Planet Earth

British composer George Fenton has died at the age of 76. He was known for scores to films including The Fisher King, Groundhog Day and Dangerous Liaisons, and for landmark natural history series such as Planet Earth and Blue Planet. Fenton was one of Britain's most respected film and television composers, with a career spanning decades and numerous award nominations.

A solar flare has sent two large clouds of plasma moving toward Earth, according to reports citing Fontanka.ru. The coronal mass ejections are expected to reach the planet in the coming days, potentially triggering geomagnetic storms that can disturb satellite operations, radio communications and power grids, and produce stronger auroras at high latitudes.

Saturn reached opposition on Sunday, October 4, meaning the planet is directly opposite the Sun from Earth's perspective. Astronomers note this is when Saturn appears brightest and largest in telescopes, remaining visible all night. Skywatchers are being encouraged to look for the ringed planet, which rises at sunset and stays up until dawn during opposition.

A question is making the rounds online: which species holds the most biomass on Earth? Common candidates raised in the discussion include ants, earthworms, cattle and other livestock, with humans also weighing in surprisingly low relative to plants and arthropods. Readers are debating how biomass should be measured and what the answer says about humanity's impact on the planet.

A solar eruption has raised concerns that a solar storm could reach Earth around October 2. Brazilian outlets report the event may affect satellite communications, GPS signals and power grids, and could produce auroras visible at lower latitudes than usual. Space weather agencies are monitoring the eruption's trajectory to determine how strong the impact on the planet will be.

Planet Labs PBC, the Earth-imaging satellite company trading under the ticker PL, is seeing its share price, news coverage and trading history tracked closely by investors. The stock is among widely followed finance listings, suggesting renewed market interest in the satellite imagery firm, though no specific earnings announcement or company development is reported.

New research reported by AAS Nova suggests the Solar System's expected lifetime is roughly a billion times shorter than previously estimated, pointing to far greater long-term instability in planetary orbits. The finding revises how long the current planetary arrangement can persist before gravitational interactions between planets destabilise it, prompting discussion among astronomers and science readers about what this means for Earth's distant future.

NASA's Voyager 1, humanity's farthest spacecraft, is currently about 25.77 billion kilometers (16.01 billion miles) from Earth and is on track to reach a distance of one light-day within roughly 45 days. Its twin Voyager 2 trails at about 21.56 billion kilometers (13.4 billion miles). Space enthusiasts are tracking the milestone, which would mark the first time a human-made object is a full light-day away from our planet.

SpaceX's ambitions for connectivity stretching beyond Earth are drawing attention, with discussion of five key details about how its network could cover the Solar System. The idea points to extending Starlink-style satellite services to deep-space missions and planets, raising questions about the technology and timelines involved.

News is circulating that scientists have found a hole above Earth, most likely referring to the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. The story is drawing wide attention online, with viewers in India and elsewhere sharing and commenting on the claim in large numbers, treating it as a striking new scientific discovery about the planet's protective atmosphere.

SETI Institute volcanologist Dr. Kayla Iacovino appeared on NewsNation to explain what a Yellowstone super-eruption would actually mean for the planet. She described the event as so large that its global effects could be comparable to those of a major asteroid impact, prompting fresh public discussion about the supervolcano's potential consequences.

A new report argues that the solar system is fundamentally unstable, with planetary orbits shifting chaotically over long timescales and potentially leading to collisions or planets being ejected. Scientists have long modeled these gravitational instabilities, and renewed attention to the findings is prompting discussion about Earth's eventual fate in the distant future.

Scientists are using geoneutrinos—ghostly particles produced by radioactive decay inside the Earth—to build a new map of the planet's deep, volatile interior. Wired reports that detecting these elusive particles, which pass through matter almost untouched, can reveal how much heat-producing radioactive material lies in the mantle and core, shedding light on plate tectonics, Earth's thermal evolution, and its long-term geological activity.

