Today in science: March 27, 1964. On this date, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America struck in the Prince William Sound southeast of Anchorage, Alaska, at 5:36 p.m. local time. The 9.2-magnitude earthquake rocked the state for more than four minutes, spawning a tsunami that reached all the way to Hawaii and Northern California.
The massive quake is known as the Great Alaska Earthquake or the Good Friday Earthquake. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), it holds the record for the 2nd-largest earthquake ever recorded on Earth, behind the 1960 Chile quake (which had a magnitude of about 9.5).
On that day, it had been a relatively warm day in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, about 75 miles (120 km) from the quake’s epicenter. Luckily, schools were closed for Good Friday, along with many offices. As the quake began, dozens of blocks of buildings were leveled or heavily damaged in Anchorage.
Valdez was completely destroyed
The city of Valdez, closest to the epicenter, was completely destroyed.
Damage to Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska, caused by the Good Friday Earthquake, the biggest earthquake ever in North America. The sidewalk on the left started out at the level of the street on the right. Image via USGS/ Wikimedia Commons.
The prolonged shaking resulted in many natural changes as well. For example, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Latouche Island area moved to the southeast by nearly 60 feet (20 meters).
Now the USGS estimates the earthquake and its accompanying tsunami caused $311 million in damages across the state of Alaska (over $2 billion in today’s dollars).
During the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska, both human and natural areas sustained damage. This image is from the Turnagain Heights neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska. Image via NOAA/ Wikimedia Commons.Landslide damage in the Turnagain Heights neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska. Image via USGS/ Wikimedia Commons.
There were some fatalities
All things considered, the loss of human life was relatively small from such a strong earthquake. In the end, 130 people were killed. The UAF Alaska Earthquake Center said the low death rate was:
… due to low population density, the time of day and the fact that it was a holiday, and the type of material used to construct many buildings (wood).
View larger. | Map of southern Alaska showing the epicenter of the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake (red star). Image via USGS.
Despite the tragic loss of life from the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, it didn’t come close to the fatalities from two slightly smaller and more recent quakes: the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean 9.1-magnitude earthquake and tsunami (third-largest earthquake recorded on a seismograph, with over 230,000 people killed in 14 countries) and the March 11, 2011, 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan (fifth-largest earthquake recorded on a seismograph, with nearly 16,000 deaths).
Luckily, in 1964, Alaska was sparsely populated. Today’s Alaska has a larger human population. If and when a similar quake strikes again, the death toll might be higher.
The waterfront in Seward, Alaska, a few months after the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. Image via USGS/ Wikimedia Commons.
Bottom line: The most powerful earthquake ever recorded to strike North America rocked south-central Alaska on Good Friday, March 27, 1964, and registered a magnitude 9.2 on the Richter scale.
Today in science: March 27, 1964. On this date, the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in North America struck in the Prince William Sound southeast of Anchorage, Alaska, at 5:36 p.m. local time. The 9.2-magnitude earthquake rocked the state for more than four minutes, spawning a tsunami that reached all the way to Hawaii and Northern California.
The massive quake is known as the Great Alaska Earthquake or the Good Friday Earthquake. According to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), it holds the record for the 2nd-largest earthquake ever recorded on Earth, behind the 1960 Chile quake (which had a magnitude of about 9.5).
On that day, it had been a relatively warm day in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, about 75 miles (120 km) from the quake’s epicenter. Luckily, schools were closed for Good Friday, along with many offices. As the quake began, dozens of blocks of buildings were leveled or heavily damaged in Anchorage.
Valdez was completely destroyed
The city of Valdez, closest to the epicenter, was completely destroyed.
Damage to Fourth Avenue in Anchorage, Alaska, caused by the Good Friday Earthquake, the biggest earthquake ever in North America. The sidewalk on the left started out at the level of the street on the right. Image via USGS/ Wikimedia Commons.
The prolonged shaking resulted in many natural changes as well. For example, according to the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Latouche Island area moved to the southeast by nearly 60 feet (20 meters).
Now the USGS estimates the earthquake and its accompanying tsunami caused $311 million in damages across the state of Alaska (over $2 billion in today’s dollars).
During the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake in Alaska, both human and natural areas sustained damage. This image is from the Turnagain Heights neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska. Image via NOAA/ Wikimedia Commons.Landslide damage in the Turnagain Heights neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska. Image via USGS/ Wikimedia Commons.
There were some fatalities
All things considered, the loss of human life was relatively small from such a strong earthquake. In the end, 130 people were killed. The UAF Alaska Earthquake Center said the low death rate was:
… due to low population density, the time of day and the fact that it was a holiday, and the type of material used to construct many buildings (wood).
View larger. | Map of southern Alaska showing the epicenter of the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake (red star). Image via USGS.
Despite the tragic loss of life from the 1964 Great Alaska Earthquake, it didn’t come close to the fatalities from two slightly smaller and more recent quakes: the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean 9.1-magnitude earthquake and tsunami (third-largest earthquake recorded on a seismograph, with over 230,000 people killed in 14 countries) and the March 11, 2011, 9.0-magnitude earthquake in Japan (fifth-largest earthquake recorded on a seismograph, with nearly 16,000 deaths).
Luckily, in 1964, Alaska was sparsely populated. Today’s Alaska has a larger human population. If and when a similar quake strikes again, the death toll might be higher.
The waterfront in Seward, Alaska, a few months after the 1964 Good Friday earthquake. Image via USGS/ Wikimedia Commons.
Bottom line: The most powerful earthquake ever recorded to strike North America rocked south-central Alaska on Good Friday, March 27, 1964, and registered a magnitude 9.2 on the Richter scale.
A driver captured this video with their dashcam as a fireball entered the atmosphere over Texas on March 21, 2026. Image via AMS. We’ve seen a flurry of fireballs in March 2026. Is something going on? The American Meteor Society investigated. Read on for the results.
A flurry of fireballs has people wondering what’s happening
We’ve seen a flurry of fireballs lighting up the skies over the past few weeks. On March 3, 2026, a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere over Vancouver and Washington, breaking the sound barrier and causing a sonic boom. Then, western Europe saw fireballs on March 8 and again on March 11. And on March 17, another meteor with its associated sonic boom rocked residents of Ohio. Two days later came two fireballs over California, and a day after that were fireballs over Michigan and Georgia. And on March 21, a fireball over Texas dropped a rock through the roof of a house in Houston.
What’s going on?
Enough people have been asking this question that the American Meteor Society (AMS) said:
The first quarter of 2026 has produced what appears to be a significant surge in large fireball events. The data, drawn from the AMS database going back to 2011, shows a pattern that warrants serious investigation.
The organization reported the findings of that investigation on March 24, 2026. Its main findings were that there is no evidence of an impact threat. The objects were in the normal size range of those that regularly impact Earth. But what has changed is the volume of reports it has received across several categories, including witness counts, sonic boom rates, long-duration sighting volume and the distribution of event sizes. The AMS said:
Whether this reflects a genuine change in the near-Earth meteoroid environment, an amplification of reporting through AI and social media, or some combination of both—we cannot yet say definitively. What we can say is that the question deserves both public awareness and scientific attention.
An uptick in fireballs, or reports?
