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New ˾þ. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

Lost in Space-Time

Each month, we hand over the keyboard to a physicist or mathematician to tell you about fascinating ideas from their corner of the universe. You can sign up to the Lost in Space-Time newsletter here.
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Fireball in South Carolina. Screenshot from Facebook video posted by Kathryn Rose Farr on 26 Jun 2025

Space

Mystery fireball spotted plummeting to Earth over the US

There have been hundreds of reports of sightings of a “fireball” in the skies over the southern US – it may have been a meteor breaking up as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere

News

Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Video

Look inside the revolutionary Vera C. Rubin Observatory

Video

Trees against starry sky

Space

Why are the physical constants of the universe so perfect for life?

Features

In about 1.3 million years, the star system Gliese 710 is set to pass directly through our Oort Cloud, an event visualized in a dramatic scene in Encounters in the Milky Way. During its flyby, our systems will swap icy comets, flinging some out on new paths.

Space

New ˾þ recommends a new space show at the Hayden Planetarium

Culture

Rubin Observatory in March 2024...***..Observatorio Rubin en marzo de 2024.

Space

Why you should join a watch party for the first Vera C. Rubin images

Comment

Astronaut Scott Kelly posted this photo of an aurora taken from the International Space Station to Twitter on August 15, 2015

Physics

The radical idea that space-time remembers could upend cosmology

Features

Physics

Microwaves seem to experience imaginary time – and now we know how

News

2M7PPCR HMS EREBUS trapped in the ice in 1846 during the third Franklin expedition to find a Northwest Passage .Painting byFrancois Musin about 1850

Physics

Fabulous time travel novel is part-thriller and part-romance

Culture

The eye is first drawn, in this new NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope Picture of the Month, to the central mega-monster that is galaxy cluster Abell S1063. This behemoth collection of galaxies, lying 4.5 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Grus (the Crane), dominates the scene. Looking more closely, this dense collection of heavy galaxies is surrounded by glowing streaks of light, and these warped arcs are the true object of scientists??? interest: faint galaxies from the Universe???s distant past. Abell S1063 was previously observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope???s Frontier Fields programme. It is a strong gravitational lens: the galaxy cluster is so massive that the light of distant galaxies aligned behind it is bent around it, creating the warped arcs that we see here. Like a glass lens, it focuses the light from these faraway galaxies. The resulting images, albeit distorted, are both bright and magnified ??? enough to be observed and studied. This was the aim of Hubble???s observations, using the galaxy cluster as a magnifying glass to investigate the early Universe. The new imagery from Webb???s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) takes this quest even further back in time. This image showcases an incredible forest of lensing arcs around Abell S1063, which reveal distorted background galaxies at a range of cosmic distances, along with a multitude of faint galaxies and previously unseen features. This image is what???s known as a deep field ??? a long exposure of a single area of the sky, collecting as much light as possible to draw out the most faint and distant galaxies that don???t appear in ordinary images. With 9 separate snapshots of different near-infrared wavelengths of light, totalling around 120 hours of observing time and aided by the magnifying effect of gravitational lensing, this is Webb???s deepest gaze on a single target to date. Focusing such observing power on a massive gravitational lens, like Abell S1063, therefore h

Space

Peer into the early universe as light bends around huge galaxy cluster

News

Astronaut Sally Ride, mission specialist on STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the Flight Deck. Floating in front of her is a flight procedures notebook. (Credit: NASA)

Space

Life of first US woman in space Sally Ride makes a moving documentary

A new documentary sheds light on the extraordinary story of the US's first woman astronaut, Sally Ride, who defied all expectations in both her career and personal life

Culture

Space

Why it's taking a century to pin down the speed of the universe

News

Comment

Our verdict on Ringworld by Larry Niven: Nice maths, shame about Teela

Culture

Physics

Read an extract from time-travel novel The Ministry of Time

Culture

Comment

'Time travel was just a metaphor for controlling a narrative'

Culture

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