A July 2026 expedition aboard R/V Falkor (too), led by Trinbagonian scientists, completed the first locally run comprehensive deep-sea survey of Trinidad and Tobago, mapping 13% of uncharted seafloor and finding 25 cold seeps with dozens of potentially new species.
NOAA has deployed two consecutive deep-sea expeditions aboard the Okeanos Explorer around American Samoa to map polymetallic nodule fields and deepwater habitats in the nation's highest-priority region for offshore critical-mineral mapping.
NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer completed a 26-day deep-sea expedition in Cook Islands waters in August 2026, recovering 23 potential new species and confirming extensive polymetallic nodule fields.
Two weeks ago, the European Commission issued two legally binding decisions under the Digital Markets Act, ordering Google to share anonymized search data with rivals starting January 2027 and to open 11 Android features to competing AI assistants by July 2027. Google pushed back, executives arguing the mandates risk user privacy and security, while the Commission cited repeated failure to self-comply. The rulings aim to level an AI playing field dominated by Google’s data and platform advantages.
Japan's JAXA unveiled the MMX spacecraft on August 13, 2026, targeting a world-first sample return from the Martian moon Phobos. The probe, the largest lunar or planetary spacecraft Japan has built, is scheduled to launch this autumn on an H3 rocket and return to Earth five years later.
Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland calved a 76.4 km² ice island on August 4, 2026, its largest floating-ice loss since 2012, while satellite data reveals two more massive islands are likely to detach soon as the glacier's floating tongue continues to fracture.
A Montana nurse chose to walk himself to safety after a fall left his own hiking pole lodged in his abdomen during a climb.
The French research vessel Tara Polar Station departed Lorient on July 19, 2026, for an 18-month drift expedition across the Central Arctic Ocean locked in sea ice.
NASA's PUNCH mission predicted the arrival of a May 31, 2025 coronal mass ejection to within 30 minutes, a tenfold improvement over the previous 12-hour forecast window.
Within days, exploration teams in two of the world's most remote environments made significant discoveries: a pristine underground network in Papua New Guinea's Nakanai Mountains, and an 18-million-tonne glacier calving event in East Greenland.
A 2,100-year-old Roman shipwreck with 500 amphorae found off Sicily.
A spent SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage struck the Moon near Einstein Crater on August 5, 2026, creating an artificial impact crater and highlighting concerns about space debris disposal.
A team of Australian cave divers is using photogrammetry to map the submerged tunnels beneath Mount Gambier, revealing previously unknown passages and making them accessible to the public.
A new survey using the ALMA telescope searched for alien signals in radio frequencies above the traditional 'water hole' range and found nothing, but its results show past surveys may have covered over 6 million stars, not the 288,000 previously estimated.
A $57 million vertical wind tunnel replaces two aging facilities and will test aircraft, rockets, and spacecraft for missions to the Moon, Mars, Venus, and Titan.
Curiosity photographed the largest field of honeycomb-shaped polygonal fractures ever seen on Mars during June observations in Valle Grande, a valley where the features spread in every direction — leaving scientists unable to say how they formed.
A new signing extends the framework into Africa as geopolitical alignments in space deepen.
Trinidad and Tobago's inaugural deep-sea survey wrapped up on July 28 after charting uncharted Caribbean trenches and livestreaming benthic findings in real time — revealing what had been scientifically invisible for decades.
Technicians completed fueling the Roman Space Telescope on July 25, loading 290 gallons of hydrazine ahead of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launch that will send the observatory a million miles out to Lagrange point 2.
The Tara Polar Station has departed Lorient for a refuel in the Netherlands and is en route to Kirkenes, preparing to freeze into Arctic sea ice for an eight-month drift mission powered by renewable diesel.
Scientists have captured the first direct, real-time observation of a seafloor spreading event, recording a massive volcanic outpouring on the Indian Ocean floor in April 2024 that created 160 million cubic meters of new crust.
All 90 personnel were safely evacuated from the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex on July 24, 2026, and communications with more than 40 spacecraft were handed over to Goldstone, California without interruption.
NASA's $80 million twin-orbiter ESCAPADE mission launched aboard a Blue Origin New Glenn rocket on November 13, 2025. The 'Gold and Blue' spacecraft will use humanity's first simultaneous dual-spacecraft approach to study Mars' hybrid magnetic environment and the mystery of its lost atmosphere.