A report from Russian state media outlet TASS, which obtained the patent, states that the rotating system is designed to generate a gravitational force of 0.5g, or 50% of Earth’s gravity. The patent documentation includes illustrations of a notional space station structure with a central axial module with both static and rotating components, with modules and habitats connected by a hermetically sealed, flexible junction.

The radially attached habitable modules would be rotated around this axis to simulate gravity for the crew by producing an outward-pushing centrifugal force. These would need to rotate about five revolutions per minute, and have a radius of 131 feet (40 meters) in order to produce 0.5g. A space station of that size would require multiple launches with each module that would then be assembled in orbit.

The documentation notes the disadvantage of the need for spinning and coordinating the rotation of transport ships to dock with the station, which it notes reduces the safety of using such a station.

Generating artificial gravity could have profound impacts for crews on long-duration space missions, whether in low Earth orbit on interplanetary voyages into deep space. Exposure to microgravity has numerous impacts on astronauts, including muscle atrophy and bone density loss.

NASA has produced concepts such as the rotating wheel space station concept Nautilus-X, while, more recently, commercial firm Vast has said it will pursue artificial gravity stations.

Russia did not indicate timelines for such a project nor resources to back its development. The patent does however indicate interest in the concept of artificial gravity at a time when the end of the International Space Station (ISS) is approaching and new national and commercial station plans are moving forward.

Currently, NASA and Roscosmos plan to deorbit the ISS in 2030, using a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule to push the station down into a fiery death over the Pacific Ocean. Russia has committed to stay aboard the ISS until 2028.

Almost every set in this list is an Ultimate Collector's Series set, meaning it's one designed with adults in mind, created to be displayed rather than be played with. You can play with these sets, if you want, but we wouldn't recommend letting your five-year-old get heavy-handed with your UCS Millennium Falcon. It'll all just end in tears when you're left picking up 7,500 loose pieces off the floor — don't say we didn't warn you.

Read on to find the 10 most expensive Lego Star Wars sets. We've omitted any sets that have since retired: these are just the sets still available to buy today, and we're basing prices on the MSRP as set by The Lego Store.

10. The Dark Falcon

Part of an alternative universe Star Wars range, released alongside the launch of Disney Plus series Rebuild the Galaxy, The Dark Falcon is the only set on this list aimed at kids. It's not surprising, really: the most expensive Lego sets are generally reserved for adults. And at $179.99, this one's tipping the scales a bit. But for fans looking for something a little different, it's a great choice. And let's face it: it's a lot cheaper than the other Millennium Falcon on this list.

The Dark Falcon reimagines what might have been if the iconic Millennium Falcon was instead commandeered by the dark side. It recolors the ship black, making it unique from other Lego models of the Millennium Falcon, and it comes with six minifigures. Amusingly, some of the minifigures also resemble characters that have also swapped to the dark side: there's Darth Jar Jar, Bounty Hunter C-3PO, Darth Dev and Darth Rey. Darth Vader has switched parties, too, and here, he's Jedi Vader. Luke, for some reason, is kitted out for the beach as Beach Luke. Clearly, he just doesn't want to be battling in this universe.

Being aimed at children, the Dark Falcon is designed to be a playset. You'll find lift-up panels to grant access to the interior, where there are clearly designated zones: a throne for Darth Jar Jar, a command center, a jail cell and an entertainment area.

9. AT-ST Walker

There have been several Lego AT-STs over the years, but this is the first time we've had an Ultimate Collector's Series model — one specifically designed for adults, and designed for display rather than play. That doesn't mean you can't play with it if you want to: it has a rotating head, viewports that can be opened and closed and adjustable laser cannons.

But what makes a UCS set distinctive from a playset is the additional detail. Made up of 1,513 pieces, this AT-ST Walker is not only larger than most but looks more realistic than ever. Its distinctive legs are carefully designed to balance the weight of the set, so it can be proudly displayed. You can even open the top hatch to reveal a two-person cockpit inside.

Sadly, it doesn't come with two minifigures: there's only one here – a price to pay for the fact that this is a lower-priced Ultimate Collector's Series set. The minifigure included is designed to stand on the informational plaque that also comes with the set, which is wonderfully detailed, with the Imperial crest printed on its arms.

8. TIE Interceptor

Like many of the sets on our list of the most expensive Lego Star Wars sets currently available, the TIE Interceptor is another Ultimate Collector's Series set. It's one of many TIE Interceptors that have been released over the years, though thanks to its UCS status, it's bigger and more detailed than most.

Released as part of Lego Star Wars' 25th anniversary last year, it comes with a 25th Anniversary brick along with one minifigure (a new design TIE Pilot). Like all UCS sets, it also comes with a display plaque, providing details about the TIE Interceptor, and giving a place to display the minifigure and anniversary brick.

The Lego TIE Interceptor is 16 inches long and, given the ship's iconic shape, it comes with a brick-built display stand to enable you to display it effectively. You'll find neat details here, such as a rear engine, laser cannons and a viewable cockpit interior. Along with the pilot minifigure, there's also a mouse droid figure.

7. X-Wing Starfighter

Having been around since 2023, there's a good chance the Lego Star Wars X-Wing Starfighter will be retiring very soon. If you fancy picking up this UCS set, we'd recommend you do it fairly quickly — it's worth adding to your collection too. In our X-Wing Starfighter review, we said it’s "a great model that will always look excellent on a shelf". What more could you want from a Lego set for adults?

Made up of just shy of 2,000 pieces, the X-Wing Starfighter needs a good amount of space to display, as it measures over 21.5 inches in length. You'll find a buildable display stand here to proudly show it off, and the informational plaque provides a good place to display the included Luke Skywalker minifigure and the R2-D2 droid. Notably, there's space in the ship for both of them if you'd rather display the set with them inside.

As you'd expect from a ship this size, the X-Wing Starfighter packs in a lot of realistic detail. There's an opening cockpit (that Skywalker can fit inside), space behind for R2-D2 to sit, and adjustable wings that can move from flight mode to attack mode with one switch.

• Read our full review of the Lego Star Wars UCS X-Wing Starfighter for more information on this set.

6. Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship

If you've been buying Lego Star Wars sets for a while, you'll undoubtedly find Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship to be very familiar indeed. It's identical in shape to Boba Fett's Starship, and it has been previously released under the Slave I moniker. The green and blue hues of Jango Fett's Starship do at least set it apart somewhat, and the size of this one might make it a tempting prospect for adult fans of Lego who like a big model.

You'll get two minifigures with this UCS set: Jango Fett with printed arms, along with a young Boba Fett. Both can be situated inside the opening cockpit, or they can be displayed on the included informational plaque stand. At 18 inches in length and 16 inches wide, the Firespray-Class Starship packs in a lot of detail. Along with the cockpit, there's an openable main entrance, a compartment for the seismic charge and blaster cannons that can be adjusted.

What's particularly cool is that Jango Fett's Firespray-Class Starship can be displayed in two ways: it can be displayed flat, in 'landing mode', or stood upright, using a buildable stand. As an added realistic detail, the rotating wings will always remain horizontal even when the vehicle is tilted.

5. Jabba's Sail Barge

We are truly in expensive set territory now — from here on out, these are the most expensive Lego Star Wars sets that only serious fans and collectors are likely to buy. Costing $499.99, Jabba's Sail Barge is a considerable investment: not only do you get a substantial model of the barge, but you also get a strong collection of unique minifigures, too.

Along with a huge model of Jabba the Hutt, there are ten other beautifully-detailed minifigures included here: Princess Leia, Bib Fortuna, C-3PO, Max Rebo, Kithaba, Wooof, Vizam, Salacious Crumb, R2-D2 and a Gamorrean Guard. It's quite a treat to have so many included with a UCS set, but that's a small part of what pushes the price up so high.

Of course, the 3,943-piece model of Jabba's Sail Barge packs in a lot of exquisite detail, too. It's an impressive 30.5 inches in length, with textile sails that can be adjusted, and the top deck and walls can be moved to allow full access to the interior. You'll want to see inside, too, thanks to the detailed rooms: there's a cockpit, prison cell, armory and an entertainment room, complete with Jabba's seedy bed. The minifigures can all be placed inside the ship, or you can display them on an included plinth.

4. The Razor Crest

Having been around for three years, The Lego Star Wars UCS Razor Crest is close to retirement — so if you want this one in your collection, you've only got a few more weeks to pick it up. Lego will stop stocking this in 2026, which means its price will likely go up on the reseller market. Great news if you own one, but not so great if you're yet to pick it up.

And if you're a Mandalorian fan, you absolutely should want to have this huge ship in your collection. The Razor Crest is one of the more unique ships in the Star Wars galaxy, and this particular model comes with minifigures of The Mandalorian, Grogu (and his Hover Pram), The Mythrol and Kuiil. There's also a buildable Blurrg, which can hold a minifigure on its back and be stowed away in the Razor Crest's cargo compartment.

As you'd expect from a ship of this size and stature, The Razor Crest has plenty of interactive features. Its engines can be removed, as can the cockpit. Two side hatches open, and the cargo compartment can be accessed, too. Inside, you'll find a weapons cabinet and a carbon-freezing chamber with room for a minifigure. There's also a detachable escape pod, again with room for a minifigure to sit inside.

3. Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser

In our review of the Lego Star Wars Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser, we said that "it's huge, looks fantastic, and is packed with details". You'd expect nothing less from a Lego set costing $649.99, of course, but the Venator absolutely looks the part and is one of our favorite UCS sets to date.

This is one of the most eye-catching Star Wars ships, largely in part to the red detailing that provides a stunning contrast to the sea of grey bricks we typically see on Star Wars ships. There's a huge amount of detail here, too, including a command bridge, turbolaser turrets and a hangar, where you'll find a scale model of a Republic Gunship (spoiler: it's tiny). It also comes with a display stand, so you can proudly show this set off.

There are a couple of downsides here, however. The Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser only comes with two minifigures, which is a little disappointing given its price point. You'll get Captain Rex and Admiral Yularen, which can be displayed on the included informational plaque. Second is the size: at 43 inches in length (1.09 meters), you'll need a significant amount of space to adequately display this huge set. If you're living in a small apartment, you might need to rethink purchasing this one.

• Read our full review of the Lego Star Wars Venator-Class Republic Attack Cruiser for more information.

2. Millennium Falcon

Until very recently, the UCS Millennium Falcon was the biggest Lego Star Wars set available, but it's since been knocked off the number-one spot by the brand new Death Star. It's still a very impressive set, though, and the fact that it's been around for eight years tells you everything you need to know about the popularity of this set. Typically, a Lego Star Wars set will stay on shelves for a maximum of two years, so it's had an impressive run with no sign of ending yet.

There are seven minifigures included here: four from the original trilogy, and four from the modern trilogy. There's Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3PO, then also Older Han Solo, Rey and Finn. Along with some interchangeable details for the ship, such as sensor dishes, it's up to you what era you want your Millennium Falcon to come from.

Made up of more than 7,500 pieces, there's a huge amount of detail on the Millennium Falcon itself, and as we said in our UCS Millennium Falcon review, it's a delight to build, even despite its size. The exterior features upper and lower quad laser cannons, landing legs and a boarding ramp that can raise and lower. There's also a cockpit with a detachable canopy, with enough room for four minifigures to sit inside. You can take the hull plates off the ship to take a look inside, too: there's a detailed main hold, gunnery station and rear compartment

• More information can be found in our full review of the Lego Star Wars UCS Millennium Falcon.

1. Death Star

Last but certainly not least comes the brand new UCS Death Star, costing an eye-watering $999.99. It's the first Lego set in history to cost a thousand dollars, and we don't think it'll be the last. This is a seriously impressive set, packing in a lot of detail, but unlike previous models of the Death Star, it's not a complete, spherical model. Instead, it's a cutaway, focusing more on the interior detail. It's a strange choice for an Ultimate Collector's Series set, looking more like a very expensive playset than a display piece.

At 9,023 pieces, it's one of the biggest Lego sets of all time, and those bricks go towards building a 32-inch wide cutaway of the famous Death Star. Inside, it's split up into different rooms, many of which you'll instantly recognise. You'll find Princess Leia's holding cell, the trash compactor, the hangar control room, Emperor Palpatine's throne room, and a whole lot more.

There are 38 minifigures included here, all of which can be placed inside the Death Star to bring each room to life as a small diorama. There's a good selection of minifigures, including Luke Skywalker (both as a Jedi and a Stormtrooper), two versions of Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, two droids and a wealth of Stormtroopers.

The first step on the moon was one of humanity's most exciting accomplishments. Now scientists are planning return trips – and dreaming of Mars beyond.

Next year, Nasa's Artemis II mission will send four astronauts to fly around the moon to test the spacecraft before future landings. The following year, two astronauts are expected to explore the surface of the moon for a week as part of Nasa's Artemis III mission.

And finally, the trip to Mars is planned for the 2030s. But there's an invisible threat standing in the way: cosmic rays.

When we look at the night sky, we see stars and nearby planets. If we're lucky enough to live somewhere without light pollution, we might catch meteors sliding across the sky. But cosmic rays – consisting of protons, helium nuclei, heavy ions and electrons – remain hidden. They stream in from exploding stars (galactic cosmic rays) and our very own sun (solar particle events).

