writer Duncan Lunan attracted international attention for his 1973 article in the journal "Spaceflight" outlining his belief that he had successfully decoded a radio message dispatched from an extraterrestrial probe. According to Lunan, the initial detection of this "hidden" alien signal had taken place decades earlier in 1927, with the famous discovery of long-delayed echoes by Jørgen Hals.

Lunan's theory essentially went like this: an extraterrestrial civilization in the Epsilon Boötis system had deployed a hypothetical autonomous communications probe (known as a Bracewell probe) to Earth in the distant past, which had been comfortably orbiting in one of Earth's gravitationally stable Lagrange points for thousands of years.

Using the original long-delayed echo detections from Hals and Størmer's research decades earlier, Lunan placed the transmitted sequence on a vertical axis, while placing the recorded echo delay time on a horizontal axis, revealing what he believed to be a view of the constellation Boötes as it might have looked 15,000 years ago — right around the time the suspected space probe would have been dispatched to Earth.

Despite Lunan's imaginative theory, an alternative hypothesis proposing a natural cause behind long-delayed echoes was subsequently advanced by Anthony Lawton, which ultimately garnered an award from the British Interplanetary Society. By 1976, Lunan had withdrawn his ideas in an article published in the Journal of the Society of Electronic and Radio Technicians, although he would eventually revisit a version of the theory in the 1990s.

The mystery continues

While few modern researchers seriously consider extraterrestrial hypotheses to explain long-delayed echoes, these obscure phenomena remain intriguing, even as ongoing research sheds light on their possible causes. Explanations such as Sverre Holm's magnetospherically ducted echo model offer promising mechanisms that may account for at least some of these unusual signals, although important questions remain unanswered.

For now, long-delayed echoes serve as a reminder of the challenges of studying electromagnetic phenomena, and how even seemingly familiar aspects of our physical world can harbor mysteries that resist straightforward explanations, even after nearly a century of investigation.

From the dangerous Sydney funnel-web to the common huntsman, Australia is home to its fair share of spiders. It even has a crater shaped like one.

What is it?

One stretch of the vast Western Australia wilderness is imprinted with a curious crater, which likely formed after a meteor impact hundreds of millions of years ago. Geologists think the spider-like pattern in the crater's center was created when its floor rebounded following the initial impact, NASA has said.

In the hundreds of millions of years since the initial impact, erosion has continued to carve this formation into its current, signature shape. Complete with "legs," the planetary imprint has earned its name Spider Crater.

This image shows the impact structure in its entirety, which stretches 8 by 7 miles (13 by 11 kilometers) in full, with the central "spider" piece measuring 2.5 miles (4 km).

Why is it incredible?

In this image, we can see this "spider" from space. This snapshot shows the geologic feature as captured by the OLI (Operational Land Imager) aboard the Landsat 9 satellite, an Earth-observing craft that launched back in 2021.

The satellite, a collaborative effort between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey, is the ninth in the Landsat Earth-observing series, which goes all the way back to the launch of Landsat 1 in 1972. On a near-weekly basis, Landsat 9 delivers observations of everything from deforestation to water quality and crop growth.

The series of Landsat satellites have been a critical piece in the modern understanding of how our planet continues to change. Whether it's the repercussions of climate change or fluctuations in agriculture, observations from orbit do more than provide interesting photos of our home world; they also capture critical data.

On Sept. 30, NASA formally concluded OSIRIS-REx, the historic first U.S. mission to pluck a pristine piece of an asteroid and deliver it safely back to Earth.

The van-sized OSIRIS-REx spacecraft — whose name is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer — visited and sampled Bennu, an ancient space rock holding pristine remnants from the dawn of our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. Among those cosmic relics are raw organic building blocks, the kind that may have seeded life on Earth.

"I have known this day was coming for a long time, but it is still difficult to see it arrive," OSIRIS-REx Principal Investigator Dante Lauretta, who's based at the University of Arizona, said in a post on LinkedIn. "I feel enormous pride in what we accomplished together, and real sadness that this journey has come to an end."

For the mission team, the farewell capped a decade of high-stakes engineering, on-the-fly troubleshooting and nail-biting close calls that ultimately delivered to Earth the largest asteroid sample ever collected in space, one that held secrets from the early solar system.

Long before launch, the team faced obstacles that nearly thwarted the endeavor — chiefly, two rejections from NASA — before finally securing the green light for the $1 billion project under the New Frontiers Program in 2011.

When OSIRIS-REx launched on Sept. 8, 2016, on a two-year journey across the inner solar system, Bennu was little more than a point of light in telescopes. Scientists expected the asteroid’s surface to be a smooth, sandy sphere where OSIRIS-REx could seamlessly touch down. Much to their surprise, however, when the probe arrived at the asteroid in late 2018, it revealed Bennu to be a treacherous, loosely bound amalgamation of jagged boulders.

"Our expectations about the asteroid's surface were completely wrong," Lauretta said in an Oct. 7 statement from the University of Arizona. "There was no obvious place to collect a sample anywhere."

When OSIRIS-REx touched down on a small crater named Nightingale, Bennu offered so little structural resistance that scientists said its surface reacted more like fluid than a hard, rocky shell. The spacecraft's sampling head sank directly into the asteroid, stopping after burrowing 20 inches (51 centimeters) deep by firing its thrusters at the right time to pull away, with the precious sample in hand.

Then came another nail-biting moment: The sample collector lid got jammed in a partially open position because so much material was scooped up, allowing fragments of the precious cargo to escape. In a race against time to prevent further loss, the mission team quickly stowed the sampler head directly inside the return capsule, securing the cosmic treasure for its journey back to Earth.

Even the final return to Earth, on Sept. 24, 2023, kept the team on edge: A parachute failed to deploy properly during reentry, forcing a tense but ultimately safe landing in the Utah desert.

"Successful exploration missions are not those that avoid surprises; they are those that are deliberately designed to adapt to them," Lauretta said in the statement, quoting a line from the mission's final report to NASA.

"That certainly describes OSIRIS-REx," he said. "Again and again, the mission presented us with circumstances we had not expected, and again and again, this team found a way forward."

The mission's triumphs began long before the samples reached Earth. For example, the probe set a Guinness World Record when it slid into orbit around the 1,610-foot-wide (490 meters) Bennu, which became the smallest object ever circled by a spacecraft.

The scientific payoff that followed included remote-sensing work that confirmed Bennu's surface is coated in carbon-bearing compounds. Those observations also revealed that Bennu was once part of a much larger, water-rich parent asteroid that shattered in a catastrophic collision in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

The returned sample — which weighs 4.29 ounces (121.6 grams) here on Earth, more than twice the mission's requirement — continues to thrill and occupy scientists.

A wave of research papers, now topping 200, continues to piece together the composition and history of the ancient space rock. Among other findings, Bennu's pristine material has revealed amino acids and sugars that, on Earth, are essential for life, alongside a history of exposure to liquid water that could have served as the "broth" for these compounds to interact.

More discoveries are likely to come. Most of the returned Bennu sample is being preserved for future generations of scientists, who will study it "with questions and instruments we cannot yet anticipate," Lauretta said in the statement.

Though its OSIRIS-REx chapter is closed, the spacecraft itself is far from retired. Renamed OSIRIS-APEX (OSIRIS-APophis EXplorer), the probe is using its remaining propellant to head toward Apophis, another near-Earth asteroid and a different type of space rock from Bennu. It is scheduled to arrive in 2029.

Antarctica is a magnificent sight, and that beauty is visible all the way from space.

What is it?

Orbiting planet Earth, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Copernicus Sentinel-3 mission captured a close-up of West Antarctica.

Winter is ending in the Southern Hemisphere, meaning this is the peak of icy weather and sea ice in the Arctic.

In this image snapped by Sentinel-3, you can see a massive swath of ice which includes Elephant Island on the left-hand side. An ice-covered island off the Antarctic coast, Elephant Island floats in the Southern Ocean. It got its name both from the island's shape, which some liken to that of an elephant's head, and the fact that the island is home to a community of elephant seals.

Why is it incredible?

While a seal-inhabited island on the left floats near the Antarctic coast, across the water is a vast, frozen landscape. In just this snapshot, you can see about between 746 and 1,056 miles (1,200 to 1,700 kilometers) of the icy continent.

This image was captured on Sept. 30, 2026. In the Southern Hemisphere, that was just past the end of winter. The absolute peak for sea ice in Antarctica fell just a couple weeks before, on Sept. 14, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, ESA reported.

So in this one snapshot, we can see a near-maximum for sea ice in the Antarctic, spanning hundreds of miles. In observing our own planet from space, we are able to peer across vast landscapes, capturing important observational data. This is especially critical for the Antarctic as, with the progression of climate change, this sea ice continues to dwindle, adding to sea level rise among other serious consequences across the planet.

The location of Earth's geographic poles has changed several times over the past 320 million years in a process known as true polar wander, according to measurements of ancient flooding brought about by sea level changes resulting from our planet's crust shifting relative to Earth's spin axis.

Such a shift can affect climate, both on local scales and globally, as regions that were by the poles find themselves moving down to lower latitudes and vice versa. This can then affect atmospheric circulation patterns, which affect climate across the world.

The changes would have affected the environments in which life developed and evolved, from the age of the dinosaurs through to some of our oldest primate ancestors.

True polar wander is not the same as a change in the rotational axis of the Earth. Currently, Earth spins at an angle of 23.4 degrees relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun, and this rotational axis can vary periodically over tens of thousands of years as a result of the Milankovitch cycles caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and planets.

True polar wander is different. Here, the angle of Earth's spin axis does not change relative to its orbital plane. Instead, Earth's crust and mantle shift relative to that rotational axis. This is because Earth is not perfectly spherical. Instead, it is oblate, with Earth's rotation causing the equator to bulge out and the poles to slightly flatten. Because Earth is not spherical, it has multiple axes of inertia, the largest one being aligned with the rotational axis.

These axes need to be balanced to prevent Earth's rotation from becoming chaotic. However, plate tectonics and indeed the Milankovitch cycles can upset that balance of mass, for example by causing more continental crust to congregate in one hemisphere than another.

To rebalance things, Earth's crust and mantle must become decoupled from our planet's core, which stays aligned with the rotational axis. In physical terms, if there is more continental crust in one hemisphere, the crust and mantle might rotate in that direction relative to the rotational axis and the Earth's core in order to balance itself. This sees the geographical locations of the poles change, hence the name 'true polar wander'.

Currently, true polar wander takes place at a rate of 10 centimeters (4 inches) per year, but figuring out when and how fast true polar wander has occurred in the past is not without its difficulties, not least since plate tectonics can mask and even mimic the signal of true polar wander.

Previous studies relied on paleomagnetism, the study of residual magnetic traces in ancient rocks, since the orientation of those magnetic traces would have varied depending upon where that rock was located relative to Earth's magnetic field. Alas, it's not a terribly accurate means of measuring true polar wander and scientists arrived at substantially different conclusions using this technique.

Nevertheless, based on paleomagnetism, scientists had concluded that true polar wander had been negligible, or slow to proceed, in the distant past. However, new results from researchers at the Centre for Planetary Habitability at the University of Oslo in Norway, led by Mathew Domeier, have shown this not to be the case.

Domeier's team looked through the geological record to track how sea level has changed across millions of years. True polar wander would bring about an identifiable pattern in sea-level changes as the oceans reacted in response to changes in the mass distribution of the planet. The sea level changes would be equal but opposite between hemispheres — sea level rises on one side of one hemisphere would be matched by rises on the other side of the opposite hemisphere, creating a 'quadrupolar' effect.

By using statistical modeling on maps of sea level changes across intervals of 10 million years, Domeier's team identified four periods of true polar wander: in the early Jurassic period 190—200 million years ago, the late Jurassic — early Cretaceous period 140—150 million years ago, during the mid-Cretaceous 90—100 million years ago and from the Oligocene period 30 million years ago through to the Miocene 20 million years ago.

The results show that, contrary to established opinion, true polar wander can happen in bursts that are relatively fast on geological timescales, with the results showing that during the episodes of true polar wander the Earth's surface shifted by as much as 0.6 degrees per million years relative to the spin axis. This is slow by human standards, but fairly fast on geological timescales, certainly quicker than plate tectonics.

Domeier's team were also able to rule out a suspected case of true polar wander around 300 million years ago when the last great supercontinent, Pangea, migrated northwards. It turns out that Pangea's movements were entirely due to plate tectonics.

The findings were published on Oct. 1 in the journal Science.

A neon blue pool swirls amongst what look like clouds, all surrounded by a bright red stretch of land. This might look like the surface of an alien planet, but it's actually a salt flat right here on Earth, seen from space.

What is it?

Etosha National Park in northern Namibia hosts the largest salt pan, or piece of land covered with salt and other minerals, in the country.

This image of the Etosha Pan was captured on April 5 of this year by Europe's Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission, which consists of two identical satellites in the same orbit.

The Sentinel-2 pair observe and capture imagery of our planet in different wavelengths using a high-resolution multispectral imager that can see 13 different spectral bands, or ranges of wavelengths.

By looking at our planet from space, and observing it through different wavelengths and colors, we can better understand Earth's topography and how it changes over time. With this image, researchers can better understand this landmark in Namibia, a nation in southwestern Africa.

Why is it incredible?

While this image is strikingly beautiful, the Etosha Pan doesn't exactly look like this in real life. If you were standing close to the pan in the national park, it would look bright white.

While this is a real image, false color has been added, which allows scientists to separate different types of vegetation and topography.

With the false color, the vegetation surrounding the salt pan appears in shades of red, while the salt pan itself looks like a mix of bright, light and dark blues with cloudy sediment floating around.

The varied vegetation captured in this false-color image includes grassland, savannas and mopane trees, which appear bright red. These trees are not only a dominant type of vegetation in areas of this park, they also provide essential shelter and habitats for local wildlife, including elephants, giraffe and leopards.

Earth and Mars formed in the same part of the solar system, but their chemistry suggests the two planets were built in different ways, according to new research.

The finding adds to growing evidence that suggests planets do not all form in one way. It also has implications for a long-running open question about how exactly the disk of gas and dust around the young sun formed the planets of today's solar system around 4.5 billion years ago.

"The most surprising result was that Earth and Mars appear to have formed in different ways," Anders Johansen, a professor of planetary sciences at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who co-led the study, said in a statement. "You might have expected that two planets formed side by side in the same solar system would share a more similar formation history."

Around 4.5 billion years ago, the solar system was a crowded place. The young sun was ringed by a rotating disk of gas and dust with the first building blocks of planets taking shape within it.

In one long-standing picture, dust grains collided and stuck together to form pebbles, which grew into kilometer-wide rocky bodies known as planetesimals. Those planetesimals repeatedly crashed into one another and merged, building planets over a few tens of millions of years.

