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. With the release of "Disclosure Day," Steven Spielberg's new film about aliens, a question as old as science fiction itself resurfaces: If aliens were to arrive on Earth, would they come to conquer us, to study us ... or perhaps to eat? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-aliens-earth-tomorrow.html Astrobiology Sun, 21 Jun 2026 10:00:01 EDT news700914658 Scientists have uncovered new evidence from one of Earth's most extreme ancient warming events, revealing how the climate may recover long after human-driven CO2 emissions cease. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-molecular-fossils-reveal-secrets-earth.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:40:01 EDT news700918621 Arctic fjords are among the most efficient natural systems for absorbing and storing carbon long term. However, as the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the global average, fjord ecosystems are changing rapidly. Against this backdrop, understanding the biological processes that regulate carbon storage is becoming increasingly important. Yet the microbial mechanisms that control whether carbon is stored in sediments or returned to the environment are still not fully understood. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-fungi-carbon-arctic-fjord-sediments.html Earth Sciences Wed, 17 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT news700910822 Even at this early stage in our spacefaring age, humanity has already begun sending probes that will eventually reach other solar systems, even if that was not their original intention. Five robotic explorers—Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, and New Horizons—are all on escape trajectories out of the solar system and might someday enter another one. They will no longer be operational at that point, but they serve as proof of concept that spacefaring civilizations do indeed build interstellar probes. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-alien-probes-backyard-weve.html Astronomy Tue, 16 Jun 2026 21:40:05 EDT news700833931 Have you ever been out at night and seen a streak of light blast across the sky and disappear? Ever wonder where that shooting star came from, or how it got to be in your sky? https://phys.org/news/2026-06-asteroid-comet-meteor-meteorite-streaking.html Astronomy Tue, 16 Jun 2026 17:40:05 EDT news700833900 Long before vertebrates walked on land, millipedes had the place to themselves. Hundreds of millions of years before dinosaurs arrived, these early decomposers were helping establish Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. But despite their ancient history, scientists still hadn't fully unraveled their evolutionary story. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-evolutionary-history-millipede-dating-million.html Ecology Fri, 12 Jun 2026 11:00:05 EDT news700480561 Mycorrhizal fungi form underground networks that sustain plant life and help regulate Earth's climate by drawing carbon into soils. In a study published in Science, an international team of researchers produced the first global maps estimating the distribution and mass of the Earth's arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-global-mycorrhizal-fungi-reveals-true.html Ecology Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:00:09 EDT news700398301 Does consciousness depend on flesh and blood? The answer is almost certainly no, according to Eric Schwitzgebel, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. In a new working paper, Schwitzgebel and Jeremy Pober, a former UCR graduate student who is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, assert that consciousness is likely possible in life forms made of very different stuff. Think of the five-limbed alien with a rocklike exterior in the recent blockbuster movie "Project Hail Mary." https://phys.org/news/2026-06-consciousness-unique-earthlings-paper.html Astrobiology Thu, 11 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT news700381442 The asteroid that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs also created an underground environment suited to supporting new life, and new research suggests it lasted for millions of years longer than previously suspected. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-dino-asteroid-fueled-underground-life.html Astrobiology Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:20:02 EDT news700231012 This April, humanity had front-row seats to space as the Artemis II Orion spacecraft transmitted crystal-clear footage of its historic journey around the moon from more than 250,000 miles (about 402,000 kilometers) back to Earth at speeds on par with home internet connections. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-artemis-ii-livestreamed-def-videos.html Space Exploration Mon, 08 Jun 2026 10:40:03 EDT news700133941 Decomposers are crucial for keeping Earth habitable, breaking down dead biomass and returning key nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus, to the ecosystem. Most decomposers, including fungi, survive through osmotrophy—a means of feeding by absorbing dissolved nutrients rather than engulfing prey. But how this method of feeding repeatedly arose across the eukaryotic tree of life remains unclear. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-gene-swapping-planet-decomposers.html Ecology Sun, 07 Jun 2026 16:20:01 EDT news699875427 An international team of scientists has discovered that plants are not responding to global warming in the way researchers long assumed. Scientists have expected that ecosystems would keep pace with warming by raising the temperature at which photosynthesis works best. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-boost-carbon-uptake-efficiency-global.html Earth Sciences Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:40:03 EDT news699718621 The weather on Earth can get pretty messy sometimes. But in space, it can be wild, and the effects can be far-reaching. Solar flares, giant explosions on the sun, can send out streams of energy that block radio communications and fry satellite electronics. Geomagnetic storms, caused by variations in solar wind, can mess with GPS signals and spark current surges on Earth that overload power grids. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-space-weather.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 03 Jun 2026 17:00:01 EDT news699718021 By studying life deep inside a former gold mine, a Northwestern University-led team of scientists has uncovered evidence that Earth's hidden biosphere operates less like a random collection of microbes and more like an organized workforce. In one of the most comprehensive long-term studies of deep underground microbial life to date, the researchers tracked how microbial communities shifted across six sites over four years. From site to site, the ecosystems were incredibly different from one another but largely stable through time. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-microbial-guilds-earth-underground-biosphere.html Ecology Wed, 03 Jun 2026 09:00:03 EDT news699613577 Four-and-a-half billion years ago, a massive world—possibly as big as the moon or even Mars—orbited our sun before crashing into another celestial body and shattering into rubble. Now, in a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists report the first definitive evidence that this lost planetary embryo (protoplanet) existed. Its unique geological makeup challenges long-held assumptions about how planets evolve. