Live Science

Scientists identify 10,000 'impossible' exoplanet candidates, potentially tripling the number of known alien…

Scientists may have detected more than 10,000 never-before-seen exoplanets in a single survey, potentially tripling the number of known alien worlds in one fell swoop. The record-breaking haul was possible thanks to a new algorithm that helped researchers analyze more than 80 million stars — revealing subtle clues that would otherwise be "impossible" for us to see.Since the first alien planet was spotted in 1995, the number of exoplanet discoveries has slowly risen in line with new technologies, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, which are better equipped to spot these weird alien worlds. In September 2025, astronomers revealed that the number of confirmed exoplanets had surpassed 6,000, and nearly 300 have been added to the list since then, according to NASA.Using a machine learning algorithm, the team analyzed the light curves of precisely 83,717,159 stars captured by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a car-sized space telescope that has been circling Earth since 2018. By looking for subtle dips in the stars' brightness, astronomers can tell when a planet has likely passed in front of, or transited, its home star.This revealed more than 11,000 exoplanet candidates, of which 10,052 had never been seen before. (Other scientists had previously

Yellowstone's volcano may be fueled in a very different way than we thought

Yellowstone's famous supervolcano is likely being fueled in a completely different way from what many scientists assumed. New research suggests that Yellowstone's volcanic activity is actually driven by shifts in Earth's crust, rather than a deep well of magma underground as previously thought.This finding could help scientists predict future volcanic activity and better understand how the volcano will behave.The Yellowstone area, where Earth's crust is relatively thin, is a hotbed of volcanic activity. In the last 2.1 million years, Yellowstone has seen three major eruptions, with the most recent taking place 631,000 years ago. The last supereruption created the Yellowstone caldera, which is more than 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide. A caldera is the bowl-shaped depression left in the ground after the volcano's molten rock has exploded to the surface.There is a long-standing debate about the origin of Yellowstone's volcanics. Some scientists think there is a deep mantle plume beneath its surface. A mantle plume is a column of very hot rock that travels from Earth's core-mantle boundary, which heats material in the crust. But others argue that Yellowstone's volcanic activity is due to pressures within the crust and mantle."The consequences of these differing hypotheses is what we would expect

Science news this week: Risky, lifesaving surgery performed on a baby in the womb, AI agent deletes a company database in 9 seconds, and the universe may end much sooner than expected

This week's science news was filled with awe-inspiring medical breakthroughs, including the story of a risky surgery that saved an unborn baby from a rare lung disorder at just 25 weeks gestation.Baby Cassian was diagnosed with congenital high airway obstruction syndrome during a second-trimester ultrasound, which required a first-of-its-kind surgery to save him while he was still in the womb. After the surgery, the doctors sealed up the womb, where he remained for another six weeks. Cassian was born in August 2025 and is now being weaned off respiratory support. Doctors say they could perform similar surgeries on other babies in the future.Anthropic agent deletes company's database'I violated every principle I was given': AI agent deletes company's entire database in 9 seconds, then confesses Generative AI agent Cursor, running on Claude Code, deleted PocketOS's entire database(Image credit: danijelala via Getty Images)The cost of putting hallucination-prone AI agents to work was displayed all too clearly this week, with reports that the coding agent Cursor, which is powered by Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6, deleted an entire production database and its backups in just nine seconds.The stricken company was PocketOS, which makes software for rental car companies. After the swift deletion, the company

'One of the most rapid transitions that I've seen': NOAA forecaster on how this year's El…

Our warming world is set to enter an El Niño period as early as May, with a high likelihood of southern North America experiencing supercharged temperatures.One of the three phases of the natural El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle in the Pacific Ocean, El Niño events occur every two to seven years, driving up sea surface temperatures across the Pacific Ocean and increasing global temperature. The last El Niño partially explains why 2024 was the hottest year on record.The knock-on effects of past El Niño events have been profound, with studies linking them to famine in Europe; civil wars in tropical regions; and droughts, floods and forest fires around the world.And there's a good chance this year's El Niño will be particularly intense, with current forecasts indicating a 25% chance that El Niño will be "very strong" by November ‪—‬ meaning sea surface temperatures will rise by 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above average.To get a better idea of what the upcoming El Niño will look like and what it could mean for Earth's climate and weather, Live Science spoke with Nathaniel Johnson, a research meteorologist and member of the ENSO seasonal forecast team at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