First, what are fireballs? They are especially bright meteors that light up the night sky as they streak across the atmosphere. They can even glow brightly enough to be seen in the daytime. Astronomers call bright meteors like this bolides.
And now it seems people are reporting fireballs like never before. The AMS has had a reporting system in place since 2005. It looked back through the data to see if it could pinpoint anything that has changed, and why.
In the first quarter of 2026, the AMS found 2,046 total events. There were 38 events that had more than 50 reports each. The average per quarter is 18 events with greater than 50 reports. And 14 of those events had more than 100 reports each, compared to the average of 7 events.
But while the AMS found the number of events (2,046) is the highest on record, it’s only slightly above the other highs of 2,037 events in 2022 and 1,947 events in 2021. It said:
The signal is still at the top of the distribution.
What it did find is there are a larger number of reports. Again, from the AMS:
What has changed is that a large fraction of events that would normally draw 25–49 witnesses instead drew 50, 100, or even 200+ witnesses. The distribution didn’t broaden—it shifted upward. Almost half of all March 2026 events with 10+ reports were seen by 50 or more people.
Dana Jason Wood captured the St. Patrick’s Day fireball from Munhall, Pennsylvania, and submitted it to the American Meteor Society.
More sonic booms
But the AMS noted that the change cannot only be attributed to more people reporting fireballs. Because that doesn’t explain for the increase in sonic booms. When a meteor enters Earth’s atmosphere, it burns up due to friction. Meteors can zip through the air at 25,000 to 160,000 miles per hour (11 to 72 km per second). Usually, these small space rocks, the size of pebbles, burn up completely and never reach the ground.
But larger space rocks can survive longer in the atmosphere, penetrating deep enough to produce pressure waves and, thus, sonic booms. They can even be large enough to deposit meteorites onto the landscape below, as we’ve seen in Ohio and Texas.
And the recent meteors have been remarkable in that 30 of the 38 events that had more than 50 witness reports included sonic booms. As the AMS said:
Thirty large fireball events producing audible booms in a single quarter means roughly one every three days.
Where are these meteors coming from?
Meteors that come from regular showers, such as the Lyrids, all emanate from a single source. That is, if you trace the path of the meteor backward, they all appear to come from the same general area, which astronomers call the radiant. The radiant for the Lyrid meteor shower is in the constellation Lyra. The meteors aren’t actually coming from that constellation, of course. They are bits of rock, usually left behind by comets that release debris in their orbits as they round the sun. Then Earth plows into those trails of debris, and we see the result as meteors.
So are these recent fireballs related? Do they come from the same region of sky? Could it be a new meteor shower?
The AMS found that the recent events did have enhanced activity from two directions. One is the direction opposite the sun, which astronomers call the anthelion. The other is meteors that came in at a steep angle, not in alignment with the plane of our solar system. And astronomers call this a high-declination radiant. Referring to the high-declination meteors, the AMS said:
An enhancement in this population is unusual and warrants further study.
Interestingly, two of the meteorite falls in March were of a rare type of meteorite. These were achondrites, specifically in the subgroup of eucrites. It is thought that eucrites come from the asteroid Vesta. And yet these two meteorite falls, in Ohio and Germany, entered at near opposite angles from each other.
What the increase isn’t
The AMS concluded with a long list of possibilities for the uptick that it said it has ruled out. These include:
The AMS also said these fireballs are not of alien origin. Also, the meteorites recovered in Ohio and Germany show they are consistent with extraterrestrial rocks and are not “artificial”.
Something the AMS is still unsure of is if AI is helping to drive the reporting numbers. It said:
When someone witnesses a fireball today, they may ask ChatGPT, Siri, or Google’s AI “I just saw a fireball—where do I report it?” and be directed to the AMS. This would inflate witness counts per event without changing the actual number of fireballs—which is, notably, the exact pattern we observe: normal total event counts but elevated reports per event at the high end. We cannot quantify this effect with the data currently available, but it is a plausible partial explanation for the upward shift in the witness-count distribution. It would not, however, account for the elevated sonic boom rates or the recovered meteorite falls.
Meanwhile, the AMS will continue to track fireballs and look for patterns and explanations.
Will the flurry of fireballs continue? No one knows. Keep your eyes, and your ears, open! And if you see a fireball, report it to the AMS here.
Bottom line: We’ve seen a flurry of fireballs, particularly in March, with reports from Europe to Canada and the U.S. Is there a reason for the uptick? The American Meteor Society investigates.
A driver captured this video with their dashcam as a fireball entered the atmosphere over Texas on March 21, 2026. Image via AMS. We’ve seen a flurry of fireballs in March 2026. Is something going on? The American Meteor Society investigated. Read on for the results.
A flurry of fireballs has people wondering what’s happening
We’ve seen a flurry of fireballs lighting up the skies over the past few weeks. On March 3, 2026, a meteor entered Earth’s atmosphere over Vancouver and Washington, breaking the sound barrier and causing a sonic boom. Then, western Europe saw fireballs on March 8 and again on March 11. And on March 17, another meteor with its associated sonic boom rocked residents of Ohio. Two days later came two fireballs over California, and a day after that were fireballs over Michigan and Georgia. And on March 21, a fireball over Texas dropped a rock through the roof of a house in Houston.
What’s going on?
Enough people have been asking this question that the American Meteor Society (AMS) said:
The first quarter of 2026 has produced what appears to be a significant surge in large fireball events. The data, drawn from the AMS database going back to 2011, shows a pattern that warrants serious investigation.
The organization reported the findings of that investigation on March 24, 2026. Its main findings were that there is no evidence of an impact threat. The objects were in the normal size range of those that regularly impact Earth. But what has changed is the volume of reports it has received across several categories, including witness counts, sonic boom rates, long-duration sighting volume and the distribution of event sizes. The AMS said:
Whether this reflects a genuine change in the near-Earth meteoroid environment, an amplification of reporting through AI and social media, or some combination of both—we cannot yet say definitively. What we can say is that the question deserves both public awareness and scientific attention.
An uptick in fireballs, or reports?
First, what are fireballs? They are especially bright meteors that light up the night sky as they streak across the atmosphere. They can even glow brightly enough to be seen in the daytime. Astronomers call bright meteors like this bolides.
And now it seems people are reporting fireballs like never before. The AMS has had a reporting system in place since 2005. It looked back through the data to see if it could pinpoint anything that has changed, and why.
In the first quarter of 2026, the AMS found 2,046 total events. There were 38 events that had more than 50 reports each. The average per quarter is 18 events with greater than 50 reports. And 14 of those events had more than 100 reports each, compared to the average of 7 events.
But while the AMS found the number of events (2,046) is the highest on record, it’s only slightly above the other highs of 2,037 events in 2022 and 1,947 events in 2021. It said:
The signal is still at the top of the distribution.
What it did find is there are a larger number of reports. Again, from the AMS:
What has changed is that a large fraction of events that would normally draw 25–49 witnesses instead drew 50, 100, or even 200+ witnesses. The distribution didn’t broaden—it shifted upward. Almost half of all March 2026 events with 10+ reports were seen by 50 or more people.
Dana Jason Wood captured the St. Patrick’s Day fireball from Munhall, Pennsylvania, and submitted it to the American Meteor Society.