They don't discriminate. These particles carry so much energy and move so fast that they can knock electrons off atoms and disrupt molecular structures of any material. That way, they can damage everything in their path, machines and humans alike.

The Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere shield us from most of this danger. But outside Earth's protection, space travellers will be routinely exposed. In deep space, cosmic rays can break DNA strands, disrupt proteins and damage other cellular components, increasing the risk of serious diseases such as cancer.

The research challenge is straightforward: measure how cosmic rays affect living organisms, then design strategies to reduce their damage.

Ideally, scientists would study these effects by sending tissues, organoids (artificially made organ-like structures) or lab animals (such as mice) directly into space. That does happen, but it's expensive and difficult. A more practical approach is to simulate cosmic radiation on Earth using particle accelerators.

Cosmic ray simulators in the US and Germany expose tissues, plants and animals to different components of cosmic rays in sequence. A new international accelerator facility being built in Germany will reach even higher energies, matching levels found in space that have never been tested on living organisms.

But these simulations aren't fully realistic. Many experiments deliver the entire mission dose in a single treatment. This is like using a tsunami to study the effects of rain.

In real space, cosmic rays arrive as a mixture of high-energy particles hitting simultaneously, not one type at a time. My colleagues and I have suggested building a multi-branch accelerator that could fire several tuneable particle beams at once, recreating the mixed radiation of deep space under controlled laboratory conditions. For now, though, this kind of facility exists only as a proposal.

Beyond better testing, we need better protection. Physical shields seem like the obvious first defense. Hydrogen-rich materials such as polyethylene and water-absorbing hydrogels can slow charged particles. Although they are used, or planned to be used, as spacecraft materials, their benefits are limited.

Particularly galactic cosmic rays, the ones that arrive from far exploding stars, are so energetic that they can penetrate through physical shielding. They can even generate secondary radiation that increases exposure. So, effective protection by using solely physical shields remains a major challenge.

Nature's armor

That's why scientists are exploring biological strategies. One approach is to use antioxidants. These molecules can protect DNA from harmful chemicals that are produced when cosmic rays hit living cells.

Supplementing with CDDO-EA, a synthetic antioxidant, reduces cognitive damage caused by simulated cosmic radiation in female mice. In the study, mice exposed to simulated cosmic radiation learned a simple task more slowly compared to unexposed mice. However, mice that received the synthetic antioxidant performed normally despite being exposed to simulated cosmic radiation.

Another approach involves learning from organisms with extraordinary abilities. Hibernating organisms become more resistant to radiation during hibernation. The mechanisms on how hibernation protects from radiation are not fully understood yet. Still, inducing hibernation-like conditions in non-hibernating animals is possible and can make them more radioresistant.

Tardigrades – microscopic creatures also known as water bears – are also extremely radioresistant, especially when dehydrated. Although we can't hibernate or dehydrate astronauts, the strategies these organisms use to protect cellular components might help us preserve other organisms during long space journeys.

Microbes, seeds, simple food sources and even animals that could later become our companions might be kept in a protected state for a while. Under calmer conditions, they could then be brought back to full activity. Therefore, understanding and harnessing these protective mechanisms could prove crucial for future space journeys.

A third strategy focuses on supporting organisms' own stress responses. Stressors on Earth, such as starvation or heat, have driven organisms to evolve cellular defenses that protect DNA and other cellular components. In a recent preprint (a paper that is yet to be peer reviewed), my colleague and I suggest that activating these mechanisms through specific diets or drugs may offer additional protection in space.

Physical shields alone won't be enough. But with biological strategies, more experiments in space and on Earth, and the construction of new dedicated accelerator complexes, humanity is getting closer to making routine space travel a reality. With current speed, we are probably decades away from fully solving cosmic-ray protection. Greater investment in space radiation research could shorten that timeline.

The ultimate goal is to journey beyond Earth's protective bubble without the constant threat of invisible, high-energy particles damaging our bodies and our spacecraft.

It won't blink like an airplane and it won't leave a trail behind. Instead, it will appear suddenly, move steadily across the sky and fade away just minutes later. To young, eager eyes already awake and brimming with excitement, it might look like something (or someone) making a quiet journey through the dawn sky.

The timing matches a well-known object passing overhead.

This Christmas, the International Space Station is also perfectly placed to reflect sunlight down to Earth during early-morning passes, making it one of the brightest objects in the sky.

Whether you choose to see it as a seasonal mystery or a space-age marvel, the sight may be brief, but it is beautiful and easy to spot with the naked eye  — so long as you are in the right place at the right time.

In the table below, we have listed some of the best times to look up over major cities, weather permitting — information gathered from AstroViewer.net.

To see the flyby, head outside with a clear view of the sky. You don't need binoculars or a telescope to spot it, just your eyes and a little patience.

The bright light comes from the International Space Station. It shines when sunlight reflects off the large structure while it orbits Earth every 90 minutes.

For those who want to check future sightings, or quietly confirm what they've seen, NASA's Spot the Station service shows when the space station will pass overhead from any location.

While this isn't likely to be a major aurora event, conditions are more unsettled than background levels, raising the odds for festive auroras, especially at high latitudes.

Earth is currently being buffeted by fast solar wind spewing from a large coronal hole on the sun. These high-speed winds have already triggered minor (G1) geomagnetic storm conditions Dec. 22 through Dec. 23, with solar wind speeds climbing to around 500 miles (800 kilometers) per second — roughly twice as fast as typical background solar wind levels, according to NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.

These enhanced solar wind conditions are forecast to persist through Dec. 23-25, keeping geomagnetic activity elevated through Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. While storm levels may ease off slightly, there is a possibility of periods of active geomagnetic conditions according to space weather forecasters at NOAA and the U.K. Met Office.

There is also a possible wildcard at play.

According to NOAA, a coronal mass ejection (CME) that left the sun on Dec. 20 could pass close to Earth on Dec. 24, potentially striking our planet with a glancing blow. While no clearly Earth-directed CME has been observed, even a near-miss could briefly enhance aurora activity by disrupting the already disturbed solar wind environment around Earth.

Any aurora enhancement is likely to be limited to high latitudes; for the U.S., this means northern states such as Alaska, Washington, North Dakota and Minnesota. Elsewhere, elevated geomagnetic conditions could see auroras dance for skywatchers in northern Canada, Greenland and parts of Scandinavia.

To keep informed about when and if you can expect to catch a glimpse of the northern lights from where you live, we recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well.

I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings. Want to capture the perfect photo? Our how to photograph auroras guide can help.

New research reveals that jet structures in the sun-facing "anti-tail" of this comet, estimated in some observations to stretch up to 620,000 miles (1 million kilometers), were wobbling every 7 hours and 45 minutes as 3I/ATLAS approached the sun. Of course, comets are famous for their tails and haloes, comprised of gas and dust that is blown from their nucleus as radiation from the sun heats them. However, these tails generally face away from the sun and the influx of solar radiation. A rare anti-tail is a cometary tail that points toward the sun, rather than away from it.

3I/ATLAS is only the third object known to have entered our solar system from around another star. The first was the cigar-shaped space-rock 'Oumuamua, discovered passing through the solar system in Oct. 2017, and the second was the first interstellar comet 2I/Borisov, spotted in our solar system in August 2019. Though rare, scientists have seen comets originating in the solar system display a sun-facing anti-tail before, and wobbling jets have been observed in these anti-tails. However, this is the first time that such an "outgassing" has been observed from an interstellar comet.

"Characterizing jets in 3I thus represents a rare opportunity to investigate the physical behavior of a pristine body formed in another planetary system," the researchers behind this discovery wrote in a paper published on the paper repository site arXiv.

The team discovered the wobbling jets in the coma of 3I/ATLAS after observing the comet across 37 nights between July 2 and Sept. 5, 2025, with the Two-meter Twin Telescope (TTT), a robotic facility located at the Teide Observatory in Tenerife, Canary Islands.

These observations allowed the researchers to track how the comet's coma evolved from a sun-facing fan of dust before August, to a pronounced antisolar tail. They attribute this transformation to the increasing influence of solar radiation on dust with the coma as 3I/ATLAS headed toward a close approach to the sun on Oct. 30, 2025, when it came to within around 130 million miles (210 million km) of our star.

The jet structure appeared within the anti-tail of 3I/ATLAS on 7 nights between Aug. 3 and Aug. 29, and its wobble or precessional motion implied to the team that the icy heart of this interstellar invader is rotating around once every 15 hours and 30 minutes. This is a shorter rotational period for 3I/ATLAS than has previously been estimated.

3I/ATLAS made its closest approach to Earth on Dec.19, coming to within around 168 million miles (270 million kilometers). Since then, the interstellar interloper has been making its way to the outer solar system. Like 'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov before it, the comet is expected to eventually leave the solar system for good.However, as this research demonstrates, 3I/ATLAS may soon be gone, but thanks to its impact on science, it is unlikely to be forgotten.

BlueBird 6, built by Texas company AST SpaceMobile, lifted off atop an LVM3 rocket from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre Tuesday at 10:25 p.m. EST (0325 GMT and 8:55 a.m. India Standard Time on Dec. 24).

The LVM3 deployed BlueBird 6 about 324 miles (521 kilometers) above Earth 15.5 minutes after launch as planned.

AST SpaceMobile is building a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that beam broadband service directly to standard smartphones on the ground.

The company has now launched six operational satellites to orbit, five of them aboard a single SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September 2024. Those previous spacecraft, BlueBirds 1 through 5, feature 693-square-foot (64.4 square meters) communication arrays — the largest ever unfurled in LEO.

BlueBird 6 will break that record, and by a healthy margin. It's the first of AST SpaceMobile's next-generation BlueBirds, whose arrays cover nearly 2,400 square feet (223 square meters) apiece.

Tuesday's liftoff was the ninth overall for the three-stage, 143-foot-tall (43.5 m) LVM3, which is India's most powerful rocket. It debuted in December 2014 and has a 100% success rate to date.

BlueBird 6, which tips the scales at about 13,450 pounds (6,100 kilograms), was the heaviest payload that the LVM3 has ever hauled to LEO, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 11 p.m. ET on Dec. 23 with news of successful launch and satellite deployment.

All of this aerial weirdness involves unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP for short. Whatever they are, UAP continue to be seen, reported and even documented through various sensor technologies. However, despite years of whistleblowers testifying before Congress, there seems to have been a bottleneck in getting to the bottom of the UAP issue in 2025. Why so?

Key specialists appraising the issue UAP have yet to untangle the mystery, but do appear to agree on what needs to be done now to further resolve what UAP are and from where they might originate.

Plurality of minds

The UAP phenomenon benefits from having a plurality of minds engaged in disciplined debate, suggests Michael Cifone, founding executive director and President of the Society for UAP Studies, based in Los Angeles, California.

Today, there's a division emerging between classical Unidentified Flying Object (UFO), aka "flying saucer," incidents and studying UAP from the point of view of observational and experimental science. But engaging scientific methods and instruments turns out to be neither trivial nor cheap, Cifone said.

"Perhaps the holdup is reluctance to dump time, energy and money into what looks to some like a wild goose chase," said Cifone.

Cold cases

"Like any other scientific venture, both funding and institutional support is required," Cifone said. "Given the historical stigma associated with the topic that has been hard to achieve. But now with the emphasis no longer on chasing forensic cold cases, and relying on reports of UAP, serious scientists and student researchers are getting involved."

The upshot is to deploy scientific methodology to establish the observational framework with the proper instrumentation, Cifone added, "in order to generate the data on UAP from which more secure conclusions can be derived."

Cifone said that progress, like in any other science or research area, will be slow but hopefully steady, albeit incremental.

"What will likely happen is that there will be downstream benefits that aren't foreseeable exactly now. Maybe new sciences will break away. So it will be a win for the growth of knowledge and for science in particular," Cifone senses.

For Cifone, his view is to keep the eye on the ball and work out the observational framework design and required instruments and observational modalities before we can have the reliable datasets we need. "But science doesn't always go as planned. In any case, there's a lot of work to be done."

Cifone points to an increasing number of institutions that are studying UAPs. Indeed, work underway on UAP has blossomed into a world-wide field of research, he said.

All sky, all the time

To Cifone's point, there's the University of Würzburg in northern Bavaria, one of the oldest universities in Germany. An Interdisciplinary Research Center for Extraterrestrial Studies (IFEX) has been established.

One effort the university is developing is an "AllSkyCAM" able to capture UAP. An automated reporting system is currently under construction with the university cooperating with the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, the national civil aviation authority of Germany, to research unusual phenomena in the country's airspace.

Then there's the Galileo Project led by astrophysicist Avi Loeb of Harvard University. They have designed and built an array of sensors to scan the sky for aerial phenomena and assess atmospheric anomalies that may not be of terrestrial origin.

This type of research can produce data on UAP, Cifone said, "then we need to experiment with the data and produce theories, or what you call explanations, and perhaps even understanding! We're only at the observational framework design and testing phase. Then we need to let the systems run, probably for many years."