City birds appear to like men more than women, but experts have no idea why

Despite being surrounded by a multitude of people, urban birds may be picky about who can approach them, new research suggests.After surveying over 37 city bird species in five European countries, experts found that the avians fled sooner when approached by women than by men. The findings, published in December 2025 in the journal People and Nature, suggest that the birds can differentiate between the sex of the person approaching them."As a woman in the field, I was surprised that birds reacted to us differently," study co-author Yanina Benedetti, an ecologist at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, said in a statement. "This study highlights how animals in cities 'see' humans, which has implications for urban ecology and equality in science. Many behavioural studies assume that a human observer is neutral, but this wasn't the case for urban birds in our study."Outside experts agree that these findings are puzzling, but also preliminary."Until we have a good reason to hypothesize such differences, I remain a bit skeptical," John Marzluff, a professor emeritus in ecology at the University of Washington, told Live Science in an email. "But I am not at all skeptical that birds pay a lot of attention to

'If astrological compatibility exists, its effects should be observable': How one study of 20 million people shows star signs have no influence on romantic compatibility

Astrology has a long history, stretching back thousands of years and permeating across numerous ancient civilizations. In modern times, astrology is big business — and it's growing. In 2025, the industry was estimated to be worth around $3 billion.In this excerpt from "What Science Says About Astrology" (Columbia University Press, 2026), author and science journalist Carlos Orsi looks at a study of 20 million people that sought to test whether star signs have a role in romantic compatibility.The most robust use of data to test astrology is the study of love signs conducted by David Voas in 2007, involving data from more than 20 million people from the 2001 census from England and Wales. Voas tested the hypothesis that certain sun signs were "more compatible" for romantic relationships.The use of the supposed romantic compatibility/incompatibility between signs or planetary configurations to test astrology's validity has a long history. This strategy was, for example, employed by Carl Jung (1875–1967) in his work on astrology and synchronicity and in the classic study by Bernie Silverman.The idea of astrological compatibility or incompatibility in love has strong popular appeal. The book "Love Signs", by Linda Goodman (1925–1995), an almost 1,000-page tome, continues to be reprinted

Full moon alert: May's Flower 'micromoon' will look extra small tonight, with a rare Blue Moon following

May's first full moon, known as the Flower Moon, will be 100% illuminated at 1:24 p.m. EDT Friday (May 1). Although that moment occurs during daylight hours for North America, the moon will appear full at night on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.As always, the most striking time to watch the full moon will be as it rises in the east. This month, that happens during dusk on May Day — which marks the halfway point between March's spring equinox and June's summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere — when it rises shortly after sunset.This Flower Moon is this year's first micromoon, meaning it occurs when the moon is near apogee — its farthest point from Earth in its slightly elliptical orbit. The moon will be about 250,000 miles (402,000 kilometers) from Earth — around 5% farther away than average. As a result, it will appear slightly smaller and dimmer than usual. The difference is subtle, but it contrasts with the larger, brighter supermoons seen when the moon is closer to Earth. This year's supermoon season begins in November, with a particularly large supermoon on tap for Christmas Eve.Despite appearing relatively small, the Flower Moon will still look large when viewed

Poop-encrusted chamber pots from the Roman Empire reveal oldest known human cases of Crypto parasite

Urine and fecal residue encrusted on the inside of ancient Roman chamber pots unearthed in Bulgaria has revealed the world's oldest known evidence of humans infected with the Cryptosporidium parasite, which causes acute gastrointestinal distress.In the first century, the Romans established a province called Moesia Inferior in the Balkan Peninsula, which includes the modern country of Bulgaria. Roman legions were tasked with defending the imperial border from the Goths, primarily from a fortress called Novae (near present-day Svishtov) and a town known as Marcianopolis (modern-day Devnya). While excavating at Novae and Marcianopolis in Bulgaria, archaeologists recovered four chamber pots, whose long-dried contents have revealed new information about health and disease in the Roman Empire.Using ELISA (short for "enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay") ‪—‬ a laboratory test that can detect bacteria, parasites and viruses in a sample of bodily fluid ‪—‬ the researchers identified three pathogens in the chamber pot samples: the protozoan Entamoeba histolytica, the parasite Cryptosporidium parvum, and the tapeworm Taenia. All three pathogens infect the human gut and can cause gastrointestinal distress, including diarrhea and stomach pain.Previous ancient-parasite studies have shown that Roman soldiers on the frontiers of the empire dealt with intestinal worms and the parasite Giardia, as did