More sonic booms
But the AMS noted that the change cannot only be attributed to more people reporting fireballs. Because that doesn’t explain for the increase in sonic booms. When a meteor enters Earth’s atmosphere, it burns up due to friction. Meteors can zip through the air at 25,000 to 160,000 miles per hour (11 to 72 km per second). Usually, these small space rocks, the size of pebbles, burn up completely and never reach the ground.
But larger space rocks can survive longer in the atmosphere, penetrating deep enough to produce pressure waves and, thus, sonic booms. They can even be large enough to deposit meteorites onto the landscape below, as we’ve seen in Ohio and Texas.
And the recent meteors have been remarkable in that 30 of the 38 events that had more than 50 witness reports included sonic booms. As the AMS said:
Thirty large fireball events producing audible booms in a single quarter means roughly one every three days.
Where are these meteors coming from?
Meteors that come from regular showers, such as the Lyrids, all emanate from a single source. That is, if you trace the path of the meteor backward, they all appear to come from the same general area, which astronomers call the radiant. The radiant for the Lyrid meteor shower is in the constellation Lyra. The meteors aren’t actually coming from that constellation, of course. They are bits of rock, usually left behind by comets that release debris in their orbits as they round the sun. Then Earth plows into those trails of debris, and we see the result as meteors.
So are these recent fireballs related? Do they come from the same region of sky? Could it be a new meteor shower?
The AMS found that the recent events did have enhanced activity from two directions. One is the direction opposite the sun, which astronomers call the anthelion. The other is meteors that came in at a steep angle, not in alignment with the plane of our solar system. And astronomers call this a high-declination radiant. Referring to the high-declination meteors, the AMS said:
An enhancement in this population is unusual and warrants further study.
Interestingly, two of the meteorite falls in March were of a rare type of meteorite. These were achondrites, specifically in the subgroup of eucrites. It is thought that eucrites come from the asteroid Vesta. And yet these two meteorite falls, in Ohio and Germany, entered at near opposite angles from each other.
What the increase isn’t
The AMS concluded with a long list of possibilities for the uptick that it said it has ruled out. These include:
The AMS also said these fireballs are not of alien origin. Also, the meteorites recovered in Ohio and Germany show they are consistent with extraterrestrial rocks and are not “artificial”.
Something the AMS is still unsure of is if AI is helping to drive the reporting numbers. It said:
When someone witnesses a fireball today, they may ask ChatGPT, Siri, or Google’s AI “I just saw a fireball—where do I report it?” and be directed to the AMS. This would inflate witness counts per event without changing the actual number of fireballs—which is, notably, the exact pattern we observe: normal total event counts but elevated reports per event at the high end. We cannot quantify this effect with the data currently available, but it is a plausible partial explanation for the upward shift in the witness-count distribution. It would not, however, account for the elevated sonic boom rates or the recovered meteorite falls.
Meanwhile, the AMS will continue to track fireballs and look for patterns and explanations.
Will the flurry of fireballs continue? No one knows. Keep your eyes, and your ears, open! And if you see a fireball, report it to the AMS here.
Bottom line: We’ve seen a flurry of fireballs, particularly in March, with reports from Europe to Canada and the U.S. Is there a reason for the uptick? The American Meteor Society investigates.
This composite image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows 2 planets forming in the disk of dust around the young star WISPIT 2. Astronomers discovered the outermost planet, WISPIT 2b, in 2025. And now they’ve confirmed the existence of WISPIT 2c, which orbits much closer to the star. Image via ESO/ C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.
Astronomers have discovered a 2nd planet forming around the young star WISPIT 2, some 437 light-years away.
It orbits far closer to its star than fellow planet WISPIT 2b, which astronomers detected in 2025.
The findings suggest the WISPIT 2 system might resemble a much younger version of our own solar system.
Astronomers spot 2 planets forming around young star
Astronomers have observed two planets forming in the disk around a young star named WISPIT 2, some 437 light-years away.
Having detected the 1st planet in 2025, the team has now employed European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes to confirm the presence of another. These observations, and the unique structure of the disk around the star, indicate that the WISPIT 2 system could resemble a young version of our own solar system.
WISPIT 2 is the best look into our own past that we have to date.
Lawlor and her team revealed the results in a peer-reviewed study published on March 24, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A closeup of the newly discovered exoplanet WISPIT 2c, which orbits far closer to its star than WISPIT 2b. Image via ESO/ C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.
The system is only the 2nd known, after PDS 70, where two planets have been directly observed in the process of forming around their host star. But unlike PDS 70, however, WISPIT 2 has a very extended planet-forming disk with distinctive gaps and rings. As Lawlor explained:
These structures suggest that more planets are currently forming, which we will eventually detect.
WISPIT 2 gives us a critical laboratory not just to observe the formation of a single planet but an entire planetary system.
Now, with such observations, astronomers aim to better understand how baby planetary systems develop into mature ones, like our own.
A 2nd planet for WISPIT 2
Astronomers detected the system’s 1st newborn planet – named WISPIT 2b – last year. It has a mass almost five times that of Jupiter, and orbits the central star at around 60 times the distance between Earth and the sun.
Later, after astronomers then spotted an additional object near the star, observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) confirmed that it’s a planet. The VLTI’s GRAVITY+ instrument was crucial, explained study co-author Guillaume Bourdarot:
Critically, our study made use of the recent upgrade to GRAVITY+, without which we would not have been able to get such a clear detection of the planet so close to its star.
The new planet – WISPIT 2c – is four times closer to the central star and twice as massive as WISPIT 2b. And both planets are gas giants, like the outer planets in our solar system.
Planets forming in a young dust disk
Both planets in WISPIT 2 appear in clear gaps within the disk of dust and gas circling the young star. These gaps result from each planet’s development. As particles in the disk accumulate, their gravity pulls in more material until an embryo planet forms. The remaining material, around each gap, then creates distinctive dust rings in the disk.
In addition, besides the gaps that the two planets were found in, there is at least one smaller gap farther out in the WISPIT 2 disk. Lawlor said:
We suspect there may be a 3rd planet carving out this gap, potentially of Saturn mass, owing to the gap being much narrower and shallower.
The team is eager to make follow-up observations, with Ginski noting:
With ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, we may be able to directly image such a planet.
Bottom line: Astronomers have spotted two planets forming in the disk around a young star named WISPIT 2, which resembles a young version of our solar system.
This composite image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) shows 2 planets forming in the disk of dust around the young star WISPIT 2. Astronomers discovered the outermost planet, WISPIT 2b, in 2025. And now they’ve confirmed the existence of WISPIT 2c, which orbits much closer to the star. Image via ESO/ C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.
Astronomers have discovered a 2nd planet forming around the young star WISPIT 2, some 437 light-years away.
It orbits far closer to its star than fellow planet WISPIT 2b, which astronomers detected in 2025.
The findings suggest the WISPIT 2 system might resemble a much younger version of our own solar system.
Astronomers spot 2 planets forming around young star
Astronomers have observed two planets forming in the disk around a young star named WISPIT 2, some 437 light-years away.
Having detected the 1st planet in 2025, the team has now employed European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescopes to confirm the presence of another. These observations, and the unique structure of the disk around the star, indicate that the WISPIT 2 system could resemble a young version of our own solar system.
WISPIT 2 is the best look into our own past that we have to date.
