Asteroids, Comets and Meteors News

February 18, 2026

Top Headlines

Robots Descend Into Lava Tubes to Prepare for Future Moon Bases

Feb. 2, 2026 Hidden lava tunnels on the Moon and Mars could one day shelter human explorers, offering natural protection from radiation and space debris. A European research team has unveiled a bold new mission concept that uses three different robots working ...

Scientists Sent Viruses to Space and They Evolved in Surprising Ways

Jan. 18, 2026 When scientists sent bacteria-infecting viruses to the International Space Station, the microbes did not behave the same way they do on Earth. In microgravity, infections still occurred, but both viruses and bacteria evolved differently over time. ...

Earth’s Toughest Microbes Could Help Humans Live on Mars

Jan. 6, 2026 Mars looks familiar from afar, but surviving there means creating a protective oasis in a hostile world. Instead of shipping construction materials from Earth, researchers are exploring how to use Martian soil as the raw ingredient. Two tough ...

What Are Asteroids Really Made of? New Analysis Brings Space Mining Closer to Reality

Dec. 25, 2025 Scientists are digging into the hidden makeup of carbon-rich asteroids to see whether they could one day fuel space exploration—or even be mined for valuable resources. By analyzing rare meteorites ...

Subaru Telescope Reveals a Hidden Giant Planet

Dec. 22, 2025 Astronomers have uncovered a massive hidden planet and a rare “failed star” by combining ultra-precise space data with some of the sharpest ground-based images ever taken. Using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaiʻi, the OASIS survey tracked subtle ...

Gravitational Waves May Reveal Hidden Dark Matter Around Black Holes

Dec. 19, 2025 Gravitational waves from black holes may soon reveal where dark matter is hiding. A new model shows how dark matter surrounding massive black holes leaves detectable fingerprints in the waves recorded by future space ...

Scientists Are Turning Earth Into a Giant Detector for Hidden Forces Shaping Our Universe

Dec. 6, 2025 SQUIRE aims to detect exotic spin-dependent interactions using quantum sensors deployed in space, where speed and environmental conditions vastly improve sensitivity. Orbiting sensors tap into ...

Space Is Filling with Junk and Scientists Have a Fix

Dec. 3, 2025 Earth’s orbit is getting crowded with broken satellites and leftover rocket parts. Researchers say the solution is to build spacecraft that can be repaired, reused, or recycled instead of abandoned. They also want new tools to collect old debris ...

Solar Superstorm Gannon Crushed Earth’s Plasmasphere to a Record Low

Nov. 23, 2025 A massive solar storm in May 2024 gave scientists an unprecedented look at how Earth’s protective plasma layer collapses under intense space weather. With the Arase satellite in a perfect observing position, researchers watched the plasmasphere ...

Japanese Spacecraft Faces a Massive Challenge from a House-size Asteroid

Nov. 21, 2025 New observations show that asteroid 1998 KY26 is a mere 11 meters across and spinning twice as fast as previously thought. The discovery adds complexity to Hayabusa2’s 2031 mission but also heightens scientific interest. The asteroid’s ...

AI Restores James Webb Telescope’s Crystal-clear Vision

Oct. 27, 2025 Two Sydney PhD students have pulled off a remarkable space science feat from Earth—using AI-driven software to correct image blurring in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Their innovation, called AMIGO, fixed distortions in the telescope’s ...

Astronomers Just Captured the Sharpest View of a Distant Star Ever Seen

Oct. 25, 2025 A UCLA-led team has achieved the sharpest-ever view of a distant star’s disk using a groundbreaking photonic lantern device on a single telescope—no multi-telescope array required. This technology splits incoming starlight into multiple ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:07am EST

Ultra-Fast Pulsar Found Near the Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole

Feb. 17, 2026 Scientists scanning the heart of the Milky Way have spotted a tantalizing signal: a possible ultra-fast pulsar spinning every 8.19 milliseconds near Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at our ...

Astronomers Watch a Massive Star Collapse Into a Black Hole Without a Supernova

Feb. 14, 2026 A massive star 2.5 million light-years away simply vanished — and astronomers now know why. Instead of exploding in a supernova, it quietly ...

Twin Beams Blast from a Hidden Star in Stunning Hubble Space Telescope Image

Feb. 13, 2026 A dazzling new Hubble image peels back the layers of the mysterious Egg Nebula, a rare and fleeting phase in a Sun-like star’s death just 1,000 ...

Asteroid Bennu Reveals a New Pathway to Life’s Chemistry

Feb. 12, 2026 Dust from asteroid Bennu is revealing a surprising origin story for life’s building blocks. New research suggests some amino acids formed in frozen ice exposed to radiation, not warm liquid water ...

NASA Scientists Say Meteorites Can’t Explain Mysterious Organic Compounds on Mars

Feb. 12, 2026 Scientists studying a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover have uncovered something tantalizing: the largest organic molecules ever ...

Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Spraying Water Across the Solar System

Feb. 11, 2026 For millions of years, a frozen wanderer drifted between the stars before slipping into our solar system as 3I/ATLAS—only the third known interstellar comet ever spotted. When scientists turned ...

Astronomers Shocked by How These Giant Exoplanets Formed

Feb. 11, 2026 A distant star system with four super-sized gas giants has revealed a surprise. Thanks to JWST’s powerful vision, astronomers detected sulfur in their atmospheres — a chemical clue that they ...

This Tiny Organism Refused to Die Under Mars-Like Conditions

Feb. 9, 2026 Baker’s yeast isn’t just useful in the kitchen — it may also be built for space. Researchers found that yeast cells can survive intense shock waves and toxic chemicals similar to those on Mars. ...