Test a hypothesis

There's need to be able to scientifically test a hypothesis that some UAP are potentially extraterrestrial craft, said Robert Powell, executive board member of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (SCU).

"I consider extreme acceleration to be the best characteristic that has the potential to eliminate a terrestrial explanation for a UAP," said Powell. But measurement of high accelerations of UAP, he said, requires high-precision scientific gear and data.

"The cost of putting out a network of calibrated and characterized equipment, maintaining it, obtaining placement rights on land, and analyzing the data will cost tens to hundreds of millions of dollars," said Powell.

Military systems

One estimate by an engineer in SCU forecasts that given 300 "actual" UAP sightings per year — and assuming random distribution of sightings — that with 930 automated camera systems distributed across the U.S., one would have a 95% chance of detecting a UAP of 50 foot or larger size within a year.

"To date, the financial resources to achieve this are not available," said Powell. "The military has the capability with radar, satellite, and optical systems, but the scientific community does not have access to these systems." He thinks the work ahead could be done now via military systems, but only if there were no national security concerns.

"I think it will take many years to do it through privately-financed civilian systems but that doesn't mean we shouldn't continue working at it," Powell concluded.

Ignore, rationalize away

Ryan Graves is chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Integration Committee. He is also director of Americans for Safe Aerospace, a military pilot group devoted to aerospace safety and national security, but focused on UAPs.

"Highly credible people and professional observers are seeing objects that appear to exhibit capabilities beyond the state of the art," Graves told Space.com. "In the data received, there seems to be this core anomalous aspect that we can't just ignore or rationalize away."

Graves speaks with UAP eye-witness authority as a former Lt. U.S. Navy and F/A-18F pilot. He was the first active-duty pilot to publicly point to his own encounters and spotlights his military colleagues regarding their UAP sightings.

In July 2023, Graves testified about UAPs before the House Oversight Committee's National Security Subcommittee in Congress, a hearing centered on UAP and the implications for national security, public safety, and how best to attain government transparency on the issue.

Pay attention

"We need to pay attention to this and recognize the national security implications," Graves said. Objects are operating in sovereign air space, he said, potentially collecting intelligence and trying to break into or set the stage to counter our defenses and set the country up for strategic surprise.

In blunt talk, Graves said UAP are engaged in actions "that would be recognized as acts of war or at the minimum preparation for an attack."

For its part, the AIAA UAP Integration & Outreach Committee is a strictly agnostic, science-first committee inside the AIAA.

"Our remit is to bring aerospace rigor to an area with real safety-of-flight implications," Graves said. The committee has been convening experts across AIAA's technical committees, publishing peer-reviewed and conference papers, and producing policy guidance that standardizes how aviation professionals document and share safety-relevant observations, Graves added.

Retention of data

While AIAA provides technical expertise rather than lobbying, Graves said the work on UAP has helped clarify best-practice reporting standards as well as set standards for retention of data on what's being reported.

One early payoff is that AIAA's UAP effort parallels what Congress has been considering in the standalone bill "Safe Airspace for Americans Act," introduced in January 2024 and reintroduced in September of this year. "Our focus remains the same," said Graves, "and that is credible data, clear procedures, and aviation safety."

That bipartisan Act is championed by U.S. representatives Robert Garcia of California and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, legislation crafted to support civilian UAP reporting.

"Transparency surrounding UAP is crucial for national security, public safety, and making sure people trust that our government is taking these reports seriously," Congressman Garcia said in a statement. "This bill creates a clear, protected pathway for pilots and other aviation professionals to report UAP incidents without having to fear stigma or worry about retaliation. This is a vital step forward to make sure our skies are safe and our government is responsive."

Closure on the topic?

Graves also points to the current leadership of the Department of Defense All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO. It too is established to minimize technical and intelligence surprise by "synchronizing identification, attribution, and mitigation of UAP in the vicinity of national security areas," the AARO states.

"I'm optimistic. There is significant organizational change across the government that I think will bare fruit. There process is maturing to the point where they can start delivering on their expectations," said Graves.

Overall, Graves is heartened by current UAP interest and on-going activities.

"I don't know if there's been a better time to hope for closure on this topic. I don't think we've ever been in quite the situation we're in today," Graves said.

Of these comets — the interstellar invader 3I/ATLAS, C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) and C/2025 R2 (SWAN) — not all survived their trial by solar radiation intact, while others drew the attention of a global audience thanks in part to their scientific significance and in some cases, the disinformation that swirled around them.

Join us as we look back at six of the most memorable cometary highlights of 2025, featuring stunning astrophotography, the unexpected advance of an interstellar invader and the dramatic demise of an icy visitor from the Oort Cloud.

5 incredible moments that made 2025 the year of the comet

1. Enter interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

Comet 3I/ATLAS was discovered on July 1, 2025, by the NASA-funded ATLAS telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile and was quickly confirmed to be just the third interstellar visitor to our solar system, after 1I'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov.

Its exotic nature quickly seized the interest of the scientific community and the imagination of the public while simultaneously sending the conspiracy-peddling community into a frenzy, some of whom claimed that 3I/ATLAS was an alien spacecraft that had voyaged to the heliosphere for reasons unknown.

Follow-up observations confirmed 3I/ATLAS to be the brightest and potentially the largest interstellar object discovered to date, measuring up to 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) in diameter, based on observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, according to NASA.

2. When the cosmos gives you Lemmon, make astrophotography

If 3I/ATLAS was the most scientifically riveting of the cometary trio, C/2026 A6 (Lemmon) was arguably the most dynamic and photogenic. Comet Lemmon was discovered on Jan. 3 earlier this year and swiftly became a popular target among the astrophotography community, as it brightened from +21.5 to naked eye visibility around its close approach to the sun —known as perihelion — on Nov. 8.

Astrophotographers kept C/2026 A6 (Lemmon) firmly locked in their field of view throughout its journey, capturing each stage of its dramatic evolution. As it approached the sun, the increase in heat radiation caused icy matter in the comet's central nucleus to sublimate into gas, dragging dust particles with it.

The resulting cloud of cometary debris was then snatched up by the charged particles pouring out from the sun — called the solar wind — giving rise to a spectacular tail.

Astronomer Gianluca Masi captured a rare shot of the cosmic wanderer, when a glowing meteor tail in Earth's upper atmosphere appeared to wrap itself around Comet Lemmon's distant tail as it passed through the constellation Serpens on Oct. 24, creating a "a pure perspective miracle".

3. Comet SWAN dives through the Eagle Nebula

While Comet Lemmon's complex tail snagged the attention of astrophotographers worldwide, others took aim at the solar system wanderer C/2025 R2 (SWAN), which put on a magnificent show on Oct. 17, as it passed in front of the Eagle Nebula in the constellation Serpens.

Daniele Gasparri captured a striking view of C/2025 R2 (SWAN)'s vivid green coma as it hung in the pristine skies above the Atacama Desert in Chile, with the vast emission nebula serving as a jaw-dropping backdrop for the cometary body.

The pillars of creation, vast columns of interstellar dust and gas shaped by the radiation of nearby stars and made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope, can be seen nestled in the glowing heart of the vast nebula, to the left of the comet's glowing central nucleus.

4. Comet 3I/ATLAS reaches perihelion

Oct. 30 marked the climax of interstellar traveller 3I/ATLAS's headlong charge into the inner solar system, as it made its closest approach to the sun, passing 125 million miles (202 million km) from our parent star at the point of perihelion.

The event occurred just as 3I/ATLAS flew behind the sun from the perspective of Earth, robbing some of humanity's most powerful observatories of the chance to analyze the comet's chemical composition as it reached a peak of activity. Thankfully, perihelion was observed from elsewhere in the solar system by a flotilla of spacecraft orbiting Mars and travelling through interplanetary space.

3I/ATLAS finally emerged intact from behind the glare of the sun to become visible to Earthbound astronomers and skywatchers in early November, though it remained too dim to spot with the naked eye.

NASA subsequently held a press conference on Nov. 19 following the re-opening of the federal government, where it revealed several new images of the interstellar invader that documented its glowing central nucleus, sun-facing jet and growing tail. Conspiracy theorists were left somewhat broken-hearted by NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya, who noted, "It looks and behaves like a comet, and all evidence points to it being a comet", as opposed to the technologically advanced spaceship suggested by others.

5. K1 ATLAS breakup

One of the most dramatic cometary moments of 2025 occurred on the night of Nov. 11, when astronomers tracked the solar system comet C/2025 K1 (ATLAS) as its central nucleus broke into three massive pieces, following its close pass of the sun on Oct. 8.

The comet may have crumbled during its first visit to the inner solar system from the shell of icy material which surrounds its outer edge, known as the Oort Cloud.

The increase in heat radiation experienced during perihelion may have created a violent and sudden outflow of material from the nucleus, which could have undermined its structure, leading to the fracturing seen on Nov. 11, according to Elena Mazzotta Epifani of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics.

Editor's Note: If you would like to share your astrophotography with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

The hardware that will fly the astronauts moonward includes two 177-foot-tall (54 meters) twin boosters that are the backbone of the giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket's launch power. Recently, the two boosters that will fly on the Artemis 2 mission had an "America 250" emblem painted on their sides, in honor of the upcoming. 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

What is it?

Artemis 2, scheduled to launch in early 2026, will be the first crewed mission of the program. Over a 10-day journey, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will travel around the moon and return to Earth. Their mission will test Artemis systems, procedures and spacecraft in preparation for future lunar landings.

Artemis 2 relies on two key vehicles: SLS, which is NASA's most powerful rocket to date, and the Orion spacecraft, designed to carry astronauts safely beyond low Earth orbit. Inside NASA's iconic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, these elements come together through a massive, carefully choreographed preparation effort.

Where is it?

The image was taken from inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at KSC.

Why is it amazing?

For Artemis 2, the "America 250" represents NASA's celebration of the anniversary under the theme "Spirit of Innovation." Just as the U.S. was founded on bold ideas and transformative thinking, Artemis 2 embodies a new era of exploration that looks outward, to the moon, Mars and beyond.

Seeing the emblem on the boosters connects technological progress with national heritage, according to NASA. It serves as a reminder that spaceflight, for all its complexity, is also a cultural project, one that captures imagination, inspires generations and reflects shared aspirations.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about the Artemis program and upcoming Artemis 2 launch.

On Wednesday (Dec. 17), this particular Starlink suffered an anomaly that caused a loss of communication with the ground and an unscheduled venting of its propulsion tank. The satellite is now tumbling and headed down toward Earth’s atmosphere, where it will be incinerated in a matter of weeks, according to SpaceX.

SpaceX asked Vantor (previously known as Maxar Intelligence) to image the stricken satellite, to get a better understanding of its condition. And Vantor delivered.

The company used its WorldView-3 Earth-observing satellite to image the Starlink spacecraft on Thursday (Dec. 18) from a distance of 150 miles (241 kilometers).

The photo, taken while the duo were flying over Alaska, features a resolution of 4.7 inches (12 centimeters), providing SpaceX with key information about the satellite.

"Our team took advantage of the advanced capabilities of our non-Earth imaging technology and recently expanded collection capacity to move quickly and provide SpaceX with confirmation that their satellite was mostly intact," Todd Surdey, Vantor’s executive vice president and general manager of enterprise and emerging products, said in a statement on Saturday (Dec. 20). "This rapid intelligence delivery enabled them to quickly assess possible damage to the spacecraft."

There is apparently some damage: Data suggests that the satellite released a small number of debris objects as a result of the anomaly. But those pieces, and the satellite itself, shouldn't a present a problem to other spacecraft in low Earth orbit (LEO), according to SpaceX.

"We appreciate the rapid response by @vantortech to provide this imagery. Additional data suggest that there is a small number of trackable debris objects from the event, and we expect the satellite and debris to reenter and fully demise within weeks," Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, said in an X post on Saturday.

Starlink is by far the largest satellite constellation ever assembled. It currently consists of about 9,300 active spacecraft — about 65% of all the operational satellites in Earth orbit.

If you want better views of the night sky, we have expert-led guides to the best telescopes, binoculars and cameras to view and image the heavens.

Wednesday, Dec. 24: A crescent moon

If you’re looking for the quiet wonder of Christmas Eve, turn your gaze to the southwest sky as it gets dark. There, nicely illuminated, though not yet bright, will be a waxing crescent moon. A fifth of what you’ll see will be its day-side; the other four-fifths — its night-side — will be gently lit by sunlight reflected from our planet — Earthshine. If you have binoculars or a small telescope, point them at the terminator, that line between day and night, to see long shadows and craters in relief. Naked eye observers should look to the left of the moon for Fomalhaut (below) and Saturn (above).

Also read: How to choose binoculars for astronomy and skywatching

Thursday, Dec. 25: Jupiter as the ‘Star of Bethlehem’

Christmas Day needs a “Christmas Star,” and what better candidate than Jupiter, which tonight shines at magnitude -2.5 in the constellation Gemini. Look to the east anytime after dark, and you’ll see the giant planet close to “the twins” of Gemini — the stars Castor and Pollux — as it shines brighter than anything else in the night sky, save for the moon. Now is the ideal time to observe Jupiter, which reaches its annual opposition — when Earth is between it and the sun — on Jan. 10, 2026. Typically, an outer planet is at its best for a couple of weeks either side of its opposition; any small telescope should allow a glimpse of its cloud bands, with a 6-inch telescope able to see its Great Red Spot (when it’s facing Earth).