Lawlor and her team revealed the results in a peer-reviewed study published on March 24, 2026, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
A closeup of the newly discovered exoplanet WISPIT 2c, which orbits far closer to its star than WISPIT 2b. Image via ESO/ C. Lawlor, R. F. van Capelleveen et al.
The system is only the 2nd known, after PDS 70, where two planets have been directly observed in the process of forming around their host star. But unlike PDS 70, however, WISPIT 2 has a very extended planet-forming disk with distinctive gaps and rings. As Lawlor explained:
These structures suggest that more planets are currently forming, which we will eventually detect.
WISPIT 2 gives us a critical laboratory not just to observe the formation of a single planet but an entire planetary system.
Now, with such observations, astronomers aim to better understand how baby planetary systems develop into mature ones, like our own.
A 2nd planet for WISPIT 2
Astronomers detected the system’s 1st newborn planet – named WISPIT 2b – last year. It has a mass almost five times that of Jupiter, and orbits the central star at around 60 times the distance between Earth and the sun.
Later, after astronomers then spotted an additional object near the star, observations with ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) confirmed that it’s a planet. The VLTI’s GRAVITY+ instrument was crucial, explained study co-author Guillaume Bourdarot:
Critically, our study made use of the recent upgrade to GRAVITY+, without which we would not have been able to get such a clear detection of the planet so close to its star.
The new planet – WISPIT 2c – is four times closer to the central star and twice as massive as WISPIT 2b. And both planets are gas giants, like the outer planets in our solar system.
Planets forming in a young dust disk
Both planets in WISPIT 2 appear in clear gaps within the disk of dust and gas circling the young star. These gaps result from each planet’s development. As particles in the disk accumulate, their gravity pulls in more material until an embryo planet forms. The remaining material, around each gap, then creates distinctive dust rings in the disk.
In addition, besides the gaps that the two planets were found in, there is at least one smaller gap farther out in the WISPIT 2 disk. Lawlor said:
We suspect there may be a 3rd planet carving out this gap, potentially of Saturn mass, owing to the gap being much narrower and shallower.
The team is eager to make follow-up observations, with Ginski noting:
With ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, we may be able to directly image such a planet.
Bottom line: Astronomers have spotted two planets forming in the disk around a young star named WISPIT 2, which resembles a young version of our solar system.
View larger. | Artist’s concept of an Earth-like exomoon orbiting a rogue Saturn-like exoplanet. A new study led by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany looked at moons of rogue planets that have been ejected from their planetary systems. The study said these moons could still have oceans and be potentially habitable, if they have hydrogen atmospheres. Image via Frizaven/ Wikipedia (Celestia/GNU General Public License).
Rogue planets float free in space, not bound to any stars. Some of them might have moons. Could those moons be habitable?
A moon of a rogue planet could be habitable if it has a hydrogen atmosphere. That’s what a team of researchers led by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich said in a new study.
The hydrogen atmosphere could create a greenhouse effect, keeping the moon warm enough for oceans or perhaps even life. And that’s even without the heat of a nearby star.
Astronomers have found a growing number of exoplanets that don’t orbit any stars. They are rogue – or free-floating – worlds in the ocean of space. So could any of them be habitable? Or any of their moons? A team of researchers led by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany said it’s possible. On March 11, 2026, the researchers said that moons orbiting large free-floating planets could maintain water if they have hydrogen atmospheres. And they could stay habitable for billions of years.
These moons would likely have highly elliptical orbits. That’s due to the planets being ejected from their planetary system out into interstellar space. But those orbits could generate enough internal heating for water to exist on the moons. Plus, a hydrogen atmosphere would create a greenhouse effect. That would also help keep the surfaces of the moons warm enough for water, maybe even oceans. And if there’s water, then there’s the possibility for habitability and even life. Incredibly, all of this is possible without any stars being nearby to heat the moons.
Astronomers have discovered a surprising number of free-floating planets in recent years. How did they become starless? Scientists think some might just form that way. But sometimes if a “regular” planet gets too close to its star, the star’s gravity could fling it out of the planetary system. They could also go rogue due to gravitational interactions between the planet and other planets.
Now, the new study shows that if a large planet – like Jupiter, for example – is ejected into interstellar space, it might not lose all its moons in the process. If it has any, of course.
But the orbits of those moons would likely be significantly affected by the ejection. They would become highly elliptical instead of more circular. That might be a good thing, however.
David Dahlbüdding: “We discovered a clear connection between these distant moons and the early Earth, where high concentrations of hydrogen through asteroid impacts could have created the conditions for life.” https://ift.tt/mds79U4…
A moon with a highly elongated orbit around its planet would be subject to strong tidal forces. As the moon gets close to the planet and then far away again, the planet’s gravity squeezes and pulls at its interior. And that can generate a lot of heat inside the moon.
That’s what happens with Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. It also happens to the moons with oceans beneath their icy crusts.
The deformation caused by these tidal forces creates wet-dry cycles. That’s when water evaporates and then later recondenses in an on-going cycle. This helps complex molecules to form, including those essential to life.
View larger. | Artist’s concept of a massive exomoon orbiting a gas giant exoplanet. Image via NASA/ ESA/ L. Hustak (STScI).View larger. | Artist’s concept of a rogue exoplanet drifting in the darkness of space among the stars. Watch a NASA animation. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC).
Hydrogen atmospheres and habitability
If a moon was fairly large and still had a primordial (original) hydrogen atmosphere, it could maintain an ocean. Indeed, there are some hints of large moons – even as large as Earth – orbiting giant exoplanets, although scientists are still trying to confirm them.
A hydrogen atmosphere could create a greenhouse effect on the moon. So the greenhouse effect would keep heat in the moon’s atmosphere. And that’s even without the help of a nearby star. Also, a hydrogen atmosphere should remain stable.
Unlike hydrogen, a carbon dioxide atmosphere can trap heat but not indefinitely. On Venus, this leads to a runaway greenhouse effect on the surface. In space, the carbon dioxide would eventually condense in the surrounding cold, allowing heat to escape.
Astronomers now estimate there are billions of rogue planets in our galaxy, at least as many rogue planets as there are planets bound to stars. If so, then there could be an enormous number of rogue moons out there as well!
The postulated conditions on moons of rogue planets have similarities to the early Earth several billion years ago as well. Dahlbüdding said:
We discovered a clear connection between these distant moons and the early Earth, where high concentrations of hydrogen through asteroid impacts could have created the conditions for life.
Bottom line: Could moons of rogue planets support life? A new study led by researchers in Germany shows they could, if they have hydrogen atmospheres.
View larger. | Artist’s concept of an Earth-like exomoon orbiting a rogue Saturn-like exoplanet. A new study led by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany looked at moons of rogue planets that have been ejected from their planetary systems. The study said these moons could still have oceans and be potentially habitable, if they have hydrogen atmospheres. Image via Frizaven/ Wikipedia (Celestia/GNU General Public License).
Rogue planets float free in space, not bound to any stars. Some of them might have moons. Could those moons be habitable?
A moon of a rogue planet could be habitable if it has a hydrogen atmosphere. That’s what a team of researchers led by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich said in a new study.
The hydrogen atmosphere could create a greenhouse effect, keeping the moon warm enough for oceans or perhaps even life. And that’s even without the heat of a nearby star.
