Science

Geology, paleontology, physics, space and the natural world

In Science, ECOnews reports on new discoveries in geology, paleontology, physics, space, health and the natural world. We explain the latest studies from universities and labs worldwide in plain language.

Illustration of ESA ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover drilling into Mars while a NASA rocket launches in the background.

The European mission aiming to find life on Mars now has a date and a key partner: NASA will provide a rocket and nuclear “heaters,” with launch planned for 2028 and landing in 2030

By ECONEWS

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January 12, 2026 at 3:33 PM

JWST view of the MACS0416 galaxy cluster field with the distant galaxy Y1 circled, plus a zoomed-in close-up

They looked at a galaxy almost at the edge of time and discovered a star factory so hot that it challenges what we believed about the early universe

By Adrian Villellas

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January 12, 2026 at 2:17 PM

Artist’s impression of JAXA’s Akatsuki spacecraft orbiting Venus with the Sun in the background

Japan bids farewell to Akatsuki, the probe that spent eight years monitoring Venus and changed what we knew about its hellish atmosphere

By ECONEWS

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January 12, 2026 at 12:30 PM

CHIME hyperspectral satellite instrument test unit wrapped in gold thermal insulation inside a cleanroom for Copernicus missions.

Europe has just secured a new generation of satellites that will monitor emissions, ice, oceans, and crops like never before

By Adrian Villellas

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January 12, 2026 at 10:33 AM

Illustration of the Bad Dürrenberg Mesolithic woman wearing an antler-and-tooth headdress decorated with feathers.

Archaeologists unearth a woman buried with a baby in a 9,000-year-old tomb

By Adrian Villellas

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January 12, 2026 at 9:02 AM

Eurac Research designs low-cost display cases to protect mummies and skulls in Bolivia’s National Archaeological Museum

By Adrian Villellas

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January 12, 2026 at 6:10 AM

Where today there is only sand and wind, archaeologists have found evidence of a landscape filled with water, food, and human settlements

By ECONEWS

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January 11, 2026 at 12:34 PM

A landslide on an English beach uncovered something impossible: a millipede the size of a car that lived before the dinosaurs

By Adrian Villellas

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January 11, 2026 at 9:28 AM

Scientists managed to trace the tree of life back to a single common ancestor that lived more than two billion years ago

By ECONEWS

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January 11, 2026 at 7:57 AM

What appeared to be a lone survivor from the abyss turns out to be one of the most widespread creatures on the planet, only no one had noticed it

By Adrian Villellas

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January 10, 2026 at 5:37 PM

A 100-million-year-old fossil pearl found in outback Queensland is rewriting a small piece of Australia’s ancient sea story

By ECONEWS

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January 10, 2026 at 12:55 PM

Front view of a fragmented ancient human skull fossil with visible cracks and missing sections against a black background.

A man was struck by a stone projectile 12,000 years ago, survived for months, and his skeleton has just told the whole story

By Adrian Villellas

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January 9, 2026 at 5:00 PM

Map showing marine heatwaves and ocean surface temperature anomalies highlighted in red and orange tones.

A NASA satellite has made visible something microscopic that keeps one of the most endangered whales on the planet alive

By Adrian Villellas

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January 9, 2026 at 3:50 PM

A “supergiant” gold deposit has been found in China that could contain 1,000 metric tons of gold

By Adrian Villellas

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January 9, 2026 at 2:12 PM

Engraved vault plate on NASA’s Europa Clipper, a message in a bottle carrying names, poetry, and water words to Europa.

Europa Clipper carries Earth’s message in a bottle to an alien ocean

By Adrian Villellas

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January 9, 2026 at 7:20 AM

Artist view of TOI-715 b, a super-Earth 137 light-years away in the habitable zone, orbiting a cool red dwarf star.

NASA detects a “super-Earth” just 137 light-years away in the habitable zone: the most intriguing detail is that its year lasts only 19 days

By ECONEWS

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January 9, 2026 at 4:55 AM

Japan resumed supplying the Space Station after five years, and the launch of its new spacecraft marks a quiet shift in its space program

By Adrian Villellas

—

January 8, 2026 at 6:51 PM

Earth briefly borrowed a second moon that may be made of lunar rock

By ECONEWS

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January 8, 2026 at 1:03 PM

Aerial view of Monte Sierpe “Band of Holes” 5,200 pits in ordered rows on a ridge above Peru’s Pisco Valley.

