Category Science

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James Webb Space Telescope Spots an Exoplanet Losing Its Atmosphere in a Huge Helium Stream

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have observed a massive helium cloud escaping from the super-puff exoplanet WASP-107b, marking the first direct detection of such atmospheric loss. Webb’s infrared data reveal an enormous exosphere nearly ten times the planet’s radius, with helium streaming both ahead of and behind the planet in its orbit. The ...

Icy Moons Might Have Oceans That Briefly Boil, Study Suggests

A new study suggests that icy moons such as Mimas and Enceladus may host boiling subsurface oceans triggered by thinning ice shells and falling pressure. This low-temperature boiling could still support life beneath the surface. The research also explains geological features on larger icy moons and strengthens their potential as sites for finding extraterrestrial life...

China’s Zhuque-3 Reaches Orbit but Booster Explodes in Failed Landing Attempt

China’s private launch company, LandSpace, successfully sent its Zhuque-3 rocket to low Earth orbit on its maiden flight, delivering its payload with an expendable upper stage. But the mission took a dramatic turn during recovery when one of the booster’s engines stalled in the landing burn, causing the stage to erupt in flames just meters from the pad. Despite th...

Blue Origin to Fly First Wheelchair User to Space on NS-37 Mission

Blue Origin’s NS-37 mission is set to make history as Michi Benthaus, an ESA engineer and wheelchair user, becomes the first person with a mobility disability to travel to space. She will join Hans Koenigsmann and four other civilians on the suborbital flight. The mission underscores a growing push toward inclusive space tourism, as agencies and advocacy groups work...

A Nearby Planet May Have Formed the Moon Following a Collision With Early Earth: Study

A new analysis of Apollo samples and Earth rocks suggests that a nearby rocky planet, not a distant object, collided with early Earth and formed the moon. The study argues that this lost planet, Theia, originated in the inner solar system and shared Earth’s early neighbourhood, offering fresh insight into one of the most important events in our planet’s history.

The best science and nature books of 2025

From the threat of superintelligent AI to the secrets of a longer life; plus the evolution of language and the restless genius of Francis Crick

This felt like the year that AI really arrived. It is on our phones and laptops; it is creeping into digital and corporate infrastructure; it is changing the way we learn, work and create; and the global economy rests on the stratospheric valuations of the corporate giants vying to control it.

But the unchecked rush to go faster and further could extinguish humanity, according to the surprisingly readable and chillingly plausible If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (Bodley Head), by computer scientists Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares, which argues against creating superintelligent AI able to cognitively outpace Homo sapiens in all departments. “Even an AI that cares about understanding the universe is likely to annihilate humans as a side-effect,” they write, “because humans are not the most efficient method for producing truths … out of all possible ways to arrange matter.” Not exactly cheery Christmas reading but, as the machines literally calculate our demise, you’ll finally grasp all that tech bro lingo about tokens, weights and maximising preferences.

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