Astronomers have found a growing number of exoplanets that don’t orbit any stars. They are rogue – or free-floating – worlds in the ocean of space. So could any of them be habitable? Or any of their moons? A team of researchers led by Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany said it’s possible. On March 11, 2026, the researchers said that moons orbiting large free-floating planets could maintain water if they have hydrogen atmospheres. And they could stay habitable for billions of years.
These moons would likely have highly elliptical orbits. That’s due to the planets being ejected from their planetary system out into interstellar space. But those orbits could generate enough internal heating for water to exist on the moons. Plus, a hydrogen atmosphere would create a greenhouse effect. That would also help keep the surfaces of the moons warm enough for water, maybe even oceans. And if there’s water, then there’s the possibility for habitability and even life. Incredibly, all of this is possible without any stars being nearby to heat the moons.
Astronomers have discovered a surprising number of free-floating planets in recent years. How did they become starless? Scientists think some might just form that way. But sometimes if a “regular” planet gets too close to its star, the star’s gravity could fling it out of the planetary system. They could also go rogue due to gravitational interactions between the planet and other planets.
Now, the new study shows that if a large planet – like Jupiter, for example – is ejected into interstellar space, it might not lose all its moons in the process. If it has any, of course.
But the orbits of those moons would likely be significantly affected by the ejection. They would become highly elliptical instead of more circular. That might be a good thing, however.
David Dahlbüdding: “We discovered a clear connection between these distant moons and the early Earth, where high concentrations of hydrogen through asteroid impacts could have created the conditions for life.” https://ift.tt/mds79U4…
A moon with a highly elongated orbit around its planet would be subject to strong tidal forces. As the moon gets close to the planet and then far away again, the planet’s gravity squeezes and pulls at its interior. And that can generate a lot of heat inside the moon.
That’s what happens with Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. It also happens to the moons with oceans beneath their icy crusts.
The deformation caused by these tidal forces creates wet-dry cycles. That’s when water evaporates and then later recondenses in an on-going cycle. This helps complex molecules to form, including those essential to life.
View larger. | Artist’s concept of a massive exomoon orbiting a gas giant exoplanet. Image via NASA/ ESA/ L. Hustak (STScI).View larger. | Artist’s concept of a rogue exoplanet drifting in the darkness of space among the stars. Watch a NASA animation. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC).
Hydrogen atmospheres and habitability
If a moon was fairly large and still had a primordial (original) hydrogen atmosphere, it could maintain an ocean. Indeed, there are some hints of large moons – even as large as Earth – orbiting giant exoplanets, although scientists are still trying to confirm them.
A hydrogen atmosphere could create a greenhouse effect on the moon. So the greenhouse effect would keep heat in the moon’s atmosphere. And that’s even without the help of a nearby star. Also, a hydrogen atmosphere should remain stable.
Unlike hydrogen, a carbon dioxide atmosphere can trap heat but not indefinitely. On Venus, this leads to a runaway greenhouse effect on the surface. In space, the carbon dioxide would eventually condense in the surrounding cold, allowing heat to escape.
Astronomers now estimate there are billions of rogue planets in our galaxy, at least as many rogue planets as there are planets bound to stars. If so, then there could be an enormous number of rogue moons out there as well!
The postulated conditions on moons of rogue planets have similarities to the early Earth several billion years ago as well. Dahlbüdding said:
We discovered a clear connection between these distant moons and the early Earth, where high concentrations of hydrogen through asteroid impacts could have created the conditions for life.
Bottom line: Could moons of rogue planets support life? A new study led by researchers in Germany shows they could, if they have hydrogen atmospheres.
Cancer the Crab, with its Beehive star cluster, needs a dark sky to be seen. It lies between the Gemini stars Castor and Pollux, and the bright star Regulus in Leo. Chart via EarthSky.
There’s a good chance that you’ve never seen Cancer the Crab. It’s the faintest of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. To see Cancer, you need to look between Gemini‘s two brightest stars Castor and Pollux, and Leo the Lion’s brightest star Regulus. And in 2026, finding Gemini – and Pollux and Castor – is easy because bright Jupiter shines nearby.
Once you’ve found Cancer – if your sky is dark – you can see the wonderful open star cluster called the Beehive. It contains some 1,000 stars.
So, let’s suppose you have identified the star Regulus in Leo, and the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini. You look between them for Cancer and see, well, nothing much. Remember, Cancer is faint. Our advice, therefore, is to look for it in a dark country sky. But, on a moonless night, Cancer is surprisingly easy to see in a dark country sky.
Star chart for Cancer the Crab. Image via International Astronomical Union/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).
When to look for Cancer the Crab
From the Northern Hemisphere, Cancer is well placed for viewing in March, April and May. Eventually, it starts to descend into the sunset glare in June.
In early March every year, look for the constellation Cancer to be due south and highest up in the sky around 10 p.m. your local time. (From the tropics, Cancer shines high overhead, and from temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, Cancer appears due north.)
Also, since the stars return to the same place in the sky about four minutes earlier each day, or 1/2 hour earlier weekly. So by early April, Cancer reaches its high point for the night at 8 p.m. your local time (9 p.m. local daylight saving time). And by early May, Cancer is high in the western sky.
To summarize, in the Northern Hemisphere, Cancer is best seen in the evening sky in late winter and early spring. After that, it’s lost in the sun’s glare in July and August, and then is found in the morning sky starting in September. If you’re up before dawn during a Northern Hemisphere autumn, try finding Cancer and its Beehive star cluster before sunrise.
From the Southern Hemisphere, the best viewing for Cancer the Crab and the Beehive Cluster is during autumn evenings (March and April), looking towards the northern sky. In March, it’s high in the sky around 10 p.m. local time. And it remains visible through May.
Cancer the Crab from Urania’s Mirror, an antique set of constellation cards. Image via Wikipedia (public domain).
Cancer’s famous Beehive star cluster
Cancer makes up for its lackluster stars by having within its boundaries one of the sky’s brightest star clusters, the Beehive cluster, also known as M44. Another name for the Beehive is Praesepe (Latin for manger).
In a dark sky, the Beehive looks like a tiny faint cloud to the unaided eye. As seen through ordinary binoculars, though, this nebulous patch of haze instantly turns into a sparkling city of stars. It is an open cluster, one of the nearest to our solar system at 577 light-years away. The Beehive contains a larger star population than most other nearby clusters.
The Beehive’s stars appear to be similar in age and proper motion to the stars of the V-shaped Hyades open star cluster. It’s possible the two clusters were born from two parts of a single vast cloud of gas and dust in space.
And sometimes the Beehive gets a visitor. It could be the moon or one of the planets in our solar system. In June 2026, brilliant Venus will pass within two full-moon widths of the Beehive. Then in October 2026, Mars will pass in front of the Beehive star cluster.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Muhammad Alaa in Egypt, captured this view of the open cluster Messier 44 (with the planet Mars passing by) in the constellation Cancer on May 6, 2025. Muhammad wrote: “One of the most beautiful open star clusters in the night sky, located in the constellation Cancer. It’s about 580 light-years away and contains over 1,000 stars! This cluster is one of the closest open clusters to Earth and appears as a faint ‘cloudy patch’ in dark skies to the naked eye. But through a telescope or even simple binoculars, you’ll see a stunning spread of bright stars. Its name ‘Beehive’ comes from its scattered appearance, resembling bees buzzing around a hive.” Thank you, Muhammad!
