Latest science news: Stranded astronaut return | New Glenn again | Auroras light up the skies

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Ben Turner

China’s stranded astronauts could be home by Friday

I wrote a story on preparations for their return last night. Now, an aerospace closure issued around Inner Mongolia’s Dongfeng site for the early hours of the morning EST on Friday (Nov. 14) could hint at an imminent return.

More news on this as we get it. In the meantime, check out this story on the growing problem of overcrowding in Earth’s orbit and this on the first-of-a-kind instance of space cooperation between China and the U.S. to avoid a potential satellite collision.

Ben Turner

Famous star cluster is upgraded

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, seems to have way more siblings than we thought.

Astronomers used data on star spin velocity from the Gaia and TESS space telescopes to determine the famous star cluster is actually 20 times bigger than we thought, containing thousands of fainter stars lurking among the brightest seven. The new method could reveal hidden stellar families and complex structures linking stars that were once thought to be independent, researchers say.

There’s some bad news for the prospect of life outside our solar system: scientists say they’ve spotted a dwarf star about 40 light-years from Earth belching out an ultrapowerful coronal mass ejection (CME).

That monster blast of plasma was powerful enough to rip the atmosphere off any planets that happened to be orbiting the star. Stars like these, called M-dwarfs, are dimmer than the sun, which means their habitable zones are much closer. And yet, this class of star is also more volatile, meaning any planet that could harbor life would be regularly lashed by punishing solar flares. Whether life could evolve — and survive — on such a planet is uncertain.

You can read more about the violent CME here.

Volcano off Oregon won’t erupt this year, scientists say

The seamount has already erupted three times: in 1998, 2011 and 2015, staff writer Sascha Pare reports. The initial prediction that it would erupt in 2025 was based on its inflation rate, or how fast the chamber beneath the volcano was filling with magma. Geologists thought the volcano would erupt when that inflation rate reached the level seen in 2015. But that inflation rate has now slowed.

Predicting volcanic eruptions is tricky, but a new model that accounts for the underlying physics could make those predictions more reliable, Sascha reports.

You can read the full story here.

Ancient people in Japan had almost no Denisovan DNA

One of the biggest unanswered questions in anthropology is how the Denisovans, mysterious human relatives that lived in Asia and died out around 30,000 years ago, fit into our tangled family tree.

New research is providing tantalizing clues, staff writer Sophie Berdugo reports. Researchers looked at ancient skeletons from Asia that were between 45,000 and 766 years old and found that the prehistoric people of Japan, called the Jomon, had almost no Denisovan DNA.

Modern East Asians have on average about 0.1% Denisovan DNA, but there are wide variations between populations; Papua New Guineans, for example, have up to 5% Denisovan DNA.

So what do the new findings tell us about how Denisovans migrated and mated with Homo sapiens? One possibility is that Denisovans existed at such low numbers that many H. sapiens in Asia never encountered them. Or it’s possible this genetic data tells us something about the routes early human populations took across Asia.

You can read the full story here.

UK bans animal testing

U.K. science minister Lord Patrick Vallance told the BBC that they’ve developed a plan to phase out animal testing for certain safety testing by the end of the year, and to reduce the use of dogs and primates by 35% by 2030. In 2020, about 2.88 million animals were used in testing in the country.

But is that safe, and would it be feasible in the U.S.? In fact, the U.S. already has regulations that set us on a similar path. In 2023, Live Science health editor Nicoletta Lanese reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had removed the requirement for animal testing for new drugs.

On paper, that would mean a drug could enter human clinical trials without being tested in animals, but in practice, not much is likely to change soon. That’s because replacements such as computer models of organ systems, and “organs-on-a-chip” are still very new. Before lab rats can be phased out, companies will need to be convinced those alternatives are as good as, or better than, animal testing — and crucially, they’ll need to know that the FDA views those tests as reliable, experts told Lanese.

You can read the full story here.

Farewell, but not goodbye

Stranded Shenzhou-20 astronauts are preparing to come home… We just don’t know when yet

We’ve recieved an update from the China Manned Space Agency on preparations to bring its stranded astronauts home. The only hitch is that there’s no word on when yet. Nonetheless, crew and engineers are carrying out tests and drills for an eventual return, so we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

Blue Origin rocket launch scrubbed

While solar activity has made it a good week for auroras, things aren’t looking so spectacular for Blue Origin, whose mission to launch a pair of Mars-bound NASA spacecraft aboard the New Glenn rocket has been scrubbed for the second time this week. The first time it was because of bad weather on Earth, this time it’s due to bad weather in space.

