https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Now it's the moon's turn to pull a disappearing act. After being shut out of this month's total solar eclipse, the Americas will have the best seats in the celestial house when Earth's shadow briefly envelops the moon. Almost the entire lunar surface will be masked Thursday night into Friday—a whopping 96%—making this an especially deep partial eclipse. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-total-lunar-eclipse-americas-prime.html Space Exploration Sat, 22 Aug 2026 10:38:34 EDT news706613876 Astronomers have discovered that the most massive galaxies in the early universe contain far more small stars than expected. As a result, these early galaxies were likely much more massive than initial measurements suggested. This discovery challenges current understanding about how the first galaxies formed. The results are published today in Nature Astronomy. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-hidden-stars-distant-galaxies-massive.html Astronomy Tue, 18 Aug 2026 17:00:04 EDT news706273141 For the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse is coming to mainland Spain with an even longer encore next summer. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-august-total-solar-eclipse-spain.html Space Exploration Mon, 03 Aug 2026 03:12:40 EDT news704945507 By analyzing data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and conducting new radial velocity measurements, U.K. and French astronomers have found evidence that the mysterious Tabby's star may be orbited by an object about nine times more massive than Jupiter. The new findings are published on the preprint server arXiv. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-tabby-star-orbited-planetary-mass.html Astronomy Tue, 28 Jul 2026 10:00:03 EDT news704450067 A new review in Limnology and Oceanography led by scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography warns that the rapid loss of oxygen from the ocean and other aquatic ecosystems is pushing Earth toward an "unsafe space," with consequences that could be irreversible on human timescales. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-underwater-oxygen-loss-threatens-earth.html Earth Sciences Fri, 17 Jul 2026 14:20:01 EDT news703501039 The European Space Agency's Mars Express has captured part of Mars's Mamers Valles, a fascinating valley system speckled with brief, tornado-like whirlwinds known as dust devils. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dozens-devils-caught-swirling-mars.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:20:02 EDT news700914890 The phenomenon El Niño has arrived, the U.S. weather agency said Thursday, and scientists expect the pattern, synonymous with droughts, floods and soaring temperatures, will intensify through the end of the year, potentially to historic strength. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-el-nio-strongest-events.html Environment Sat, 13 Jun 2026 08:00:11 EDT news700455586 How do you take measurements using one of the most sensitive scales in the world? Researchers at TU Wien have demonstrated how the measurement process affects not only the object being measured but also the scale itself, and where the absolute limits of precision lie. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-precision-impact.html General Physics Tue, 09 Jun 2026 17:20:05 EDT news700235581 Dinosaurs are among the most majestic and iconic animals to have ever walked on our planet. While they are now extinct, they are estimated to have inhabited Earth for over 165 million years. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-dinosaurs-million-years-earlier-fossils.html Evolution Fri, 01 May 2026 08:00:01 EDT news696675541 A rare dataset collected by instruments at the point where Antarctica's largest ice shelf begins to float reveals ocean processes that drive melting at this critical part of the continent. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-antarctica-ice-shelves-vulnerable-ocean.html Earth Sciences Tue, 28 Apr 2026 07:27:39 EDT news696579811 Across Earth, every night, thousands of automated stargazers are waiting to take pictures of shooting stars. I am one of the scientists who study these meteors. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-sun-asteroid-pieces-earth-flying.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:40:04 EDT news695298482 Using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher for the Northern Hemisphere (HARPS-N), an international team of astronomers has discovered a hot sub-Neptune exoplanet orbiting a nearby star. The newfound alien world, designated TOI-5734 b, is about two times larger and nine times more massive than Earth. The discovery was presented in a research paper published February 20 on the arXiv pre-print server. https://phys.org/news/2026-03-astronomers-toi-hot-neptune-earth.html Astronomy Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:00:03 EST news691753161 One of the longest stellar dimming events ever observed was likely caused by the gigantic saucer-like rings of either an unseen brown dwarf or "super-Jupiter" blocking its host star's light, astronomers say. For decades, the star—which sits 3,200 light-years from Earth and is about twice as big as our sun—had been observed as stable, but at the end of 2024 it faded dramatically. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-unseen-planet-brown-dwarf-hidden.html Astronomy Wed, 11 Feb 2026 19:00:04 EST news690041401 Dangerous concentrations of algae such as "red tides" have been consistently emerging in locations around the world. A region in Southern Australia is experiencing a nine-month toxic algae bloom that spans thousands of miles and has caused thousands of deaths across marine species. Such harmful algal blooms (HABs) produce toxins that can force municipalities to close beaches and lakes due to public health risks. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-plastic-pollution-hazardous-conditions.html Environment Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:10:01 EST news688925028 It might be less visible than dwindling lion populations or vanishing pandas, but the quiet crisis of small mammal extinction is arguably worse for biodiversity. These species are crucial indicators of environmental health, but they can be very hard to monitor, and many species with very different ecological niches look almost identical. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-footprint-tracker-tiny-mammals-accuracy.