Science & Earth

Kīlauea is not erupting after episode 40, which ended Jan. 12, and webcams show continuing incandescent flows and recent small earthquakes; monitoring data and inflation suggest another episode may occur in about two weeks but forecasts remain uncertain.

Kīlauea is not erupting following episode 40 on January 12, which produced lava fountains up to about 800 feet (250 m); scientists report another episode is likely about two weeks away but more data are needed to forecast.

Researchers studied T7 bacteriophages and E. coli on the International Space Station and found infections began more slowly and that both microbes developed unusual mutations under microgravity. The results were published in PLOS Biology.

The EPA proposed narrowing Section 401 of the Clean Water Act to restrict state and tribal reviews to direct water quality effects and to impose a one-year deadline for certification requests. The agency is seeking public comment for 30 days and aims to finalize the rule by spring.

EPA Region 6 issued an administrative compliance order on consent with Smitty's Supply after an inspection found concerns about hazardous waste handling at the Roseland, Louisiana, facility; the order requires the company to address alleged violations within 60 days and the company has begun taking corrective steps.

Researchers with the Wisconsin Historical Society have identified 16 ancient dugout canoes in Lake Mendota, with carbon dating indicating ages ranging roughly from 5,200 to 700 years ago.

NASA launched the international "Mars to Table" competition to develop systems for growing and producing food on Mars, offering a $750,000 prize for U.S. winners; proposals are due Aug. 21 and winners will be announced in September.

The Parkfield Experiment on the San Andreas Fault forecasted a quake for 1985–1993 but the magnitude-6.0 event occurred in 2004; scientists continue to deploy instruments, satellites, laboratory studies and computing methods to study faults and improve probabilistic forecasts.

An MIT study found that astronauts' brains tend to move backward, upward and rotate after time in microgravity, with some positional changes still detectable up to six months after return; a head‑down bed‑rest analog produced similar but not identical shifts.

A PNAS study using MRI data found that the brain tends to shift upward and backward and rotate after spaceflight, with larger changes after longer missions; most movement recovered over about six months though some differences persisted.

Researchers identified Paradoxophidion richardoweni from 31 vertebrae collected at Hordle Cliff in 1981 and archived at London's Natural History Museum; the fossils are about 37 million years old and show a mix of features not matching any single known snake lineage.

Helio announced it is positioning to lead the emerging space-based solar power market and highlighted a microwave power‑beaming architecture and its work with agencies including NASA and the European Space Agency.

A Nature Microbiology study linked excess alcohol-producing gut bacteria — including Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae — to auto-brewery syndrome, and reports one patient whose symptoms waned after repeated oral fecal-transplant capsules over 16 months.

A December 2025 study reported that offshore wind farms in Chinese waters were associated with increased benthic fish biomass and other physical, chemical, and biological changes to coastal waters.

Researchers estimate that of 93 mountain locations with current winter-sports infrastructure, roughly 52 would be reliably suitable by the 2050s and the number could fall to about 30 by the 2080s; the IOC is exploring a permanent pool of hosts and earlier event dates.

Portugal became the 60th signatory to the Artemis Accords, which set principles for peaceful, transparent civil exploration of the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.

A satellite image captured rippling ribbons of ice on Lake Michigan beside a snow-covered Chicago during a Jan. 19–24, 2025 cold snap linked to a sudden polar vortex expansion; about 20% of the lake was iced over when the photo was taken, GLERL reported.

A University of Texas study reports that ENSO (El Niño–La Niña) has been the main driver of extreme changes in total water storage worldwide over the past 20 years, often synchronizing wet and dry conditions across distant regions. Researchers used gravity data from NASA's GRACE and GRACE-FO satellites and probabilistic models to reconstruct gaps in the 2002–2024 record.

3I/ATLAS is reported as the third recorded interstellar object and is said to be leaving the Solar System after spending roughly 8,000 years in the Oort cloud. A livestream of the comet was scheduled for January 16 at 21:00 UTC.

Researchers using automated microscopy reported microplastics and nanoplastics in urban air at levels far higher than earlier visual methods indicated.

NASA announced that a Crew-11 member experienced a medical situation aboard the International Space Station on Jan. 7 and is reported stable, and Administrator Jared Isaacman ordered the crew's early return by SpaceX Dragon Endeavour within days.

The U.S. House appropriations minibus states it does not support the existing NASA‑ESA Mars Sample Return program; the bill now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Will Smith joined a 2022 National Geographic expedition that collected a scale sample from a 16–17-foot green anaconda; analyses announced in 2024 identified the northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayama) as a distinct species.

Mission controllers received full acquisition of signal from NASA's Pandora satellite on Jan. 11 after liftoff from Vandenberg; Pandora will observe at least 20 known exoplanets to study their atmospheres using visible and near-infrared measurements.

Pandora launched from Vandenberg into a polar Sun-synchronous twilight orbit and will observe 20 preselected exoplanet systems to help separate stellar signals from planetary atmospheres and support James Webb Telescope observations.

Two bones held for more than 70 years as woolly mammoth remains at the University of Alaska Museum of the North were radiocarbon-dated and identified by isotope analysis and mitochondrial DNA as belonging to a minke whale and a North Pacific right whale.

NASA's IXPE observed the white dwarf system EX Hydrae for nearly one week to measure X-ray polarization and examine the system's accretion geometry.

Researchers reviewed more than 1,700 studies and identified 59 primate species with documented same-sex sexual behaviors, and found links between these behaviors and environmental and life-history traits.

A review published in Nature Ecology & Evolution found documented same-sex sexual behavior in 59 nonhuman primate species, with repeated occurrences in 23 species. The authors report the behavior appears linked to social roles—easing tension, reducing conflict and building bonds—and to a mix of genetic and environmental or social stressors.

NASA awarded three-year contracts to seven companies to develop technologies for the Habitable Worlds Observatory, a planned space telescope designed to study exoplanet atmospheres; the agency aims for a late 2030s or early 2040s launch.