Whether Earth and Mars were built by one process or a mix of both has not been settled. The Copenhagen team set out to test the competing ideas by studying the chemistry of the planets' crust and mantle.

The researchers focused on volatile elements such as sodium, zinc and potassium, which evaporate easily at high temperatures. So whether those elements are present or missing acts as a chemical fingerprint of the heat and violence a planet went through while forming, according to the researchers.

"It is a major detective job to figure out what happened back then when most of the evidence disappeared long ago," Johansen said. "But even after 4.5 billion years, the compositions of Earth's and Mars' mantles remain the same."

What formation route suits best?

The team fed the data about the reservoirs of volatile elements of both Earth and Mars into computer models to test which formation scenarios fit best, and the results favor a hybrid model.

At least 75 percent of Earth's mass appears to come from two young planets, known as protoplanets, that grew large by gathering pebbles, while planetesimals supplied up to 25 percent, the study found.

For Mars, the team thinks that this balance was reversed, with roughly three-quarters of its mass appearing to come from planetesimals, and the remaining quarter from pebble accretion.

The exact chemical makeup of the raw material that became Earth and Mars is unknown, so the calculations depend on assumptions, the study notes. Nevertheless, adjusting those assumptions did not change the main conclusion, according to study co-lead Haiyang Wang of the University of Copenhagen.

The team argues that its method is more direct than the isotope-based approach widely used in the field, which "can often be interpreted in multiple ways," according to Wang.

The technique used by the researchers could eventually be applied to worlds beyond the solar system, extrasolar planets, or exoplanets.

As future missions find Earth-like planets around other stars, judging whether those worlds could be habitable will require some sense of what they're made of.

"If we understand how planets lose volatile elements during their formation, we can also become better at predicting how much water and other life-supporting substances they ultimately retain," Johansen concluded.

This research is described in a paper published Sept. 25 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Earth is the only home we know, but it was not always one we could live in.

The oxygen we depend on with every breath was essentially absent when Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago. It wasn't until about 2.4 billion years ago, when our planet was nearly half its present age, that the gas became a lasting feature of its atmosphere in a transformation known as the Great Oxidation Event. For scientists, the harder question has been how oxygen stayed abundant for millions of years afterward — long enough, as ancient rocks suggest, to set the stage for the emergence of increasingly complex life. The answer may lie in the chemistry of ancient seas, according to a new study.

The research, led by Lewis Alcott, a biogeochemist at the University of Bristol in the U.K., describes a self-sustaining cycle in which phosphorus — a fundamental building block of all known life — was recycled in the oceans, helping maintain elevated oxygen levels after they first rose.

"Living things cannot grow or function properly without phosphorus," study co-author Andrey Bekker, a professor of geology at the University of California, Riverside, said in a statement.

A hidden period of Earth's history

The new study offers a clearer view of a period of Earth's history that has been difficult to reconstruct, according to the scientists. Until now, scientists could measure the total phosphorus preserved in ancient rocks, but determining the share that was actually available to marine life remained challenging.

Alcott, Bekker, and their colleagues got around that limitation with a new technique that separates phosphorus according to the type of mineral it is bound to. Analyzing ancient rocks from South Africa, the team dissolved each mineral type one at a time to determine whether the phosphorus had been available to living organisms or tied up in forms that made it unusable.

"We can now separate the phosphorus that was available to organisms from phosphorus that was essentially locked away," Bekker said in the statement. "That gives us a much clearer picture of nutrient levels in ancient oceans than we had before."

"A side effect of that process is that more oxygen continued to be released into the atmosphere," Bekker said.

Beyond shedding light on the history of our own planet, understanding how oxygen, nutrients and life evolved together on Earth could also help scientists recognize similar conditions on ocean-bearing worlds elsewhere, the researchers added.

"Earth's history shows that oxygen, nutrients, and life evolved together," Bekker said. "Understanding those connections gives us a more nuanced perspective on our own planet's future and what we might look for on other planets."

This research is described in a paper published on Aug. 27 in the journal Nature Communications.

The bright blue lagoon waters of Venice, Italy and its iconic canals stand out in this true-color satellite image.

What is it?

Have you ever seen the gondoliers of Venice pushing their gondolas through the canals, singing all the way? Well, if you zoom out all the way into orbit, this is what they look like.

This image, snapped by the European Space Agency's IRIDE satellite fleet back in May of this year, shows the Venetian Lagoon, a bay of the Adriatic Sea that encompasses the city of Venice.

The IRIDE network consists of six satellite constellations that orbit our planet, capturing comprehensive data and imagery of Earth.

Why is it incredible?

Venice is famous for its Grand Canal and canal networks, where you can find people traveling by gondola. Made up of a group of islands, this coastal city is intrinsically linked to the waters it inhabits.

In this view from space, you can see just how intertwined every curve of the city is with the surrounding waters.

There is bright blue water, whose brilliant color is created by suspended sediment, as well as mud flats and salt marshes, which appear as dark brown and green in the top-right of the image.

The great variety of watery ecosystems in this region have created a home for not only humans in the city but an incredible array of wildlife, such as birds in the salt marshes.

While Venice's waters exude an incredible natural beauty, as seen in this image, they also put the city and its residents at risk as sea levels continue to rise. Because Venice is so intertwined with its surrounding water, it is especially vulnerable to sea level rise caused by climate change, and every year the city essentially "sinks" roughly 1/16th of an inch (2 millimeters).

The asteroid Bennu was shaped on the boundary between hot and cold in the dusty disk that formed the planets 4.5 billion years ago, meaning the samples brought back from this space rock by NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission give us our best look at the primordial material from which the planets assembled.

"Bennu may offer our best glimpse of the original mix of chemical elements from which the terrestrial planets were ultimately built," said Maria Schönbächler, a professor of isotope geochemistry at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, in a statement.

Bennu is a near-Earth asteroid that NASA visited with its OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission between 2018 and 2021. Then, on Sept. 23, 2023, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft which parachuted down to Earth a sample of 0.26 pounds (120 grams) of regolith from Bennu.

The material in that sample was subsequently shared out among researchers around the globe, including half a gram being received by Schönbächler's lab. The findings of Schönbächler and her team had subsequently changed what we thought we knew about the birth of Bennu.

They analyzed isotopes — variations of elements with greater or lesser numbers of neutrons — of iron, titanium and chromium in the sample, finding iron and titanium in particular to be well mixed throughout. Bennu's composition is also remarkably similar to another asteroid, Ryugu, from which Japan's Hayabusa2 mission has also obtained a sample. A rare breed of meteorite, called CI chondrites, also share a similar isotopic composition with Bennu and Ryugu, suggesting a common birthplace.

And that's where things get really interesting. Both Bennu and Ryugu are pieces of larger bodies that at some point were smashed apart. Some scientists have suggested that those parent bodies probably formed far from the sun in the outer solar system, maybe even alongside comets, and that they formed later than the planets since processes that far out are relatively slow.

However, the isotopic analysis of the Bennu sample by Schönbächler's team begs to differ. The even mixing of the isotopes suggests that it was formed from fine dust grains rather than clumpy, coarser material. The presence of water molecules also implies it formed closer to the sun than had been thought.

Schönbächler's team posit the following scenario: that Bennu formed close to the snow line, which was the dividing line in the planet forming disk beyond which temperatures were too cold for water vapour, the water instead froze as ice. Inside the snow line the temperatures were hotter, causing ice to sublimate into a gas or melt into a liquid. This snow line between fire and ice existed roughly where Jupiter does today. Material from both sides of this line flowed together to assemble the parent objects of Bennu, Ryugu and CI chondrites, with ice acting like glue to bond the fine dust particles together.

And Jupiter had a role to play in this process too. The giant planet formed fairly soon after the sun (within a million years). As it grew and came to dominate its orbit, it acted as an obstacle to heavier, coarser clumps of dust while finer grained dust was able to flow around it and feed into the zone where Bennu formed. This explains why the isotopes are so well mixed rather than clumped, and also tells us that Bennu's parent probably formed not long after Jupiter did. The prevalence of water-bearing minerals in the Bennu sample also suggests that water-ice that sublimated into vapor just inside the snow line was also part of the material that was transported into the region where Bennu and its cousins were built.

"Bennu is a hybrid," said Schönbächler. "The material does not clearly match either the inner or the outer solar system." Instead, Bennu has characteristics derived from both regions.

What's more, the well-mixed fine-grained material more closely matches the composition of the pre-solar nebula and hence the sun itself. This means that Bennu is stuffed full of primordial material that was the foundation for the formation of the solar system, and can help us better understand the material out of which the planets, including our Earth, came to be.

What's intriguing is that both near-Earth asteroids, Bennu and Ryugu, which have been destinations for successful sample-return missions should both have very similar origins. Is that pure coincidence, or is it telling us something about where the population of near-Earth asteroids came from?

"We are now wondering whether other asteroids have the same isotopic signature as Bennu and Ryugu," said Schönbächler.

The only way that can be answered is by going and obtaining more samples. A Chinese mission called Tianwen-2 arrived this summer at the near-Earth asteroid Kamo'oalewa, to bring back a sample next year, while Japan's Martian Moons eXploration mission, set to launch this August, plans to bring back a sample from Phobos in 2031. While designated a moon of Mars, Phobos is thought to possibly be a captured asteroid. If so, its isotopic composition might have more in common with Bennu than with Mars.

The latest findings from Bennu were published on Sept. 23 in the journal Science Advances.

Life on Earth has never existed without the shelter of the planet's magnetic field, and according to new research, that constant presence may be quietly woven into the basic biology of living organisms, with possible implications for aging and future treatments for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Generated deep within Earth's core for at least 3.7 billion years and extending far out into space, this invisible cocoon is popularly credited with helping preserve Earth's habitability, shielding the planet from harsh solar winds and helping retain the water that makes life possible. Scientists have also long known that migratory birds and animals such as sea turtles can sense this field and use it to navigate. However, its more fundamental influence on biology has remained poorly understood, researchers say.

"We live our entire lives within the Earth's magnetic field," Lisa Chakrabarti, a professor at University of Nottingham's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, said in a statement. "It passes through our bodies, our cells and every living organism on the planet, yet we know surprisingly little about whether and how this invisible force affects the way our cells work."

To get some answers, the research team, co-led by Chakrabarti, tried switching it off. Using a special magnetic shielding system, the researchers reduced the ambient field to near zero and compared two groups of fruit flies, healthy flies and flies with a defect in Pink1, a gene associated with inherited early onset Parkinson's disease in humans. Starting from the moment each fly reached adulthood, the researchers tracked both groups for 70 days, scoring them alive or dead each day, the team reports in a new paper.

The researchers found shielding the diseased Pink1 flies from Earth's magnetic field increased their lifespan by around 20%. However, the environment also reduced their physical performance, which the team measured by placing the flies at the bottom of a small vial and timing how well they climbed. Meanwhile, the group of healthy flies showed the opposite pattern, with shorter lifespans but improved physical performance under the same conditions, according to the study.

"I was really confused at first," study co-lead Jacob Reed, a Ph.D. student in bioscience at the University of Nottingham, told the independent news website 404 Media. "I was thinking: 'Why are these Parkinson's flies living longer than some of the wild-type flies?' I had to double-check all of my data."

The researchers link the source of these effects lies in the mitochondria, the structures inside cells that generate energy, specifically to part of the mitochondria's energy-producing machinery known as Complex II.

Shielded healthy flies showed a significant rise in Complex II activity alongside elevated levels of a reactive molecule called superoxide, which is a byproduct of energy production that in high amounts can damage cells over time and a likely explanation for their shortened lifespan. In the Pink1 mutant flies, that same rise in Complex II activity appeared to compensate for their underlying genetic deficit, producing a "beneficial, life-extending response" effect instead, the study notes.

The findings raise the possibility that such non-invasive hypomagnetic conditions could eventually offer a therapeutic benefit for diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, the study notes.

"Understanding how cells sense and respond to magnetic fields could ultimately reveal new ways of manipulating mitochondrial function in aging and disease," Chakrabarti said in the statement.

The findings also build on a scattered but suggestive body of prior research. For instance, earlier human studies have linked reduced magnetic field exposure to slightly worse performance on problem-solving tasks and small changes in pupil size. Meanwhile, studies in rats examining magnetic fields and bone density have produced inconsistent results, with some finding weaker bones and others finding no effect at all.

Taken together, the research is messy and sometimes contradictory, but one pattern keeps emerging, the study notes, that magnetic fields "can affect fundamental cellular processes" and that responses differ "depending on the cell type."

The new work may also carry implications beyond Earth, the researchers say. As space agencies look toward longer missions to the moon and Mars, astronauts will spend extended stretches beyond the reach of Earth's magnetic field. Scientists already know that this exposes them to harmful cosmic radiation, but how the absence of the field itself, separate from radiation, might affect human physiology is not very well understood.

"The link with interplanetary space travel is absolutely key," Chakrabarti told 404 Media. "Unless we know what those parameters are to measure, we're going to be sending astronauts up there that are potentially going to really suffer over the short, or even or the longer, term."

This research is described in a paper published Sept. 23 in the journal Aging.

Hurricane Polo continues to swirl in new satellite observations as heavy rains start to hit.

What is it?

Already being labeled "one of the strongest storms ever," Hurricane Polo is a Category 5 maelstrom that has already started with heavy rains offshore in Mexico and is expected to hit land this weekend.

In new observations by NOAA's GOES-18 satellite captured on Tuesday (Sept. 22), we can see the storm in progress, swirling violently off the coast of Mexico as strikes of lightning light up the view.

"#HurricanePolo continues to swirl in the Eastern Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico this #TimeLapseTuesday. The Geostationary Lightning Mapper instrument on board @NOAA’s #GOESWest (#GOES18) helps show the lightning flashing in the cyclone’s eye in this imagery captured over a two-hour period earlier today," NOAA shared over social media.

As we watch the storm progress off of the coast, satellite imagery like this can help experts better understand how the storm is operating and what might be expected next.

Why is it incredible?

Hurricane Polo is predicted to be extremely powerful and therefore likely incredibly damaging.

"This is one of the strongest storms ever in the (Pacific) Basin," Kristen L. Corbosiero, a professor at the University at Albany's Department of Atmospheric & Environmental Sciences, told NPR.

Satellite views like this from GOES-18 are incredibly important for our understanding of storms like Hurricane Polo. Satellite imagery can help experts categorize hurricanes and give us up-to-date information on where storms are going, how quickly they're moving and what we might expect if and when they hit land.

This kind of information could be critical for coastal communities to be prepared for storms that could carry the risk of destroying homes and businesses, or even cause injuries or deaths.

A normally arid corner of Western Australia has burst into life, in a transformation so dramatic it can be seen from space.

The spectacular wildflower display has rapidly spread across the rusty red landscape of Western Australia's Murchison region following several wetter-than-usual months, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.

