MIT scientists have found the first direct evidence of material from the original “proto-Earth” — the planet that existed before the giant impact that formed our world 4.5 billion years ago.

By detecting an unusual potassium-40 isotope imbalance in ancient rocks from Greenland and Hawaii, researchers revealed remnants of Earth’s earliest building blocks — material that even meteorites don’t fully capture.

The Earth's protective magnetic field is changing. Data from the ESA Swarm mission reveals that the South Atlantic Anomaly, a vast weak spot in our planetary shield, is expanding and rapidly weakening. Learn what's causing this shift—and why it matters for our satellites and technology.

A new study in Physical Review Letters proposes a groundbreaking way to detect dark matter using images from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Researchers found that the dark shadows of black holes could act as natural detectors for faint signals produced by dark matter annihilation.

By comparing simulated plasma emissions with these potential dark matter patterns, the team developed a morphological method to test its presence — offering a powerful new tool that could redefine how we search for the universe’s most mysterious substance.

In this episode, we uncover new research from Okayama University that sheds light on the delayed Great Oxidation Event.

Scientists found that early ocean levels of nickel and urea controlled the growth of oxygen-producing cyanobacteria—sometimes fueling them, sometimes holding them back. When these elements declined, Earth’s atmosphere finally filled with oxygen, reshaping the planet and offering clues for spotting life on other worlds.

A new study from the University of Ottawa is shaking up our understanding of the universe. Professor Rajendra Gupta suggests that dark matter and dark energy might not exist at all — instead, the forces of nature themselves are slowly weakening as the universe expands.

This idea could explain cosmic mysteries — like why galaxies spin so fast or why the universe is expanding so rapidly — without invoking any unknown particles. Published in Galaxies, the research even suggests the universe may be nearly twice as old as we thought.

If true, this theory could mean that decades of dark matter searches have been chasing a mirage — and that the key to the cosmos lies in the changing fabric of physics itself.

In this episode, we dive into NASA’s IMAP mission—the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe—set to study the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that shields our solar system.

Led in part by University of Delaware scientist William H. Matthaeus, IMAP will orbit at Lagrange Point 1 to analyze solar wind, plasma, and magnetic fields. Joined by the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAA’s Space Weather Follow On, this mission will expand our view of how the sun interacts with interstellar space.

Scientists have built the largest galaxy simulation ever—3.4 billion galaxies and four trillion particles—to prepare for ESA’s Euclid mission. This cosmic mock-up will help decode dark energy, map the universe in 3D, and test whether our cosmological model truly holds.

Astronomers have tracked the Spirograph Nebula’s evolution over 130 years, from 19th-century spectroscopy to Hubble’s sharp images.

The central star has heated up by 3,000°C—faster than most stars but slower than theory predicts. This surprising pace, along with its lower-than-expected mass, could reshape models of how stars create and spread cosmic carbon.

New research suggests that Uranus’ moon Ariel may have once harbored a massive subsurface ocean over 100 miles deep. By analyzing fractures and ridges on its surface, scientists linked these features to tidal stresses from Ariel’s past eccentric orbit.

The findings raise the possibility that Ariel—and perhaps Miranda—are twin ocean worlds, offering an exciting target for future space missions.

In September 2025, a bold new approach to planetary exploration took shape. The Tumbleweed rover, a five-meter spherical robot driven solely by Martian winds, has now passed both wind-tunnel and field tests.

With gusts of just 9 to 10 meters per second, these low-cost explorers can roll across varied terrain, gathering environmental data as autonomous swarms. Eventually, each rover can collapse into a stationary outpost for long-term monitoring, offering an unprecedented view of Mars’ surface. In this episode, we unpack how Team

Tumbleweed’s breakthrough experiments confirm computer models — and how this inflatable fleet could transform the future of Mars exploration.

NASA recently launched the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory, a groundbreaking mission to capture the first continuous movies of Earth’s invisible atmospheric halo.

From its vantage at Lagrange Point 1, the observatory will track hydrogen escaping our planet, sharpen space weather forecasts for Artemis, and shed light on how atmospheres evolve—key to the search for life on exoplanets. Named after Dr. George Carruthers, whose Apollo 16 experiment first revealed the geocorona, this mission opens a new chapter in understanding Earth’s fragile edge.

Discover new research revealing how magmatic energy and a mantle “glass ceiling” may explain Venus’s strange crown-like surface features—and what this means for understanding planetary evolution and Earth’s closest twin.

Get ready for the most ambitious mapping project in human history. NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is preparing to revolutionize our understanding of the Milky Way by cataloging an unprecedented 20 billion stars—dwarfing every previous galactic survey. In this episode, we explore how this cutting-edge infrared observatory will peer through the cosmic dust and gas that shrouds our galaxy, using the way starlight bends and dims to create the most detailed 3D map of the Milky Way ever assembled.