Also read: Best telescopes for seeing planets in 2025

Friday, Dec. 26: Saturn and the moon in conjunction

Get out of the house as soon as it gets dark on Boxing Day for one of the most beautiful sights of the week, a crescent moon and the planet Saturn. Now a 41%-illuminated waxing crescent, the moon will appear to curl around the sixth planet, and the two will be separated by a mere four degrees. That’s a bit less than the width of your three middle fingers held at arm’s length against the sky. Saturn will appear as a steady, golden point of light, though you’ll need a small telescope to glimpse its ring pattern.

Also read: Best beginner telescopes

Saturday, Dec. 27: Lava plains on the first quarter moon

It’s half-day, half-night on the moon tonight as it reaches its first quarter phase in the southern sky. For amateur astronomers, it’s a bittersweet moment — the next week will see the moon grow in brightness as it waxes towards full, making faint star clusters, galaxies and nebulae harder to see. However, a “half-moon” is one of the best times to explore the lunar surface if you have a pair of binoculars. The line between light and dark — the terminator — cuts right down the middle tonight, causing long shadows to stretch across the lunar plains, making every bump and ridge stand out like a black-and-white relief map. The dark regions you see on the right-hand side of the moon are called maria, Latin for seas, but these are no oceans. These are vast plains of lava that solidified billions of years ago in the aftermath of asteroids slamming into the young moon.

Also read: Best telescopes for deep space

Sunday, Dec. 28: Rosette Nebula

If you have a small telescope, find the ruddy star Betelgeuse in Orion and range left to the quiet constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn, home to an open cluster of stars about 5,000 light-years from the solar system. The Rosette Nebula (also called NGC 2244 and Caldwell 49) is an emission nebula — a cloud of gas that emits its own light because it's being energized by radiation from nearby stars — and a star-forming region. A flower-like shape, it’s visible through a pair of 10x50 or 15x70 binoculars in very dark skies, or easily in a small telescope. According to In-The-Sky.org, the Rosette Nebula is now well placed, reaching its highest in the sky around midnight local time. If you have trouble finding it, draw an imaginary line from Betelgeuse in Orion toward Procyon in Canis Minor. About one-third of the way along that line, just south of it, is the region of the Rosette Nebula. It’s about three times the diameter of the full moon.

Also read: Best smart telescopes

Monday, Dec. 29: Orion’s Snake

Orion’s Belt — the famous trio of stars in Orion, sometimes nicknamed the “Belt of Orion” or the “Three Kings” — is an icon of the late-December night sky. Look east tonight for Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka, strung out in a neat row, rising into the eastern sky as soon as it gets dark. Put a pair of binoculars on them, and you’ll discover great riches. Just to the right is, of course, the Great Nebula in Orion (also called M42). Lesser known is a delicate chain of faint stars curving across the field of view in a subtle “S” shape, running from just above Mintaka to just below Alnilam. It’s very clear through binoculars.

Also read: Best binoculars this holiday season

Tuesday, Dec. 30: Jupiter’s Galilean moons

Jupiter getting close to its opposition means more than it merely becoming brighter. Since it’s closest to Earth (about four Earth-sun distances), its disk is bigger in the sky, and it’s visible all night. Jupiter’s opposition is also the best time to see its largest four moons — Io, Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. These moons, called Galilean moons because they were first spotted by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610, can be seen in any small telescope as pinpricks of light, but also in binoculars.

Also read: Best telescopes for deep space

Wednesday, Dec. 31: Pleiades and the moon in conjunction

As your final stargazing act of the year, step outside as it gets dark and find Orion’s Belt, that iconic trio of bright stars, rising from the eastern horizon like an arrow. Trace Orion’s Belt upward, and high above it, you’ll find the moon, now 92% illuminated. Just above the moon will be the Pleiades — also known as the Seven Sisters and M45 — one of the closest open clusters of stars to the solar system. The bright moonlight may make it hard to see the Pleiades with the naked eye, but any pair of binoculars should bring them into view.

Also read: How to choose binoculars for astronomy and skywatching

The company launched its Hanbit-Nano rocket from the Alcantara Space Center in Brazil on Monday at 8:13 p.m. EST (10:13 p.m. local time in Brazil; 0113 GMT on Dec. 23).

It was the first-ever orbital launch attempt by a South Korean company. And, as often happens on debut liftoffs, something went wrong: The 57-foot-tall (17.3 meters) rocket came crashing back to Earth about a minute after liftoff, according to Space Orbit, which was following the launch.

It's unclear at this early stage what caused the failure. Innospace did not immediately provide an update on X, and the company cut off its webcast in the wake of the incident, shortly after announcing that an anomaly had occurred.

Hanbit-Nano is a two-stage rocket whose first stage burns liquid oxygen (LOX) and paraffin. The upper stage comes in two configurations; one burns LOX and paraffin while the other employs LOX and liquid methane.

The rocket is designed to deliver up to 198 pounds (90 kilograms) of payload into a sun-synchronous orbit from Brazil. On the debut launch, the Hanbit-Nano was carrying five small satellites for customers from Brazil and India, as well as three additional technology-demonstrating payloads.

Innospace was founded in 2017. The company, which currently employs about 260 people, has developed all of its launch technology in-house, company CEO Kim Soo-jong told Space.com in October at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.

Innospace's vision doesn't end with getting Hanbit-Nano online. The company is also developing larger, more powerful rockets called Hanbit-Micro and Hanbit-Mini.

Monday's launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday (Dec. 17), but Innospace pushed it back several times, due to a technical issue and bad weather forecasts.

Astronomers study nebulae not just for their beauty, but for the secrets they hold about stellar evolution and the chemical makeup of galaxies. For the rest of us, they're a reminder that the cosmos is both mysterious and magnificent, with colors and shapes that look more like art than science.

But how well do you really know your nebulae?Matching names to these celestial wonders is trickier than it sounds.

Whether you're a seasoned stargazer or just curious about the night sky, this is your chance to prove you’re ready for a cosmic pop quiz.

See how well you score below!

The top sci-fi TV shows of 2025 are a mix of big franchises, returning hits, and exciting new additions. The voyages of the starship Enterprise continued in "Strange New Worlds", the Fifteenth Doctor had his second and final spin in the TARDIS, and "Andor"'s phenomenal second outing pushed the boundaries of what a "Star Wars" show could be. Even those famously antisocial Xenomorphs came to Earth for the very first "Alien" TV show.

Elsewhere, the last year has seen the continuation of several prestige TV hits, including "Foundation", "Silo", and "Black Mirror". Our small screen playlist also found room for some mould-breaking originals, most notably "Murderbot" and "Pluribus" — not to mention a memorable BBC documentary about the post-Apollo years of the space race. So, let's start the countdown on Space's 12 favorite shows of 2025, starting with…

12. Invasion: season 3

Cast: Golshifteh Farahani, Shioli Kutsuna, Shamier Anderson, India Brown | Watch on: Apple TV

Thought the titular alien invasion was done and dusted in season 2? The needs of ongoing drama mean that life — and hostile ETs — tend to find a way, and two years after the fall of their mothership, it turned out that planet Earth's foes never really went away.

While many of the characters returned from previous years — at least one of whom was presumed dead — this season was, in some ways, a soft reboot for a show that seemed to wrap up several key plotlines last time out. The storytelling remained ambitious and the effects impressive, notably the introduction of the translucent, squid-like apex aliens. Nonetheless, "Invasion" had the feel of a 2000s/2010s network TV show given an epic budget, particularly in comparison to the brilliant sci-fi shows elsewhere on the Apple TV menu screen.

11. Doctor Who: season 2

Cast: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Millie Gibson, Jemma Redgrave | Watch on: BBC iPlayer (UK)/Disney+ (rest of the world)

And so, after just two seasons, the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) regenerated into… unless we're very much mistaken, Billie Piper. It was an unexpectedly early departure for the Time Lord and marked the end of the BBC's partnership with Disney+. But how will his final batch of adventures through space and time be remembered? Probably as a mixed bag.

Although she was sidelined in the second half of the season, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) started out as a memorable companion, gradually warming to her Gallifreyan tour guide while yearning for home. Cartoon villain Mr Ring-a-Ding was a visual effects tour de force, "The Well" gave a brilliant David Tennant-era monster an unexpected comeback, and penultimate episode "Wish World" landed in a truly chilling alternative universe. But with just eight episodes to play with, the arc plot overpowered everything else in the season, with its big reveal (about returning Time Lord villains the Rani and Omega) not quite worth the wait.

10. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: season 3

Cast: Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Rebecca Romijn, Melissa Navia | Watch on: Paramount+

Has any TV show ever revelled in its prequel status quite as much as "Strange New Worlds"? The third leg of the show's (now-confirmed) five-year mission continued to go big on references to the original series, with familiar characters showing up on the Enterprise (Roger Korby, Trelane) and plenty more moments that boldly went where "Star Trek" had gone before.

As in season 2, a weakness for gimmicky episodes (including a holodeck outing) got in the way of the Starfleet-standard of seeking out new life and new civilisations. Even so, the Vezda instantly established themselves among the franchise's scariest villains, while Lt Ortegas (Melissa Navia) shared a brilliant two-hander with a crashed Gorn. The show also never forgot that its trump card remains its crew, one of the most watchable in "Star Trek" history.

9. Foundation: season 3

Cast: Jared Harris, Lou Llobell, Lee Pace, Pilou Asbæk | Watch on: Apple TV

"Foundation" could only have existed in the streaming age. After all, no old-school broadcaster would have had the patience — or the budget — to persist with two opening seasons that went all-in on exposition. Indeed, the show went so deep with its ambitious, centuries-spanning story that it seemed like ages before the interstellar skirmishes kicked off in earnest.

Season 3 still indulged the show's hard sci-fi leanings, of course — the mathematical models, the spectacular spaceships, the idealistic construct of the Foundation — but it also remembered the best blockbuster space operas have a bit of "Star Wars" in their DNA, too. Telepathic villain the Mule (Pilou Asbæk) would probably have felt right at home in the Mos Eisley Cantina, and he brought some much-needed chaos to a series that hasn't always excelled at having fun.

8. The War Between the Land and the Sea

Cast: Russell Tovey, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jemma Redgrave, Ruth Madeley | Watch on: BBC iPlayer (UK only)

In 2009, "Doctor Who" spin-off "Torchwood" reinvented itself for its third season. "Children of Earth" ditched the show's previous monster-of-the-week structure in favor of a single, hard-hitting story told over five episodes. The result was a sci-fi masterpiece.

Sixteen years later, showrunner Russell T Davies resurrected the format for "Who"-adjacent drama "The War Between the Land and the Sea", and while it couldn't quite live up to its aforementioned predecessor, it was definitely cut from the same cloth.

Classic "Who" monsters the Sea Devils were the ideal antagonists, waking from a lengthy deep-sea slumber to punish humanity for its mistreatment of the oceans. But despite the global scale — and unforgettable images of cities being buried under mountains of trash reclaimed from the seas — the series never lost focus on the touching (and pivotal) relationship between unlikely human ambassador Barclay (Russell Tovey) and his aquatic counterpart Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

7. Murderbot

Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Noma Dumezweni, David Dastmalchian, Tamara Podemski | Watch on: Apple TV

You only have to look at the sheer volume of Apple TV shows on this list to see that the streamer's had a hell of a 2025 — in fact, it's become the go-to destination for discerning sci-fi fans. Perhaps the oddest of its entries here, however, is this adaptation of Martha Wells' "The Murderbot Diaries" book series.

Although the title suggests otherwise, "Murderbot" was not some tired rehash of "The Terminator". The eponymous security droid protagonist (played by Alexander Skarsgård) actually chose its own name and, thanks to some off-the-books hacking, developed free will. It also had plenty of disdain — expressed via sardonic voiceover — for the humans it was programmed to protect.

Extremely violent and very, very funny, this show was as unconventional as its surprisingly relatable lead — like Murderbot, we've all had days when going to work feels much less worthwhile than sitting back and watching your favorite TV show.

6. Silo: season 2

Cast: Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins, Steve Zahn, Harriet Walter | Watch on: Apple TV

Apple TV went even deeper underground with the second instalment of its big-budget adaptation of Hugh Howey's "Silo" novels. If season 2 couldn't quite live up to the compelling first outing, that's mainly because protagonist Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) spent most of this year trapped in the (mostly) deserted Silo 17. Meanwhile, the real drama and intrigue was taking place back home in Silo 18.

Minor flaws aside, this was slow-build storytelling of the highest order, drip-feeding answers to its many mysteries as the bunker residents realized the so-called "Pact" might not be as benign as they'd been led to believe. Duplicitous mayor Bernard Holland (an excellent Tim Robbins) continued to be a thorn in everybody's sides, while the unstable Solo (Steve Zahn) gradually revealed himself as tragic collateral damage in Silo 17's sad fate.

