Harry Baker

Alaska's melting permafrost is dumping toxic metals into the state's rivers, turning them bright orange and making the water highly acidic. The contaminated rivers are so vibrant they can be seen from space, and the problem is likely to get much worse in the future.

Vibrant auroras that were recently observed by millions of people across the globe were some of the most widespread in the last five centuries, NASA says. The light shows may have also reached the equator.

Earth from space In 2018, a weather satellite captured a massive thunderstorm cloud in the shape of a jellyfish. The bizarre cloud was the result of a meteorological phenomenon gone wrong.

Researchers have identified at least seven stars in our galaxy that may be surrounded by super-advanced alien megastructures, known as Dyson spheres. However, this is not the only explanation for these stars.

Astronomers reanalyzed the chemical composition of three stars in the Milky Way's halo and found that they are between 12 and 13 billion years old. They may have also been stolen from other galaxies.

A group of orcas known to attack boats in southwest Europe have sunk a 50-foot sailing yacht in the Strait of Gibraltar after ripping open its hull. It is the fifth time these killer whales have sent a ship to the seafloor in the last three years.

Between Friday (May 10) and Sunday (May 12), people across the world were treated to stunning aurora displays as Earth's magnetic field experienced its biggest disturbance since October 2003. The supercharged storm also messed with satellites and caused power grid irregularities.

Earth from space The massive caldera of Turkey's Mount Nemrut volcano is split in half, with one side made of solidified lava flows and the other half a deep crater lake. Covered in snow, the summit scene looks like the yin-yang symbol when viewed from above.

Space weather experts warn that Earth could experience one of its worst geomagnetic storms in years after a gigantic, frenzied sunspot released five back-to-back solar storms directly at our planet. The explosive event could trigger vibrant auroras across large parts of North America.

Aurora-hunting photographers were surprised to spot a misshaped SpaceX spiral with ethereal horns over Europe during a recent geomagnetic storm.

A tiny, previously undisclosed lunar rover has been spotted strapped to the side of China's moon-bound Chang'e 6 lander in newly released pre-launch photos. The true purpose of the rover, which is scheduled to land on the moon's far side, remains a mystery.

Earth from space A puzzling arc was spotted in the water of a Greenland fjord littered with iceberg fragments. There are a couple of possible explanations for this bizarre phenomenon but we will likely never know what caused it, experts say.

Mars has had frequent planet-wide auroras in recent months, including an unprecedented trio of events in February. Experts say the sudden increase is the result of the ongoing solar maximum.

Artificial intelligence trained by asteroid-hunting citizen scientists helped identify more than 1,000 never-before-seen solar system objects from old Hubble images spanning two decades.

Earth from space A satellite image of the Galápagos Islands' La Cumbre volcano shows lava seeping from the iguana-covered mountain days into an ongoing, months-long eruption.

In the early hours of Tuesday (April 23), quadruple solar flares near-simultaneously exploded from across the sun's surface, and there's a good chance that one of these outbursts launched a solar storm toward Earth.

On April 10, a bright red atmospheric "hole" was spotted in the night sky above Texas shortly after SpaceX launched 23 Starlink satellites into space. It is the latest example of an increasingly common phenomenon caused by the company's dying rockets.

Earth from space Three closely grouped lakes in Ethiopia's Great Rift Valley have distinctly different hues thanks to a combination of unique features.

A surprise coronal mass ejection recently smashed into Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks, briefly causing the "devil comet" to lose its tail — and a NASA spacecraft caught the whole thing on camera.

During the historic April 8 total solar eclipse, a government radio station in Colorado started sending out slightly shifted "time signals" to millions of people across the globe as the moon's shadow altered the upper layers of our atmosphere. However, these altered signals did not actually change the time.

At least nine beavers and a vole have been found dead in Utah after an unusual outbreak of tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, which can infect and kill humans, cats and dogs. Experts warn people to be wary of ticks, which can transmit the disease across species.

The James Webb Space Telescope discovered an inexplicably dense galaxy inside an "Einstein ring" last year. Now, researchers think they can explain this cosmic conundrum.

The annual Lyrid meteor shower peaks between April 21 and 22 this year, potentially offering views of hundreds of shooting stars and rare "fireballs." Here's where and when to catch the cosmic light show.

NASA's stranded Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has beamed back its final signal to Earth from the Red Planet, which included a farewell message for mission scientists. It will continue collecting data on Mars until it dies but will not transmit this data to Earth.

Orcas that attack and sink boats in southwestern Europe have been spotted circling a vessel in Spain, hundreds of miles from where they should currently be. And scientists can't explain why.