Local experts think this year's bloom could be the best the area has experienced in nearly 20 years.

What is it?

The image was captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) aboard the Landsat 8 spacecraft, a joint mission between NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.

The Murchison region is usually dominated by arid shrubland, including grasses, saltbush and slow-growing evergreen mulga trees. But dormant wildflower seeds can spring into action when conditions are just right, carpeting the landscape with delightful blooms.

That's exactly what happened this year. Above-average rainfall in June and August, along with several cold fronts sweeping across the region, woke the seeds from a lengthy slumber to transform the landscape.

Landsat 8 captured this view on Aug. 30, 2026. A comparison image taken on Aug. 19, 2025 shows just how much greener the region is this year.

Why is it amazing?

Besides potentially being the area's best wildflower display in almost two decades and some threatened plant species having also appeared among this year's blooms, the flowers have sprung up in a place normally better known for looking much farther into the cosmos.

Wildflowers carpeted parts of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, where powerful arrays of radio antennas meticulously study objects in the southern sky.

So while the observatory's telescopes usually have their sights set on the universe, this year there's quite a show happening beneath them too.

A planetary body's surface is inherently three-dimensional — and not just because of its peaks and valleys but because it must wrap around the whole world.

That's obvious but easy to forget, since Earth is large enough that we experience it as flat in our everyday lives. But it's a major challenge for cartographers looking to create two-dimensional world maps, like the familiar Mercator projection and the design recently endorsed by an overwhelming majority of the United Nations' General Assembly, called the "Equal Earth" projection. And the same difficulties apply beyond Earth, albeit with much lower stakes, at least for now: any map is a mix of accuracy and distortion.

"It's important to know that sometimes, as with statistics or anything else, you can tell a story with a map," Corey Fortezzo, a geologist and map coordinator for the Planetary Geologic Mapping Program operated jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA, told Space.com. "And it's not necessarily the true story."

That's because flattening a three-dimensional surface into a two-dimensional map is an inherently messy endeavor. "Every projection chooses what to preserve—in some, it's the area, some preserve shape, some preserve distance, some preserve the direction — but not all of them at once," Jue Wang, a cartographic data scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, told Space.com. "It's not [about] which projection is correct, it's [about] what are you trying to do with the map."

In the U.S., people tend to be most familiar with the Mercator projection, which dates to 1569, when a cartographer working in what is now Germany designed a map on which any straight represents a constant compass direction. "It's built for the purpose of navigation, so the Mercator projection preserves angles," Wang said. "Which is very useful and why sailors have used the Mercator projection for centuries."

But of course, most of the 8.2 billion people currently living on Earth aren't sailors, and today world maps are less about navigation and more about understanding the world we live in. That means many fewer people are getting lost at sea than are operating under the mistaken impression that Greenland is larger than South America — hence the movement backing the Equal Earth projection to take Mercator's place in common settings like classrooms.

That projection prioritizes preserving the relative area of countries and continents, but sacrifices the accuracy of angles of the Mercator projection. As a result, most north-south longitude lines become curved in the Equal Earth projection, while east-west latitude lines are spaced closer together near the poles, rather than farther away.

Beyond Earth

Mapping worlds beyond Earth is only a smidge younger than the Mercator projection: the oldest known map of the moon dates to 1609. In some ways, the activities are inherently different, since mapping Earth has relied on people's observations in place, whereas the foundation of extraterrestrial mapping is remote data gathered first with telescopes, then with spacecraft.

Often, that data has come in the form of images — themselves two-dimensional, warped representations of a three-dimensional surface. "You're stitching together this quilt of imagery and the problem is all the pieces are curved and you have to figure out where they fit together," Fortezzo said.

Another quirk of the process is that because neither Earth nor any other solar system object is perfectly spherical, projection systems can't seamlessly translate between worlds. And each world needs its own unique definition for 0 degrees longitude, an extraterrestrial translation of Greenwich's supremacy as backed by the British empire.

Mapmakers are still chipping away at these challenges, although the International Astronomical Union has operated a working group dedicated to cartographic coordinates since 1979. Right now, this work may induce yawns, but as long-term exploration efforts of the moon and other bodies become both more serious and more varied, the complexity of mapping these worlds may increase.

Consider the needs of NASA's Apollo program — where landing sites were clustered toward the equator on the moon's near side —compared to the current Artemis program, which intends to focus initiatives at the lunar south pole. While something like the Mercator or Equal Earth projections would both make sense for a map related to Apollo, neither excels at depicting the poles, as their treatment of Antarctica attests.

That, of course, is the starkest difference when map-making goes to space: no other world's surface comes with the complications of Earth's patchwork of continents and oceans, which can influence projection techniques. (Take the so-called "orange-peel" or Goode homolosine projection, a bizarre lobed depiction that keeps continents intact and accurately represents their relative sizes, but breaks up the oceans and polar regions.)

In contrast, except for volcanic Io and Titan's water-ice surface sculpted by organic liquids, an extraterrestrial mapper's material is straightforward. "We are able to just take a piece and that piece is going to have nothing but rock and ice," Fortezzo said.

"It makes it much easier," he said. "There's no feelings involved."

Decades ago, Captain Kirk faced off against the Gorn on the uncharted desert planet Metron. But as we can see in new satellite imagery from NASA, that mysterious rocky world can actually be found right here on Earth in California.

What is it?

In this new image captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on NASA's Landsat 9 satellite, you can see the wide variety of rock and vegetation in the area around Vasquez Rocks Natural Area County Park in southern California.

The 25-million-year-old Vasquez Rocks is a magnificent natural area with an incredible range of unique, large rocks jutting out of the ground. In this false-color image, you can see the area in shortwave-infrared and near-infrared wavelengths that show the differences in vegetation across the landscape.

And this location hides some amazing history. Not only is Vasquez Rocks home to incredible rock formations and desert vegetation, it is also where Captain Kirk fought the Gorn in Star Trek the Original Series. It's not a surprise the series chose this location for its infamous fight scene (among many other Trek scenes), as the massive, sun-bleached boulders pointing to the sky and barren landscape give it a distinctly alien feel.

Why is it incredible?

While the rocky landscape of Vasquez Rocks is firmly fixed here on Earth, it has consistently made history as the backdrop to a whole host of iconic science fiction moments.

Indeed, Star Trek is one as Vasquez Rocks has been used for filming in a whole host of Trek episodes. It was even Spock's home world of Vulcan in the films Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Star Trek (2009).

But beyond Star Trek, the site has been used for filming sci-fi classics like Galaxy Quest, Battlestar Galactica and Planet of the Apes in addition to a whole host of cowboy movies and more.

It turns out that right here on Earth, we can find perfectly good alien worlds.

Global warming will soon cross a critical threshold, surpassing a dangerous limit set years ago, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has found. But experts say it's still possible to cool things back down, emphasizing that the stakes are too high to stop trying.

In 2015, 196 nations and territories signed the Paris Agreement, pledging to restrict the average rise of global temperatures to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. Ideally, the rise was meant to be kept to 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above those levels. However, according to a new report detailed by the UNEP, we are on track to cross that 1.5 C line — and soon.

"This summer's scorching heat, raging wildfires and deadly floods are a warning of what lies ahead. We must make the overshoot above 1.5 degrees as small and short as possible. That demands an overshoot of ambition," U.N. Secretary-General Antőnio Guterres said in a statement.

According to the new report, experts have found that if we as a planet continue with business as usual, not only will we pass 1.5 C, but it will happen within just a few years. The report, however, maintained a positive tone. Rather than simply predicting a doomsday plot, the main purpose of this release is to outline a pathway with the necessary steps to set things on the right track.

"As global temperature rise gets set to cross 1.5°C, pushing climate risks and impacts to dangerous new heights, the world must strive to return to below 1.5°C as soon as possible and simultaneously reduce the vulnerability of societies, communities and economies to climate impacts," the report, titled "Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return," states in its abstract.

Climate change is primarily caused and driven by human activities like transportation, industrial manufacturing, agriculture and more. According to the report, the two main aspects of this work need to be: reducing emissions and enabling adaptations to protect people impacted by the effects of climate change.

The U.N. states in the report the necessity of both an immediate and sustained reduction in the emissions of greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide. Not only do we need to find a way to cut emissions fairly immediately, but we also need to find a way to sustain that effort over time. The U.N. further states it is important to not only work toward removing carbon from the atmosphere, eventually reaching net-negative emissions where more emissions are removed by humans from the atmosphere than added to the atmosphere.

This sort of carbon capture technology is still fairly early in its development, but according to the U.N., it is essential we find ways to rapidly move toward a future where we can capture and store carbon from the air and therefore reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases around our planet.

In addition to these long-term emission reduction actions, in this report the U.N. has also asserted that this process will need to include "adaptation actions," or ways to support the many people and communities already affected by climate change.

Even if all of the world's nations start working immediately to drastically reduce emissions, we are already seeing the sometimes fatal and irreversible effects of climate change. From increasing the intensity of wildfire seasons to worsening natural disasters, climate change is far from a distant future. It's our reality, especially for those living in high-risk areas like coastlines. So, while the nations of the world need to work together to reduce emissions, it is also important that adaptations are found to reduce the existing and future impacts of climate change on our communities.

"There are no good outcomes if we remain above 1.5°C. Across the globe, extreme heatwaves are already proving that climate impacts will strike faster, hit harder, and last longer — costing more lives and causing deeper disruption," Inger Andersen, the Executive Director of UNEP, said in the same statement. "Now is the time we must double down on climate action. We can — and must — get on the right path. By cutting greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening resilience and adaptation, and ensuring exceedance of 1.5°C is as small and short as possible."

A volcano on an Indonesian archipelago began erupting on Sept. 4, and satellites in orbit have been watching closely.

What is it?

The volcano Anak Krakatau started spitting out ash and lava on Sept. 4. On an archipelago between Sumatra and Java, the island volcano's sudden eruption grounded flights, closed schools and even stopped fishing in the area.

The volcano launched ash into the air and into the city of Jakarta and the Lampung province during a 25-hour-long eruption. But even following this eruption, Anak Krakatau remained active throughout the weekend. In fact, the volcano is still so active that it could erupt again soon.

But it wasn't just people on Earth watching the volcano erupt this past weekend. The Landsat 8 satellite, operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), spotted a white plume of volcanic gas billowing into the atmosphere all the way from space. The white plumes of gas are thought to mainly contain water vapor, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, while ash and debris make up the brown clouds surrounding the plumes.

Why is it incredible?

While Anak Krakatau simmers after this most recent eruption, this event isn't a major shock, as the volcano sits in what is known as the "Ring of Fire." This "ring" (a loose term, as it's not exactly a ring) snakes about 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) around the Pacific Ocean and includes over 750 volcanoes, some dormant and some active.

In fact, in Indonesia alone there are 500 volcanoes, and 127 of them are active, including Anak Krakatau. And this volcano has a particularly interesting story: It emerged from the sea in 1927, rising from the caldera formed by the 1883 eruption of Krakatau (also known as Krakotoa), which was one of the most famous and destructive volcanic events in history. (Anak Krakatau means "child of Krakatau" in the Indonesian language.)

While not all geologists agree on the exact margins of the Ring of Fire, it rests on a string of tectonic plates and has existed for over 35 million years. And not only is this ring home to hundreds of volcanoes, it's also a hot spot for earthquakes.

We are a planet-based species: With a few notable (astronaut) exceptions, everyone who has ever lived remained glued to our spinning Earth, which now houses 8.3 billion people.

That's the gravity of the situation. But we're also a world of floods, typhoons, earthquakes, heat and cold calamities, volcanic eruptions and even encounters with sun-caused auroras and bruises from incoming asteroids.

It's quite a world worth watching — and for decades that's what spacecraft have been doing. But what do they view and who's on the other end of the space-based telescopes capturing our daily doings, faults and all, down here on terra firma?

Privacy, security and trust

Recently, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group based in Paris, published a report on the expanding access to satellite Earth-observation data, spotlighting what it means for privacy, security and trust.

"Advances in optical systems, photonics, cloud computing and artificial intelligence [AI] have democratized both the quality and accessibility of satellite data. However, this convergence of technologies also carries risks, including for national security and privacy," states the report, which was authored by the OECD's Marit Undseth and Claire Jolly.

Broadening access to advanced satellite data also creates new challenges, states the report, such as one of the key characteristics of Earth observation — its dual-use nature. "The same satellites used to track illegal fishing can often also detect military troop movements," the authors write.

New concerns

The OCED report notes that Earth-observation data and the technological convergence with artificial intelligence raise new concerns about national security, privacy and the ethical use of these data.

In fact, the report points to the growing hazard of fake or incorrectly used satellite imagery. "As part of the growing trend of digital disinformation, the trust in satellite data can be eroded by fake, misinterpreted or intentionally misrepresented imagery," it states.

Space.com asked leading remote-sensing specialists what's being done, what's being learned and what we should worry about.

Sovereignty and cost efficiency

Viktor Stoyanov is the chief operating officer of Smart Solutions at Space42, where he oversees the business unit's operational and financial performance.

Space42 is a United Arab Emirates-based space technology company that integrates satellite communications, geospatial analytics and AI capabilities. The group runs the Foresight Earth Observation constellation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites.

Space.com asked Stoyanov about the growing international use of remote-sensing data.

"Governments increasingly expect Earth-observation systems to deliver both sovereignty and cost efficiency, two goals that were long seen as mutually exclusive, as sovereignty typically meant heavy in-country investment in duplicative research and development and capital infrastructure," he responded.

Dual use

Stoyanov said Space42's focus is to combine those two outcomes.

"We believe that can only be achieved through international cooperation. Our Foresight constellation reflects this model, as the first sovereign dual-use synthetic aperture radar constellation in the region," Stoyanov said.

The satellites were manufactured in partnership with ICEYE in Finland, with critical integration and testing completed in the organization's facility in Abu Dhabi.

"The Abu Dhabi facility was built in cost-cautious and scalable manner, so that it can satisfy current sovereignty requirements commensurate with the constellation size, with the ability to expand the facility and meet demand of future programs," Stoyanov said.

Through cloud, dust and darkness

What new in-orbit technologies are being applied to Earth observation?

"The biggest shift in recent years has been the move from few, large, general-purpose platforms to constellations of small, specialized satellites and synthetic aperture radar," said Stoyanov.

"SAR satellites image through cloud, dust and darkness, which matters enormously for our region and for any customer who needs consistency regardless of timing and weather," he added.

Looking ahead, Stoyanov said that the short lifespan of satellites in low Earth orbit is an opportunity to ensure that each replenishment cycle becomes an upgrade cycle.

"As we plan to maintain and expand our fleet, we will continuously seek to deploy technical improvements across various performance metrics of the system — resolution, latency, satellite life, for example," said Stoyanov.