And then there was that final scene, a major game-changer ahead of the already-confirmed seasons 3 and 4.

5. Black Mirror: season 7

Cast: Paul Giamatti, Cristin Milioti, Peter Capaldi, Rashida Jones | Watch on: Netflix

Charlie Brooker's techno "Twilight Zone" arguably went off the boil during its last two seasons, but the long-running anthology series was back on form this year. "Black Mirror"'s latest six-episode run even indulged fans with a couple of sequels, courtesy of "Plaything" (a follow-up to the choose-your-own-adventure "Bandersnatch") and "Into Infinity", a return to the pitch-perfect "Star Trek" pastiche of "USS Callister".

Whenever this show is at its best, it runs the gamut from comedy to tragedy to raw emotional power, sometimes in the space of a single episode. Season 7 was no exception. While anthology shows are notoriously punishing on creatives, there was little sign that Brooker and co are running out of ideas. And even when a premise was slightly derivative (the tech that allows Paul Giamatti to enter old photographs in "Eulogy" has echoes of classic "Red Dwarf" episode "Timeslides", for example), the writers managed to lift the stories to the next level.

4. Alien: Earth

Cast: Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant, Samuel Blenkin, Alex Lawther | Watch on: Hulu (US)/Disney+ (rest of the world)

How do you make the Xenomorph scary again? "Fargo" creator Noah Hawley's ingenious solution to a decades-old conundrum was to make the double-jawed beastie a supporting player in its own TV show. He instead shifted the focus to bickering multinationals, a bunch of kids running around in state-of-the-art synthetic bodies, and — best of all — a whole new menagerie of icky extra-terrestrial fauna.

Visually and sonically, the first-ever "Alien" TV show was lovingly faithful to Ridley Scott's original movie, yet also had the handy knack of knowing which bits of franchise lore it could discard. And, in the long-established tradition of Weyland-Yutani and their competitors, the human characters turned out to be much more dangerous than their extra-terrestrial guests — at least you didn't see them selling each other out for a goddamn percentage.

3. Once Upon a Time in Space

Cast: Anna Fisher, Carl S McNair, Aleksandr Lazutkin, Sergei Viktorovich Zalyotin | Watch on: BBC iPlayer (UK)

The stories of the "The Right Stuff" pioneers of the Mercury program and the Apollo astronauts that followed have been told many times, but the experiences of later spacefarers are less well known. This excellent four-part BBC documentary rectified the shortfall by telling the story of the Space Shuttle, Mir, the ISS, and the rise of commercial spaceflight, with compelling (and often entertaining) contributions from the astronauts, cosmonauts, and ground-based participants who experienced it first-hand.

"Once Upon a Time in Space" was, of course, a celebration of the men and women who made it all happen, but also a peek behind the curtain (both iron and metaphorical) of NASA and its Soviet/Russian counterparts. This was a story of bravery, ingenuity, and, inevitably, tragedy (the Challenger and Columbia disasters were both discussed at length), told against a backdrop of rapid political and economic transformation.

2. Pluribus

Cast: Rhea Seehorn, Karolina Wydra, Carlos-Manuel Vesga, Miriam Shor | Watch on: Apple TV

Vince Gilligan's place in TV history is assured, as the brains behind both "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul". He also has impeccable sci-fi credentials, having written numerous episodes of "The X-Files" and co-created the short-lived spin-off "The Lone Gunmen". "Pluribus" is the result of that stellar resumé colliding with a big Apple TV budget, and it's proved to be every bit as spectacular as we could have hoped. It's also, according to Apple TV, the platform's most-watched series ever.

This is a highly unconventional alien invasion drama, in which an extra-terrestrial broadcast unleashes a novel virus that… well, makes everybody kind and considerate. "Better Call Saul" star Rhea Seehorn is a revelation as a cynical romantasy author who, unaffected by the infection, became a lone rebel against a billions-strong collective of people who just want to be her friend.

"Pluribus" is slow-burning, beautifully written, and utterly unique — the breakout sci-fi show of 2025.

1. Star Wars: Andor season 2

Cast: Diego Luna, Stellan Skarsgård, Genevieve O'Reilly, Adria Arjona | Watch on: Disney+

"Andor" creator Tony Gilroy never made any secret of where his show was going to end. It didn't matter, however, that we knew the fates of many of the characters, or that existing canon had set many key moments in stone. Few TV shows have ever been as tense or edge-of-the-seat gripping as the second season of this "Rogue One" prequel — "Andor" season 2 was up there with the best "Star Wars" there's ever been.

This was a political thriller in sci-fi clothing, a powerful examination of a corrupt, totalitarian regime that felt timely and relevant despite being set in a galaxy far, far away. But for all the Empire's dastardly deeds, there was still room for hope, as Cassian Andor, Mon Mothma, Luthen Rael, and the other proto-Rebels — the ensemble cast is uniformly brilliant — fought the power against the most impossible odds.

But it also means checking off your holiday gift list with sparkling literary treats for all your geeky friends and loved ones whose tastes include superheroes, galactic adventure, roaring rockets, starry skies, human spaceflight, queries from the cosmos, and excursions to the magical galaxy far, far away. Of course, if you're looking for last-minute gifts, you should check out our guides to the best Fallout gifts, best space stocking stuffers and 10 best gifts under $100 for kids.

The authors of many of these 12 books, which are all perfectly appropriate for the season of giving, have been interviewed by us to deliver an added touch of insight into their creative process. So come on, fill the glass and send 'round the song as we present a dozen delightful choices for the most discriminating of yuletide revelers!

Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story

• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Author: Jeffrey Kluger
• Grab it on Amazon with a 24% discount.

If it weren't for the Gemini Program that taught NASA astronauts how to walk in space and maneuver spacecraft for docking procedures, America would never have made it to the Moon.

Told in his butter-smooth style and punctuated with expertly detailed accounts of the historic mid-'60s missions, New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Kluger ("Apollo 13") brings back all the guts and glory of those heady days when the final frontier was still an unexplored environment fraught with innumerable perils.

You can read our exclusive interview with Author Jeffrey Kluger on this new book.

Just Visiting This Planet

• Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
• Author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Grab this book on Amazon to save 10%

Here's the engaging sequel to last year's Merlin's Tour of the Universe from celebrity astrophysicist and New York Times bestselling author Neil deGrasse Tyson, which contains 200 more space science questions and answers compiled from readers that first appeared in a column in The McDonald Observatory's StarDate Magazine.

This newly updated 350-page hardback has been fully refreshed since it was first published in 1998, and collects a constellation of fun responses to queries about planets, stars, comets, black holes, moons, gravity, galaxies, space travel, and more, all told through the wise and wonderful Merlin, a timeless cosmic traveler from Planet Omniscia.

You can read our exclusive interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson on this book in full.

Final Orbit

• Publisher: Mulholland Books
• Author: Chris Hadfield
• Save over 10% on this book when you grab it from Amazon

From one of the most seasoned astronauts who ever left Earth, Chris Hadfield spins an involving yarn centering around NASA flight controller Kaz Zemeckis and China's clandestine role during the space race in the third installment of his The Apollo Murders series.

The plot unfolds in 1975 when a fresh Apollo mission blasts off to rendezvous with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a new era in Soviet-American friendship, when a shocking orbital accident alters the course of this cooperation. Complicating the matter is the launch of China’s first astronaut, Fang Kuo-chun, whose own flight steers him on a perilous path intersecting with the Apollo crew.

Check out our exclusive interview with author Chris Hadfield in full.

Gemini and Mercury Remastered

• Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal
• Author: Andy Saunders
• Save over 45% when you get this book on Amazon

Imaging expert and NASA historian Andy Saunders (Apollo Remastered) follows up his ambitious photographic account of our Apollo Program with this deluxe 320-page edition chronicling the Gemini and Mercury flights with hundreds of restored images curated from the archives of our storied space administration.

His newest masterwork was years in the making and delivers an insider's peek into these vital missions that provided the foundation for the success of our later trips to the moon. Project Mercury and Project Gemini revealed key questions regarding space travel, the human condition, and the limits of their fragile spacecraft in the most hostile of environments. Saunders' restoration process blesses us with never-before-seen photos that fully expose the mission dangers and awe-inspiring vantage points in astonishing clarity and color.

You can read our exclusive interview with the author, Andy Saunders, in full.

Star Wars: Master of Evil

• Publisher: Random House Worlds
• Author: Adam Christopher
• Save over 25% when you grab this book on Amazon

Veteran Star Wars author Adam Christopher spins a harrowing yarn from the events following Revenge of the Sith as a raw and vengeful Darth Vader yearns for the arcane mysteries of life and death while being scrutinized by Emperor Palpatine.

Consumed by the addictive elements of the Dark Side, Vader must make a pilgrimage to the scorching planet of Mustafar, where he endeavors to perform a necessary ritual by bleeding a kyber crystal to create his personal lightsaber. The energies unleashed in this unholy ceremony allow for a frightful glimpse into the horrors of the Force. Joined by the Emperor's scarlet-clad Royal Guard and its leader Colonel Halland Goth, the. Sith Lord will travel to the fringes of the galaxy where a strange shaman dwells.

You can check out our recent exclusive interview with the author, Adam Christopher.

Doug Chiang: The Cinematic Legacy (Volume I) & The Star Wars Legacy (Volume II)

• Publisher: Abrams Books
• Authors: Alexandre Poncet, Gilles Penso
• Grab it on Amazon with a 23% discount.

If you're lucky enough to score this two-volume, 800-page behemoth showcasing the work of Lucasfilm's visionary artist and designer Doug Chiang this Christmas, please drop me an email and let me know how I can join your family!

Chiang's Oscar-winning conceptual work is a revelation and this deluxe set not only reveals his creative work on Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but also Attack of the Clones, The Force Awakens, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story, The Rise of Skywalker, and The Mandalorian.

Volume 1, The Cinematic Legacy, presents Chiang's work prior to joining forces with Lucasfilm and includes designs for Back To The Future Part III, Alien 3, T2: Judgment Day, The Mask, Jumanji, and many more.

The Art of The Fantastic Four: First Steps

• Publisher: Marvel Universe
• Author: Jess Harrold
• It's currently 40% off on Amazon.

Marvel's First Family came wonderfully alive in full retro-futuristic style this past summer as directed by Matt Shakman and produced by Marvel Studios.

The smash movie can be fully re-experienced in this 288-page deluxe slipcase edition, delivering a bounty of imaginative concept art designs, sketches, character profiles, superhero vehicles, costumes, environments, and behind-the-scenes peeks into the movie-making process. Also included is a companion volume breaking down Reed Richards' scientific gadgets, trinkets, toys, and inventions that make up his superpowered team.

The Launch of Rocket Lab

• Publisher: Blackwell & Ruth
• Author: Peter Griffin
• Get it for 25% off on Amazon

This inspiring title follows Rocket Lab's remarkable journey from tiny VC start-up to a global juggernaut in direct competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.

It contains a wealth of behind-the-scenes photos and original interviews with founder Sir Peter Beck, his expert team, loyal investors, and industry experts that provide a colorful look at one of the major contenders in the current space race as they continue to grow as a force to be reckoned with.

Rocket Lab is currently the fastest company to launch 50 rockets into space, with a market cap of $13.63 billion, a planned mission to the Red Planet, and even aspirations to launch a mission to Venus someday.

Dune: The Graphic Novel: The Complete 3-Book Boxed Set

• Publisher: Abrams ComicArts
• Authors: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
• Grab it on Amazon with a 12% discount

Just in time for some sweet sci-fi gift-giving, here's the complete 3-book Dune graphic novel adaptation of legendary author Frank Herbert for the 60th anniversary of the book's original publication in 1965.

This premium box set, written by Frank's son, Brian Herbert, with collaborator Kevin J. Anderson, contains vivid illustrations by Raul Allen and Patricia Martin that perfectly capture the galactic turmoil and mysticism that's enthralled readers for decades as one of the greatest interstellar sagas ever conceived.

You can read our exclusive interview with Kevin J. Anderson in full, too.

Nanocosmos: Journeys In Electron Space

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Author: Michael Benson
• Get it, while it's 40% off on Amazon

The sublime beauty and mystery of the microscopic world are presented here by author, artist, and film historian Michael Benson. Now, in this six-pound, 320-page coffee-table book, Benson takes us all on a mindblowing trip into the realm of extreme magnification using the might of scanning electron microscope (SEM) technologies.

It's an ideal gift for space and science lovers as it offers a shocking glimpse of these tiny worlds that surround us daily. The images were captured from SEM scans Benson took over the course of six years at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Quebec, including radiolarians, dinoflagellates, and diatoms, as well as multiple types of insects, microscopic flowers, and even lunar samples obtained from Apollo 16.

Be sure to check out our exclusive interview with author Michael Benson, too.

Superman: The Art and Making of the Film

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Author: James Field
• This book is currently over 40% off on Amazon

It's up, up and away with this beautiful concept art book from director James Gunn's Superman, which landed in theaters this past summer and raked in a comfortable $585 million.