A member of the zodiac
Cancer’s stature as a constellation of the zodiac has remained steadfast over the millennia. In fact, more than 2,000 years ago, the sun shone in front of the constellation Cancer during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. That’s not the case today, however. Today, the sun resides in front of the constellation Taurus when the summer solstice sun reaches its northernmost point for the year on or near June 21.
Nonetheless, Cancer still seems to symbolize the height and glory of the summer sun. To this day, we say the sun shines over the Tropic of Cancer – not the “Tropic of Taurus” – on the June solstice. That’s in spite of the fact that the sun in our time passes in front of the constellation Cancer from about July 21 until August 10.
Nowadays, the sun doesn’t enter the constellation Cancer until about a month after the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice.
The sun shines directly overhead at noon for those located along the Tropic of Cancer at the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. Image via CIA/ Wikipedia (public domain).
Cancer the Crab of myth
In Greek mythology, Cancer was the crab that bit the foot of the Greek hero Heracles (or the Roman Hercules). Heracles killed the crab and then the goddess Hera, who saw Heracles as her enemy, placed the crab in the heavens.
In ancient Chaldean and Platonic philosophy, Cancer was called the Gate of Men. It was through this portal that souls descend from the heavens above and into the bodies of the newly born.
Around 2,700 years ago, the sun passed in front of the Beehive cluster on the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. Back then, this cluster stood at the apex of the zodiac, so perhaps it was this heavenly nebulosity that marked the Gate of Men. At present, the sun has its annual conjunction with the Beehive cluster in late July or early August.
In olden times, before the advent of light pollution, the ancients referred to the Beehive as a little cloud. The Roman author Pliny reported that when the Praesepe (the Beehive cluster) is invisible in an otherwise clear sky, it’s a sure sign of impending storm. So the Beehive cluster once served as a celestial weather station.
Although Cancer may be the faintest constellation of the zodiac, its legacy remains intact. On a dark, moonless night, look for Cancer’s faint grouping of stars to spring out between the more conspicuous constellations Gemini and Leo.
Bottom line: Cancer the Crab is one of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. Learn how to find it in your sky, plus its star cluster, mythology and more.
Cancer the Crab, with its Beehive star cluster, needs a dark sky to be seen. It lies between the Gemini stars Castor and Pollux, and the bright star Regulus in Leo. Chart via EarthSky.
There’s a good chance that you’ve never seen Cancer the Crab. It’s the faintest of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. To see Cancer, you need to look between Gemini‘s two brightest stars Castor and Pollux, and Leo the Lion’s brightest star Regulus. And in 2026, finding Gemini – and Pollux and Castor – is easy because bright Jupiter shines nearby.
Once you’ve found Cancer – if your sky is dark – you can see the wonderful open star cluster called the Beehive. It contains some 1,000 stars.
So, let’s suppose you have identified the star Regulus in Leo, and the stars Castor and Pollux in Gemini. You look between them for Cancer and see, well, nothing much. Remember, Cancer is faint. Our advice, therefore, is to look for it in a dark country sky. But, on a moonless night, Cancer is surprisingly easy to see in a dark country sky.
Star chart for Cancer the Crab. Image via International Astronomical Union/ Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).
When to look for Cancer the Crab
From the Northern Hemisphere, Cancer is well placed for viewing in March, April and May. Eventually, it starts to descend into the sunset glare in June.
In early March every year, look for the constellation Cancer to be due south and highest up in the sky around 10 p.m. your local time. (From the tropics, Cancer shines high overhead, and from temperate latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere, Cancer appears due north.)
Also, since the stars return to the same place in the sky about four minutes earlier each day, or 1/2 hour earlier weekly. So by early April, Cancer reaches its high point for the night at 8 p.m. your local time (9 p.m. local daylight saving time). And by early May, Cancer is high in the western sky.
To summarize, in the Northern Hemisphere, Cancer is best seen in the evening sky in late winter and early spring. After that, it’s lost in the sun’s glare in July and August, and then is found in the morning sky starting in September. If you’re up before dawn during a Northern Hemisphere autumn, try finding Cancer and its Beehive star cluster before sunrise.
From the Southern Hemisphere, the best viewing for Cancer the Crab and the Beehive Cluster is during autumn evenings (March and April), looking towards the northern sky. In March, it’s high in the sky around 10 p.m. local time. And it remains visible through May.
Cancer the Crab from Urania’s Mirror, an antique set of constellation cards. Image via Wikipedia (public domain).
Cancer’s famous Beehive star cluster
Cancer makes up for its lackluster stars by having within its boundaries one of the sky’s brightest star clusters, the Beehive cluster, also known as M44. Another name for the Beehive is Praesepe (Latin for manger).
In a dark sky, the Beehive looks like a tiny faint cloud to the unaided eye. As seen through ordinary binoculars, though, this nebulous patch of haze instantly turns into a sparkling city of stars. It is an open cluster, one of the nearest to our solar system at 577 light-years away. The Beehive contains a larger star population than most other nearby clusters.
The Beehive’s stars appear to be similar in age and proper motion to the stars of the V-shaped Hyades open star cluster. It’s possible the two clusters were born from two parts of a single vast cloud of gas and dust in space.
And sometimes the Beehive gets a visitor. It could be the moon or one of the planets in our solar system. In June 2026, brilliant Venus will pass within two full-moon widths of the Beehive. Then in October 2026, Mars will pass in front of the Beehive star cluster.
View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Muhammad Alaa in Egypt, captured this view of the open cluster Messier 44 (with the planet Mars passing by) in the constellation Cancer on May 6, 2025. Muhammad wrote: “One of the most beautiful open star clusters in the night sky, located in the constellation Cancer. It’s about 580 light-years away and contains over 1,000 stars! This cluster is one of the closest open clusters to Earth and appears as a faint ‘cloudy patch’ in dark skies to the naked eye. But through a telescope or even simple binoculars, you’ll see a stunning spread of bright stars. Its name ‘Beehive’ comes from its scattered appearance, resembling bees buzzing around a hive.” Thank you, Muhammad!
A member of the zodiac
Cancer’s stature as a constellation of the zodiac has remained steadfast over the millennia. In fact, more than 2,000 years ago, the sun shone in front of the constellation Cancer during the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. That’s not the case today, however. Today, the sun resides in front of the constellation Taurus when the summer solstice sun reaches its northernmost point for the year on or near June 21.
Nonetheless, Cancer still seems to symbolize the height and glory of the summer sun. To this day, we say the sun shines over the Tropic of Cancer – not the “Tropic of Taurus” – on the June solstice. That’s in spite of the fact that the sun in our time passes in front of the constellation Cancer from about July 21 until August 10.
Nowadays, the sun doesn’t enter the constellation Cancer until about a month after the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice.
The sun shines directly overhead at noon for those located along the Tropic of Cancer at the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. Image via CIA/ Wikipedia (public domain).
Cancer the Crab of myth
In Greek mythology, Cancer was the crab that bit the foot of the Greek hero Heracles (or the Roman Hercules). Heracles killed the crab and then the goddess Hera, who saw Heracles as her enemy, placed the crab in the heavens.
In ancient Chaldean and Platonic philosophy, Cancer was called the Gate of Men. It was through this portal that souls descend from the heavens above and into the bodies of the newly born.