Artificial intelligence

A SAR constellation generates far more imagery than analysts can review manually within the allocated time, Stoyanov said. So the value lies in what can be extracted from it, not in the pixels themselves.

AI is therefore becoming increasingly important as a sorting tool for remote-sensing data, Stoyanov said. It is now the only practical way to work, for three reasons: volume, speed and accuracy.

Customers responding to a flood, a maritime incident or a supply-chain disruption need an answer in minutes, not a report next week — "decision-grade intelligence within minutes," explained Stoyanov.

On the topic of accuracy, while trained analysts are excellent at interpretation and large-object classification — like buildings and sea vessels — there are changes that the eye can easily miss. "Algorithms comparing each new pass against the historical baseline — they catch those consistently, without fatigue," said Stoyanov.

Hybrid model

Francis Doumet is the CEO and co-founder of Metaspectral, a company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that builds AI technology to rapidly analyze hyperspectral imagery.

Doumet views collaboration between different national space agencies as "extensive and, somewhat uniquely, very open." Missions are frequently carried out through "shared funding, instruments, expertise and ground infrastructure," he said, with the resulting scientific data made available internationally.

Commercial imagery is less openly distributed because it is commercially licensed and may have security implications, Doumet said, but it is increasingly enabling international cooperation in the defense sector.

For example, the U.S. Space Force's Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking (TacSRT) program combines commercial satellite imagery and analytics from American companies and allied nations to rapidly respond to operational requests, Doumet said.

"This has shaped the Earth-observation sector into a hybrid model," said Doumet. Governments and allies share requirements and intelligence, he explained, while commercial operators supply imagery and analytics "at a speed and scale that would be difficult or impossible for a single nation to produce alone."

Hyperspectral sensors

The improvement in the spatial resolution of hyperspectral sensors is an important advance in Earth observation, Doumet pointed out.

Better sensors, high-speed compression and improved communications, such as optical links, are now narrowing a "resolution gap." Onboard AI is equally transformative, he added.

"Satellites can analyze imagery in real time, identify relevant signatures and transmit alerts or compact intelligence products instead of waiting to download an entire hyperspectral data cube," Doumet explained.

Spectral fingerprints

Angie Crews is a principal research associate with the University of Colorado, Boulder's Center for National Security Initiatives.

"There has been a tremendous growth in the commercial remote-sensing industry," Crews told Space.com, noting that this field had previously been government-based. "It's now possible for these commercial companies to deploy entire constellations of Earth-observing satellites, which fundamentally changes the architecture in place."

Crews pointed to the hyperspectral nature of Earth remote sensing — taking the "spectral fingerprints" of what's occurring on Earth.

"It's impressive how the industry is moving forward with some of these capabilities," she said.

Balancing act

"There are some tremendous benefits as well as some things that we need to think about" when it comes to the new direction that Earth observation is taking, Crews said. Remote-sensing data can be inherently dual use, she added.

"Overall, I think we're seeing some enormous benefits from our increasingly capable commercial remote-sensing systems. But it does raise some security and governance questions," said Crews.

It's a balancing act to manage, according to Crews. How best to secure the information for national security purposes versus not putting the squeeze on innovation exhibited by the private Earth-observation firms?

Meaningful information

Shifting to her teaching role at the University of Colorado, Boulder, Crews told Space.com that one of the things that's especially important is to train students in the remote-sensing field to think beyond any single sensor or dataset.

"The next generation needs to understand how different sensing technologies work and also how to work with very large datasets and extract meaningful information using AI and machine learning," Crews said.

"We also need to train the students on critical thinking and ensure they are aware of the limitations of AI. The underlying physics need to be understood and the results need to be validated so that the students use and interpret the results appropriately," she concluded.

The massive glaciers of Greenland are disappearing right before our very eyes in new satellite imagery.

What is it?

Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland connects the Greenland ice sheet to the Arctic ocean. Petermann's "ice tongue" has previously measured 43 miles (70 kilometers) long and 9 miles (15 km) wide. But new satellite imagery has revealed the glacier's floating "ice tongue" has broken apart in the glacier's most dramatic loss of floating ice since 2012.

On August 4, 2026, the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission captured imagery of the glacier that revealed that a 29 square mile (76 square km) section of the ice tongue has broken away. This is the most significant ice calving event (where ice breaks off of a glacier) seen in the Arctic since 2020.

"Satellite missions such as Sentinel-1 provide the systematic, long-term observations needed to track these changes, helping scientists better understand the processes driving calving and the wider impacts on the polar environment, and ultimately the Earth system as a whole," ESA Earth scientist Martin Wearing said in a statement.

Why is it incredible?

It is no secret that worsening climate change is contributing to significant ice loss. Antarctica has lost 5,000 square miles (12,950 square km) of grounded ice over the last three decades. Warming oceans are consistently eroding the arctic ice we have left which, when melted, contributes to rising sea levels.

But knowledge is power, and by studying Earth from the vantage point of space, Earth scientists can gather critical information about our changing planet.

"By studying Arctic ice islands, we will gain knowledge that can be transferred across polar regions. This is critical for understanding how the calving and deterioration of ice islands impact glacier dynamics, sea-level rise and the ocean environment," Anna Crawford, a glaciologist at the University of Stirling, said in the same statement.

Earth's shadow will swallow 96% of the lunar surface tonight (Aug. 27-28), potentially turning the moon a gorgeous shade of crimson as it bathes in light filtered and refracted by our planet's atmosphere.

The partial lunar eclipse will occur as Earth passes between the sun and the moon. Around this time, Earth's curved inner shadow will appear to creep across the lunar surface while leaving a thin crescent exposed to direct sunlight at the point of maximum eclipse. But who will actually get to see it? As usual, it's all a matter of location.

You can follow along with all the action with our lunar eclipse live blog, and watch the eclipse online with these lunar eclipse livestreams.

Where is the August 2026 partial lunar eclipse visible?

The Aug. 27-28 partial lunar eclipse will be visible to roughly 3.3 billion people spread across North America, South America and parts of Europe and Africa. Each phase will occur simultaneously for everyone watching from Earth, through the local timings for each eclipse phase will vary depending on your location.

For stargazers on the West Coast of America in cities like Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon, the point of maximum eclipse will arrive just a few hours after sunset. While anyone watching from East Coast cities including New York and Jacksonville will see the lunar spectacle peak around midnight local time.

For the United Kingdom, Europe and Africa, the eclipse will be an early morning affair, occurring shortly before sunrise as the moon arcs low towards the western horizon. You can check the exact timings and altitude of the moon during key phases of the Aug. 27-28 eclipse on TimeandDate.com.

The full extent of a partial lunar eclipse can be enjoyed by anyone who happens to be on the night side of Earth at the time that it occurs. You also won't need safety glasses or specialized equipment to view a lunar eclipse. It'll look magnificent to the naked eye, though binoculars, or even a telescope can heighten the experience by granting a magnified view of the moon as Earth's shadow slowly marches across its cratered surface!

Sadly, the moon will be out of sight below the horizon for anyone on the day side of Earth as the eclipse unfolds, making it impossible to view with the naked eye from a host of countries including Australia, India, China and Japan to name but a few.

But we've got you covered.

Space.com will be sharing details on how to watch the partial lunar eclipse live online closer to the time, along with all the latest news via our live blog. Why not also read up our expert tips on how to photograph the moon using a DSLR or mirrorless camera to ensure that you're ready to immortalize the deepest lunar eclipse until New Years Eve 2028-2029?

Editor's Note: If you capture a photo of the partial lunar eclipse and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Microbes from Earth might survive the harsh surface of the moon, albeit in a state of suspended animation, a new study finds.

Previous research suggested the surface of the moon was too harsh for microbes to survive. Specifically, a 2019 study found ultraviolet rays and heat from the sun are the greatest barriers for microbial life on the lunar surface.

However, this prior work did not account for the shelter that hills and valleys might supply on the moon. These could prove especially significant at the lunar poles, where the sun never climbs high in the sky, leading to permanently shadowed regions that can host ice — and perhaps more.

In the new study, researchers analyzed three kinds of bacteria and two kinds of fungus. These are all commonly found on crewed space missions, and include microorganisms that prior work discovered were especially durable in the harsh conditions of space. Previous research found these lifeforms are resistant to vacuum, cold and high-energy particles.

The scientists compared previously compiled survivability data of these microbes with lunar maps that captured ultraviolet and heat readings on the moon's surface. They found that both lunar poles likely have areas where microbes could survive, albeit in a state of suspended animation known as cryptobiosis in which they could not move or grow unless more hospitable conditions appeared.

Microbes might not need much in the way of shelter on the moon. "Even a bootprint or a rover's tread may create a habitable area," study co-author Prabal Saxena, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, told Space.com.

NASA's Artemis III mission is planned to be the first time humans will explore the lunar south pole. "Our findings show that we need to be even more thoughtful about the materials that we might unintentionally take with us when we are exploring space, and the impacts that we might have," study co-author Heather Graham, an organic geochemist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, told Space.com.

In addition to the possibility that missions to the moon might bring microorganisms there, the scientists added it might be possible that ancient cosmic impacts might have blasted rocks bearing microbes off Earth that could have landed on the moon. "The moon might be like Earth's freezer, preserving really interesting bits of evidence of Earth's past if they landed at the moon's poles," Saxena said.

Future experiments may test just how well microbes of many kinds might survive on the moon, Saxena said. "We have this great opportunity to really think about the limits of life and how resilient it is even in incredibly extreme environments," he said.

All in all, "the moon is a really diverse and interesting body, and the lunar poles are really unique regions in terms of how they can trap volatiles like water, and the ability to trap life," Saxena said.

The scientists detailed their findings online Aug. 19 in the journal Science Advances.

The "Eye of Africa" swirls across Mauritania in a hypnotizing snapshot captured from space.

What is it?

A 25-mile-wide (40 kilometer-wide) circular structure made up of concentric ridged rings sticks up from the Earth in Mauritania, a country on the coast of northwestern Africa. While it might look like an elaborate, hand-carved piece of artwork, it's actually a natural geologic feature.

Formally known as the Richat Structure and nicknamed the "Eye of Africa," this geologic formation can be seen clearly from space.

The first time this feature was seen from space was in 1965 when NASA astronauts Ed White and James McDivitt photographed it during the Gemini IV mission.

61 years later, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir has photographed the feature from aboard the International Space Station where she is working as part of Expedition 75.

Why is it incredible?

Meir shared the photo of the structure on social media along with other photographs from that region.

"The Richat Structure (or Eye of Africa) in Mauritania is photographed from above by many astronauts, but something about the lighting and coloring on this day captured my artistic eye. This palette and textures of this region of Africa scream pure Earth Art, at least in my brain!" Meir said in the post where she shared her photos.

Amazingly, because of its massive size, this geologic feature is perhaps most clearly seen from space. While astronauts aboard the ISS are orbiting our planet from hundreds of miles away, theit vantage point actually allows them to see the full, expansive circles that make up the "Eye of Africa." And while we've been seeing it from space since 1965, the view really never gets old.

We're just one week away from a stunning partial lunar eclipse on Aug. 27-28, when billions across North America, South America, Africa and Europe will see Earth's shadow dye the moon a subtle crimson hue, while leaving a thin crescent exposed to direct sunlight.

August's partial lunar eclipse will occur as Earth passes directly between the sun and moon during the full moon phase — an imperfect alignment that will see our planet's intense inner shadow cover 96% of the visible face of our natural satellite.

Stargazers on the night side of Earth will catch their first glimpse of our planet's umbra (the darkest, innermost part of its shadow) creeping onto the moon's surface at 10:33 p.m. EDT on Aug. 27 (0233 GMT on Aug. 28), according to TimeandDate.com. The vast shadow will continue its advance across the crater-scarred landscape in the hours that follow, until it hits the point of maximum eclipse at 12:12 a.m. EDT on Aug. 28 (0412 GMT).

Around this time, you may notice the shadowed region of the moon take on a reddish-orange color, as sunlight filtered through Earth's atmosphere is bent onto the lunar surface — a phenomenon often referred to as a "Blood Moon" during a total eclipse.

Each phase of a lunar eclipse occurs simultaneously for everyone viewing from the night side of Earth, where the lunar disk is visible. However, local timings will differ significantly depending on your location on Earth.

If you're watching from a city on the West Coast of the United States like California, then the point of maximum eclipse will occur shortly after midnight local time on the night of Aug. 27-28.

Viewers in the United Kingdom, meanwhile, won't observe the moment of maximum eclipse until shortly before sunrise on Aug. 28, as the moon lurks low on the southwestern horizon. Be sure to check out a trusted website like TimeandDate for eclipse timings specific to your location.

You won't need any special kit to protect your eyes during a lunar eclipse as you would during a solar eclipse, when there is a serious risk of vision damage from looking directly upon the sun. However, a pair of quality binoculars or a telescope will give you a stunning view of Earth's shadow as it races across the lunar disk.

Need to upgrade your equipment? Then be sure to read our roundups of the best binoculars and telescopes available in 2026. You should also check out our guide to photographing a lunar eclipse, along with our picks of the top cameras and lenses for astrophotography.

Editor's Note: If you capture a photo of the lunar eclipse and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

Astronomers have discovered an unusually massive, dense exoplanet that challenges conventional ideas about how rocky planets form.

Called GJ 523b, the exoplanet is about 2.5 times wider than Earth but packs roughly 23 times our planet's mass into that relatively compact size. Worlds this large and dense are sometimes referred to as "mega-Earths," an informal term for unusually massive, predominantly rocky planets. GJ 523b's high density suggests it contains relatively little atmosphere despite being large enough that astronomers would normally expect it to have accumulated a substantial gaseous envelope, according to a statement from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

"This isn't what we expected at all," Max Kroft, lead author of the study, said in the statement. "Dense planets like this aren't uncommon, but they're usually small rocky planets similar to Earth or Mercury. This planet is two and a half times bigger than the Earth."

GJ 523b was initially identified as a candidate by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which searches for periodic dips in starlight caused when planets cross, or transit, their host stars. Researchers followed up with observations from the ground-based WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, using a spectrograph to measure the planet's gravitational tug on its star.

Combining those observations, the team calculated that GJ 523b has a mass about 23.5 times that of Earth, a radius 2.55 times larger and a density of about 126.82 grams per cubic inch. It circles its star every 17.75 days. The planetary system is also relatively young, at an estimated nearly 170 million years old, according to the study.

That combination of size, mass and youth poses a puzzle for planet formation models. Planets begin by building cores of rock and metal, which can then pull in hydrogen and helium from the disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star. In our own solar system, giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn are thought to have begun rapidly accumulating their massive gaseous envelopes once their growing cores reached roughly 20 times Earth's mass.

