Moments after liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast early Thursday morning, a shower of sparks emerged in the exhaust plume of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket. Seconds later, the rocket twisted on its axis before recovering and continuing the climb into orbit with a batch of US military satellites. The sight may have appeared familiar to
The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said. From a report: Continued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops, they said. This would lock the world into a new
An archaeologist excavating a medieval town in southern Norway had an “out-of-body experience” when she stumbled upon a dream find: a delicate gold ring with a dazzling blue gemstone. “I was completely shaken and had to ask the construction guys if they were messing with me,” Linda Åsheim, an archaeologist with the Norwegian Institute for
An exoplanetary system about 116 light-years from Earth could flip the script on how planets form, according to researchers who discovered it using telescopes from NASA and the European Space Agency, or ESA. Four planets orbit LHS 1903 — a red dwarf star, the most common type of star in the universe — and are
An anomalous plume is visible from one of the Vulcan’s solid rocket motors during the launch of the USSF-87 mission on Feb. 12, 2026. Image: Adam Bernstein/Spaceflight Now. United Launch Alliance said an issue affected one of the four solid rocket boosters that helped propel its Vulcan rocket into space Thursday on a mission for
Base of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket where the tail service masts feed propellants into the rocket’s core stage. Image: Michael Cain/Spaceflight Now. NASA is loading liquid hydrogen aboard its Space Launch System moon rocket at the Kennedy Space Center on Thursday for an unpublicized but crucial test of the repairs made to a
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. An artist’s impression of a galactic center shrouded in dust. | Credit: Peter Z. Harrington Woven through the universe are forces, often unseen, that dictate its grand design. For example, at the very heart of nearly every galaxy,
Explore We’ve got smart rings, smart watches, and now … smart underwear. It was developed by a team of researchers led by biologist Brantly Hall of the University of Maryland in the form of a small device equipped with electrochemical sensors that can clip directly onto your underwear. What does this device measure? Farts, of
When solar storms erupt from the sun and reach Earth, their intensity is measured against a historical benchmark: the Carrington Event. Now, a portrait of 19th century British solar astronomer Richard Carrington has been discovered — providing, at long last, an image of the man for whom the event was named. On September 1, 1859,
Chinese researchers have uncovered a vibrant ecosystem 10 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean, shattering long-held assumptions about life in extreme depths. What they found was far from the barren, lifeless seafloor that scientists once expected at these crushing depths. For years, the deep-sea ecosystems of the Pacific, especially in deep trenches, were a mystery. Scientists