The surgery was performed on a human cadaver, not a live patient, but could open up a path for doctors to save more people who have had ischemic strokes (strokes that block blood supply to the brain) — especially when time is vitally of the essence when it comes to the treatment.

LeCun’s departure comes as Meta shifts away from fundamental research into AI and toward building products based on existing technology, Bloomberg reports. His next venture will likely focus on building AIs that use “world models” to take spatial data from the real world and better navigate it.

Africa’s first drug regulation agency launches

Africa is finally getting its own major drug regulator. The African Medicines Agency (AMA), was launched on Monday (Nov. 10) and is headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda.

The agency’s launch is a vital step for Africa, which contains the greatest levels of genetic diversity on the planet yet is often underserved by globally-approved treatments that are less effective or even harmful for some people of African ancestry.

Regulators at the new agency will work at shaping the science conducted to improve the health of the rapidly growing and urbanizing continent.

Aurora galore

I’ve dropped a few below, but there are plenty more to be found in the article. And if this inspires you to brave the elements with your camera next time, you won’t have to wait long — the aurora should be in full flow tonight.

Scientists from around the world have gathered for the conference, which covers all things paleontology. I’ve been listening to dinosaur talks for most of the morning, during which researchers have presented new and recently published findings, including one on the oldest-known dome-headed dinosaur.

But it’s not all about dinosaurs. Here’s a picture of a saber-toothed skull model from upcoming research (currently super secret).

Patrick Pester

JWST finds the first stars

Astronomers still debate over what the signals from these stars should look like, meaning this detection likely won’t be certain for some time. But if scientists keep spotting good candidates like this, they could learn some crucial insights into how the first galaxies in our universe took shape.

You can read the full story here.

Bumblebees learn to code

In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists have trained bumblebees to read rudimentary Morse code signals to find sugary rewards. It demonstrates an impressive neurological capacity among insects for sensing timing, and could mean that evolution has hard-wired their tiny brains for decoding simple codes — there’s hope for journalists yet.

Comet 3I/ATLAS is blasting out radio signals. Here’s why that’s proof it’s not aliens.

Astronomers at South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope have detected the first radio waves emanating from the interstellar visitor. Read that sentence alone and click away from this blog, and you might think it’s further evidence that the comet is a trojan horse stuffed to the brim with little green men.

But alas, the signal is actually further evidence that the comet is perfectly natural in its origins.

Why? Check out Senior Staff Writer Harry’s full story for the lowdown.

Auroring good time

Good morning, science fans. For those of you chasing auroras all night, we hope you got some rest. We blogged about the solar eruptions barrelling into Earth’s magnetosphere here yesterday, but it turns out they were triggered by the most powerful solar flare of the year.

As three solar outbursts (or coronal mass ejections if you want to make them sound fancy) continue to spark geomagnetic storms, we’re set to see the northern lights as far south as northern California and Alabama tonight.

The reports of 3I/ATLAS’s death are greatly exaggerated

Read the full story here.

Manifold Destiny

On this day 22 years ago, a Russian mathematician uploaded a scientific paper to a public server that quickly sent the world loopy.

His name was Gigori Perlman, and the paper he submitted was the first of three that solved the Poincaré conjecture — a famously-intractable hypothesis made by Henri Poincaré nearly a century before.

Perlman’s contribution proved essential for topology, the mathematical study of shapes, and earned him the prestigious Fields Medal and the Clay Millenium math prize.

Yet he turned both down, and seemingly left the field permanently due to his disillusionment with the vanity of his fellow mathematicians. When a reporter attempted to contact him in 2010 he responded: “You are disturbing me. I am picking mushrooms.”

Cause for COP-timism

Climate deliberations continue at this year’s COP 30 conference in Belem, Brazil, in spite of some notable absences that include President Donald Trump. Here’s a breakdown from Carbon Brief on what each country’s negotiators are angling for at the conference.

If all the legal wranglings over the fate of our planet feel a little dispiriting, here’s a shot of good news: China, the world’s biggest polluter, has seen its CO2 emissions flat or falling over the past 18 months, meaning it could hit its emissions peak far ahead of schedule.