Scientists report that Earth lies in the direct path of a newly described type of cosmic object called a 'microblazar', a compact jet-emitting source pointed towards our planet. The announcement has caught attention because objects with jets aimed at Earth, like blazars, are rare and allow astronomers to study high-energy processes, raising questions about what this smaller counterpart is and what its radiation means for us.

K2-111 c is a Neptune-like giant planet located 654 light-years from Earth, first identified in 2020 by multiple observatories. It has a mass about 11 times that of Earth and completes an orbit of its star in just 15.68 days. The planet's details are accessible through NASA's Eyes on Exoplanets tool.

A lecture is being promoted arguing that taking the Anthropocene seriously — the idea that humanity has entered a new geological epoch defined by its impact on Earth's ecosystems — requires engaging with global history. Using feminist anthropology, it explores the awkward relations between human societies and the environment, drawing attention to how colonial and gendered histories shape debates about the planet's future.

A space fact shared ahead of the Atlas Rush Kickstarter campaign highlights NASA's Cloud City concept: a floating habitat on Venus. At altitudes of 50-60 kilometres, Venus's atmosphere has temperatures and pressures similar to Earth's, and breathable oxygen would act as a lifting gas, meaning colonies could float above the planet's hostile surface rather than sit on it.

Scientists have identified a subtle new signal of climate change: shifting atmospheric dynamics linked to global warming are measurably slowing the Earth's rotation. As warming redistributes mass in the atmosphere and oceans, it alters the planet's angular momentum, lengthening days by tiny fractions of a second. The finding, reported by Phys.org, adds to evidence that human-driven climate change affects even fundamental planetary processes, and researchers say it could matter for precise timekeeping systems.

The SETI Institute is hosting the next Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture on October 7, with astrophysicist Dr. Jessie Christiansen exploring the question of whether Earth is unique. Thousands of years of wondering have confirmed that planets are common across the galaxy, yet another world quite like our own remains undiscovered, and the lecture will trace that search from past to present.

New research reported by Gizmodo indicates that Earth's axis tilted substantially on its side multiple times during the age of dinosaurs, not just once. The finding points to significant shifts in the planet's orientation over geological time, adding to scientific understanding of how polar wander and plate tectonics shaped ancient climates and ecosystems during the Mesozoic era.

A new animation is circulating online depicting what would happen if Earth's rotation suddenly halted. The simulation shows the immediate devastation: the atmosphere and oceans, still moving at the planet's rotational speed of roughly 1,670 km/h at the equator, would generate catastrophic winds and tsunamis. Viewers are sharing it widely and discussing the physics behind the scenario.

BBC World Service's The Climate Question podcast is examining whether the planet is approaching a 'point of no return' on climate change. The episode is drawing large audiences globally, reflecting continued public concern about tipping points such as ice sheet collapse and ecosystem loss, and how close scientists believe the world may be to irreversible warming thresholds.

A University of Washington study finds that greenhouse gases already emitted will continue warming the planet for decades to come, regardless of future cuts. The finding underscores the long-lasting impact of historical emissions and suggests some level of further warming is effectively locked in, reinforcing calls for adaptation alongside emission reductions.

Google has deployed its AI chips aboard satellites in orbit, marking a step toward processing data in space rather than on the ground. The move points to ambitions for space-based data centres and faster AI computing, but observers note the real challenges lie ahead, including durability of hardware in harsh conditions, heat management, connectivity back to Earth, and the economics of running AI workloads off-planet.

Kepler-1314 b is a Neptune-like giant exoplanet located 463 light-years from Earth. Discovered in 2016 by NASA's Kepler telescope, it has a radius about 5.11 times that of Earth and completes an orbit in just 5.42 days. Astronomy communicators are sharing the planet's profile alongside NASA's Eyes on Exoplanets visualisation, drawing renewed attention to the Kepler mission's catalog of worlds beyond the solar system.