GJ 523b is already about 23 times Earth's mass, putting it beyond that threshold. Yet instead of developing into a gas-rich world, its unusually high density suggests it has relatively little gas and remains predominantly rocky — raising the question of why it followed such a different path.

"The question is, why didn't this planet do that, if it's 20 times the size of Earth?" Kroft said in the statement.

One possibility is that GJ 523b initially formed with a thick atmosphere that was later stripped away. Another is that it formed through a collision between two planets, creating a larger rocky world while blasting much of their gaseous envelopes into space, according to the statement.

Astronomers have used the term "mega-Earth" for more than a decade to describe exceptionally massive rocky worlds, though it has never represented a formally established class of exoplanets. Finding more examples like GJ 523b could help reveal whether these unusual worlds are rare exceptions or part of a broader population.

"It's hard to infer things about planet formation in general from a sample size of one," Kroft said in the statement. "We're not going to get to 10,000 of these overdense planets, but if we can get to 20 or 30, maybe some trends might pop out."

The findings have been submitted to The Astronomical Journal and are currently available on the preprint server arXiv and have not yet been peer reviewed.

Imagine orbiting hundreds of miles above Earth and seeing your home planet below — up in smoke.

That was the reality recently for astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) who captured this image of the volcano Mount Rainier covered in smoke from nearby wildfires.

What is it?

This past July, hundreds of wildfires devastated a number of regions across Canada. But unfortunately, this was not the end of wildfires decimating North America this summer.

Recently, wildfires have spread across Washington and Oregon, burning over 84,000 acres (34,000 hectares) as of Aug. 12, according to NASA.

This image, captured by astronauts aboard the ISS, shows smoke blowing from wildfires in central and eastern Washington to the volcano Mount Rainier. The astronauts also captured imagery of Mt. Hood about 100 miles (160 kilometers) south. With Mt. Hood, you can also see thick plumes of smoke coming from the Grasshopper fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike.

Why is it incredible?

This is the worst fire season the Pacific Northwest has seen in over 30 years, CNN has reported. The wildfires have forced many to evacuate their homes, shut down major roads and more. In addition to the immediate dangers presented by the wildfires themselves, as we can see from these images, the smoke from the fires extends far and wide and has created unhealthy air quality levels.

As of Wednesday (Aug. 12), over 2.7 million acres (1.1 million hectares) had already burned, and by Friday (Aug. 14), the region still had dozens of uncontained wildfires, CNN reported.

And higher-than-normal risk for fires to continue through the month of August are expected, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

While tackling the problem of wildfires — which is increasing as climate change worsens — takes place on Earth, we can learn a lot from seeing things from above. The vantage point of outer space allows for views like this, which can give a larger perspective. And satellite views can provide even more in-depth information to support wildfire fighting activities back on Earth.

NASA astronaut Anil Menon captured an incredible photograph of a swirling typhoon in the Pacific Ocean from the International Space Station on Aug. 2, 2026.

What is it?

According to his post on X sharing the image, Menon used an iPhone to capture the photo from the space station's cupola, a domed structure built by the European Space Agency that features six circumferential windows and central nadir viewing window.

The photograph shows a massive swirling typhoon in the Pacific Ocean. While Menon doesn't mention the storm or its location by name, it appears to be Super Typhoon Dolphin, the fifth tropical cyclone to reach category 5 in 2026. It has since been downgraded to a category 3 storm, and is expected to weaken to a category 1 or 2 as it continues to move westward towards Japan's Okinawa island.

Why is it incredible?

Aside from being a reminder of how powerful some storms on Earth can be, Menon's photograph shows just how far astronaut photography has come.

Even equipped with only a phone camera, astronauts can capture breathtaking photos to share with the world. On NASA's recent Artemis II mission around the moon and back, the four crewmembers beamed back incredible images captured with iPhones. They even sometimes used them as "mirrors" while shaving.

Menon's photo, like other space station photography, also drives home just how mind-boggling of an engineering feat the International Space Station (ISS) truly is.

There are currently seven people aboard the football-field-sized orbital laboratory, circling Earth every 90 minutes at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour (28,000 kilometers/hour) at an average altitude of around 250 miles (400 km).

Since 2000, the ISS has hosted international crews and has been the site of countless groundbreaking scientific experiments made possible by its microgravity environment. But the station is reaching the end of its life; NASA plans to retire it and crash it in into the Pacific Ocean around 2030.

The diets of penguins on Antarctica's Danger Islands can be seen from space. At least indirectly.

Using satellite images captured by the Landsat 8 spacecraft operated by NASA and the United States Geological Survey, scientists can track changes in Adélie penguins' diets based on the color of their guano, or droppings.

What is it?

The image above shows pinkish-orange guano staining large sections of some of the Danger Islands, Heroína Island and Beagle Island. The penguins that live there eat a diet rich in krill, small marine crustaceans that are bright pink in color due to a specific type of algae upon which they feed.

The bright pink color of the penguins' droppings stands out in satellite imagery, allowing researchers to monitor the birds' populations from space. But scientists wanted a closer look, and collected drone imagery as well, as seen in the image below.

Why is it incredible?

It's pretty amazing that the diet of a specific population of birds can be monitored from 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth's surface. The imagery collected by Landsat-8 helped scientists locate where the penguin colonies might be, allowing them to find them in-person and collect guano samples. Those samples contained evidence of what the penguins were eating over time.

Researchers are using those satellite images and samples to track how the penguins' diet might be affected by changes in sea ice conditions, according to a NASA statement.

"Sea ice is such a hugely important factor in the Antarctic marine environment," said Clemson University biologist Casey Youngflesh who led a study comparing the penguins' diet and sea ice conditions. "The structure of the region's food web is changing in response."

Radio telescopes are designed to listen for signals from the stars and from distant galaxies, but scientists are also pointing out that these instruments can also track objects somewhat closer to home: junk in Earth's orbit.

Engineers have used the famed radio telescope at Jodrell Bank in the U.K. as part of an international plan to watch high-altitude space debris. Normally, old satellites and bits of spacecraft stuck up in geostationary orbit are too high up for our normal ways of watching space debris. However, said international project, called Long Baseline Multistatic Radar (LBMR), successfully used a radio telescope to get around this problem.

"That's the first time that's ever been done," Simon Garrington, associate director of Jodrell Bank, said in a video about the project.

A pressing problem

It's hardly a secret that junk is rapidly piling up in Earth's orbit — dead satellites, rocket remnants, rubble from satellite collisions or anti-satellite missile tests, and more. And as we keep filling Earth's orbit with thousands more satellites each year, we're also increasing the risk that one is struck by a debris fragment. We need to track this debris.

Most satellites exist in low Earth orbit (LEO) below altitudes of 1,250 miles (2000 kilometers), and indeed space debris is more concentrated at LEO. Still, there’s good reason to be just as concerned about debris in the much higher geostationary orbit (GEO), which falls 22,500 miles (36,000 kilometers) in altitude. Crucial communications and weather satellites lie in GEO, for instance, and space debris doesn't need to come in great quantities to pose a threat — just one unfortunate strike can cripple a satellite.

This leaves debris-hawks with a conundrum. They typically track space junk in LEO with radar, but most ground-based radar systems aren't sensitive enough to watch GEO's heights. Instead, they rely on optical telescopes to see objects in GEO. These telescopes are good for tracking larger objects (larger than about 4 inches, or 10 centimeters, across), but they can't resolve smaller objects as well as radar can. Yet these smaller objects can be just as deadly and destructive as their larger counterparts. If we want to see them with radar, we'll need especially sensitive receivers.

Fortunately, that equipment already exists, too — that's where radio telescopes can help.

Engineers have tried debris-watching with radio telescopes as early as the 1990s, but LBMR, backed by NATO and the U.K. Space Agency, wanted to go further and watch debris in real time.

LBMR's engineers drew up a scheme to make this work. They would broadcast radio waves with a radar installation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in the U.S. These radio waves would glance off debris and fall back into the dishes of U.K. radio telescopes such as the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank. Back on the ground, the radio telescope's signal would be processed and analyzed in real time.

Aligning a radar transmitter with a radio telescope on the far side of an ocean, then processing its signals, is far easier said than done.

"This idea started about seven years ago. It sounded at that time like a crazy idea, because we had no synchronization. We had assets on one end of the ocean and other assets on the other end of the ocean," said Marco Martorella, an electronic engineer at the University of Birmingham and another member of LBMR, in a video. "But we were crazy enough to continue."

This required years of work, but the researchers have now successfully demonstrated that they can receive a signal with a single antenna. This has allowed them to track the distance to a piece of debris, and how quickly that distance is changing, in real time.

Next, the LBMR researchers hope to demonstrate that they can receive radar reflections of the same object with multiple radio telescopes at once. This, the researchers say, would allow debris-hawks to use the radio telescope technique to truly track debris in three dimensions.

In satellite data captured over Antarctica, what appears to be a beautiful, colorful hummingbird emerges from the crest of a mountaintop.

What is it?

While there are no hummingbirds flying around Antarctica, we can see what looks like a small, purple bird in a new satellite image of an Antarctic mountain. The dark belly of this "bird" at the center of this image is actually the top of the mountain Nunatak Zaterjavshijsja in East Antarctica.

What looks like a bird's tail is a stream of ice flowing northeast all the way out to the ocean, and what appear to be feathers splaying outward from the mountaintop are actually crevasses down the mountain. These crevasses are formed by a glacier fracturing the mountain's surface as it flows in the icy current toward the ocean.

This view was captured by radar instruments onboard the satellite NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) that launched as a collaboration between NASA and ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation). The director of NASA's Earth Science Division called NISAR "the most sophisticated radar we've ever built" in a pre-launch briefing last year.

Why is it incredible?

At first glance, this image is puzzling. What could it possibly be? Its bold colors and sharp lines evoke almost alien qualities. But the strange beauty of the shapes and colors in this satellite image reveal important information about glacier movements on the mountain.

"First, it's a beautiful image, with rich details of features that provide insights to how the glacier is moving. Then, because radar can often see through snow and deep into the ice, NISAR can observe fundamentally different properties of Antarctic ice than can be seen in optical imagery," Seongsu Jeong, the signal analysis engineer who produced the image at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. "With NISAR we're seeing what's hidden beneath the surface."

And now anyone can explore NISAR's data. Earlier this week, on July 20, NISAR started making the data from its radar instruments public. Moving forward, mission teams will be rolling out this data so researchers everywhere can use it to study and protect our ever-changing planet.

An amateur astronomer's plans for a camping vacation two years ago transformed into a possible crater find in Canada's north.

Amateur astronomer Joël Lapointe, using Google Maps to figure out his route for the 2024 vacation, saw some odd terrain in Quebec's Côte-Nord region centered on Lake Marsal. Lapointe suspected it was an impact crater from a meteorite, and made a report on Impact Earth — a crowdsourcing website for craters with Canada's Western University in London, Ontario near Toronto. Western planetary geologist Gordon Osinski made a visit to the region in 2025, provisionally not only confirming the crater, but saying it's probably one of the biggest discovered in recent years. The 390-million-year old feature is roughly 15 miles (25 kilometers) wide.

In an email interview with Space.com while on travel in Scotland, Osinski — known as "Oz" by the space community — said to his knowledge the last discovery of that scale was the approximately 31-km (19-mile) Hiawatha structure, also possibly a crater, spotted in Greenland in 2018. "However, that structure is completely buried by ice, so its diameter is uncertain and there is still some controversy about its origin," Oz said.

But in the case of the new crater, called Uhackatik with approval from the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit in whose traditional lands the crater lies, there is no doubt at all where the crater came from. Oz's expedition to the area revealed "shock metamorphic effects", which are deformations to the rocks induced by the shock waves and heating produced by a meteorite impact.

"Impact melt rocks are like they sound: large volumes of rock that are melted by the impact event, but then cool and crystallize to look a lot like volcanic rocks," he said. "Finding these preserved — as they are usually some of the first parts of a crater to be eroded — was a big surprise."

While most of the features are microscopic, Oz said in the field he and his collaborators could easily see "shatter cones", which are branching features in rock layers produced by the shockwave of impact. The research is not yet peer-reviewed, but it will be presented at the 88th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society in Frankfurt, Germany in August.

While 400-million-year-old impact craters on Earth are hard to find, as geologic activity as well as erosion change their features over time, the precious evidence is helpful for scientists to better understand meteorite impacts on the moon, Mars and other rocky extraterrestrial bodies.

In terms of age, Oz noted, the moon's prominent Tycho crater best represents what Uhackatik probably looked like 390 million years ago. But On Earth, one of the best comparisons to Uhackatik is a moon-like crater used to help the Artemis II astronauts get ready for their moon mission this year.

That Earth crater is called Kamestastin (also known as Mistastin) in northern Labrador, Canada. Oz regularly runs expeditions there in consultation with the Mushuau Innu First Nation, as the crater lies within their traditional hunting grounds. Kamestastin includes anorthosite, a common mineral found in craters at the moon's south pole, where NASA hopes to land astronauts under the US-led Artemis program.

Artemis II astronauts Jeremy Hansen (from the Canadian Space Agency or CSA) and Christina Koch (NASA), as well as CSA backup astronaut and lunar-flyby capcom Jenni Gibbons, did an expedition to Kamestastin crater in 2023 alongside Oz and collaborators.

"For comparative craters [to Uhackatik], Kamestastin is actually a great one as the size is very similar," Oz said. "Kamestastin is well-preserved and I've worked there a lot … so in my mind, I was using Kamestastin as a template for exploring this new potential crater."

To fully confirm Uhackatik's extraterrestrial origin, Oz and collaborators are examining samples microscopically for more evidence of shock effects, such as chemistry indicating a high-temperature melt, or deformation effects in the quartz. In the meantime, Oz's lunar work with NASA continues: he will be part of the geology teams supporting the moon-landing astronauts during the Artemis 4 and 5 missions, which will touch down as soon as 2028.

The wildfires tearing across Canada are so extreme that the smoke billowing upward can be seen from space.

What is it?

Over 850 wildfires are currently devastating Canada, as reported by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. The fires are spreading across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario; most remain completely uncontrolled.

In addition to the immense destruction caused by the fires themselves, the smoke from these fires is causing serious concerns about dangerously poor air quality all across Canada and even in the northeastern United States. As far as New York, the air quality on Thursday (July 16) was labeled "very unhealthy" after the state activated emergency air quality protocols.

The smoke is so expansive it's clearly visible in this image captured on July 14 from Earth orbit.

Why is it noteworthy?

Studying wildfires and wildfire smoke from orbit can give us a bigger picture view of these catastrophic event. This data is important for disaster relief in the short term — but also in the long-term. With climate change continuing to progress due to human activities like burning coal for cheap power, we can expect natural disasters to worsen. Among the many effects of climate change, this includes longer and more intense wildfire seasons, especially in regions that are already susceptible to fire such as these regions across Canada.