Now, acolytes of the Man of Steel can witness how this superhero spectacle was created by a small army of Hollywood technicians and artists in this 176-page edition that whisks readers behind the scenes for DC Studios' blockbuster.

Writer James Field (The Art of The Batman) records every stage of the movie's production, beginning with Gunn and DC Studios co-chairman Peter Safran's initial brainstorming chats to casting, costumes, set design, and post-production VFX. It includes an intro from writer/director James Gunn and a David Corenswet foreword.

Cellarius Atlas

• Publisher: Taschen
• Author: Robert Van Gent
• You can pre-order this book on Amazon right now

The wonders of the cosmos come alive in a bold new edition of the classic collection of constellation maps from famed Dutch-German mathematician and cosmographer Andreas Cellarius (c. 1596 ? 1665) that unveils these celestial atlas masterworks in unprecedented detail.

Initially published in 1660 in Harmonia Macrocosmica, this revised volume in a larger prestige format contains the complete 29 double-folio maps. These striking plates showcase sublime adorned skies, decorative borders and breathtaking constellations in this astonishing seven-pound reprint measuring 11.42 x 1.57 x 18.9 inches that restores academia's most stunning depictions of the heavens.

That facility is operated by Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), the precursor to today's North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), and should have only been reachable by a select few high-ranking officers and the President of the United States. But on Christmas Eve 1955, confused airmen usually tasked with tracking aircraft from foreign airspace ended up impersonating Santa Claus thanks to that child who dialed a wrong number. The accident quickly became a tradition and, like many other traditions, its origin story began to grow ever more elaborate over the years, sometimes involving a misprinted phone number in an advertisement.

But whatever the truth of that first fateful phone call, by 1960, NORAD was posting public updates on Santa's position each Christmas, and 2025 is no different. "This Christmas season marks seven decades of the North American Aerospace Defense Command tracking Santa Claus on radar as he flies his reindeer-powered sleigh around the globe," the U.S. Department of Defense wrote in a statement. "Each year on Dec. 24, Santa Claus and his reindeer launch from the North Pole very early in the morning for their famous trip around the world. The minute they launch, NORAD starts to track him."

But even though NORAD tracks Santa's flight around the world on Christmas Eve, that doesn't mean the air defense command knows Kris Kringle's route ahead of time.

"NORAD tracks Santa, but only Santa knows his route, which means we cannot predict where and when he will arrive at your house," a senior NORAD official said in the statement.

The U.S. military's statement notes that fighter pilots have intercepted Santa Claus' sleigh many times over the years as he enters NORAD's airspace. A previous DOD statement that is no longer available online (an archived version is available here) states NORAD is able to track Santa using infrared sensors on satellites that are designed to detect the heat from rocket or missile launches.

"As Santa flies through the skies, satellites track his position by detecting Rudolph's nose, which gives off an infrared signature similar to that of a missile," the statement reads.

Since the 1970s, NORAD has used a series of satellites known as the Defense Support Program (DSP) to detect the bright flashes of heat and light emitted by intercontinental ballistic missiles and rocket launches.

In addition, the U.S. Space Force is currently launching satellites to build out a new infrared early-warning constellation known as SBIRS-GEO (Space Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit) to boost the U.S. military's ability to detect and track launches. These satellites feature sensors that continuously scan the entire Earth, providing 24/7 missile warning capability. The sensors aboard SBIRS satellites are more also sensitive than those on DSP spacecraft, which will eventually be phased out as the SBIRS constellation is completed.

Over 1,000 volunteers including both civilians and uniformed military personnel give their time each Christmas at NORAD's headquarters at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The volunteers answer hundreds of thousands of phone calls each year, the DOD's statement says.

NORAD's Santa Tracker goes online at 6 a.m. ET (1100 GMT) on Dec. 24. Children of all ages eager to know where St. Nick is can call (+1) 877-HI-NORAD (877-446-6723) or visit NORADSanta.org.

NORAD's Santa Tracker also has apps available for Android and iOS.

Rocket Lab launched its 21st and final mission of the year over the weekend, sending a private Japanese Earth-observing satellite to orbit.

An Electron rocket carrying the QPS-SAR-15 satellite, nicknamed Sukunami-I, lifted off from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Sunday (Dec. 21) at 1:36 a.m. EST (0636 GMT; 7:36 p.m. local time in New Zealand).

The launch, which the company called "The Wisdom God Guides," went well: Electron's "kick stage" deployed Sukunami-I into a circular orbit 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth as planned.

Once it's up and running, the satellite will join the Earth-observing constellation operated by Japanese company iQPS. Its spacecraft view our planet using synthetic aperture radar, meaning they can peer through clouds and get good looks at night as well as during the day.

"The Wisdom God Guides" was Rocket Lab's sixth launch in 2025 for iQPS and its seventh for the company overall. And the Japanese company has booked an additional five Electron launches in 2026, according to Rocket Lab.

Sunday's flight was the last of the year for Rocket Lab. It has now launched 21 missions in 2025, adding to the company's single-year record. The previous high, set last year, was 16.

All of this year's launches were successful. Eighteen were orbital launches with the 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron. The other three involved HASTE, a modified, suborbital version of Electron designed to let customers test hypersonic technologies in the final frontier.

"Our new record of annual launches and the breadth of upcoming missions go to show how much of a global impact Electron continues to have on the space industry, and we're looking forward to another year of continued execution in 2026," Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in an emailed statement on Sunday.

"In 2026, we're expanding Electron’s global reach with more multi-launch constellation deployments, dedicated missions for domestic civil space and international space agencies in Japan and Europe, and both suborbital and orbital launches with defense applications for hypersonic technology and national security," he added.

Qingzhou, meaning "Light Ship," is being developed by the Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAMCAS) as a smaller, lighter and potentially lower-cost complement to China’s existing Tianzhou cargo spacecraft.

China completed its Tiangong space station in 2022 and aims to keep it permanently occupied with crew for at least a decade. With plans to expand the orbital outpost beyond its current three-module, T-shaped configuration, China also wants new, agile solutions to keep Tiangong supplied.

The Qingzhou spacecraft passed a design review in June and entered the initial manufacturing phase, according to a recent China Central Television (CCTV) report.

The prototype measures roughly 10.8 feet (3.3 meters) in diameter, has a launch mass of about 11,000 pounds (5,000 kilograms), and is capable of carrying up to 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) of cargo to orbit. Its hybrid structure combines a pressurized module for crew supplies and sensitive instruments with an unpressurized aft section capable of carrying external payloads and space-exposure experiments.

"We have now conducted large-scale experiments and are currently loading and verifying the status of the remaining individual machines, as well as conducting final testing. The overall test results are quite good," Wu Huiying, deputy chief designer of the Qingzhou cargo spacecraft, told CCTV.

Full engineering model production is scheduled to begin in early 2026, with construction expected to be completed by the end of that year. Its debut flight will follow based on the operational needs of the Tiangong station, according to Wu.

The first prototype was initially stated to fly on the debut launch of commercial rocket startup CAS Space’s Kinetica-2. That plan now appears to have been altered, with CAS Space reported to be preparing for that very launch from Jiuquan spaceport in the Gobi Desert in the near future.

Qingzhou is one of a pair of new spacecraft commissioned by China’s human spaceflight agency as the country looks to upgrade its space transportation capabilities. The other, named Haolong, is a reusable shuttle concept being developed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute under the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

Geomagnetic activity is expected to reach minor (G1) storm levels overnight, which could be good news for aurora chasers as it raises the chance of seeing the northern lights in mid-latitudes.

Space weather forecasters say Earth will remain under the influence of the fast solar wind through Dec. 25, potentially offering aurora chasers several opportunities to catch the display over the festive season.

Where can I see the northern lights tonight?

States that could see auroras tonight

Based on the latest NOAA aurora forecast map, the following 10 U.S. states appear fully or partially above the aurora view line:

1. Alaska
2. Washington
3. North Dakota
4. Minnesota
5. Montana
6. Maine
7. Michigan
8. Wisconsin
9. South Dakota
10. Idaho

Remember, auroras can be fickle creatures. The list is based on current forecast data, but if conditions strengthen and skies are clear, auroras could reach much farther south than expected.

Then again, if conditions don't align, we might end up with a "nothing burger" and no auroras at all.

Northern Hemisphere aurora forecast courtesy of the U.K. Met Office

What time should I look for the northern lights tonight?

The northern lights could be visible across 10 U.S. states tonight (Dec. 23-24) as soon as it gets dark, so it's worth keeping an eye on the sky throughout the evening, especially in areas with clear, dark skies.

According to NOAA's 3-day forecast, geomagnetic storm activity is expected to be best at the following times:

• 4 p.m. - 7 p.m. EST (2100-0000 GMT): Minor G1 level storming possible

How can I see the northern lights from where I live?

If you live in one of the 10 U.S. states forecasted to catch a glimpse of the northern lights tonight, there are a few things you can do to give yourself the best chance of seeing them.

• Find a north-facing vantage point with a clear view of the northern horizon, as far from light pollution as possible.
• Use your phone camera to scan the sky, as a phone camera is great at picking up faint auroras before your eyes spot them. This will give you a good idea of which direction to focus your attention.
• Try and let your eyes adapt to the dark for at least 30 minutes; this will help your night vision develop.
• Wear warm clothing! Part of the fun of aurora hunting is the chase. Be prepared to sit or stand for hours if conditions are looking promising, as you won't want to miss the show when it starts!

We recommend downloading a space weather app that provides aurora forecasts based on your location. One option I use is "My Aurora Forecast & Alerts," available for both iOS and Android. However, any similar app should work well.

I also use the "Space Weather Live" app, which is available on iOS and Android, to get a deeper understanding of whether the current space weather conditions are favorable for aurora sightings. Want to capture the perfect photo? Our how to photograph auroras guide can help.

According to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, “When there is no more room in Hell, the dead will walk the Earth.” But what if we should be looking up instead of down, and the undead are just as likely to come from the stars? After all, fear thrives in isolation, and there’s nowhere more isolated than deep space.

From The Last Days on Mars to Dead Moon, we’ve rounded up ten movies, games, and books where zombies infest starships, shamble across the surface of other worlds, or bring their galactic infection to Earth. For more interstellar spooks, check out our lists of the best space horror games and best space horror movies.

Space zombie movies

Lifeforce (1985)

Release date: June 21, 1985 | Cast: Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May | Director: Tobe Hooper | Where to watch: Blu-ray

Dracula has nothing on Lifeforce’s alien vampire queen, who, swapping bodies along the way, sets out to strip-mine England’s souls. Descending from a spacecraft hidden inside Halley’s Comet, she drains her prey of their life energy, transforming them into desiccated corpses that wake to seek their own victims.

Directed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper, it all culminates in a stunning, effects-heavy London climax that’d make Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale proud.

The Last Days on Mars (2013)

Release date: December 6, 2013 | Cast: Liev Schreiber, Elias Koteas, Romola Garai, Goran Kostić | Director: Ruairí Robinson | Where to watch: Blu-ray

The good news is that there is microscopic life on Mars. The bad news is that the bacteria Liev Schreiber’s crew stumble across zombifies its hosts and, just 19 hours away from finishing their mission, they’re forced to fight for their lives.

I would question how The Last Days on Mars’ space agency selected its astronauts, since at least two of them are at each other’s throats. But it wouldn’t be a zombie movie if everyone got on, and I’d like to see Matt Damon deal with a drill-wielding, spacesuit-clad shambler.

Science the s**t out of that one, smart guy.

Night of the Creeps (1986)

Release date: August 22, 1986 | Cast: Jason Lively, Steve Marshall, Jill Whitlow, Tom Atkins | Director: Fred Dekker | Where to watch: Blu-ray

Night of the Creeps is Night of the Living Dead meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This shlocky 80s gem begins with a canister of parasitic alien slugs landing on Earth and gets more knowingly ridiculous from there.

Pursued by Tom Atkins’s haunted cop, these skittering, slimy creatures infest a college campus, slithering into the mouths of anyone with (or without) a pulse. It’s an absolute riot, with some wonderfully silly special effects, from splitting heads through to slug-spitting dogs.

Pandorum (2009)

Release date: September 25, 2009 | Cast: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet, Antje Traue | Director: Christian Alvart | Where to watch: Blu-ray

What’s worse than a zombie apocalypse? A zombie apocalypse on a spaceship, where there’s nowhere to run and zero hope of rescue. Waking up from suspended animation, the Elysium’s relief crew discovers their colony vessel is awash with savage flesh eaters, warped by the titular Pandorum, a form of space madness.

Pandorum oozes claustrophobia, from a gloomy crawl through the vessel’s ducts, through to a stomach-churning late movie reveal. And if the zombie-adjacent mutants aren’t enough to deal with, the harried protagonists are suffering from post-hypersleep amnesia, and the ship, the Elysium, is a mishmash of failing systems.

Space zombie video games

Dead Space (2008 / 2023)

Release date: October 13, 2008 / January 27, 2023 | Platforms: Original - PC, Xbox 360, PS3. Remake - PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S | Developer: Visceral Games

Whether you dive into the original or its 2023 remake, there’s no denying that Dead Space is one of the best space horror games of all time. Everything, from its nightmarish necromorphs to the game’s semi-Lovecraftian lore, is designed to terrify.