Leonid meteor shower set to peak

Save all your wishes for next week, when the Leonid meteor shower peaks.

The annual flurry of shooting stars will appear in the early hours of Monday (Nov. 17), and is produced by tiny particles from the Comet 55P/Tempel-Tuttle that burn up in Earth’s atmosphere to make meteors.

This year could offer one of the best viewing windows for the fast-moving shower, owing to a nearly moonless night.

Live Science roundup

Here’s a roundup of the stories Live Science has published today (so far).

Researchers have studied how magnetism is distributed within a radioactive nucleus for the first time by poking around inside a rare molecule.

—This week’s Leonid meteor shower could be one of the best in years. Here’s why.

Let’s get ready for meteors!

—Scientists create world’s first microwave-powered computer chip — it’s much faster and consumes less power than conventional CPUs

A new kind of processor that uses microwaves instead of conventional circuitry. Fancy!

—Prehistoric Jomon people in Japan had ‘little to no’ DNA from the mysterious Denisovans, study finds

The Jomon people of prehistoric Japan had lowest levels of Denisovan DNA of all ancient and modern East Asian people. Find out what that means.

Patrick Pester

Cannibal solar storm on its way

What’s more exciting than one coronal mass ejection? One eating the other, of course.

A cannibal CME is created when one CME is followed, and swallowed, by a second faster one to create a single, massive wave of plasma.

That’s what could happen this Wednesday (Nov. 12) according to Spaceweather.com, as two CMEs are on their way to Earth right now. They will likely bring a strong geomagnetic storm and auroras above our skies.

Running AMOC

It’s a simple rule that as you get further away from the equator, your climate gets colder.

Yet not everywhere follows this trend. Take Western Europe for example: New York City and Madrid lie along roughly the same latitude, yet Madrid’s average January temperatures are ten degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 Celsius) hotter than those of the Big Apple.

You can read the full story here.

New Comet approaches

Called C/2025 V1 (Borisov), this new comet has a high eccentricity, a vanishing tail and is due its closest flyby of Earth today. Unlike 3I/ATLAS, C/2025 V1 does not come from interstellar space, but is believed to originate from the Oort cloud — the icy sphere of debris that surrounds our solar system.

You can read the full story here.

Ben Turner

Canada loses its measles elimination status

Measles can be deadly: it kills between 1 and 3 out of every 1,000 children infected. But even those who survive the infection can suffer long-term consequences, from “immune amnesia” to permanent brain damage to a rare progressive condition that puts them into a coma from which they never awake.

The good thing is that we have extremely effective vaccines for measles that prevent both the infection itself and its dangerous knock-on effects. The bad thing is that rates of routine measles vaccinations are trending down, and as a predictable consequence, cases of measles are going up.

Canada’s announcement is a reflection of this global trend, which is being driven both by rising anti-vaccine sentiment and by disruptions to routine childhood vaccination triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other factors. The United States has also seen persistent declines in routine vaccination in recent years, and in turn, large outbreaks of measles, raising questions about the stability of its own measles elimination status.

At the end of the day, the takeaway is that measles is a highly preventable illness that causes a great deal of suffering when it’s allowed to take hold. The measles vaccine represents a triumph of medical science that helped drive down the staggering rate of child death that existed prior to its introduction. Declines in measles vaccination signal a return to a time when a lot more kids died in early childhood than do today — and that, in a word, is concerning.

Read the full story here.

Nicoletta Lanese

New ‘almost interstellar’ comet approaches Earth

For the record, this newly discovered comet, dubbed C/2025 V1 (Borisov), is definitely NOT an interstellar object (ISO). But it does share a few similarities with 3I/ATLAS, including a high eccentricity and a vanishing tail. As for it being an alien spacecraft, even renowned alien-hunter Avi Loeb — who has been promoting this theory for months — says that it is unlikely.

And in a completely unrelated coincidence, the new comet was discovered by Gennadiy Borisov, who also discovered the second-ever ISO and 3I/ATLAS’s predecessor “Comet Borisov” in 2019.

Check out the full story here.

Harry Baker

Cosmically, we may have already peaked

By taking the most comprehensive temperature reading of our universe yet, the space telescopes revealed that galaxies have grown slightly cooler as their star formation rates eased off over the past 10 billion years.

That means that our universe is on course to becoming totally quenched. But before any of us spiral into existential crisis, it won’t be for an unimaginably long time. In the meantime, we can all get therapy, or maybe just feed the ducks.