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-rare-meteorite-evidence-giant-early.html Planetary Sciences Tue, 02 Jun 2026 16:10:01 EDT news699632881 A new raptor-like dinosaur from some 70 million years ago that ate fish and behaved like modern herons has been unearthed from southern Patagonia. The new species, which has been named Kank australis, was identified based on the discovery of fossil remains including teeth, vertebrae, and toe bones. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-heron-fish-dinosaur-million-years.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 28 May 2026 19:10:06 EDT news699176102 Mars holds a special place in the solar system. It represents marginal habitability. This means it transitioned from warm and wet and potentially hospitable, to cold and dry and inhospitable. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-mars-marginal-exoplanets.html Astrobiology Tue, 26 May 2026 07:00:04 EDT news698993041 On May 21, ground controllers powered down NASA's AWE (Atmospheric Waves Experiment) instrument, bringing the data collection phase of the mission to a successful and scheduled end, surpassing its planned two-year mission. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-nasa-awe-instrument-mission-earth.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 21 May 2026 19:20:04 EDT news698599201 For decades, environmental debates have been framed around a stark trade-off: economic growth lifts people out of poverty but comes at the expense of forests, wildlife, and climate stability. More people and richer diets mean more farmland and less nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-economic-growth-income-countries-biodiversity.html Environment Wed, 20 May 2026 17:20:01 EDT news698507521 The sight of a saltwater crocodile basking on a mudbank is one of the most iconic and intimidating images of northern Australia. Yet the crocodiles that inhabit the region today are just the survivors of a much richer and stranger lost world. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-years-crocodiles-australasia-ancient-apex.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 20 May 2026 14:40:07 EDT news698499640 Governments around the world conserve plants and animals in part by setting aside land. Whether as wilderness reserves or as resource management zones that allow industrial activities such as logging, 17.4% of the planet's land offers some measure of protection. These protected areas overlap with one-fifth, on average, of the range of Earth's terrestrial mammals. But beneath these parched deserts, dark forests, and rolling grasslands is an invisible world that keeps these aboveground places healthy. And we're not protecting that world much at all. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-areas-wildlife-soil-fungi.html Ecology Tue, 19 May 2026 17:40:03 EDT news698424721 How does an ecosystem distribute its energy across body sizes? A new study suggests the answer depends on where you are—and how much humans have altered the landscape. Analyzing communities of birds and mammals worldwide, researchers show that larger-bodied species can, on average, capture more energy per species than smaller ones, particularly in highly productive environments. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-productive-ecosystems-larger-animals-capture.html Plants & Animals Thu, 14 May 2026 16:09:27 EDT news697993742 If you've ever taken an introductory astronomy class, you've probably seen the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. This graph maps out the life cycle of stars by plotting their temperature against their luminosity, and has been a "cheat sheet" for stellar astrophysics for over a century. But the universe is full of more than just stars, and a new paper in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific by Gabriel Steward and Matthew Hedman of the University of Idaho, attempts to do for the density and mass of all objects what the HR diagram did for the lifecycle of stars—provide a coherent, visual map to represent them. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-graph-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 18:20:03 EDT news697810264 A great Tyrannosaurus rex strides through the conifer trees of her territory, sniffing the air. She picks up the scent from the carcass of a dead horned dinosaur, Triceratops, that she was feeding on yesterday. She walks over and strips off some more shreds of meat, but the smell is foul even for her. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-dinosaurkilling-asteroid-armageddon-blowbyblow-account.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 11 May 2026 18:00:01 EDT news697724041 For decades, the search for life beyond Earth has revolved around a key question: What molecules should scientists be looking for on other planets or moons? A new study, published in Nature Astronomy, suggests that the more revealing clue may not be the molecules themselves, but the hidden order connecting them. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-alien-life-mars-europa-missions.html Astronomy Mon, 11 May 2026 17:00:05 EDT news697733705 Using MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a team of researchers led by former MPIA (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany) Ph.D. student Sebastian Zieba (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, U.S.) and Laura Kreidberg, MPIA Director and study PI (principal investigator), analyzed the surface composition of the rocky exoplanet LHS 3844 b. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-astronomers-explore-surface-composition-nearby.html Astronomy Mon, 04 May 2026 05:00:01 EDT news696851882 Exoplanet science and the search for life beyond Earth continue to advance at break-neck speeds, with the number of confirmed exoplanets by NASA rapidly approaching 6,300, with 223 of those exoplanets being designated as terrestrial (rocky) exoplanets. With the promise of discovering an increasing number of Earth-sized exoplanets increasing every day, new telescopes from across the world have the opportunity to contribute to this incredible field. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-canada-poet-mission-earth-sized.html Space Exploration Sat, 02 May 2026 18:00:01 EDT news696681018 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 It was 1972 and Apollo astronauts Harrison "Jack" Schmitt and Eugene Cernan had just stepped onto the moon's surface to begin collecting rock and soil samples. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-qa-apollo-astronaut-schmitt-moon.html Space Exploration Fri, 24 Apr 2026 04:20:01 EDT news696222126 The search for life beyond Earth has traditionally focused on exoplanets orbiting sun-like stars, which is a G-type star. However, low-mass stars, which are designated as K-type and M-type stars, have rapidly become a target for astrobiology, primarily due to their much longer lifetimes. This also means the habitable zone (HZ), which is the distance from a star where liquid water could exist, is much smaller than our solar system's HZ, and is referred to as the liquid water habitable zone (LW-HZ). In contrast, another type of HZ that involves a star's ultraviolet (UV) radiation potentially enabling life-harboring conditions is known as UV-HZ. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-stellar-flares-habitable-zones-small.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 22 Apr 2026 19:00:05 EDT news696065137