Through the massive Galactic Plane Survey program, Roman will unlock secrets that have puzzled astronomers for generations: How do stars actually form? What drives the mysterious recycling of galactic material? And what gives our galaxy its distinctive spiral structure? Launching no later than May 2027, this mission promises to transform astronomy by making its treasure trove of data freely available to researchers worldwide. We'll discuss how this open-access approach will fuel discoveries for decades to come and help us finally understand our place in the cosmic neighborhood.

Join us as we preview the telescope that will rewrite the story of our galaxy and reveal the intricate dance of 20 billion stars that call the Milky Way home.

In this episode, we dive into groundbreaking research from the Austrian Academy of Sciences that challenges our assumptions about extraterrestrial life. Scientists have crunched the numbers on what it actually takes for technological civilizations to emerge and survive in our galaxy—and the results are sobering. We explore the incredibly specific planetary conditions required for complex life: the precise atmospheric cocktail of oxygen and carbon dioxide, the critical role of plate tectonics in climate regulation, and the delicate balance that allows intelligence to flourish.

The math is stark: for even one other technological species to exist alongside humanity right now, they would need to survive for at least 280,000 years under perfect conditions. What does this mean for our search for cosmic neighbors? The nearest alien civilization could be a staggering 33,000 light years away—potentially on the far side of the Milky Way. Yet despite these daunting odds, researchers argue we should keep looking.

After all, finding even one other technological species would represent the greatest scientific discovery in human history. Join us as we unpack why we might be far more alone than we ever imagined, and why that makes the search for extraterrestrial intelligence more important than ever.

The universe is a vast and intricate place, and understanding its complex "cosmic web" is one of science's greatest challenges. In this episode, we'll explore how scientists use the Effective Field Theory of Large Scale Structure (EFTofLSS) to model this grand tapestry, and why even the most sophisticated theoretical models demand significant computational power and time.But what if there was a faster way? We'll dive into the world of emulators—lightning-fast tools designed to replicate model predictions with incredible accuracy.

Join us as we highlight Effort.jl, a groundbreaking new emulator tested by an international team. This powerful tool delivers precise results in a fraction of the time and with fewer resources, proving to be an invaluable asset for analyzing future astronomical data and unraveling the universe's most profound secrets.

Join us as we dive deep into the red planet's secrets! This episode explores recent scientific breakthroughs about Mars's internal structure, focusing on its mysterious core. Thanks to data from NASA's InSight mission, particularly the work of Huixing Bi and colleagues, we now have compelling evidence that Mars harbors a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core—a structure surprisingly similar to Earth's!

This discovery is a game-changer. It strongly suggests that Mars may have once generated a protective magnetic field via a dynamo process, potentially explaining its warmer, wetter, and more hospitable past. We'll trace the scientific journey, from earlier InSight analyses that initially pointed to a fully liquid core to how improved data techniques unveiled this crucial solid inner core.

Tune in to understand how these findings resolve previous ambiguities, advance our knowledge of planetary evolution, and provide crucial insights into how Mars transformed from a potentially water-rich world to the arid planet we see today.

A new groundbreaking discovery by scientists from Ehime University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has revealed supermassive black holes shrouded in dust in the early universe that had previously escaped detection. Using a combination of the Subaru Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team identified these hidden quasars, showing that bright quasars were at least twice as common in the cosmic dawn than previously thought.

This study significantly expands our understanding of how supermassive black holes form and evolve, offering new perspectives on galaxy formation and the universe's structure. The research highlights the effectiveness of combining the Subaru's wide-field observations with the JWST's infrared capabilities to overcome the limitations of conventional surveys that rely on ultraviolet light, which is easily absorbed by dust. With plans for future observations and detailed analysis, this team is poised to continue unraveling the mysteries of the cosmic dawn and deepen our knowledge of supermassive black holes.

Get ready to journey to Mars with us as we explore the exciting discovery of potential evidence for ancient microbial life by NASA's Perseverance rover! Our focus: the Bright Angel formation in Jezero Crater. Scientists have found unusual chemical compositions there, including organic carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, and oxidized iron. We'll delve into the fascinating "poppy seeds" and "leopard spots" structures—minerals and formations that, here on Earth, are often linked to redox reactions driven by biological activity. While we acknowledge that non-biological processes are a possibility, the crucial absence of high-temperature signs makes ancient microbial life a very plausible explanation for these Martian features. These discoveries are being hailed as "potential biosignatures" and underscore the critical importance of bringing these samples back to Earth for deeper analysis.

Recent research using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has focused on the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1e, an Earth-sized world that orbits a red dwarf star and is located in the habitable zone. Scientists are investigating the presence of an atmosphere, which is crucial for the existence of liquid water on its surface, whether as a global ocean or vast areas of ice. While initial results suggest the possibility of an atmosphere, researchers have ruled out the existence of a primordial hydrogen-based atmosphere. Instead, the presence of a secondary atmosphere containing greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, could keep the planet warm and make liquid water possible, despite the unique characteristics of the TRAPPIST-1 system. Future JWST observations will continue to refine our understanding of this and other exoplanets.