Science

A mysterious spiraling blue light illuminated the night skies over Europe on Monday.The cosmic whirlpool was captured in stunning video and appears to have been created by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket booster falling back toward Earth, according to experts.Time-lapse video taken from Croatia at around 4 p.m. EST, or 9 p.m. local time, shows the glowing light spinning across the sky in what many social media commentators likened to a spiral galaxy. The full video at normal speed lasts for about six minutes. Many social media commenters likened the stunning display to a spiral galaxy (MedicaChristian/TMX)ELON MUSK CONGRATULATES SPACEX, NASA FOR 'EXCELLENT WORK' RESCUING STRANDED ASTRONAUTSThe Met Office in the U.K. said it had received many reports of an "illuminated swirl in the sky" and...

What happens when an octopus jumps on a shark for a ride around town? A "sharktopus," of course.The rare sighting, captured on video off the coast of New Zealand and shared by scientists affiliated with the University of Auckland, shows a Maori octopus riding on top of a mako shark, which is the fastest in the world with the ability to swim up to 46 mph. The university said the December 2023 encounter "was one of the strangest things University of Auckland marine scientists had ever seen. It was a mysterious sight indeed… octopus are mostly on the seabed while short-fin mako sharks don’t [favor] the deep."MASSIVE SHARK HEADED DOWN FLORIDA COAST AHEAD OF BUSY TRAVEL SEASON A rare sighting captured off the coast of New Zealand and shared by scientists affiliated with the University of A...

Even astronauts have a sense of humor, as shown during NASA's Crew-10 docking on the International Space Station (ISS), when they were met by an "alien" early Sunday morning.Crew-9 commander Nick Hague wore an alien mask while welcoming four newcomers after their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule docked to the station at 12:04 a.m., about 29 hours after launching at 7:03 p.m. on Friday from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.While ISS crew members were preparing the capsule for deboarding, Hague could be seen floating around while wearing a mask, a hoodie, pants and socks. "NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov entered the International Space Station shortly after opening the...

NASA 'Athena' lander set to touch down on moon's surface Fox News senior correspondent Jonathan Serrie joins 'The Faulkner Focus' to discuss NASA's moon lander descending towards the lunar surface and a stranded astronaut denying claims that politics played a role in delaying his retrieval.  A lunar lander made its touchdown on the moon earlier on Thursday, but controllers on the ground were unable to confirm the Athena lander’s condition upon landing, the Associated Press reported. In addition to its condition, the location of where the craft landed is also unclear.The lander, which is owned by Intuitive Machines, was carrying an ice drill, a drone and two rovers. Athena was apparently able to communicate with its controllers, the Associated Press reported, citing officials.Mission...

A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other equipment to deliver for NASA touched down on the moon on Sunday, the latest of several companies seeking to kickstart business on Earth's natural satellite ahead of astronaut missions.Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, targeting the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moon’s northeastern edge of the near side.The company's Mission Control, located outside Austin, Texas, confirmed a successful landing.SPACEX LAUNCHES FALCON 9 ROCKET TOWARDS LUNAR SOUTH POLE IN SEARCH OF WATER This image provided by Firefly Aerospace on Feb. 26, 2025, shows Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost lunar lander orbiting the moon. (Firefly Aerospace via AP)"You all stuck the landing. We’re...

Mars' distinctive red color comes from the mineral ferrihydrite, which only forms in the presence of cool water, a new study claims. Ferrihydrite also forms at a lower temperature than other minerals that make up the aptly-named red planet’s surface, like hematite, which had previously been considered the main reason for its rouge hue."This suggests that Mars may have had an environment capable of sustaining liquid water before it transitioned from a wet to a dry environment billions of years ago," NASA said in a news release this week. NASA partially funded the study. GRIFF JENKINS: ‘THE RACE TO MARS IS ON’ Mars' distinctive red color comes from the mineral ferrihydrite, which only forms in the presence of cool water, a new study claims.  (AFP via Getty Images)Researchers in the stud...

A new study links a particular gene and a protein variant found only in humans to the origins of spoken language.Researchers used CRISPR gene editing to replace the NOVA1 protein found in mice with the type exclusively found in humans, and it changed the way the animals vocalized when they called out to each other.The author of the study, Dr. Robert Darnell, hopes the recent work could lead to new ways to treat speech-related problems.Why did humans start speaking? Scientists suggest genetics played a big role – and they say the evolution of this singular ability was key to our survival.A new study links a particular gene to the ancient origins of spoken language, proposing that a protein variant found only in humans may have helped us communicate in a novel way. Speech allowed us to s...

A NASA astronaut at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday reported hearing a "strange noise" coming from the Boeing Starliner spacecraft just days before it is set to leave the station and return to Earth on autopilot.The astronaut, Butch Wilmore, radioed Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston to inquire about the noise. On an audio recording of the exchange, Wilmore holds up a phone to the speakers so that Mission Control could hear the noise he was referring to. A pulsating sound emanating at steady intervals can be heard through Wilmore’s device. "Butch, that one came through," Mission Control says after not hearing it the first time. "It was kind of like a pulsating noise, almost like a sonar ping." NASA PLANS TO SEND 2 ASTRONAUTS INSTEAD OF 3 TO ISS SO PAIR...

Boeing's Starliner spacecraft touched down on Earth early Saturday morning, with two test pilots left behind in space until next year over NASA's concerns that their return was too risky.Starliner parachuted into New Mexico's White Sands Missile Range six hours after leaving the International Space Station, landing at 12:01 a.m. ET."I am extremely proud of the work our collective team put into this entire flight test, and we are pleased to see Starliner’s safe return," Ken Bowersox, associate administrator of Space Operations Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement."Even though it was necessary to return the spacecraft uncrewed, NASA and Boeing learned an incredible amount about Starliner in the most extreme environment possible," he added. "NASA loo...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is monitoring a "potentially hazardous" asteroid that is moving past Earth on Tuesday.NASA told Fox News Digital that the rocky object, which has been named 2024 ON, is 350 meters long by 180 meters wide, which roughly equals 1,150 feet by 590 feet – larger than previous estimates. NASA has deemed the asteroid "stadium-sized" and reported it was 621,000 miles away from Earth on Tuesday morning, which is considered relatively close. Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Fox News Digital that an asteroid of this size coming this close to Earth only happens every five to ten years.Farnocchia, who works at the laboratory's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, said that the last time a lar...