The new image was captured by the NOAA-21 satellite with the instrument VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imagine Radiometer Suite). You can see massive plumes of smoke over southeastern Canada treading into the northeastern U.S. Thick smoke covers swaths of Canada's landscape and wisps of smoke trail all the way down through New York and across the U.S.

Most of this smoke, at least the smoke we can see in this satellite image, is coming from wildfires in northwestern Ontario. As the wildfires continue to burn, satellites like NOAA-21 will be keeping watch.

Towering glaciers flow down the Himalayas' northern slopes like icy giants cascading onto China's Tibetan Plateau.

What is it?

Back in May, from aboard the International Space Station 259 miles (417 kilometers) above Earth, NASA astronaut Jessica Meir peered out the station's windows with her camera and captured a breathtaking sight.

In that fleeting moment from space, she captured the northern slopes of the Himalaya mountains stretching into China. And atop the mountains, slow-moving rivers of glacial ice carve their way downhill.

This view shows the enormity of this mountain range, which separates Nepal from China's Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayas have the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, with over 110 mountain peaks surpassing 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) of elevation above sea level. Ranging across five countries (Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Pakistan) the mountain range is about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) wide.

Why is it incredible?

With the range being so incredibly expansive, this view from space offers a unique vantage point from which we can see a large swath of the mountains in motion. Even in a helicopter, you would get a fairly localized view of individual mountains in the Himalayas. This view provides a striking scene that you cannot see from the surface of our planet.

This view is also a reminder of how important space is in our evolving understanding of climate change. As our planet continues to change and sea levels rise with warming temperatures, we can see glacial movement from space. This is an important resource to researchers fighting to better understand climate change so we can better fight it. With access to information about glaciers and how they melt, move and flow across the world, we can be better prepared to protect our planet and its inhabitants.

Environmental and scientific organizations are banding together to demand federal environmental reviews of space-based data center projects, which plan to put more than a million new satellites in Earth orbit over the coming years.

Over the last few months, a number of different companies have requested licenses from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to launch data centers into space. SpaceX's proposal alone requests licenses for up to one million satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). But the requested licenses don't come with any environmental review of the impacts that the satellites — especially collectively — could have on dark skies, wildlife or our atmosphere. In response, a coalition of environmental and scientific organizations represented by the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice have petitioned the FCC for this review.

"Allowing a million orbiting data centers with no environmental review isn’t just irresponsible — it’s reckless," Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said in a statement on Wednesday (July 8). "The potential for these projects to degrade the atmosphere with pollution and debris and harm wildlife needs to be carefully considered before licensing these projects."

Space is big, but a million new satellites added to LEO to support space-based data centers would be a massive increase. Currently, just Earth orbit harbors just 15,000 active satellites and 46,000 tracked objects overall. This number was already on track to grow to 58,000 active satellites, thanks in large part to SpaceX's ever-growing Starlink broadband megoconstellation, but the data-center plans could make it absolutely explode.

Experts suggest that this significant addition to the technological ecosystem in orbit could have disastrous consequences for life on Earth.

"Drastically expanding satellites in space has a direct impact on people’s everyday lives as well as the future of our planet," Jan Hasselman, senior attorney at Earthjustice, said in the statement. "Agencies that authorize companies looking to space as the next frontier still must operate within the law, and the law requires the FCC to consider all the risks and impacts of these proposals. If we have to sue so that they comply, we will."

The FCC has not yet required any environmental review for satellite companies seeking authorization to deploy in LEO. With its new petition, this coalition aims to change that, asking the FCC to stop granting licenses for orbiting data centers without an environmental review.

What possible environmental harms are they worried about? First of all, as more and more satellites are added to the orbital population, the greater chance there is of collisions, which could produce debris that not only clutters Earth orbit but also increases the risk of additional collisions.

Further the rocket launches that propel the satellites to orbit contribute greenhouse gas emissions to our atmosphere. And the spacecraft cause further pollution when they deorbit, releasing heavy metals and other materials when they burn up in Earth's air.

In addition, a massive increase in satellites will fundamentally change the night sky. Light pollution is known to impact wildlife and ecosystems, disrupting natural rhythms and influencing everything from migration patterns to daily feeding schedules. These disruptions can push animals like bats to miss windows in which insect prey are available, causing them to starve. They can also prevent mountain lions — apex predators that uphold their local ecosystems — from roaming normally at night, fragmenting populations over time, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

The effects of light pollution on wildlife would doubtless grow if suddenly a million new, blinking satellites were added to our night skies. And issues with light pollution extend to our species as well, as life would look quite different if our night skies were much more crowded by bright lights.

"These projects could permanently alter the night sky as we know it," Ruskin Hartley, executive director of DarkSky International, said in the statement. "The FCC needs to take seriously its obligation to ensure these projects do not cause unnecessary harm to naturally dark skies, or to our overall environment."

If you look at this picture for too long, you might start to hear the waves lapping up against the shore or feel a salty breeze in the air.

You might not have a trip to the Bahamas planned, but you can always enjoy its beauty in this spectacular summertime snapshot captured by NASA astronaut Chris Williams from aboard the International Space Station.

What is it?

In a snapshot that looks straight out of a travel commercial, we can see the crests of rippling waves of sand peeking out from beneath turquoise waters off the coast of the island Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

The moment was captured 263 miles (423 kilometers) above Earth's Atlantic Ocean from aboard the space station orbiting our planet.

This isn't the first fun snapshot captured by Williams who also recently flexed his muscles for a photo mid-spacewalk.

Why is it incredible?

This photo is incredibly beautiful. That much is immediately obvious. And if you've ever swam in picturesque waters like this, then you know how calming and magical such places on Earth can be.

But this photo is more than just pretty, as it shows that we can see Earth's beauty from 263 miles away. It is a reminder that our planet is truly special. Imagine if a future mission saw beauty like this from space on a far off exoplanet, or even a planet outside of our solar system. Currently, our planet is the only one we know of with views like this, but it's possible that in the future we might find tropical shorelines and vacation vistas aren't exclusive to our home planet.

For decades, astronomers have debated whether Earth's fate was tied to the sun's. When the star exhausts the hydrogen fuel that powers it about 5 billion years, it will swell into a red giant large enough to engulf Mercury and Venus — and, several studies have suggested, Earth as well.

New research, however, suggests our planet has a better chance of escaping that fiery end than previously thought. Using updated models of how aging stars interact with their planets, researchers found that the gravitational forces drawing Earth toward the expanding sun are weaker than older models predicted. That would give the planet more time to drift outward as the dying sun sheds its outer layers into space, potentially avoiding engulfment altogether.

The finding does not guarantee Earth's survival. Instead, researchers say it shifts the biggest uncertainty from how strongly the expanding sun tugs on planets to the poorly understood variable of how much mass the star will lose during its final stages of evolution.

"The largest uncertainty no longer comes from the tidal calculations, but from how much mass the future sun will lose," study lead author Mats Esseldeurs of the KU Leuven's Institute of Astronomy in Belgium said in a statement. "Observations of sun-like giant stars currently point towards Earth's survival, but we need better observations before we can be certain."

When stars like the sun exhaust their core hydrogen and balloon into massive red giants, they trigger a cosmic tug-of-war between expanding tidal forces pulling planets inward and shedding stellar weight pushing them outward, which ultimately decides whether nearby worlds are engulfed or saved.

This planetary push-and-pull unfolds in two stages. As the sun expands, gravitational tides act like a subtle brake, slowly draining Earth's orbital energy and pulling the planet inward. At the same time, the dying star sheds vast amounts of gas through powerful stellar winds, eventually losing about half its mass. As the sun grows lighter, its gravitational grip weakens, pushing the surviving planets outward into a wider orbit that could double their distance from the star, according to NASA.

"The fate of Earth depends on a delicate balance between these two effects," Esseldeurs said in the statement. "If tidal interactions dominate, Earth is engulfed. If mass loss dominates, Earth escapes to a wider orbit."

Previous studies reached different conclusions mostly because they treated those competing processes differently, Esseldeurs and his team argue. A few of those studies neglected tidal interactions altogether, while others relied on simplified prescriptions developed decades ago that predicted a much stronger inward pull, according to the study.

Instead of relying on those older formulas, the new study uses updated calculations of tidal forces based on the shifting internal structure and dynamics of aging stars — which the team says allowed it to precisely account for both tidal friction and shifting stellar winds — before testing the results against a range of possible mass-loss rates for the sun's final giant phase.

The results suggest that even with the weaker inward gravitational pull, Mercury and Venus are unable to outpace the expanding sun and are inevitably engulfed, while Earth and Mars migrate safely through both giant phases, leaving our planet to eventually settle into a broader orbit around the white dwarf remnant the sun will leave behind, the study found.

The picture is far from settled, however. Because astronomers still cannot precisely observe how rapidly sun-like stars lose mass late in life, "the ultimate fate of the Earth remains uncertain," the researchers write in the new paper.

By factoring in real-world mass-loss rates from L2 Pup — a red giant star roughly 183 light-years away that was used as a proxy for our future sun due to its similar mass — the researchers confirmed that Earth will drift outward just quickly enough to avoid being swallowed, tipping the scales toward survival over destruction, the study notes.

For us humans, the finding offers academic comfort rather than practical salvation. Most scientists agree that as the sun ages, it will steadily grow hotter, boiling Earth's oceans and rendering the planet completely uninhabitable in about 1 billion years, long before the sun begins to expand.

Yet even if humans aren't around to witness it, tracking Earth's ultimate survival provides important context for how planetary systems evolve as their stars age, a framework that researchers say will be further refined by future observations of dying, sun-like stars.

"This will enable us to conduct population studies of the planetary orbital evolution around evolved stars," the researchers wrote in the paper, "and help us to constrain the future evolution of the Earth-sun system."

The study was published in June in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Three years before the skyscraper-size asteroid Apophis makes its very close (but safe) flyby of Earth, scientists have already begun charting exactly when and where billions of people can watch it sweep across the sky.

Speaking at an "Apophis T-3 Years" workshop held earlier this month at the University of Padua in Italy, retired cartographer Michael Zeiler and astronomer Rick Fienberg shared detailed visibility maps charting the asteroid's passage across Earth's skies.

According to their calculations, roughly 90% of the world's population — about 7.6 billion people — lives in regions where Apophis could, in principle, be seen with the naked eye on April 13, 2029. The actual viewing success will depend more on earthly considerations, however, including cloud cover and the extent of light pollution.

Known formally as 99942 Apophis, the space rock will not resemble a blazing meteor tearing through the sky. Instead, scientists say it will appear as a point-like speck of light gliding steadily across, which, at its closest approach, will appear to move by about the apparent width of the full moon every minute.

"It will definitely be noticeable," Fienberg told Space.com. "It's going to be moving more slowly than a satellite — it will cross the sky in hours, rather than minutes, and it will just be a point."

According to the new maps, the asteroid should remain visible to the naked eye for about seven hours, beginning over Australia at 11:00 a.m. EDT (15:00 UTC) and concluding over the North Atlantic at 6:00 p.m. EDT (22:00 UTC).

At 4:35 p.m. EDT (20:35 UTC), Apophis is expected to reach its greatest apparent brightness as it passes over Cameroon, offering prime viewing to an estimated 3.9 billion people across Africa, Asia, eastern South America and parts of Europe.

About an hour later, at 5:45 p.m. EDT (21:45 UTC), the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth, passing about 19,700 miles (31,600 kilometers) above the North Atlantic — well inside the orbit of Earth's geostationary satellites. The event would be visible across much of South America, the United States, Africa and parts of Europe, reaching roughly 2 billion people.

"This is the first time we've been able to predict in human history an asteroid visibly passing by the Earth," Richard Binzel, a professor of planetary sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), said during the workshop. "That's part of a shared experience."

As excitement ramps up for the once-in-a-millennium spectacle, Binzel opened the workshop with three messages: "Apophis will safely pass the Earth. Apophis will safely pass the Earth. Apophis will safely pass the Earth."

That absolute certainty is the hard-won fruit of more than two decades of increasingly precise observations. When Apophis was discovered in 2004, early calculations suggested a 1-in-37 chance of an impact in 2029, making it the most potentially hazardous asteroid known at the time. Additional observations steadily refined the asteroid's orbit, eliminating any possibility of a collision in 2029 and also ruling out any impact threat for at least the next century, according to NASA.

With the impact threat removed, scientists now view the flyby as a rare opportunity to observe how Earth's gravity affects an asteroid during an exceptionally close encounter.

Our planet's gravity is expected to tug the asteroid into a new orbit around the sun without posing any future danger. During the flyby, however, those same gravitational forces may stretch and squeeze the asteroid enough to trigger landslides or expose pristine material hidden beneath its weathered surface. Or they may do almost nothing.

"We simply don't know what's going to happen," Binzel said during the workshop. "Apophis may go by and not care too much, or maybe we'll see something significant."

"That's why we have to look," he added. "We're gonna learn a lot either way."

At the workshop, scientists said they hope to monitor the flyby from observatories in Spain's Canary Islands, among other places, as its location in the Atlantic Ocean offers an ideal view of the asteroid's closest approach as well as favorable prospects for clear skies.

Wildfires across the globe can be seen all the way from space. And one unexpected tool has come in handy to spot plumes of wildfire smoke: a satellite designed to study Earth's oceans.

What is it?

In this photo, we can see swirls of wildfire smoke over the Great Lakes in Canada. Fluffy white clouds float over the land and lakes, in contrast to the wisps of gray smoke, which float out from massive wildfires that ripped through North America.

The photo was snapped in May of last year by NASA's PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, and ocean Ecosystem) satellite. This seems logical, as it is an Earth-monitoring satellite, but what's surprising is that the orbiting spacecraft was actually designed to study and monitor Earth's oceans and atmosphere. In fact, the image itself was captured by PACE's Ocean Color Instrument, which does "hyperspectral" imaging, meaning that it observes the planet in hundreds of different wavelengths of light (in visible, near-infrared and ultraviolet).

Why is it incredible?

This image, among others, shows the incredible versatility of space technologies like PACE. While wildfire monitoring isn't its explicit purpose, images and data from this mission could be incredibly helpful in deepening our understanding of wildfires and how they spread.

"The PACE satellite observes land too, and does it really well," Skye Caplan, terrestrial lead for the PACE mission at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. "There is so much to explore with a new hyperspectral data set."

In fact, in addition to capturing wildfire smoke, as we can see in this image, PACE's Ocean Color Instrument can also spot changes in vegetation, burn scars and the charred aftermath of a wildfire. Images in the instrument's hundreds of wavelengths can reveal a variety of detailed information, such as how stressed, dry or even pigmented plants are on Earth's surface. This type of information could also be beneficial in identifying dry areas that could be at a higher risk of wildfires sparking.