As protagonist Isaac Clarke, you roam a massive planet-cracking mining vessel, ostensibly in search of your missing girlfriend, and battle an army of undead freaks called the Necromorphs. But while your foes may be undead, dismemberment, not headshots, is the key to putting them down. Fail, and you can look forward to one of several horrible fates, including having your whole body puppeted by a severed head.

Doom (1993)

Release date: December 10, 1993 | Platforms: PC, Linux, iOS, macOS, Android, Sega Saturn, Tapwave Zodiac, PS1/3/4, Xbox/360/One, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo Switch | Developer: id Software

It may be over 30 years old, but id Software’s original FPS is still a must-play. And, unlike the 2016 remake, you’re unwise to ignore its reanimated space marines, especially the shotgun-wielding variety.

Aside from the sheer satisfaction of dispatching them, they helpfully drop the ammo you need to continue your crusade against the forces of hell. It's one of the few zombie games where you're not trapped in there with them; they're trapped in hell with you.

Doom 2 deserves a special mention for getting downright sneaky with its zombies. Just when you’d spent the entire previous game getting a handle on these foes, it introduced chaingun-toting zombies who could cut you down in a matter of seconds.

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

Release date: November 15, 2001 | Platforms: PC, Mac OS, Xbox, Xbox 360 (Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary), Xbox One (via The Master Chief Collection) | Developer: Bungie

If you never played Bungie’s FPS (currently being remade using Unreal Engine 5), you’ve missed out on one of the most harrowing in-game encounters of all time: the Flood. Halo: Combat Evolved lures you into a false sense of security by introducing you to their spore form, resembling nothing so much as sentient popcorn.

But, a few minutes later, you’re sobbing into your controller as this parasitic lifeform unleashes infected and warped versions of all the Covenant enemies you’ve faced up to this point (along with freakish marionettes of your human allies). Cinema popcorn will never be the same again.

System Shock 2 (1999)

Release date: August 11, 1999 | Platforms: PC, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S | Developer: Irrational Games / Looking Glass Studios

System Shock 2’s The Many, a horrifying worm-based hive mind, isn’t a million miles away from Halo’s The Flood, but it’s somehow even more terrifying. Trapped aboard a deep-space research vessel, its minions stumble towards you, lead pipe in hand, mumbling about the glory of the Many.

The Many itself periodically reaches out, a singsong of voices that mock you for wanting to retain your individuality. Throw in an extra helping of body horror and a smattering of RPG elements, and you’ve got a game that deserves to be experienced, ideally via Nightdive Studios' exceptional recent remaster.

Space zombie books

Death Troopers (2009)

Release date: October 13, 2009 | Author: Joe Schreiber | Where to buy: Amazon

Long before Star Wars incarcerated Cassian Andor, Star Wars: Death Troopers took us inside an Imperial prison ship and then — because that wasn’t bad enough — unleashed a Star Destroyer full of undead Stormtroopers.

One of the few times Star Wars has delved into horror, it’s since been relegated to non-canon Legends status, but that doesn’t make it any less harrowing. Its primary protagonists, a pair of teenage brothers, are a sympathetic duo, and for those craving a big name, Han Solo and Chewbacca also put in an appearance to kick some undead Empire ass.

Dead Moon (2019)

Release date: October 15, 2019 | Author: Peter Clines | Where to buy: Amazon

What’s the first thing that springs to mind when we mention lunar settlement? The answer, according to Dead Moon, is moon cemeteries. The premise behind this novel, part of Peter Clines’ Threshold series, is that, thanks to a lunar space elevator, mankind has buried sixteen million people on the moon. What could possibly go wrong? You can probably guess…

But despite (or because of) its wilfully silly premise, Dead Moon is an excellent read. Resurrected by some alien force and preserved by the lunar conditions, the dead shamble across the dusty surface with the cemeteries’ caretakers beating a hasty retreat. What chance does Lunar City stand against the horde?

The image reveals the thermal footprint of a major Bitcoin-mining data center in Rockdale, Texas, which has been widely criticized for its electricity consumption and carbon footprint.

SatVu didn't disclose which specific facility is in the image, but Rockdale is home to the Riot Platforms Bitcoin mine. The facility, considered the largest in the U.S., has an energy consumption of 700 megawatts, requiring about as much electricity as 300,000 homes.

The satellite image reveals in a resolution of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) where and how much heat leaks into the environment from the plant. SatVu thinks that the insights that could be gleaned from such images could help regulators and grid operators better understand the impact such facilities have on the environment and local power networks.

"Today's data center buildout is moving incredibly quickly, and the world needs better ways to understand what's actually happening on the ground," Thomas Cobti, SatVu's VP for Business Development, said in a statement. "Thermal data gives an objective view of operational activity as it occurs — not weeks later through reports or announcements."

Although the image was only released on Dec. 17, it was most likely captured already in 2023, before SatVu's HotSat-1 satellites failed in orbit in December that year. SatVu plans to launch its replacement HotSat-2 next year and is already building HotSat-3.

The thermal camera aboard these satellites is the best in class, providing an order of a magnitude better resolution than other temperature-measuring devices in orbit.

SatVu released the first HotSat-1 images in October 2023, capturing the heat trails behind locomotives and showing how heat spreads from large sun-drenched concrete parking lots in a city like Las Vegas.

With the newly released image, the company shows how satellites could keep an objective eye on a fast-growing and controversial sector.

"At a closer level, [the image] reveals which substations and cooling systems are under load — clear, physical indicators of real operational behavior," the company said in the statement. "Together, these layers provide a grounded, evidence-based view of how major data center sites are evolving in real time."

A closer inspection of the image shows "distinct thermal signatures across rooftop chillers, transformers and electrical yards, making clear which parts of the facility are active and which remain dormant," SatVu added.

According to the McKinsey consultancy, investment into computing data centers will continue to grow, reaching more than $7 billion by 2030. Global data centers are believed to contribute by about 0.5% to the global carbon dioxide emissions. Bitcoin mining is especially energy intensive, a recent study estimated that one Bitcoin transaction generates about as much carbon dioxide as a gasoline car generates in a 1,600-mile (2,500-kilometer) drive.

Antarctica is one of the best places on Earth to fly these missions. NASA's annual Antarctic Long-Duration Balloon campaign operates from a site on the Ross Ice Shelf near the U.S. National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station.

In the austral summer, near-constant sunlight and stable polar wind patterns can support extended-duration flights, allowing payloads to gather data for days to weeks as they circle the continent.

What is it?

NASA's first scientific balloon flight of the 2025 Antarctica Balloon Campaign lifted off from the agency's Antarctic facility at 5:30 a.m. NZST Tuesday, Dec. 16 (11:30 a.m. Monday, Dec. 15 U.S. Eastern Time) and reached float altitude carrying an experiment called GAPS — the General AntiParticle Spectrometer.

Once airborne, NASA reported the balloon was floating at about 120,000 feet (36 kilometers) above Earth's surface.

Where is it?

This image was taken near Antarctica Rubilotta where the balloon launched.

Why is it amazing?

GAPS' goal is to look for rare particles from space called antimatter nuclei, specifically antideuterons, antiprotons, and antihelium. Scientists have never clearly seen antideuterons or antihelium in cosmic rays before. If GAPS detects even a single antideuteron, it could give us important clues about the mysterious substance known as dark matter, which makes up most of the universe but is invisible to us. GAPS uses a time-of-flight system to measure how fast the particles are moving and a tracker system to record the interaction.

Now that the balloon has been launched, the GAPS project is underway, hopefully revealing more about the universe around us in due course.

Want to learn more?

You can learn more about antimatter and dark matter.

NASA's SPHEREx observatory has completed its first map of the entire sky over Earth, and it is incredible.

Beyond its aesthetic value, the map and the rest of the data collected by SPHEREx, which launched in March this year, will help astronomers answer some of the biggest cosmic questions. Among these are: what happened during the first billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, and how this has influenced the 3D distribution of hundreds of millions of galaxies in our universe?

Scientists will also use SPHEREx data to investigate the evolution of galaxies over the 13.8 billion-year history of the cosmos. This could include determining how the key elements needed for life were disbursed.

"It's incredible how much information SPHEREx has collected in just six months — information that will be especially valuable when used alongside our other missions’ data to better understand our universe," Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. "We essentially have 102 new maps of the entire sky, each one in a different wavelength and containing unique information about the objects it sees.

"I think every astronomer is going to find something of value here, as NASA's missions enable the world to answer fundamental questions about how the universe got its start, and how it changed to eventually create a home for us in it."

SPHEREx, which stands for the "Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer," orbits Earth just under 15 times per day from the North Pole to the South Pole.

As it does, this conical spacecraft captures 3,600 images throughout each of its orbits, with the orbit of Earth around the sun shifting the space observatory's field of view.

Beginning operations in May, it took SPHEREx until this month to complete its first map of the entire sky over our planet. During its primary mission lasting two years, the spacecraft is expected to complete another three all-sky scans. This data will be merged with the existing map to create an even more detailed picture of the sky over Earth.

"SPHEREx is a mid-sized astrophysics mission delivering big science," JPL Director Dave Gallagher said. "It's a phenomenal example of how we turn bold ideas into reality, and in doing so, unlock enormous potential for discovery."

Here's what happened in the skies in 2025, in spectacular images.

1. A Wolf Moon "eats" Mars

Mars comes to a bright opposition in Earth's sky only once every 26 months. But just before its big day came on Jan. 15, it grabbed skywatchers' attention when it crossed paths with the moon. North America had a ringside seat to the full Wolf Moon's occultation of the Red Planet, which happens just once every 14 years from a specific place on Earth's surface.

Read more: Mars hides behind the full Wolf Moon in gorgeous photos from around the world

2. A "great comet" appears

If you don't remember 2025's "great comet," it's probably because you're in the Northern Hemisphere. Back in mid- to late January, Comet 2024 G3 (ATLAS) made a close pass of the sun before sprouting a bright, structured tail that delighted astrophotographers south of the equator. The comet even became bright enough to be visible in the daytime with the naked eye.

Read more: Why Comet G3 (ATLAS) will be 'remembered as the Great Comet of 2025' (photos)

3. "Blue Ghost" lands on the moon

After launching atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in January, Texas-based Firefly Aerospace successfully landed its Blue Ghost spacecraft on the moon's 300-mile-wide (500 kilometers) Mare Crisium ("Sea of Crises") basin in early March, becoming the second private spacecraft ever to soft-land on the moon. The company shared a spectacular video showing Blue Ghost's descent and spectacular landing, complete with its own long lunar shadow.

Read more: Touch down on the moon with private Blue Ghost lander in this amazing video

4. A star trail is visible from orbit

Between September 2024 and April 2025, NASA astronaut Don Pettit — famed for his pioneering work in astrophotography from orbit — conducted his third mission on the International Space Station. In collaboration with astrophotographer Babak Tafreshi of The World at Night on the ground, Pettit took the art form to another level, capturing dozens of mesmerizing star trails.

Read more: Astronaut takes a mind-bending trip over Earth beneath star trails: Space photo of the day

5. A "blood moon" total lunar eclipse captivates skywatchers

The first total lunar eclipse in three years delighted skywatchers on March 13-14, 2025, when a full Worm Moon crept through Earth's central shadow in space for 65 minutes, making the lunar surface appear reddish-orange from our perspective on Earth. The event, visible from Earth's nightside, was captured with a moonbow from Kentucky and with the Milky Way from Chile. Another lunar eclipse on Sept. 7-8 made for some spectacular photos, including one taken over Egypt's White Desert.

Read more: Total lunar eclipse March 2025: Best photos of the "Blood Worm Moon"

6. Vapor tracers appear inside auroras

Just as an aurora substorm erupted, two NASA sounding rockets poised for launch at Alaska's Poker Flat Research Range suddenly went skyward, releasing colorful vapor tracers within the aurora borealis, or northern lights. As part of the AWESOME mission, vapor tracers were imaged using cameras across northern Alaska to track winds, particle flows and magnetic changes during the outburst.

Read more: NASA launches rockets into auroras, creating breathtaking lights in Alaskan skies (photos)

7. Perseids blast through moonlight

It may be the Northern Hemisphere's favorite annual meteor shower, but the Perseids weren't a classic in 2025, as they were marred by an 84%-illuminated crescent moon. However, before the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower on Aug. 12-13, there was a short window of darkness, during which a few bright meteors were seen in the predawn hours. About 10 days before the peak night, NASA photographer Bill Ingalls took this long exposure of a Perseid meteor in Spruce Knob, West Virginia.

Read more: Perseid meteor shower 2025 outshines moon to put on a spectacular show (photos)

8. An interstellar comet grows a tail

For comet hunters, 2025 was a landmark year, primarily because it saw the discovery of the third interstellar object ever to visit our solar system. Comet 3I/ATLAS, as it came to be known, followed in the wake of 'Oumuamua (1I/2017 U1) in 2017 and 2I/Borisov in 2019. In late August, astronomers using the Gemini South telescope in Chile glimpsed the tail of the interstellar interloper.

