Mercury Is Shrinking — the Whole Planet Is Getting Smaller
As its giant iron core cools, Mercury contracts, wrinkling its crust into cliffs hundreds of kilometers long. The planet has lost up to 14 km of diameter.
Today’s hidden fact · Tuesday, July 7, 2026
The Boötes Void: A Hole in the Universe 330 Million Light-Years Wide
A region that should contain tens of thousands of galaxies holds barely 60. If the Milky Way sat at its center, we wouldn't have known other galaxies existed.
The cosmos right now
NASA Picture of the Day
NGC 6188: Dragons of Ara
Where can you find dragons fighting in the night sky? In the southern constellation of the Altar: Ara. The dragons are, of course, actually made of suggestively shaped gas and dust. The celestial home of the mythological battling beasts is cataloged as NGC 6…
Upcoming Rocket Launches
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 10-42
Long March 10B | Demo Flight
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Starlink Group 17-48
Gravity-1 | Unknown Payload
Vikram-I | Demo Flight
Asteroids Passing Earth This Week
2007 AA2
2019 AM12
2016 NB1
2013 AS27watched by NASA
2018 LQ2
2020 AF2
Previous facts
Jupiter's Moon Europa Hides More Water Than All of Earth's Oceans Combined
Beneath Europa's frozen shell sloshes a salty ocean up to 150 km deep — kept liquid for billions of years and considered the best place to look for alien life.
Your Phone Is Millions of Times More Powerful Than the Computer That Landed on the Moon
The Apollo Guidance Computer had 4KB of RAM and less power than a musical greeting card — and it crashed five times during the Moon landing.