Every year, millions of people travel to remote, protected "dark-sky parks" in search of experiences that depend on true darkness — photographing the Milky Way's heart arcing overhead, observing nocturnal wildlife in its natural rhythm, or simply standing beneath an ink-black sea of stars unblurred by artificial light.

Scientists have long warned that rising levels of artificial light — increasingly amplified by satellite megaconstellations orbiting our planet — are steadily eroding these nightscapes, disrupting ecosystems, affecting human health and dimming views of stars and distant celestial objects. Darkness itself carries no price tag, however, meaning its loss has largely been absent from the economic calculations that guide development and outdoor lighting decisions. Now, new research attempts to translate that loss visible in monetary terms.

A study combining satellite data with on-the-ground surveys of visitors at several "gold-tier" dark-sky sites found that people were less likely to choose parks with greater artificial skyglow or poorer night-sky conditions, and showed a clear willingness to pay more for darker skies.

On average, visitors would pay about $18 more per trip for marginally darker skies, and roughly $45 more per night for a one-step improvement on the Bortle Dark Sky Scale, a widely used measure of night-sky quality.

"This may seem really small at the per-visitor and per-trip unit estimate," said Jordan Smith, the study's lead author and director of the Institute of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism at Utah State University, "but when we scale through park-wide visitation, it becomes very, very significant."

Over a four-month period, the researchers estimated that light pollution reduced the recreational value of flagship dark-sky destinations in the U.S. by between $25 million and nearly $66 million.

The figures, presented at the 248th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in California, do not represent lost park revenue, but what economists call "welfare losses" — the decline in visitor satisfaction when environmental quality deteriorates. The concept is akin to paying for a concert expecting excellent sound and instead finding the speakers distorted; the performance still occurs, but it feels worth less than anticipated.

By assigning a dollar value to changes in night-sky quality, the researchers argue, policymakers gain a way to weigh the hidden costs of artificial lighting against the benefits of development and outdoor illumination.

"It's a foundational building block that allows that cost-benefit analysis to subsequently occur," Smith said.

Speaking at a press briefing during the conference, Smith said a central challenge is the gap between measuring light pollution and measuring what it costs in lived experience. Satellites and ground instruments can track where artificial light is spreading and how quickly it is increasing, he said, "but they can't tell us much about what that value is — what is actually lost due to anthropogenic light at night?"

To bridge that gap, Smith and his colleagues focused on the Colorado Plateau, a rugged region spanning Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico that contains one of the world's highest concentrations of "gold-tier" dark-sky sites, a designation that signifies the darkest and clearest night skies on Earth.

Over 82 nights in April, May, September and October, researchers interviewed visitors after dusk at campgrounds, scenic overlooks and parking areas. In total, they surveyed 634 travelers across nine destinations, including Arches, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands and Natural Bridges National Monument, focusing on visitors whose trips depended specifically on high-quality night skies, the study notes.

By pairing survey responses with satellite measurements of nighttime brightness and local atmospheric conditions — including humidity, moonlight and airborne particles, all of which affect sky visibility — the team found a consistent preference for darker skies and a willingness to pay more for them.

The highest projected welfare losses, the researchers found, were heavily concentrated at premier destinations, led by the Grand Canyon and Zion national parks. Smaller or more remote parks showed comparatively modest total losses, a result driven by fewer visitors rather than an absence of dark-sky value, the study notes.

The researchers suggest that extending this kind of monitoring across a full year and over multiple years could help treat the night sky not only as a scientific and cultural asset, but as a measurable economic asset whose value changes with lighting policy, development and conservation.

As cities expand and artificial light continues to spread, studies like this are reframing a question once largely confined to science as an economic one: what is a star-filled sky worth?

If you've ever seen auroras in the night sky, then you are one of the lucky few who has enjoyed a view of one of nature's most colorful and spectacular phenomena. But for the very lucky, very few who've seen auroras from space, the view is on a whole other level!

What is it?

When charged particles streaming constantly from the sun, also known as the solar wind, reach Earth and interact with our atmosphere, it creates what we call auroras. Seeing these spectacular, colorful displays in the sky is on many people's bucket list, as auroras can light up the sky in a rainbow of colors. But this beautiful phenomenon happening in our atmosphere can also be seen from space.

European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, who is currently aboard the International Space Station as part of the εpsilon mission, spotted the aurora australis, or auroras over the Southern Hemisphere. (Lights in the Northern Hemisphere are known as the aurora borealis.)

And the image she captured of the moment really speaks for itself. Neon green swirls look truly otherworldly against a haze of bright purple blanketing Earth, which also seems enveloped in a ruby red glow. The reddish glow of the auroras can even be seen against the outside of the space station in this photograph.

Why is it incredible?

While her photograph speaks for itself, Adenot actually shared her own thoughts on the view via social media. One incredible thing about human spaceflight in the modern world is that, even from an orbiting laboratory, astronauts can share their experiences with the world in real time.

"Day 127, orbit 1968 — That aurora was absolutely spectacular… shimmering and dancing beneath us, stretching as far as the eye could see, and so intense it lit up the Station in shades of green," Adenot said. "We’ve seen several since the beginning of the mission, but this one was on a completely different level — far too bright for my usual aurora camera settings. Moments like these never get old up here; the whole crew suddenly find themselves vying for a good spot at a window!"

Twice each year, we celebrate what we call a solstice when Earth is at its maximum tilt toward or away from the sun. And during this June's summer solstice, a European weather satellite managed to capture a striking image of the celestial moment from space.

What is it?

This image of the solstice was captured on June 21 by the European Space Agency's (ESA) Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) mission. This is a fleet of Earth-monitoring satellites that capture images of our home planet to support weather monitoring over Europe, Africa and regions of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The first Meteosat satellite launched in 1977 as ESA's first Earth-observing mission, and to date, there have been 11 satellites launched as part of this series.

In this image, the first of the third generation of Meteosat satellites, MTG-I1, captured an image of Earth just six minutes after we passed the moment of summer solstice, according to ESA. This image shows clearly Earth's "terminator line," or the fuzzy "line" that divides nighttime and daytime on a planet.

Why is it incredible?

On the day of a solstice when Earth is at its maximum tilt, there is almost exactly the same amount of daytime as there is nighttime. In the northern hemisphere, the June solstice marks the longest day of the year, or the day with the most sunlight. And, in the southern hemisphere, the June solstice marks the shortest day of the year.

In June, those in the northern hemisphere celebrate their extra hours of sunlight before the days start getting shorter again. Historically, solstices have been celebrated around the world, folded into cultural traditions and practices. As humans invented agriculture, and our food systems rely on things like available sunlight, it makes sense that throughout time, the changing duration of sunlight would be tightly intertwined with all aspects of our day-to-day lives.

The oldest known asteroid impact site on Earth was created 3.02 billion years ago in what's now Western Australia — not far from where we've seen the oldest traces of life on our planet.

A rock formation in Western Australia's Pilbara region seems to offer evidence of an asteroid slamming into Earth's newly-formed rocky crust around 3.02 billion years ago. That makes the formation, called the North Pole Dome, the oldest evidence of an asteroid impact on Earth, according to a recent study, which dated crystals in the rocks shocked and reshaped by the impact's tremendous heat and pressure.

It's the latest salvo in an ongoing debate about the age of the crater (or what's left of it after billions of years of erosion), and there's more at stake than bragging rights: a crater dating back this deep in Earth's distant past could shed light on the rise of the continents and the origin of life.

A rare glimpse

Inside most rocks in Earth's crust, tiny grains of mineral called zircon quietly record the passage of eons. Zircon contains tiny amounts of uranium, which slowly but steadily breaks down into lead; that steadiness is key, because the ratios of those two elements reveal how long it's been since a grain of zircon crystallized from hot, molten rock. In this case, zircon grains told Kirkland and his colleagues that it had been about 3.02 billion years since the tremendous heat and pressure of an asteroid impact melted zircon crystals in the rocks around North Pole Dome.

"Some zircons at the North Pole Dome have unusual branching, skeletal shapes," Kirkland said in an emailed press release. "We interpret these as impact-modified crystals, formed when older zircon was disrupted, partly recrystallized, and in places, regrown during the intense heating caused by the impact."

If Kirkland and his colleagues are right, the area, also called the Miralga Impact Structure, is the oldest trace of an asteroid colliding with our planet. The newly published date makes Miralga a relic of a tumultuous period in our solar system's history, called the Late Heavy Bombardment, when the giant planets were still jockeying for position in their orbits around the sun, flinging asteroids and comets toward the inner solar system in the process (or so cosmologists theorize). Amid this rain of space rocks, Earth was midway through the Archaean Eon, with the planet's surface finally cooling to form a thin crust of solid rock. Earth's surface lay beneath an orangish haze of methane, a little like a warmer version of Saturn's moon Titan.

And somewhere in there, the first life took shape.

The oldest traces of that early life are just a few kilometers from North Pole Dome: limestone stromatolites, made of layers of tiny sediment grains trapped in, and eventually left behind by, sheets of early bacteria. The ones in Pilbara are about 3.5 billion years old, another date courtesy of zircon grains. If the Miralga impact happened 3.02 billion years ago, it struck a world already teeming with overlapping mats of bacteria.

The oldest known Earth rock, a 4.35-billion-year-old sandstone formation (also dated using zircon), lies just a few hundred kilometers south of Pilbara, in the Jack Hills. Why is all of this — the oldest rocks, the oldest asteroid crater, and the oldest traces of life — in Western Australia? It's reasonably likely that crust formed, life emerged, and meteors smashed into the ground millions of years earlier, in places all over the world, but the evidence just happened to be preserved in this area of Australia. Most of Earth's very oldest rocks have long since been reworked by plate tectonics or erosion, basically erasing the first chapters of our geological record.

A heated debate about heated rock

"While the site had previously been identified as an ancient impact crater, its exact age remained uncertain," said Kirkland.

Last year, Kirkland and his colleagues proposed that the impact dated back to 3.47 billion years ago, almost the same age as the nearby stromatolites. In that same paper, the team suggested that the original crater – whose outline has long since eroded away, leaving behind only impact-shocked rocks and tantalizing hints – might have been up to 62 miles (100 km) wide. The 22-mile-wide (35-kilometer-wide) North Pole Dome itself seemed to mark the crater's center; rock in the middle of large craters often rebounds upward after the impact, leaving a peak or dome behind (picture the way the middle of a trampoline flexes upward, captured in a freeze frame).

But another group of geoscientists published a paper a few months later, arguing that Miralga (a name they gave the crater, based on the local Aboriginal peoples' name for the area) couldn't be any more than 2.7 billion years old, and only 10 miles (16 km) wide. That's still substantial, and old enough to be interesting, but too young and too small to have played much of a role in shaping the region's life, or its continental crust.

"By the time of the impact, the Pilbara was already quite old," wrote the study’s authors in an essay at the time (of the paper, not the impact).

The teams agreed on, basically, one thing: the area around North Pole Dome was definitely an impact site, and dating very old rocks is not easy. Both 2025 papers looked at the placement of rocks called shatter cones, which form when the shockwaves of an impact (or, sometimes, an underground nuclear bomb test) pass through rock, leaving behind ripples, striations, or cracks. But based on where the shatter cones appeared in relation to other rock layers, the two teams of scientists drew very different conclusions.

"Ancient craters are incredibly difficult to date, because over billions of years, rocks are altered by heat, pressure, and fluids, which can obscure or reset the original impact signatures," said Kirkland, whose team now argues that the zircon crystal dates are much more precise than either team's previous efforts. "What we've been able to do here is separate the moment of impact from its long geological history."

Curtin University geoscientist Chris Kirkland and his colleagues published their work in the journal Geology.

A new planetary habitability model could make the search for aliens more efficient by quickly identifying rocky worlds unlikely to sustain the atmospheres needed for life as we know it.

The software, called the Smaller Than Earth Habitability Model (STEHM), allows astronomers to screen exoplanets before committing valuable telescope time to detailed observations. Developed by researchers at Stanford University, the model assesses whether a rocky planet can build and retain an atmosphere over billions of years — a prerequisite for life as we know it, according to a statement from the university.

Astronomers searching for life beyond Earth face a daunting challenge: thousands of exoplanets have already been discovered, and billions more are thought to exist throughout the Milky Way — roughly one for every star in the galaxy. As powerful new telescopes come online, researchers increasingly need ways to identify which worlds are worth closer study.

"The only way that we're going to ever find out if there are signatures of life out there is by observing the atmosphere of these planets," Michelle Hill, lead author of the study who developed STEHM, said in the statement.

Traditionally, scientists have focused on whether a planet lies within its star's habitable zone, the region where temperatures may allow liquid water to exist on the surface. But location alone does not guarantee habitability. A planet without a substantial atmosphere may be unable to maintain stable temperatures, shield itself from radiation or support surface water, the researchers said.

STEHM adds a second layer to this assessment by estimating whether small rocky planets can generate and retain atmospheres over geologic timescales. The model links a planet's size to its ability to hold onto atmospheric gases, helping identify a lower size threshold for potentially habitable worlds.

To build STEHM, Hill used the ExoPlex planetary simulation code to model six rocky worlds ranging from half Earth's size to Earth-size, testing how planetary structure, volcanic activity, internal heat and stellar radiation affect atmospheric survival. The model was validated using Venus and Mars, correctly reproducing Venus's thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and Mars's long-term atmospheric loss.

The results suggest that rocky planets at least 80% the size of Earth can retain atmospheres for 10 billion years or more when orbiting within habitable zones around sun-like stars. Smaller planets generally lose their atmospheres more quickly, though worlds around 70% of Earth's size may still be habitable under favorable conditions. Atmospheric longevity also depends strongly on initial carbon content and heat-producing elements that drive volcanic activity, allowing STEHM to serve as a size-based filter for identifying the most promising habitable worlds.

"Maybe there's life on other planets under the ground, but we are never going to be able to see it because we can't send something to those exoplanets," Hill said in the statement. "The best chance we've got is looking for signs of life by analyzing atmospheres from afar."

By narrowing the field of candidates, STEHM could help astronomers focus on the most promising planets for life while avoiding wasting resources on unlikely targets. The approach may be especially useful as next-generation missions, such as the European Space Agency's PLATO space telescope, expand the catalog of rocky exoplanets around nearby stars. Researchers hope the model will help prioritize which of these planets merit follow-up observations.

STEHM not only addresses where life beyond Earth could occur, but when it might, by modeling whether exoplanets can actually hold onto atmospheres over geologic timescales — a key prerequisite for life to take hold in the first place.

"Maybe the answer to why we haven't found any life yet is that we're so early in the grand scheme of what has been created through the lives and deaths of stars," Hill said in the statement. "Maybe we're one of the first."

Their findings were published June 4 in the Planetary Science Journal.

