NASA’s “potato Earth” explained: the geoid exaggerated 10,000 times

NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio released a geoid visualization in July 2026 using the GOCO06s global gravity-field model. Heights ranging from about +85 metres near Iceland to −106 metres south of India were exaggerated 10,000 times, producing the potato-like appearance. The image maps a gravity equipotential surface; it is not Earth’s physical shape or a terrain map.

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First four-carbon sugar found near the Galactic Centre: erythrulose offers a new clue to prebiotic chemistry

An international team led by Spain’s Centre for Astrobiology used the Yebes 40-metre and IRAM 30-metre radio telescopes to detect erythrulose in the interstellar medium for the first time, in the molecular cloud G+0.693−0.027 near the Galactic Centre. This four-carbon monosaccharide can form from simpler molecules on cold interstellar dust. The finding supports the idea that sugars could be delivered to young planets by asteroids or comets, but it does not show that life on Earth came from space.

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A green ribbon from the ISS: Sophie Adenot records the aurora australis

ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot filmed an aurora australis from the International Space Station. Bright green light ripples along the edge of Earth’s nightside atmosphere, framed by city lights and parts of the station.

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The Cosmic Horseshoe hosts a 36-billion-solar-mass black hole: lensing and stellar motion weigh it together

Astronomers used strong gravitational lensing and two-dimensional stellar dynamics to constrain the central mass of the Cosmic Horseshoe lens galaxy, about five billion light-years away. They infer a black hole of roughly 36 billion solar masses. Models with a central black hole are favoured at more than 5σ, demonstrating a way to weigh distant, weakly accreting black holes.

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