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:02 EST news688292761 Sweeping winds of vaporized metals have been found in a massive cloud that dimmed the light of a star for nearly nine months. This discovery, made with the Gemini South telescope in Chile, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, offers a rare glimpse into the chaotic and dynamic processes still shaping planetary systems long after their formation. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-massive-cloud-metallic-orbiting-mystery.html Astronomy Wed, 21 Jan 2026 17:17:20 EST news688238221 An international team of scientists have identified nine new species of butterflies using a combination of geographical, morphological and molecular analysis. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-scientists-species-butterfly-south-america.html Plants & Animals Sun, 14 Dec 2025 11:20:04 EST news684757056 A geomagnetic superstorm is an extreme space weather event that occurs when the sun releases massive amounts of energy and charged particles toward Earth. These storms are rare, occurring about once every 20–25 years. On May 10–11, 2024, the strongest superstorm in over 20 years, known as the Gannon storm or Mother's Day storm, struck Earth. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-superstorm-gannon-earth-plasmasphere-size.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Nov 2025 03:00:02 EST news682789141 From stirring milk in your coffee to fearsome typhoon gales, rotating turbulent flows are everywhere. Yet, these spinning currents are as scientifically complex as they are banal. Describing, modeling, and predicting turbulent flows have important implications across many fields, from weather forecasting to studying the formation of planets in the accretion disk of nascent stars. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-paradox-rotating-turbulence-hurricane-lab.html General Physics Wed, 05 Nov 2025 14:00:12 EST news681553982 Trapped in a gravitational push and pull between Jupiter and other Jovian moons, Io is constantly being stretched and compressed. Heat generated by these contortions has melted pockets of the moon's interior so much that Io is our solar system's most volcanically active body. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-webb-telescope-spies-io-volcanic.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 04 Nov 2025 12:38:02 EST news681482281 Combing through 20 years of images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, scientists have tracked 1,039 tornado-like whirlwinds to reveal how dust is lifted into the air and swept around Mars's surface. https://phys.org/news/2025-10-mars-devils-revealing-faster.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 08 Oct 2025 14:00:05 EDT news678988921 In a new study, scientists have shown that chemical receptors that plants use to recognize nitrogen-fixing bacteria have developed the same function independently on at least three separate occasions through a process called convergent evolution. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-receptors-nitrogen-bacteria-evolved-independently.html Plants & Animals Tue, 30 Sep 2025 16:01:08 EDT news678466861 The Subaru Telescope has made an exciting discovery: a small body beyond Pluto, with implications for the formation, evolution, and current structure of the outer solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-subaru-telescope-fossil-outer-solar.html Astronomy Wed, 16 Jul 2025 07:12:15 EDT news671868731 The central estimate of the remaining carbon budget for 1.5°C is 130 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) (from the beginning of 2025). This would be exhausted in a little more than three years at current levels of CO2 emissions, according to the latest Indicators of Global Climate Change study published in the journal Earth System Science Data, and the budget for 1.6°C or 1.7°C could be exceeded within nine years. https://phys.org/news/2025-06-global-carbon-emissions-track-exhaust.html Earth Sciences Wed, 18 Jun 2025 19:00:01 EDT news669460501 A new study of the Gobi Wall in the Gobi highland desert of Mongolia reveals a multifunctional role beyond defense; data from the James Webb Space Telescope is bringing physicists closer to resolving the Hubble tension; and a U.S.-based team of astronomers stumbled on a new dwarf planet in the outer solar system while searching for Planet Nine. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-saturday-citations-wages-welfare-teeth.html Other Sat, 31 May 2025 08:30:01 EDT news667823007 A small team of planetary scientists, astrophysicists and space flight researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. and one in France has made the first direct detection of atmospheric sputtering on Mars. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-scientists-atmospheric-sputtering-mars.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 29 May 2025 15:00:43 EDT news667749631 It's an evocative idea that has long bedeviled scientists: a huge and mysterious planet is lurking in the darkness at the edge of our solar system, evading all our efforts to spot it. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-mysterious-planet.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 29 May 2025 05:01:31 EDT news667713684 In the cold, dark outskirts of planetary systems far beyond the reach of the known planets, mysterious gas giants and planetary masses silently orbit their stars—sometimes thousands of astronomical units (AU) away. For years, scientists have puzzled over how these "wide-orbit" planets, including the elusive Planet Nine theorized in our own solar system, could have formed. Now, a team of astronomers may have finally found the answer. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-wide-orbit-planets-planet.html Astronomy Tue, 27 May 2025 14:12:04 EDT news667573922 A small team led by Sihao Cheng, Martin A. and Helen Chooljian Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Natural Sciences, has discovered an extraordinary trans-Neptunian object (TNO), named 2017 OF201, at the edge of our solar system. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-extreme-cousin-pluto-dwarf-planet.html Astronomy Thu, 22 May 2025 10:37:10 EDT news667129026 A study in Nature finds that with bold and coordinated policy choices—across emissions, diets, food waste, and water and nitrogen efficiency—humanity could, by 2050, bring global environmental pressures back to levels seen in 2015. This shift would move us much closer to a future in which people around the world can live well within Earth's limits. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-global-environmental-pressures.html Earth Sciences Wed, 14 May 2025 11:00:15 EDT news666430501