It's always a treat to be reminded that we have spacecraft orbiting Mars right now, and a new image from one of these Red Planet probes does just that.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express has beamed to Earth a beautiful view of a region on Mars known as Mamers Valles. This is a sweeping valley system that stretches across nearly 600 miles (1,000 kilometers) of land. And if your day is feeling a little dry, there's a little game you can play while looking at the image.

I spy 30 dust devils hidden in the crevices of these Martian valleys.

What are we looking at?

Dust devils are basically small tornadoes that pick up dust as they whirl around. They're common on Earth and on Mars: Rovers and orbiters have imaged these phenomena many times on the Red Planet. One time, for instance, a mission team tracked about 1,000 of them speeding across the Red Planet. Another time, NASA's Perseverance rover watched two of these devils merge into one large devil. We've even heard them "crackle" before, thanks to another Perseverance video.

Mars' dust devils are far larger than those of Earth, reaching heights of almost 5 miles (8 km) and sometimes racing at speeds of about 148 feet (45 meters) per second.

In the image below, you can see the full picture of the valleys; the devils, ESA says, are small yellow dots with pinkish trailing shadows. You can try to spot the devils on your own, but if you need some help, ESA has outlined precisely where each one is just here.

Why is it noteworthy?

Scientists are so interested in Martian dust devils because they help map the planet's otherwise invisible wind. That can aid in future Mars mission planning as well as helping researchers decode the general Red Planet environment— information that could lead to discoveries about Mars' watery past or its evolution through time.

But besides dust devils, the region depicted in the image, Mamers Valles, is worth admiring, too.

Thanks to its vastness, Mamers Valles actually connects Mars' ancient southern highlands with its northern lowlands, according to an ESA statement. Plus, all around the valleys of this 3.8-billion-year-old area lie many other land features — including what used to be full-on glaciers. Now covered in debris, these glaciers should hold water ice underneath, which would be a great target for a future Mars mission to explore.

As for when that future mission could take off, only time (and probably the success of NASA's Artemis program) will tell.

Astronomers have discovered chemical differences between binary stars that indicate one is a cosmic cannibal that has devoured at least one planet.

Binary stars should have the same chemical composition because each star is formed from the same vast cloud of gas and dust; however earlier this year the team behind this new research discovered that the two stars of HD 81809, located around 101 light-years away, are chemically different. One of the stars, HD 81809B, has a much greater concentration of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers call "metals," at its surface than its binary partner HD 81809A.

This new research suggests that the reason for the metal enrichment of HD 81809B is that this star has consumed an exoplanet which was between 50 and 75 times the size of Earth.

"This is the first binary system to be found with this chemical difference, which is very unusual," team leader Nuno Moedas of the Technical University of Denmark told Space.com. "Binary systems are 'like siblings' in that they are born from the same molecular cloud, meaning they have the same chemical composition. As with siblings, some differences in element abundances can appear due to physical processes. However, these differences will be much smaller than those of HD 81809."

Moedas added that there are only two possible explanations for the differences between HD 81809B and HD 81809A.

"One is that the stars are not 'real siblings' and were born from different molecular clouds containing different elements," Moedas said. "The other explanation is that star HD 81809B suffered a more drastic event during its evolution, such as ingesting a planet, which could have changed its chemical composition."

There is a "smoking gun" piece of evidence that planetary engulfment is the correct explanation for the metal enrichment of HD 81809B, however.

"It could be very hard to distinguish the two scenarios, but the main evidence for a planet's engulfment is the high abundance of lithium in HD 81809B that is not normal," Moedas said. "Lithium is a very volatile element, and it is easily destroyed in stars, so we expect very low abundances of this element when observing stars. For the case of HD 81809B, the most viable explanation for the large presence of lithium is an ingestion of a planet."

The team isn't quite sure how HD 81809B came to feast on one of its planets, but Moedas suggests it could be the result of gravitational interactions between the binary stars disrupting the orbit of the unfortunate planet, resulting in it falling into one of its stars. The question also remains of how many planets HD 81809B has devoured.

"We can only estimate the amount of planetary material required, which we find to be 75 times the mass of Earth. It is possible that the star ingested three planets, each 25 times more massive than Earth," Moedas said. "The event happened a few million years ago, and there are physical processes in the star that will 'clean up' the evidence and try to make the star's chemical abundance similar to that before the event."

Because of the physical processes within HD 81809B, the team can't tell much more about the planet, or planets that were devoured. However, there is a possibility that this information may be recovered from a dusty disk of debris detected in this system.

"We still do not know the exact location, but if it is around the secondary star, it could be the remains of a planet falling into the star," Moedas said. "We could use this to understand the composition of the planet. However, we are far from being able to study this debris disk with the current instruments we have. We probably still need to revisit this system, as there is still a lot we don't know.

"There is a lot to discover."A pre-peer-reviewed version of the team's research appears on the paper repository site arXiv.

On Sunday (June 14), the Hawaiian volcano Kīlauea erupted for the 49th time that we know of — marking its 49th "episode," as scientists say.

And during the show, the GOES-18 weather satellite caught the action: the volcano blasting lava about 700 feet (210 meters) into the air. A gif of the footage can be seen just below.

What are we looking at?

Specifically, in this GOES-18 satellite imagery of the Kīlauea eruption, take note of the bright red spot toward the bottom right of the island. That color indicates warm to hot fire, per the scale visible at the bottom of the gif.

The gif itself is also sped up, showcasing a timespan from 3:01 p.m. EDT (1901 UTC) on Sunday to 10:31 p.m. EDT the same day (0331 UTC the following day).

Why is it noteworthy?

It's a treat to witness Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano erupting for many reasons, one being its grandeur. It's considered the most active volcano on Earth, having consistently erupted for the last 200 years or so.

It's also huge, with a 4,090-foot (1,250-meter) summit that has a depression about 3 miles (5 kilometers) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide. This very large depression is what's known as a "caldera." You can think of it as a huge crater on the volcano's summit.

That crater is called Halema'uma'u, and is in fact where the eruptions of this volcano originate. This particular eruption lasted about seven and a half hours, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, but no lava was reported exiting the caldera territory. In conjunction with the eruption, however, the USGS reported three earthquakes within Kīlauea caldera.

Another reason this GOES-18 satellite is pretty amazing is it illustrates once again how a weather satellite's data can be very versatile. Satellite imagery of natural disasters in particular can help scientists monitor the status of hazardous areas in order to aid relief efforts, if needed.

That's going to be especially important as human-driven climate change, caused by practices like burning coal for cheap power, continues to grow in severity. Global warming is directly correlated with increases in serious disasters like hurricanes, cyclones and wildfires. The more satellite eyes we have on these events, the better.

There are other benefits to satellite images as well — things like penguin safety and solar eclipse views, for example. And some satellites are even able to watch over humanmade disasters, such as this one that caught Blue Origin's rocket explosion from space.

As for this erupting volcano, now that it's quieted down, scientists have been trying to predict when the next outflow could occur. According to the USGS, the 50th episode is forecast to occur "between June 24 and June 29 with June 25-26 most likely."

Fragments of ice splintered from a glacier float down an Antarctic lake in a photo captured from aboard the International Space Station.

What is it?

In a new photograph snapped by astronauts on the International Space Station, you can see pieces of the Tyndall Glacier splintering off and floating out into the lake Lago Geikie. Even from space, the chunks of ice falling from the glacier can be seen floating away.

The Tyndall Glacier in southern Chile is part of the Southern Patagonian Icefield. Located between Chile and Argentina, this is the second-largest continuous ice field like it in the world. It measures at over 5,000 square miles of ice (13,000 square kilometers).

It is the larger half of two remaining pieces of the Patagonian Ice Sheet, an almost unbelievably massive sheet of ice that covered southern Chile during the last glacial period over 20,000 years ago.

Why is it incredible?

As of 2025, the worlds glaciers have lost over 300 tons (273 tonnes) of ice in just the last 20 years alone. With the progression of climate change, this ice continues to melt, fragment and contribute to rising sea levels around the globe. And in this image, we can see the process with our own eyes.

The Tyndall Glacier has been shrinking for about 150 years; as more and more pieces of this glacier break off or melt, Lago Geikie continues to grow and expand. In the past four years alone, Tyndall has lost 1.4 miles (2.2 kilometers) in length, according to glaciologist Mauri Pelto of Nicholas College. Interestingly, while glacier shrinking is concerning as it contributes to sea level rise which puts coastal communities in serious danger, this glacial retreat revealed some unexpected findings beyond that. As this glacier has fallen away, it has exposed bedrock where scientists have found ichthyosaur fossils.

When severe solar storms hurtle toward Earth, the planet's first line of defense is its magnetosphere, a vast magnetic bubble that deflects the brunt of the sun's dangerous charged particles. Historically, humanity has only attempted to forecast the storms and brace for impact.

Now, however, a team led by Brian Walsh of Boston University has proposed a bold method to actively strengthen that natural defense using a fleet of spacecraft designed to blunt the impact of space weather before it hits.

The concept, dubbed StormWall, uses computer simulations to show that reinforcing the magnetosphere could reduce the intensity of a major geomagnetic storm by more than half. If realized, the researchers say the system could protect vulnerable satellites, global communications networks, GPS systems and electrical grids from potentially catastrophic disruptions.

"People have always thought, 'space is huge, the sun is massive, we just have to sit here and take whatever it gives us,'" Walsh said in a statement. "But what we found is that we can impact it."

During particularly powerful solar eruptions, Earth's natural shield can be breached through a process called magnetic reconnection. When magnetic fields carried by the solar wind align perfectly with Earth's magnetic field, they temporarily link together. This opens a celestial pathway, allowing massive amounts of solar energy to pour into near-Earth space and trigger geomagnetic storms.

The StormWall concept is designed to interrupt this process. The system would deploy six spacecraft into geosynchronous orbit. Each satellite would carry stores of a "mass-loading material"— substances like barium, lithium, sodium, or calcium — that can be stored safely as a solid or liquid and vaporized on command.

If a dangerous solar storm is detected heading toward Earth, mission controllers would command the fleet to release the material. Sunlight would quickly ionize the vaporized particles, transforming them into a cloud of electrically charged plasma, the study notes.

This artificial plasma would drift toward the sun-facing edge of the magnetosphere, effectively thickening the boundary between Earth and the incoming solar wind. By adding mass to this critical frontier, the team found it could stall the efficiency of magnetic reconnection, forcing the harsh space weather to bounce around and past our planet.

"It's like people in a village who see a river flooding — maybe they can predict when that will happen, but probably what's even better is if they could build a storm wall," Walsh said in the statement. "That's what we're proposing here."

To test the viability of the concept, the researchers simulated the historic May 2024 geomagnetic storm, often called the Mother's Day storm. One model recreated the event under normal conditions, while a second simulated the storm with the StormWall plasma shield active.

The results showed that while StormWall would not eliminate a geomagnetic storm entirely, it could reduce its intensity by more than 50%, according to the study. By disrupting the flow of energy at the boundary of the magnetosphere, the artificial plasma would essentially force the space weather to bounce around and past our planet, the paper notes.

"When you apply some really serious physics to it, it does work," Walsh said in the statement. "And the amount of mass we need, the launch capacities — it's all within our capabilities."

To provide enough coverage, the fleet would collectively need to carry a payload equivalent to about a dozen oil trucks' worth of material, according to the statement. That would not be inexpensive, and costs would be further compounded by the fact that once the payload is fired out and photoionizes, the system would be dead and unable to be replenished — making it a "one-and-done" solution.

However, as private companies pour billions into orbital infrastructure and contemplate launching space-based data centers, Walsh and his team argues that the financial math could soon tip in favor of such a proactive defense.

The study also acknowledges that modifying an interconnected system requires careful evaluation of unintended consequences. The risk of long-term contamination using the StormWall approach is low, it adds, because the artificial plasma would leave the system "relatively quickly," getting swept away by the solar wind within roughly six hours rather than re-entering Earth's atmosphere.

And because the magnetosphere blankets the entire globe, StormWall would serve as a collective shield for the entire planet, the researchers say.

"If you built it, if it was deployed, it would help all people on the planet," Walsh said in the statement. "You couldn't make it in a way that helped only one country, one group of satellites."

Further details about the concept were published on June 2 in the in the journal Space Weather.

French astronaut Sophie Adenot captured the view of a lifetime in a new image of Mount Vesuvius, as seen from aboard the International Space Station.

What is it?

Adenot, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, is currently part of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS) alongside NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. The crew arrived in February and is slated to complete a six-month stay in space. The crew did take a brief detour from their regular duties, however, on June 5 — temporarily taking shelter in the Dragon capsule during a spacewalk meant to fix a concerning leak on the station.

And before this temporary sheltering, on Day 103 (orbit 1598) of their mission, Adenot captured a striking photograph of Mount Vesuvius from the space station and shared it on social media.

Why is it incredible?

"From orbit, volcanoes are some of the most beautiful natural sights… End of April, Etna caught me by surprise one morning as I opened the shutters. The whiteness of its slopes… and that elegant plume of smoke which is a gentle reminder that it’s only lightly, very lightly, asleep. I just had time to take a quick photo, but I kept an eye out for it the next day to capture a few more! A special thought for my fellow ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, who is from Catania, at the foot of Etna," Adenot's post read, according to ESA.

"Less than a minute later, and we're flying over Vesuvius, instantly recognisable by the vast crater, the path winding up to the summit, and, most of all, Naples spread out all around it," she continued.

A rainbow blanket of patchwork colors sprawls across South Africa in this new composite image created using data from NASA's latest Earth-observing mission.

This image incorporates information from NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar), a satellite developed jointly by NASA and ISRO (the Indian Space Research Organisation), to show details of land use down here on Earth.

What is it?

NISAR launched on July 28, 2025 on an Earth-observing mission. It tracks natural disasters and studies ecosystems, agriculture, glaciers and other facets of our planet's surface.

In this image, you can see the region along the Vetrivier (Vet River, or "fat river") in South Africa. This area includes a wide-reaching agricultural region north of Bloemfontein. The data captured by NISAR in this image was used to create color-coded blocks that point to details like crop type.

The Vetrivier flows through the Free State and North West provinces. This river feeds local agriculture, supporting crops across the wider Maize Triangle region, a major agricultural area in the country.

Why is it incredible?

This image is equal parts beauty and science. NISAR and other Earth-studying satellites are key players in our constantly evolving understanding of our planet.

In the pretty abstract color blocks overlaid on this image, green points to an area with vegetation, red means an unvegetated area, and shades of blue depict how quickly a vegetated area changed within the recent season.

"It’s a pretty picture, but there are also important things that it communicates to us," Paul Siqueira, a scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the ecosystems lead of the NISAR science team, said in a statement. "With NISAR, crops like maize and sunflower appear differently than forests because of their size differences and period of growth."