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Our third known interstellar visitor, comet 3I/ATLAS, will reach its closest point to Earth today, December 19. It will still be pretty far away, at 270 million kilometers (168 million miles) away, but despite being almost twice the Earth-Sun distance, it’s the closest it will ever get to Earth as it continues its journey through […]

It’s barely perceptible, but from the morning after December 21 (or June 21 if you’re below the equator), the Sun starts to hang around for just a little longer each day. For most of us, that means we can start dreaming about the day that our morning commute doesn’t begin in complete darkness, but for […]

When faced with a physical challenge, studies have found, swearing improves performance. New research offers an explanation of the mechanism, and why in a crisis swearing might be exactly what is necessary.  In emergencies people sometimes show strength or speed they would never have considered possible. There may be a price to pay afterwards in […]

They even stack them up, did you know that? Tidy towers of poop bricks gathered around rocks or logs in the environment. These “latrines” aggregate easily because square poops don’t roll away, but now new research has discovered they may also be a way of communicating with each other. “There are signs that these latrines […]

In Season 5 of IFLScience’s podcast The Big Questions, we’ve deep-dived into some of the most intriguing (and biggest) scientific puzzles of 2025, from whether or not de-extinction is really possible to the reasons why people believe in the paranormal. Oh, and we searched for Nessie too. Hosts Dr Alfredo Carpineti, Katy Evans, Eleanor Higgs, […]

Years ago, astronomers believed they had found a planet forming around a nearby star called Fomalhaut. This was very exciting as the planet was imaged directly, the first time that had happened. A few years ago, however, astronomers discovered it was not a planet, but a cloud of debris from a collision in the star […]

NASA has finally got a new administrator. It is billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman who will run the space agency going forward. Isaacman’s name was first put forward very soon after the 2024 election, when his connections to the private space industry and Elon Musk placed him in favor with the Trump administration. In his […]

Skygazing astronomers have spotted a sudden, bold flash of light on the dark side of the Moon caused by an astronomical smash-up. The culprit is still being investigated, but it may have something to do with the one of the strangest space objects we know of. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. […]

Communities found in South Africa called microbialites look like green-tinged rocks, but they grow. Although they resemble some of the oldest evidence for life on Earth, new evidence indicates they are growing much faster than we thought, and drawing abundant carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they do it – even at night. As their […]

Where do lizards go to fall in love? For the Lesser Antillean iguana, “Love Island” can be found on Prickly Pear East, where scientists have embarked on an ambitious conservation project. These critically endangered reptiles were facing extinction on Anguilla not long ago, but following a matchmaking meet-cute that’s successfully established a new population, the […]

NASA has released a short timelapse video of Perseverance’s record-breaking drive on Mars, as engineers determine the rover should be operational until at least 2031. In July 2020, the Perseverance rover was launched, landing in the Jezero Crater on Mars on February 18, 2021. The rover’s primary objective is to search for signs of ancient […]

Deep in interstellar space, about five times farther from us than Pluto, a message is waiting to be heard.  It’s found on a pair of golden disks, decorated with dates and instructions, and containing natural sounds and greetings in dozens of languages, which were sent away from our planet in 1977 in the hope that […]

The doomed occupants of Pompeii may have been sweating even before Mount Vesuvius began spewing deadly volcanic debris on August 24, 79 CE. Dressed in heavy woollen garments, these cursed souls were poorly decked out for a summer apocalypse, suggesting that the famous disaster may actually have occurred on a different date to that reported […]

Luminous fast blue optical transients (LFBOTs) are the very unsexy name for something spectacular and mysterious: a bright flash of light lasting a couple of days with a dramatic blue hue. They have a distinct ultraviolet signature, leaving behind faint X-rays and radio waves. The source? Unknown. Although, the brightest one yet might have finally […]

What’s the biggest rock in the world? Well, it depends on how you define a rock. But without stepping too far into a geological, philosophical, and linguistic minefield, there are several colossal contenders for the title, including a bunch in the Aussie Outback. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in […]

It’s difficult to work out what is going on in your own mind, let alone anyone else’s. That’s one of the reasons why people with aphantasia, or who do not have an inner monologue (anendophasia), may not realize that their minds work differently from other people’s. Aphantasia is a difference in the way the brain […]

Did you know that Elasmosaurus was once depicted as being the other way around? And by that, I mean Edward Drinker Cope put its head on its tail? Then we have Iguanodon, an animal we once thought had a fierce horn on its nose because we erroneously put the thumb spike on its face. It’s […]

Google Maps has got fresh competition. Using machine learning, computer engineers have developed an interactive map that shows 3D models of the world’s buildings – practically every single one of them. Here’s how it works and how you can tinker around with it yourself.  Called the GlobalBuildingAtlas, the freely available map features nearly all of […]

Snakes are pretty impressive creatures, living in a variety of habitats and populating every continent except Antarctica. Across this diverse group of animals is a wide range of defensive behaviors, but nothing can beat the hognose snakes for their acting skills.  The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe […]

Titan is the only other world in the Solar System with lakes and rain. Unlike Earth, those are not made of water, but methane and other hydrocarbons, because it is too cold for liquid water. There is plenty of water ice on Titan though, and observations in the 2000s suggested that the moon might be […]