Around 2,700 years ago, the sun passed in front of the Beehive cluster on the Northern Hemisphere’s summer solstice. Back then, this cluster stood at the apex of the zodiac, so perhaps it was this heavenly nebulosity that marked the Gate of Men. At present, the sun has its annual conjunction with the Beehive cluster in late July or early August.
In olden times, before the advent of light pollution, the ancients referred to the Beehive as a little cloud. The Roman author Pliny reported that when the Praesepe (the Beehive cluster) is invisible in an otherwise clear sky, it’s a sure sign of impending storm. So the Beehive cluster once served as a celestial weather station.
Although Cancer may be the faintest constellation of the zodiac, its legacy remains intact. On a dark, moonless night, look for Cancer’s faint grouping of stars to spring out between the more conspicuous constellations Gemini and Leo.
Bottom line: Cancer the Crab is one of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. Learn how to find it in your sky, plus its star cluster, mythology and more.
This is a sample of the asteroid Ryugu. The Japanese mission Hayabusa2 brought it back to Earth in 2020. A new study found all 5 fundamental units of life’s genetic code in this asteroid sample. Image via JAXA.
Scientists analyzing samples from asteroid Ryugu have detected all five of the building blocks that make up DNA and RNA.
The discovery shows that key ingredients for life can form naturally in space.
These compounds may have been delivered to early Earth by meteorites. Did life on Earth get a kickstart from an asteroid?
Life’s genetic code discovered in an asteroid sample
A new study reveals all five fundamental nucleobases – the molecular letters of life – have been detected in samples from the asteroid Ryugu.
Asteroid particles offer a glimpse into the chemical ingredients that may have helped kindle life on Earth. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 mission returned the Ryugu samples from space in 2020.
In 2023, an international team reported they had found one of the nucleobases in these samples: uracil. On March 16, 2026, in a study published in Nature Astronomy, a team of Japanese scientists has confirmed all five nucleobases are present in this pristine asteroid material.
This means these ingredients for life may have been widespread throughout the solar system in its early years.
Why look for nucleobases?
Nucleobases are nitrogen-containing organic molecules. They form the “letters” of genetic information in DNA and RNA. The five main nucleobases are adenine and guanine (known as purines), as well as cytosine, thymine and uracil (known as pyrimidines).
These molecules combine with sugars and phosphates to yield nucleotides: the building blocks of genetic material. Without nucleobases, the genetic code that allows organisms to grow, reproduce and evolve would not exist.
By studying purines and pyrimidines in Ryugu samples, scientists can reconstruct the chemical history of primitive asteroids. In turn, this gives us a better understanding of how the building blocks of life may have been formed and existed across the solar system.
Hayabusa2 delivered a total of 5.4 grams of pristine asteroid material. Researchers have to use ultra-clean lab conditions to avoid contaminating it. They extracted organic molecules using water and hydrochloric acid. Then they purified them for further detection.
They found all five nucleobases in the two Ryugu samples they analyzed, in roughly similar amounts.
Microscope images of Ryugu samples collected from the first and second touchdown sites of the Hayabusa2 mission. Image via JAXA/ JAMSTEC.
Key components of genetic material … in space
The new results align with previous findings on space rocks. The Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 and the Orgueil meteorite in France in 1864 have previously yielded a rich variety of organic molecules, including nucleobases.
Of course, meteorites that land on Earth can be contaminated by their journey and landing. But pristine samples from NASA’s mission to asteroid Bennu also yielded all five nucleobases in 2025.
Asteroids such as Ryugu, Bennu, and the parent body of the Orgueil meteorite are remnants of the early Solar System. They can preserve materials largely unchanged for about 4.5 billion years.
Interestingly, these asteroids show chemical differences. Murchison is enriched in purines, while Bennu and Orgueil contain more pyrimidines. It is thought ammonia may influence this balance. Ammonia is a key molecule that can shape which nucleobases can form.
By peering into Ryugu’s relatively pristine samples and comparing them with meteorites like Murchison and Orgueil, researchers are tracing the cosmic journey of life’s probable molecular ingredients.
Their results suggest key components of genetic material may have formed in space and later delivered to the early Earth. In other words, the story of life on our planet may be deeply connected to the chemistry of such ancient asteroids.
A colored view of 162173 Ryugu taken by JAXA’s space probe Hayabusa2 in 2018. Image via JAXA/ Hayabusa2.
A path for the ingredients of life
Together, these discoveries show that carbon-rich asteroids throughout the solar system contain diverse prebiotic chemistry. However, the precise mixture of molecules – such as the balance between purines and pyrimidines – varies depending on the asteroid’s chemical environment and history.
Because the Ryugu samples were collected directly in space and protected from Earth’s contamination, they provide one of the clearest views of ancient solar system chemistry.
The discovery of all five nucleobases on Ryugu suggests the molecular ingredients of life may have been already forming in space billions of years ago. Asteroids may have helped deliver those ingredients to the early Earth … making the origin of life part of a much larger cosmic chemical story.
Bottom line: Scientists found all 5 fundamental units of life’s genetic code in asteroid Ryugu. It suggests life’s building blocks can form in space and could have been delivered to early Earth.
This is a sample of the asteroid Ryugu. The Japanese mission Hayabusa2 brought it back to Earth in 2020. A new study found all 5 fundamental units of life’s genetic code in this asteroid sample. Image via JAXA.
Scientists analyzing samples from asteroid Ryugu have detected all five of the building blocks that make up DNA and RNA.
The discovery shows that key ingredients for life can form naturally in space.
These compounds may have been delivered to early Earth by meteorites. Did life on Earth get a kickstart from an asteroid?
Life’s genetic code discovered in an asteroid sample
A new study reveals all five fundamental nucleobases – the molecular letters of life – have been detected in samples from the asteroid Ryugu.
Asteroid particles offer a glimpse into the chemical ingredients that may have helped kindle life on Earth. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Hayabusa2 mission returned the Ryugu samples from space in 2020.
In 2023, an international team reported they had found one of the nucleobases in these samples: uracil. On March 16, 2026, in a study published in Nature Astronomy, a team of Japanese scientists has confirmed all five nucleobases are present in this pristine asteroid material.
This means these ingredients for life may have been widespread throughout the solar system in its early years.
Why look for nucleobases?
Nucleobases are nitrogen-containing organic molecules. They form the “letters” of genetic information in DNA and RNA. The five main nucleobases are adenine and guanine (known as purines), as well as cytosine, thymine and uracil (known as pyrimidines).
These molecules combine with sugars and phosphates to yield nucleotides: the building blocks of genetic material. Without nucleobases, the genetic code that allows organisms to grow, reproduce and evolve would not exist.
By studying purines and pyrimidines in Ryugu samples, scientists can reconstruct the chemical history of primitive asteroids. In turn, this gives us a better understanding of how the building blocks of life may have been formed and existed across the solar system.
Hayabusa2 delivered a total of 5.4 grams of pristine asteroid material. Researchers have to use ultra-clean lab conditions to avoid contaminating it. They extracted organic molecules using water and hydrochloric acid. Then they purified them for further detection.
They found all five nucleobases in the two Ryugu samples they analyzed, in roughly similar amounts.
Microscope images of Ryugu samples collected from the first and second touchdown sites of the Hayabusa2 mission. Image via JAXA/ JAMSTEC.
