Science

It is one of those small irritations that quietly follows people through supermarket aisles. A single cucumber, sealed in clear plastic, sits among piles of fruit that seem to manage just fine without it. The reaction is often immediate. This cannot be good for the environment. Plastic is everywhere already, in rivers, soil, and even…

Most people never think about where satellites sit once they reach space. They simply assume they stay put, doing their job far above the atmosphere. But for companies operating thousands of spacecraft, orbit height is not a fixed choice. It is a constant calculation. SpaceX has now decided to shift that balance. In 2026, Starlink…

While the world slowly passed the first days of the year 2026, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station had already lived through the coming of the New Year in a way and a place few people would ever experience. While people on the planet celebrated the coming of the year 2026 once at midnight,…

For years, the future was imagined in clean lines and loud machines. Flying cars, metal suits, glowing weapons. None of it prepared many people for the idea that espionage might crawl rather than fly. And yet, in a small corner of Germany’s tech scene, insects have become part of a serious conversation about defence and…

China’s Shenzhou-20 mission faced an unexpected interruption after a crack was discovered in the return capsule window, immediately before the crew was due to depart from the Tiangong space station. The astronauts departed after a six-month mission filled with routine maintenance and experiments aboard the station. Pre-flight inspections were by the book until a fault…

The initial complete Moon of 2026 is anticipated to make a dramatic entrance by illuminating the United Kingdom’s winter skies on 3rd January with an extraordinarily brilliant and full glare. Named Wolf Supermoon, this year’s full Moon in January will also be a supermoon, appearing extra large and bright as it comes to a closer…

At first, there was nothing dramatic about the galaxy. ESO 130 G012 sits relatively close by cosmic standards, about 55 million light-years from Earth. It is an edge-on spiral with a steady but unremarkable pace of star formation. Nothing about it suggested spectacle. But while astronomers were slowly scanning radio images from Australia’s ASKAP telescope,…

Saudi Arabia plans to plant 10 billion trees, rehabilitating 74.8 million hectares across deserts under the Saudi Green Initiative nationwide/ Image: earth.com In a country where nearly 95 per cent of the land is desert, sand is not just terrain, it is culture. Bedouin life, camel routes, oases and long crossings have shaped Saudi Arabia’s…

Mars often feels finished. Mapped, scanned, labelled in broad strokes. Yet every so often, something unsettles that sense of familiarity. A shadow where none was expected. A shape that does not fit earlier categories. Researchers studying satellite images noticed a small cluster of openings in a remote Martian region that did not behave like known…

The night sky has a habit of slipping into the background during quieter years. Fewer headline events pass overhead, and attention moves on. That calm is set to break in 2026. The year opens with a concentrated run of eclipses and planetary gatherings that arrive close enough together to feel connected rather than isolated. Some…