At 48 light-years, LHS 1140 b reveals an atmosphere: helium is escaping from a habitable-zone rocky planet

Astronomers detected escaping helium in transit spectra of the habitable-zone rocky exoplanet LHS 1140 b, providing the first clear evidence that this super-Earth about 48 light-years away retains an atmosphere. The signal appeared only in the 2024 observation, and the study constrains only the upper atmosphere; the composition of the lower atmosphere remains unknown.

Read article →

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.

Read article →

New Horizons images confirm landslides on Pluto for the first time: six large features in three impact craters

An Icarus study reanalysed high-resolution New Horizons imagery and topographic data and identified six large landslides inside three impact craters on Pluto. The landforms show that gravity-driven slope movement helped shape Pluto, although the available data do not establish when the slides occurred.

Read article →

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.

Read article →

How Much Does the Mercator Projection Enlarge Countries? Compare Their True Size

Brilliant Maps’ New True Size Comparison Tool compares Mercator outlines with equal-area outlines. Because the official tool cannot be embedded reliably, Googolstars built a native in-page version around the same core comparison and links clearly to the original.

Read article →

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.

Read article →

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.

Read article →