More than 5,200 holes lined up as if they were numbers hid more than just an archaeological mystery

By ECONEWS

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January 8, 2026 at 5:41 AM

Melting clock symbolizing the “time mirror” experiment that reverses part of an electromagnetic wave backward in time.

CUNY physicists create the first “time mirror”, reversing an electromagnetic wave in time

By ECONEWS

—

January 7, 2026 at 6:35 PM

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Science

The European mission aiming to find life on Mars now has a date and a key partner: NASA will provide a rocket and nuclear “heaters,” with launch planned for 2028 and landing in 2030

They looked at a galaxy almost at the edge of time and discovered a star factory so hot that it challenges what we believed about the early universe

Japan bids farewell to Akatsuki, the probe that spent eight years monitoring Venus and changed what we knew about its hellish atmosphere

Europe has just secured a new generation of satellites that will monitor emissions, ice, oceans, and crops like never before

Archaeologists unearth a woman buried with a baby in a 9,000-year-old tomb

Eurac Research designs low-cost display cases to protect mummies and skulls in Bolivia’s National Archaeological Museum

Where today there is only sand and wind, archaeologists have found evidence of a landscape filled with water, food, and human settlements

A landslide on an English beach uncovered something impossible: a millipede the size of a car that lived before the dinosaurs

Scientists managed to trace the tree of life back to a single common ancestor that lived more than two billion years ago

What appeared to be a lone survivor from the abyss turns out to be one of the most widespread creatures on the planet, only no one had noticed it

A 100-million-year-old fossil pearl found in outback Queensland is rewriting a small piece of Australia’s ancient sea story

A man was struck by a stone projectile 12,000 years ago, survived for months, and his skeleton has just told the whole story

A NASA satellite has made visible something microscopic that keeps one of the most endangered whales on the planet alive

A “supergiant” gold deposit has been found in China that could contain 1,000 metric tons of gold

Europa Clipper carries Earth’s message in a bottle to an alien ocean

NASA detects a “super-Earth” just 137 light-years away in the habitable zone: the most intriguing detail is that its year lasts only 19 days

Japan resumed supplying the Space Station after five years, and the launch of its new spacecraft marks a quiet shift in its space program

Earth briefly borrowed a second moon that may be made of lunar rock

More than 5,200 holes lined up as if they were numbers hid more than just an archaeological mystery

CUNY physicists create the first “time mirror”, reversing an electromagnetic wave in time

In Romania’s Brașov County, brown bears number about 1,329 by a national genetic estimate, the highest density of any county, and one bear relocated from Poiana Brașov was back within 3 days

More than 40 Magellanic penguins born in captivity arrived by court order from Mar del Plata at a river island in Argentina’s Río Negro province, and at first they had not explored even a third of their new home

In Japan, researchers led by Tohoku University used an inexpensive blue pigment to turn carbon dioxide into methane with 79.5% Faradaic efficiency, and methane selectivity stayed above 60% for about 80 hours

At 8.2 feet on Oct. 13, the Lake Constance water level in Konstanz, Germany, fell below a 1947 record for the date, and it now sits 10 inches under last winter’s low

A simulated AMOC collapse in an unreviewed preprint cut wheat, corn and rice harvests in Germany and Ukraine by roughly 16 to 19 percent, and cereal prices could climb up to 40 percent in the worst case

A landslide in Alaska’s Tracy Arm fjord sent a tsunami 1,578 feet up the opposite wall, and a Science study found small tremors striking every 30 to 60 seconds in the hours before the collapse

A company won a mining license for a magnesium deposit it estimates at more than 50 million metric tons near Rășinari, in Romania’s Sibiu County, and the EU gets 97 percent of its magnesium from China

Leap seconds will end on May 20, 2027, under a rule the General Conference on Weights and Measures adopted in Versailles, France, and a new study finds Earth’s solid surface turning slightly rounder as polar ground rises

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