Scientific discoveries, space, environment and research news.
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Your next career move might require a spacesuit. Dylan Taylor, the billionaire founder and CEO of Voyager Technologies, says humans will be living and working on a moon base within a decade, joining Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Sam Altman in predicting that ordinary jobs are headed off-planet. And Taylor is not hedging on the timeline.
Millions of people across Spain, Iceland and a small corner of Portugal watched the moon blot out the sun on Wednesday evening in Europe's first total solar eclipse since 1999. For Spain, it was the first totality in more than a century. Skies darkened, temperatures dipped, and the sun's corona flared into view for up to two minutes.
A fossil from the late Triassic period has upended one of paleontology's long-standing assumptions. Scientists have found the first evidence that a cynodont, part of the group of mammal-like reptiles that gave rise to all modern mammals, gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs. The discovery pushes the timeline of live birth back by up to 95 million years, according to researchers behind a study published today in Frontiers in Mammal Science.
The Perseid meteor shower, the summer's biggest sky show, reaches its peak tonight under near-perfect conditions. The peak lands on the night of the new moon, meaning no moonlight to wash out the fainter streaks, and under ideal dark skies the Perseids can deliver up to 100 meteors per hour. Even better, it caps a rare double feature: the peak arrives just hours after today's total solar eclipse crossed parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.
SpaceX added another two dozen Starlink satellites to its broadband constellation Tuesday night, launching a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The Starlink 17-49 mission marked the company's 51st flight from the West Coast this year, a pace that shows no sign of slowing.
On August 12, 2026, the moon will pass directly in front of the sun in one of the most significant solar eclipses visible from Europe in decades. For millions of people across the UK, Spain, Iceland, and beyond, this is a rare chance to witness something extraordinary. It is also one that carries a real risk if you are not prepared. Looking at the sun without proper protection can permanently damage your eyes in seconds, so before you step outside, here is what you need to know.