Science - Wednesday, June 17, 2026

NASA Wednesday announced a new public‑private partnership to advance Mars science by combining the agency’s scientific leadership with commercial innovation. Under this model, NASA will provide the Aeolus atmospheric‑science instrument payload suite, while Relativity Space supplies the spacecraft, rocket, and cruise operations necessary to deliver the instruments to Mars. This partnership reflects NASA’s growing commitment […]

It’s the third such deal the Interior Department has struck to pay firms to abandon plans for offshore turbines, spending roughly $2.5 billion to get companies to abandon their wind projects.

Some stars have planets. Others are orbited by brown dwarfs, balls of gas too massive to be planets, but too low-mass to be stars. Astronomers love these brown dwarf-star pairs because being paired with a star helps reveal a brown dwarf’s age. Ages of astronomical objects are often hard to measure, but essential for understanding […]

A math whiz as a young man, he later blazed trails, both with his theoretical advances and his advocacy for minority students.

Scientists have taken a surprising step toward unlocking regeneration in mammals, showing that the ability to rebuild complex body parts may not be lost after all—it may simply be switched off. Using a two-stage treatment, researchers redirected the body’s normal healing response away from scar formation and toward regrowth, successfully restoring bone, joints, ligaments, and tendons after amputation in animal studies.

Cameron Hamilton, who briefly led the agency on an acting basis last year but was fired for contradicting the president, also said he would get money out to states faster.

Looking somewhat like a swarm of bees returning to their hive, this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image released on June 12, 2026, features the galaxy cluster MACS0329-0211. Galaxy clusters like MACS0329-0211 are important signposts in the story of how the structure of the universe evolved, and are the ultimate telescopic lenses, placing gravitationally lensed galaxies from the […]

Scientists have discovered a new Amazonian spider with an astonishing disguise: it looks like a parasitic fungus. The species, Taczanowskia waska, mimics both the appearance and behavior of the fungus, helping it stay hidden from predators and potentially catch prey more easily.

New research has identified areas around the world where cooler currents and other favorable conditions are helping to protect coral from the worst effects of global warming.

Scientists have digitally preserved the world’s most endangered marine mammal by creating highly detailed 3D models of a vaquita skeleton using advanced imaging technology. The virtual archive provides an unprecedented look at the species and could help inspire conservation efforts before the tiny porpoise disappears forever.