Victoria Gill Science correspondent, BBC News Global Witness The Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia is sometimes referred to as the ‘Amazon of the Seas’ Stark images, captured from a drone by environmental campaigners and shared with the BBC, appear to show how nickel mining has stripped forests and polluted waters in one of the most…
A 3400-kilometre-wide thunderstorm on Jupiter Shawn R. Brueshaber et al. 2025 A thunderstorm that raged in Jupiter’s atmosphere for weeks was fortuitously captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, giving astronomers the most detailed look ever at a storm on the gas giant. On 29 November 2021, Juno passed directly over a 3400-kilometre-wide thunderstorm that had been…
An artist’s impression of the Athena spacecraft on the moon NASA A private space mission will launch to the moon this week, aiming for the southern-most point ever visited on the lunar surface. The Athena spacecraft, made by US-based Intuitive Machines, is due to launch onboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space…
Varda’s first capsule, W-1, after landing in Utah in February 2024 John Kraus/Varda Sometime this week, a 1-metre-wide capsule will fall from the sky and land in the South Australian desert carrying a cargo of drugs. Since launching on a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on 14 January, a reactor…
Astronomers using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have identified dozens of small galaxies that played a starring role in a cosmic makeover that transformed the early universe into the one we know today. “When it comes to producing ultraviolet light, these small galaxies punch well above their weight,” said Isak Wold, an assistant…
Illustration of Duonychus tsogtbaatari, a theropod dinosaur from the Cretaceous Period Masato Hattori A new species of dinosaur found at a Mongolian building site has the largest fully preserved claw ever found. The bipedal, herbivorous animal had only two fingers on each hand, which it may have used to grasp branches and pull them towards…
An artist’s impression of the solar system Shutterstock/Vadim Sadovski All of our solar system’s planets are lining up in the night sky at once this week. This extraordinary celestial event will see the sky scattered with seven visible planets in what is known as a great planetary alignment, or a “planetary parade”. The eight planets…
The vast majority of pangolin hunting in African forest landscapes is done for meat consumed by people in the region, rather than for scales shipped to East Asia, a new study led by the University of Cambridge suggests. Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world. A solitary, insect-eating animal about the…
The International Space Station may be a bit too clean Geopix/Alamy The strategy of keeping spacecraft as clean and sterile as possible to ensure astronauts don’t become ill may be a mistake. Our immune systems may need stimulation from certain kinds of molecules and microbes to stay healthy, say researchers who have been studying the…
Blue Ghost took a photo of its shadow on the lunar surface, with Earth in the sky above Firefly Aerospace A Texan company has achieved the second commercial landing on the moon – and the first that didn’t topple over on touchdown. The success comes amid a flurry of private and state lunar exploration. Firefly…
