Science & Earth

Retired NASA astronaut Sunita Williams met actor Prakash Raj at the Kerala Literature Festival; Prakash Raj shared a selfie from the event and Williams's speech about seeing Earth as one planet went viral.

Storm Goretti struck on 8 January and flattened thousands of trees across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly; estates and conservation bodies report hundreds of losses at individual sites and are planning recovery and replanting.

Using Webb's MIRI instrument to observe protostar EC 53, researchers report that crystalline silicates form in the hot inner protoplanetary disk and are carried outward by episodic outflows, offering an explanation for their presence in cold comets.

NASA may roll the stacked Space Launch System and Orion from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39-B as soon as next Saturday, and has identified launch options in February, March and April pending pad testing and a flight readiness review.

New Jersey declared a statewide state of emergency as winter storm warnings cover the state, with forecasts of heavy snow and a dangerous mix of ice; officials announced a commercial vehicle travel restriction and urged residents to plan to stay home.

China's EAST reactor reportedly surpassed the Greenwald plasma density limit, and private investment in fusion rose from about $1.5 billion (2016–2020) to nearly $9 billion (2021–2025).

A NASA study using triple oxygen isotope measurements of Apollo lunar regolith reports that meteorite delivery since about four billion years ago could have supplied only a small fraction of Earth's ocean water.

A Jan. 19, 2026 photograph taken from the International Space Station shows a green and red aurora above European city lights while the station orbited about 262 miles above the Mediterranean; auroras form when energetic particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere.

A new study estimates residential wood combustion accounts for about 21.9% of wintertime PM2.5 in the contiguous U.S. and is associated with roughly 8,600 premature deaths each year.

Archaeologists uncovered two chamber tombs and a probable shrine to Hercules near Via Pietralata, outside Rome's ancient walls, along with an ancient road and large stone basins. Bronze coins found at the site indicate use from the 5th–4th centuries B.C. through the first century A.D., officials reported.

JWST observations have found very large black holes in the early universe that challenge traditional stellar-seed growth models, and researchers are examining direct-collapse, primordial, and related formation scenarios.

The Weather Prediction Center says guidance shifted slightly north for a major winter storm that will bring bands of heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies and Plains into the East Coast Friday through the weekend.

In 94,006 UK Biobank participants followed for a median 9.8 years, lower wrist-activity circadian rhythm amplitude (lowest quartile) was associated with higher risks of metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma; MRI data from a 15,106-person subcohort showed higher liver fat and fibroinflammatory scores with lower rhythm amplitude.

Researchers dated a faint hand stencil in a Limestone cave at Liang Metanduno to about 67,800 years ago using uranium‑thorium dating of overlying calcite, making it the oldest known surviving human-made rock art; the team surveyed dozens of Sulawesi-area sites and dated multiple pieces of ancient cave art.

A new modeling study by researchers including Austin Green suggests salt-rich patches of Europa's near-surface ice can become denser and weaker, detach, and sink through an approximately 30-kilometer ice shell, carrying oxidants and other chemicals toward the hidden ocean. NASA's Europa Clipper is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter in 2030 and will conduct close flybys to study Europa's ice shell and ocean in greater detail.

Johns Hopkins researchers used seismograph records to trace the breakup of China’s Shenzhou-15 module over Southern California in April 2024, and published their results in Science on Jan. 22. They report that seismic networks can record shockwaves from reentering debris and may help locate where fragments fall.

Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the EPA will recommit to eliminating mammalian animal testing by 2035 and to prioritizing New Approach Methods; the agency reported recent reductions in lab animals and use of alternatives in certain chemical evaluations.

Dozens of people at Varkala Beach in Kerala worked for hours to free a whale shark that had washed ashore in early December, and two rescue boats later towed the animal back to open water.

Gladys West, a Virginia-born mathematician credited with work that helped form the basis of modern GPS, has died at 95, Dinwiddie County officials announced; she spent decades at the Naval Proving Ground contributing to satellite data analysis, ocean sensing and planetary studies.

Blue Origin's New Shepard mission NS-38 carried six people above the Kármán Line on Jan. 22 after a late crew change, and the capsule and rocket returned safely to West Texas.

The UK government has proposed labels for new wood-burning stoves and firewood that describe pollution and health impacts, and would tighten smoke emission limits from five grams per hour to one gram per hour.

Park Ridge city leaders revisited a proposal to prohibit single-use plastic grocery bags at stores 7,500 square feet or larger, a measure under discussion since last summer. The council is expected to decide next month or in March and has asked staff to present ordinance text.

NASA released the Artemis II Official Flight Kit, which contains more than 2,300 items including historic artifacts such as a Wright Flyer fabric swatch, an Apollo-era flag and a Ranger 7 photo negative.

NASA's updated open-source AI, ExoMiner++, was trained on Kepler and TESS observations and flagged about 7,000 TESS signals as exoplanet candidates; the software is available on GitHub.

Governors declared emergencies as a winter storm is expected to bring heavy snow, freezing rain and subzero wind chills across a wide area; crews are treating roads with salt and brine while residents have been stocking up on supplies.

A Nature/PBS film follows male elephants in Kenya’s Amboseli, documenting individual personalities, variation in tusks and close social bonds while noting pressure from human development.

Archaeologists working in Fano, Italy, say they have unearthed a 2,000-year-old basilica identified from Vitruvius’s descriptions during redevelopment work at Piazza Andrea Costa. Officials described the find as historically significant and said investigations at the site will continue.

A study in ACS Central Science reports that frozen hydrogen cyanide (HCN) surfaces can promote reactions with water that produce polymers, amino acids, and nucleobases, and HCN is found across the Solar System.

Suni Williams retired from NASA after a 27-year career, having logged 608 days in space and completed nine spacewalks totaling 62 hours and 6 minutes.

Researchers report tan handprint stencils on cave walls in Sulawesi, Indonesia, that were dated to at least 67,800 years old by mineral crusts formed on top of the paintings; the study was published in Nature.