Paris, France (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Around 14 hours before a partial solar eclipse crossed the Dolomites in northern Italy, a cluster of spruce trees showed a sharp, synchronized rise in electrical activity. A new opinion paper argues that this spike did not reflect any anticipatory response to the eclipse but was instead triggered by a local thunderstorm and nearby lightning. In a widely publicized study, Chiolerio and coll

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
A supermassive black hole that shredded a nearby star is blasting out a jet of energy that has kept brightening for four years, in one of the most powerful events ever recorded in the universe. The outburst comes from a tidal disruption event designated AT2018hyz, in which a star strayed too close to a black hole and was torn apart by intense gravitational forces in a process astronomers d

New Haven CT (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
An international collaboration of astrophysicists that includes researchers from Yale has created and tested a detection system that uses gravitational waves to map out the locations of merging black holes - known as supermassive black hole binaries - around the universe. Such a map would provide a vital new way to explore and understand astronomy and physics, just as X-rays and radio wave

Pasadena CA (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Mars has emerged from its holiday behind the Sun, and we here on Earth have been able to reconnect with Curiosity and get back to work on Mars. Our first planning day last Friday gave Curiosity a full weekend of activities, which wrapped up with getting us ready for our next drill. We checked out a broken white rock in the workspace with APXS, MAHLI, and ChemCam's laser spectrometer and fi

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
For upcoming human and robotic missions to the Moon and Mars, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) will establish a new Human Exploration Control Center (HECC) at its site in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich. The new facility will expand the existing German Space Operations Center (GSOC) and is designed to manage complex, long-duration missions beyond low Earth orbit while reinforcing Germany and Europ

Greenbelt MD (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
In a new study, researchers say that non-biological sources they considered could not fully account for the abundance of organic compounds in a sample collected on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover. In March 2025, scientists reported identifying small amounts of decane, undecane, and dodecane in a rock sample analyzed in the chemistry lab aboard Curiosity. These were the largest organic compo

Munich, Germany (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Isar Aerospace is expanding its test operations at Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden, by establishing a second test site in cooperation with SSC Space. The new infrastructure is intended to support the development and production ramp up of the companys Spectrum launch vehicle and to help make access to space more scalable for European customers. The expansion at Esrange is aligned wit

London, UK (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Our Milky Way galaxy may not host a supermassive black hole at its center but instead an enormous concentration of dark matter that exerts an equivalent gravitational influence on nearby stars and gas, according to new research published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The authors argue that this invisible substance, which makes up most of the universe's mass, can account b

Tempe AZ (SPX) Feb 08, 2026
Almost as tall as a football field, NASAs Space Launch System rocket and capsule stack traveled slowly - just under 1 mile per hour - out to the Artemis II launchpad, its temporary home at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Jan. 17, 2026. That slow crawl is in stark contrast to the peak velocity it will reach on launch day, over 22,000 miles per hour, when it will send a crew of four on a j

Crew-12 is scheduled to lift off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, no earlier than Wednesday 11 February.