You can read the full story here.

Comet sense?

Our solar system’s third-ever recorded interstellar visitor is fascinating — at more than 7 billion years old it’s so irradiated that we may never be able to pin down exactly where it came from. But the question on everyone’s lips, and in our inboxes, is whether or not it’s an alien probe.

I’d really love to tell you otherwise, but the answer from most scientists is no, almost definitely not.

You don’t have to take that from me, though. Here’s an article by radio astronomer Laura Driessen on why extraterrestrial speculation is the least interesting question about this truly strange comet.

You can give the story a read here.

Ben Turner

COP30 kicks off

Most importantly, this year’s major climate conference is officially underway. Simon Stiell, the UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, highlighted the progress humanity had made since the signing of the Paris Agreement 10 years ago at COP21, during which world leaders promised to limit global warming to preferably below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and well below 2 C (3.6 F). However, as the UN announced last week, we’re still expected to overshoot the 1.5 C target.

“We must move much, much, faster on both reductions of emissions and strengthening resilience,” Stiell said. “The science is clear: we can and must bring temperatures back down to 1.5C after any temporary overshoot. Lamenting is not a strategy. We need solutions.”

Stiell will be looking for countries to collaborate on those solutions this week, but as Ben noted this morning, many leaders are no-showing this year’s conference. Among the notable absentees are President Donald Trump, China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi — the heads of the three biggest emitting countries.

In case you missed it

Here’s a roundup of the stories Live Science published over the weekend, minus the ones we’ve discussed here.

A very interesting teapot.

—Antibiotic found hiding in plain sight could treat dangerous infections, early study find

Scientists have discovered a new antibiotic compound that shows promising activity against drug-resistant infections, so that’s good.

—NASA’s ultraquiet supersonic ‘flying swordfish’ makes history with first test flight

NASA has unveiled an experimental supersonic plane that looks like a swordfish. Swordfish are among the fastest animals in the ocean, but their commonly cited swimming speeds are very unreliable. NASA’s new plane reached a top speed of about 240 miles per hour (386 kilometers per hour).

—Bizarre robotic chair concept looks like a crab and can carry you around the house — it can even help you into your car

A terrifying, but potentially very useful, walking chair.

—How to watch ‘Kingdom’ — TV and streaming details for David Attenborough’s new BBC series

New nature series narrated by the 99-year-old Sir David Attenborough.

Patrick Pester

Mysterious Andean holes explained

Some 5,200 holes sit in ordered grids along southern Peru’s Serpent Mountain, many of them dating back more than a thousand years. So what could explain them? Long-forgotten rituals? Fog capture technology? Human sacrifices? Aliens?

A new suggestion made by archaeologists posits that the real answer isn’t quite that exciting (although it’s still pretty cool): The holes were likely used as accountancy tools in barter markets for goods along trade routes.

You can read the full story here.

Giza break

Two voids found on the eastern side of Egypt’s Pyramid of Menkaure could point to a second entrance to the ancient tomb, tests that used electrical currents and ultrasonic waves have hinted.

The weekend’s biggest news

We can’t always bring you breaking science news as it happens — sometimes our loved ones, days off and sleep schedules get in the way. Here’s some of the biggest science news that happened over the weekend:

Monkey business is closed

On Friday night, we finally got news that the last of these monkeys has been tracked down following a report from a resident whose dog alerted her to its presence. Five of the escaped rhesus macaques were sadly killed by police, yet authorities say that this monkey was “successfully recovered.”

Good COP, bad COP

While we’re speaking of the pale blue dot that we call home, it’s in a spot of trouble due to human-caused climate change, as it speeds toward near-certain overshoot of climatic guard-rails set by 2015’s Paris Agreement. That’s why delegations from 194 countries are meeting in Brazil for the UN’s COP30 conference, making yet another attempt to forge better plans to stay within the agreement’s limits and phase out fossil fuels.

This year’s conference promises to be particularly contentious, with many leaders being no-shows and the Trump administration having exited the process entirely.

Where that leaves this conference is entirely unclear: Brazil insists that this year’s conference will be one of “implementation”, whereby countries focus on what they can contribute toward real-world impacts instead of striving toward longwinded, often defanged, consensus. Whether that means some countries can get away with contributing very little, and what can be done to counteract this, remains unclear.

Ben Turner