Key components of genetic material … in space
The new results align with previous findings on space rocks. The Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 and the Orgueil meteorite in France in 1864 have previously yielded a rich variety of organic molecules, including nucleobases.
Of course, meteorites that land on Earth can be contaminated by their journey and landing. But pristine samples from NASA’s mission to asteroid Bennu also yielded all five nucleobases in 2025.
Asteroids such as Ryugu, Bennu, and the parent body of the Orgueil meteorite are remnants of the early Solar System. They can preserve materials largely unchanged for about 4.5 billion years.
Interestingly, these asteroids show chemical differences. Murchison is enriched in purines, while Bennu and Orgueil contain more pyrimidines. It is thought ammonia may influence this balance. Ammonia is a key molecule that can shape which nucleobases can form.
By peering into Ryugu’s relatively pristine samples and comparing them with meteorites like Murchison and Orgueil, researchers are tracing the cosmic journey of life’s probable molecular ingredients.
Their results suggest key components of genetic material may have formed in space and later delivered to the early Earth. In other words, the story of life on our planet may be deeply connected to the chemistry of such ancient asteroids.
A colored view of 162173 Ryugu taken by JAXA’s space probe Hayabusa2 in 2018. Image via JAXA/ Hayabusa2.
A path for the ingredients of life
Together, these discoveries show that carbon-rich asteroids throughout the solar system contain diverse prebiotic chemistry. However, the precise mixture of molecules – such as the balance between purines and pyrimidines – varies depending on the asteroid’s chemical environment and history.
Because the Ryugu samples were collected directly in space and protected from Earth’s contamination, they provide one of the clearest views of ancient solar system chemistry.
The discovery of all five nucleobases on Ryugu suggests the molecular ingredients of life may have been already forming in space billions of years ago. Asteroids may have helped deliver those ingredients to the early Earth … making the origin of life part of a much larger cosmic chemical story.
Bottom line: Scientists found all 5 fundamental units of life’s genetic code in asteroid Ryugu. It suggests life’s building blocks can form in space and could have been delivered to early Earth.
The former constellation of Argo Navis the Ship is now the modern constellations of Puppis the Stern, Vela the Sails and Carina the Keel. You can find these constellations south of Sirius. These constellations are easiest to see from the Southern Hemisphere.
Vela the Sails, a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere, is part of a large ship made up of several constellations. The ship was once a constellation itself, known as Argo Navis. Because of its large size, it has since been broken down into four different, smaller constellations. They include Vela the Sails, Carina the Keel, Puppis the Stern and Pyxis the Compass.
How to locate Vela the Sails
Vela lies north of Carina. It’s halfway between Carina’s incredibly bright star (and the second brightest in the sky) Canopus and the distinctive shape of the Southern Cross, or Crux. Then, it’s just a bit north from a line drawn between these two points. March is the best month to try to spot Vela.
The stars of Vela
The brightest star in Vela is Gamma Velorum, or Regor. It shines at magnitude 1.8 and lies 1,095 light-years from Earth. A little over nine degrees away and similar in brightness is Delta Velorum. At magnitude 1.9, it is only 80 light-years away.
Vela has three other moderately bright stars. The first is about 5 1/2 degrees from the last star, Delta Velorum. This star is Kappa Velorum, which has a magnitude of 2.4 and a distance of 572 light-years. Lambda Velorum, also known as Suhail, shines at magnitude 2.2 from a distance of 545 light-years. Finally is Mu Velorum, which lies on the opposite half of the constellation from the brightest star, Regor. Mu Velorum is magnitude 2.7 and 117 light-years away.
Because Vela lies along the Milky Way, it has a number of star clusters than you can spot in binoculars or average telescopes. The Eight-Burst Nebula (NGC 3132 or Southern Ring Nebula) lies right on the border with Vela and Antlia the Air Pump. The Eight-Burst Nebula is a magnitude-9.8 planetary nebula ring with a central star. Its central star is actually a binary star.
NGC 3201 is a globular cluster about 5 1/2 degrees northwest of Mu Velorum. It shines at magnitude 6.8. Some brighter star clusters lie in the western part of the constellation. Two degrees south of Regor is NGC 2547, at magnitude 4.7. Five degrees east is IC 2395, at magnitude 4. Just less than two degrees northwest of Delta Velorum is IC 2391, a gathering of stars that you can easily see with the unaided eye at magnitude 2. Through binoculars, a second cluster pops into view nearby, NGC 2669.
Vela is a southern delight for those wishing to spy star clusters in the Milky Way.
Bottom line: Vela the Sails is a constellation that was once part of the large Argo Navis the Ship. You can see it best from the Southern Hemisphere on March evenings.
The former constellation of Argo Navis the Ship is now the modern constellations of Puppis the Stern, Vela the Sails and Carina the Keel. You can find these constellations south of Sirius. These constellations are easiest to see from the Southern Hemisphere.
Vela the Sails, a constellation in the Southern Hemisphere, is part of a large ship made up of several constellations. The ship was once a constellation itself, known as Argo Navis. Because of its large size, it has since been broken down into four different, smaller constellations. They include Vela the Sails, Carina the Keel, Puppis the Stern and Pyxis the Compass.
How to locate Vela the Sails
Vela lies north of Carina. It’s halfway between Carina’s incredibly bright star (and the second brightest in the sky) Canopus and the distinctive shape of the Southern Cross, or Crux. Then, it’s just a bit north from a line drawn between these two points. March is the best month to try to spot Vela.
The stars of Vela
The brightest star in Vela is Gamma Velorum, or Regor. It shines at magnitude 1.8 and lies 1,095 light-years from Earth. A little over nine degrees away and similar in brightness is Delta Velorum. At magnitude 1.9, it is only 80 light-years away.
Vela has three other moderately bright stars. The first is about 5 1/2 degrees from the last star, Delta Velorum. This star is Kappa Velorum, which has a magnitude of 2.4 and a distance of 572 light-years. Lambda Velorum, also known as Suhail, shines at magnitude 2.2 from a distance of 545 light-years. Finally is Mu Velorum, which lies on the opposite half of the constellation from the brightest star, Regor. Mu Velorum is magnitude 2.7 and 117 light-years away.
Because Vela lies along the Milky Way, it has a number of star clusters than you can spot in binoculars or average telescopes. The Eight-Burst Nebula (NGC 3132 or Southern Ring Nebula) lies right on the border with Vela and Antlia the Air Pump. The Eight-Burst Nebula is a magnitude-9.8 planetary nebula ring with a central star. Its central star is actually a binary star.
NGC 3201 is a globular cluster about 5 1/2 degrees northwest of Mu Velorum. It shines at magnitude 6.8. Some brighter star clusters lie in the western part of the constellation. Two degrees south of Regor is NGC 2547, at magnitude 4.7. Five degrees east is IC 2395, at magnitude 4. Just less than two degrees northwest of Delta Velorum is IC 2391, a gathering of stars that you can easily see with the unaided eye at magnitude 2. Through binoculars, a second cluster pops into view nearby, NGC 2669.
Vela is a southern delight for those wishing to spy star clusters in the Milky Way.
Bottom line: Vela the Sails is a constellation that was once part of the large Argo Navis the Ship. You can see it best from the Southern Hemisphere on March evenings.
