Science - Tuesday, March 17, 2026

NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft is preparing for its second flight, a step that will set the pace for more flight testing in 2026. Over the coming months, NASA will take the quiet supersonic jet faster and higher, while validating safety and performance, a process known as envelope expansion. NASA test pilot Jim “Clue” Less will be at the X-59’s […]

A new Senate report argues the Trump administration has also pushed costs up by stifling clean energy.

Cancer the Crab is a dim constellation, yet it contains one of the most beautiful and easy-to-spot star clusters in our sky: the Beehive Cluster. Cancer also possesses one of the most studied exoplanets: the superhot super-Earth, 55 Cancri e. Find Cancer’s dim stars by looking in between the brighter neighboring constellations of Gemini and […]

Two people have died in an outbreak of meningococcal disease. Many cases were traced to a nightclub in Canterbury that is popular with students at the University of Kent.

A mysterious metal-rich asteroid called Psyche has been baffling scientists for over two centuries, and its true origin remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in planetary science. Is it the exposed core of a failed planet, or a chaotic mix of rock and metal forged through countless violent collisions? To find out, researchers simulated how a massive crater near Psyche’s north pole formed, revealing that the asteroid’s internal “porosity” — how much empty space it contains — may hold the key to its secrets.

These X-ray computed tomography (XCT) scans released on March 17, 2026, give us a glimpse inside asteroid Bennu. They show the most common types of crack networks observed in Bennu samples; these networks solved a mystery that baffled NASA for years. When NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft first approached asteroid Bennu in 2018, scientists expected to see smooth, sandy beach-like surfaces. Instead, they […]

In one of the biggest surprises of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, its target asteroid, Bennu, turned out to be a jagged, rugged world covered in large boulders, with few of the smooth patches of sandy or pebbly material scientists had expected based on observations with Earth-based instruments. Bennu’s looks were quite deceiving, and until now, scientists struggled to figure out why.

The bigger the hailstone, the more damage it can cause. But scientists find that predicting hailstone size can be challenging. How quickly does hail melt as it falls?

In a new study, wild regent honeyeaters became vocal tutors, teaching their disappearing song to birds in a captive breeding program.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details in a bizarre nebula that looks like a brain floating in space. Formed by a dying star, the “Exposed Cranium” nebula shows layered gas and a dark central divide that creates its eerie shape. Webb’s infrared view suggests powerful jets may be shaping the structure. The images capture a brief and dramatic phase in a star’s final evolution.