Chang’e-6 Lunar Samples Reveal a Giant Impact Reshaped the Moon’s Interior

Feb. 8, 2026 A colossal ancient impact may have reshaped the Moon far more deeply than scientists once realized. By analyzing rare lunar rocks brought back by ...

Something Supercharged Uranus When Voyager 2 Flew Past

Feb. 7, 2026 Voyager 2’s flyby of Uranus in 1986 recorded radiation levels so extreme they baffled scientists for nearly 40 years. New research suggests the spacecraft caught Uranus during a rare solar wind ...

Dark Matter Could Be Masquerading as a Black Hole at the Milky Way’s Core

Feb. 7, 2026 Astronomers propose that an ultra-dense clump of exotic dark matter could be masquerading as the powerful object thought to anchor our galaxy, explaining both the blistering speeds of stars near the ...

Four Astronauts Enter Quarantine as NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 Launch Nears

Feb. 2, 2026 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 team has entered a carefully controlled two-week quarantine as the countdown begins for their journey to the International Space Station. The four astronauts—representing ...

Earthquake Sensors Can Hear Space Junk Falling to Earth

Jan. 24, 2026 Falling space junk is becoming a real-world hazard, and scientists have found a clever new way to track it using instruments already listening to the Earth itself. By tapping into networks of ...

Astronomers Found a Black Hole Growing Way Too Fast

Jan. 24, 2026 Astronomers have spotted a rare, rule-breaking quasar in the early Universe that appears to be growing its central black hole at an astonishing pace. Observations show the black hole is devouring ...

“Stars Like the Sun Don’t Just Stop Shining,” but This One Did

Jan. 24, 2026 A distant Sun-like star suddenly went dark for months, stunning astronomers who quickly realized something massive was passing in front of it. Observations revealed a gigantic disk of gas and dust ...

A Dying Star’s Final Breath Glows in a New Webb Image of the Helix Nebula

Jan. 26, 2026 Webb’s latest image of the Helix Nebula reveals a dramatic close-up of a dying star shedding its outer layers. The detailed view highlights glowing knots of gas shaped by fast-moving stellar winds ...

NASA Is Set to Send Astronauts Around the Moon Again

Jan. 25, 2026 NASA is moving into a new phase of space exploration, with major progress across human spaceflight, science missions, and advanced technology. In just one year, the agency has launched multiple ...

Europa’s Ice May Be Feeding a Hidden Ocean That Could Support Life

Jan. 23, 2026 Europa’s subsurface ocean might be getting fed after all. Scientists found that salty, nutrient-rich surface ice can become heavy enough to break free and sink through Europa’s icy shell, ...

NASA Astronaut Suni Williams Retires After 608 Days in Space and Nine Spacewalks

Jan. 22, 2026 NASA astronaut Suni Williams has retired after 27 years of service and a career defined by endurance, leadership, and firsts in space. She spent 608 days in orbit, completed nine spacewalks, and ...

Life’s Chemistry May Begin in the Cold Darkness of Space

Jan. 21, 2026 New experiments reveal that protein precursors can form naturally in deep space under extreme cold and radiation. Scientists found that simple amino acids bond into peptides on interstellar dust, ...

NASA Brings Crew-11 Home Early in Rare Medical Evacuation

Jan. 16, 2026 SpaceX Crew-11 splashed down safely in the Pacific after more than five months in orbit aboard the International Space Station. The four astronauts completed over 140 experiments and traveled nearly ...

Those Strange Red Dots in James Webb Images Finally Have an Explanation

Jan. 16, 2026 For years, strange red dots in James Webb images left scientists puzzled. New research shows they are young black holes hidden inside dense clouds of gas, glowing as they devour their surroundings. ...

Dark Stars Could Solve Three Major Mysteries of the Early Universe

Jan. 28, 2026 JWST has revealed a strange early universe filled with ultra-bright “blue monster” galaxies, mysterious “little red dots,” and black holes that seem far too massive for their age. A new study ...

10 Quintillion Hydrogen Bombs Every Second: Webb Detects Massive Galactic Eruption

Jan. 10, 2026 Scientists have discovered an enormous stream of super-hot gas erupting from a nearby galaxy, driven by a powerful black hole at its center. The jets stretch farther than the galaxy itself and spiral ...

A White Dwarf’s Cosmic Feeding Frenzy Revealed by NASA

Jan. 8, 2026 Using NASA’s IXPE, astronomers captured an unprecedented view of a white dwarf star actively feeding on material from a companion. The data revealed giant columns of ultra-hot gas shaped by the ...

Mars’ Water Mystery May Have a Simple Ice Answer

Feb. 6, 2026 Scientists have found that ancient Martian lakes could have survived for decades despite freezing air temperatures. Using a newly adapted climate model, researchers showed that thin, seasonal ice ...

Spacecraft Capture the Sun Building a Massive Superstorm

Jan. 13, 2026 Scientists have pulled back the curtain on one of the most extreme solar regions seen in decades, tracking it almost nonstop for three months as it unleashed powerful space weather. By combining ...

Astronomers Find a Ghost Galaxy Made of Dark Matter

Jan. 9, 2026 Hubble has revealed a strange cosmic object called Cloud-9, a dark matter–dominated cloud with no stars at all. Scientists believe it is a “failed galaxy,” a leftover building block from the ...

Astronomers Measure the Mass of a Rogue Planet Drifting Through the Galaxy

Jan. 4, 2026 Scientists have discovered a rogue planet roaming the Milky Way after combining observations from Earth and a space telescope. This rare dual perspective allowed them to weigh the planet and pinpoint ...

What Looked Like a Planet Was Actually a Massive Space Collision

Jan. 7, 2026 Around the bright star Fomalhaut, astronomers spotted glowing clouds of debris left behind by colossal collisions between large space rocks. One of these clouds was even mistaken for a planet before ...