Read more: Scientists capture interstellar invader comet 3I/ATLAS growing a tail

9. Solar maximum continues to deliver

Following an incredible year in 2024, it was likely that 2025 would experience some significant geomagnetic activity, thanks to solar maximum, the peak of the 11-year solar cycle. Observers in the right place at the right time on April 14-15, June 1, June 17 and Sept. 2 (and many other dates) enjoyed spectacular auroras as G4 geomagnetic storms produced auroras at low latitudes.

Read more: Severe G4 geomagnetic storm sparks northern lights across US and beyond (photos)

10. Comet Lemmon ripens

What are the chances of a naked-eye comet becoming visible on the same night as the peak of the Orionid meteor shower? Although it was only on the cusp of naked-eye visibility — and was visible only to astrophotographers in the Northern Hemisphere — Comet Lemmon (C/2025 A6) put on a show in mid- to late October. A surprise companion, Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), appeared in telescope images on Sept. 10. But although it was initially bright, it never got as luminous as Lemmon.

Read more: Astrophotographers capture dazzling new views of Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) as it brightens for October skies

The seventh-ever mission of Japan's H3 rocket did not go according to plan.

The H3 launched from Tanegashima Space Center on Sunday (Dec. 21) at 8:51 p.m. EST (0151 GMT and 10:51 a.m. local Japan time on Dec. 22), carrying a navigation satellite known as Michibiki 5, or QZS-5, aloft.

"However, the second stage engine’s second ignition failed to start normally and shut down prematurely," officials with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said in a statement early Monay morning (Dec. 22). "As a result, QZS-5 could not be put into the planned orbit, and the launch failed."

The 10,580-pound (4,800 kilograms) Michibiki 5 was supposed to be part of Japan's homegrown Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), a navigation network in geosynchronous orbit high above Earth.

"This system is compatible with GPS satellites and can be utilized with them in an integrated fashion," Japanese officials wrote in a description of the QZSS project.

"QZSW can be used even in the Asia-Oceania regions with longitudes close to Japan, so its usage will be expanded to other countries in these regions as well," they added.

The first QZSS satellite, a pathfinder, launched in September 2010. The system currently consists of four operational spacecraft, but Japan wants it to grow, as Sunday's unsuccessful launch shows. Indeed, the network will eventually consist of 11 spacecraft, if all goes according to plan.

The two-stage H3 rocket was developed by JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It's the successor to the H-2A, a workhorse launcher that retired in June after a quarter-century of orbital service.

The H3 failed during its debut launch in March 2023 but bounced back with five consecutive successes — until Sunday night. JAXA has set up a task force headed by agency chief Hiroshi Yamakawa to help get to the bottom of the Michibiki 5 launch anomaly.

"We would like to express our deepest apology to many people and entities, particularly those related to the QZS-5, local organizations and the public, who had high expectations for this project," JAXA officials wrote in Monday morning's update.

Games are classified as heavy, medium or lightweight, depending on their complexity and the amount of time required to play. All of the games in this article were either self-purchased or played with friends who own them; none were given to me for review, but we have reviewed a few of the entries below. You'll find some of the best space board games ever made here, and if you're stuck for gift ideas, why not check out the best star projectors or the best holiday gifts under $100?

As a consummate board gamer, I met my husband at a board gaming group, and our wedding had a board game theme, so I'm familiar with many of the most popular games on the market, as well as quite a few that you may never have heard of. So here are my picks of the best space board games this Christmas.

Best space board games this holiday season

Best heavyweight board games

Twilight Imperium is the quintessential game for hard-core gamers. The game starts out with exploration and resource building, but can quickly skew towards battles, depending on how aggressively it is played. In the base version, players select one of 17 factions; with both expansions, that number grows to 30 options.

Negotiations and diplomacy are essential. Immediate deals are binding, but the rules actually state that 'future' promises are not. Players tend to carve out chunks of space around their home planets, using those resources to expand their fleet. Attacks are common, particularly along borders.

In addition to resources, your planets also have influence, which helps during the diplomacy phase of the game. Players vote on council issues that affect the rules, players or individual planets, and influence is vital. So is convincing others to vote your way.

Twilight Imperium is one of the most complex and longest games in the boardgaming community, but it provides sufficient variety to keep players returning for more. But it's not for the faint of heart. It's also worth noting that two expansions, Prophecy of Kings and Thunder's Edge, add additional elements to the game, as well as expanding faction options. Including them will increase game time.

Gaia Project is one of my top game choices at the moment. It features several improvements over its predecessor, Terra Mystica, including a variable game board. Gaia Project's changing, rotating hexes mix can be combined to create a wealth of different playing spaces, making the game infinitely replayable.

Players have an option to select one of fourteen factions in the base game; the expansion provides four additional options. Because each faction board is double-sided, that reduces the choices during the game but also prevents two players of the same planet type, which is a small price to pay. Each round scores differently, and the scoring options are mixed up for each play. The tech board options also change, along with the map, again, making the game infinitely replayable.

I also own the expansion, Lost Fleet, and found that while the base game is excellent, the expansion makes it better. It introduces an additional mechanic (ships that grant access to new action spaces) and smaller, new map tiles, which, combined with the larger board, enhance the game's playability. I still love the base game but definitely prefer the expansion!

Nemesis is an alien-themed board game that I heard best described as "inspired by but legally different from" the Alien franchise. It's also complex and time-consuming.

Setting up a four-player game took us roughly half an hour, although I suspect most of it was because only one of the four of us knew how to set it up. All three of our new players watched a 23-minute teaching video beforehand, so we got the speed-teach in person.

The game itself was a lot of fun. Players wake up from hypersleep after an alien lifeform has been detected on the ship. With no memory of the ship layout, we scurry around trying to accomplish individual goals. Xenomorphs of all sizes randomly pop up and must be fought off or escaped. And of course, one of your party members may be working against you — after all, the crew may well be expendable.

Nemesis has a solo mode, which I've not played. It's ranked 23rd on BoardGameGeek.com. There are several expansions, none of which I have played (yet). They include Nemesis: Aftermath, Nemesis: Carnomorphs, Nemesis: Void Seeders and several promo decks and dice.

Best mediumweight board games

Terraforming Mars (TM) looks complex, but is relatively easy to pick up. Its popularity suggests that many have used it as a first step into heavier board games. The efforts of all of the players contribute to the terraforming action, even though you aren't all working together.

Each player represents a corporation, striving to make money by converting Mars into a human-habitable planet. Players can place ocean or forest tiles, use heat resources to raise the temperature and build cities to colonize. There are myriad options to succeed, and you have to keep an eye on other players to make sure they don't beat you in the goal you're working towards. You can read more in our full Terraforming Mars review.

There are a LOT of expansions, including TM: Prelude, TM: Hellas & ELysium, TM: Colonies, TM: Venus and TM: Turmoil. You can get these five combined in TM: Big Box, which also includes a set of 3D terrain tiles and some additional goodies. There is also TM: Prelude 2, TM: Automa (for solo players), TM: Utopia & Cimmeria and TM: Amazonis & Vastitas.

All they had to say was 'space bees', and I was hooked. In Apiary, humanity has died off, and bees dominate the Earth. Now those bees have gone to space, and it's your job to grow their crew and their ship.

Apiary is a medium-weight, engine-building worker placement game that has a few unique twists. Unlike most worker placement games, you'll never find someone else blocking your spot; you can easily bump them, though you may not always want to. The game is relatively fast-paced, which means the end can come up suddenly. But it's an interesting theme, and a lot of fun.

The original game offers a solo mode via an automata, which I have not yet played. The expansion of Apiary, Expanding the Hive, adds additional ships, factions, frames and dances to the base game. I found the frames the most valuable, along with the new rules regarding exploration tokens, and thought it was worth the cost.

Expeditions is a card-engine worker-placement game that casts the Tunguska meteor explosion in a completely different light. Instead of a warning event, Expeditions imagines the historical fall that corrupts the Earth. Scientists travel to Siberia to hunt for related meteorites and cleanse the Earth of the meteorites' spreading corruption.

The mechs, the workers and the board are familiar, but Expeditions utilizes cards and workers to expand the gameplay. Essentially, players build a hand with cards that can be amplified by workers of the same color/type. The game offers a variety of paths to earning points, one being the collection of meteorites, creating the tenuous space connection.

Expeditions is another game where the expansion, Gears of Corruption, only makes it better. Surprisingly, the biggest differences are minor: The addition of resources and a wild worker at the start, along with map tokens with rewards, brings far more value than the additional player and mech types. I prefer the expansion's upgraded player boards, which offer two recessed tracks for tracking resources, but that is one of the perks rather than a drawback.

I have to say, the artwork is some of the most stunning of any board game I have seen. The cards are gorgeous, and there are times when I have been tempted to take a face-up card not for what it could do but just because I loved the art.

Pulsar 2849 intrigued me with its neutron star premise. Players move through the galaxy, exploring systems and claiming colonies or pulsars, as well as 'spinning up' Pulsars they already have in play. Discovering tech that will help build on a cosmic scale is also an option.

Although the game is heavily reliant on dice, the randomness is fairly well mitigated because players can pick one of several dice rolls to apply. The game has several paths to winning, although players will self-eliminate options as they move through the rounds.

For more than 25 years, Catan has been the default board game for gamers who want to explore outside the standard mass market games. For many, myself included, it was the first exposure to the slightly more complex world of board games, one that was introduced by my then-elementary/middle school kids. Over the years, Catan has had a wealth of expansions, but all of them exist on a relatively Terran-like planet.

No more. Catan: Starfarers finally opens the universe up to settlers. Whole planets make up the previously established land types, producing food, fuel and other goods that drive your development. Players familiar with the Catan universe will recognize that many of the elements of ocean travel have been reapplied to space, though movement has been upgraded to cover the vast distances required.

Encounter cards offer a new experience (though I'll admit I haven't played all of the terrestrial expansions). Things that have caused struggles, like never getting the dice to roll your way, have been remedied by allowing players to draw on their turn, based on their score, making it easier to start when colonies are scarce.

Every player gets a rocket. Not a small, movable piece on the board. I mean, you get that too, but a rocket roughly half as tall as my forearm, used to establish movement and track upgrades. I'm still deciding how I feel about it, but it seems like something kids would love. As you cannot blockade other players, and things like 'longest road' and 'largest army' are gone, the game is overall less complicated than regular Catan. It's up to you to decide if that's better or worse.

Best lightweight board games

The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is a group trick-taking game where players work together to complete two randomly selected missions. Players are dealt their hands, and the first player, the commander, is selected and leads accordingly. Unlike a standard 52-card deck, there is only a single trump suit, which makes it a bit easier to follow. While direct communication is not allowed, players can use their token once per game to provide hints about their hand.

This is a great, quick game, with each hand taking only five to ten minutes to play. The variety of missions lends itself to replayability, and the ease fits nicely for more casual gamers.

The company also produced The Crew: Deep Sea Mission, and there may not be enough of a difference to warrant purchasing both. While Planet Nine has more straightforward missions, Deep Sea has potentially more interesting combinations. Some players prefer Planet Nine for more casual players and Deep Space for slightly more seasoned ones, but both work for light gaming.

Twilight Imperium is my husband's favorite game that he never gets to play, so when I learned Twilight Inscription was a lighter version that didn't require coordinating a crowd, of course, we had to buy it.

The game provides 25 different factions from the original game, and you get four sheets rather than a giant planet-spreading board. You'll track your progress using dry-erase markers on your board, including building up a fleet similar to the good old days of pencil-and-paper Battleship. I don't have any previous experience with roll and write games, so this was a good introduction.

If you expect this to be a streamlined version of Twilight Imperium, you'll be disappointed, but it still does a decent job of capturing the flavor. You'll still build dreadnoughts and war suns, research techs to gain points and you'll be making your drive for Mecatol Rex. If you've never played, this can be a great way to catch (or share) the flavor of the game in a shorter form.

Our sun is about halfway through its life, which means Earth is as well. After a star exhausts its hydrogen nuclear fuel, its diameter expands more than a hundredfold, engulfing any unlucky planets in close orbits. That day is at least 5 billion years off for our solar system, but scientists have spotted a possible preview of our world’s fate.

Using data from the TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) observatory, astronomers Edward Bryant of the University of Warwick and Vincent Van Eylen of University College London compared systems with stars in the main sequence of their lifetimes—fusing hydrogen, like the sun—with post–main sequence stars closer to the end of their lifetimes, both with and without planets.

"We saw that these planets are getting rarer [as stars age]," Bryant said. In other words, planets are disappearing as their host stars grow old. The comparison between planetary systems with younger and older stars makes it clear that the discrepancy does not stem from the fact that the planets weren't there in the first place: Elderly stars just get hungry.

"We're fairly confident that it's not due to a formation effect," Bryant explained, "because we don't see large differences in the mass and [chemical composition] of these stars versus the main sequence star populations."

Complete engulfment isn't the only way giant stars can obliterate planets. As they grow, giant stars also exert increasingly larger tidal forces on their satellites that make their orbits decay, strip them of their atmospheres, and can even tear them apart completely. The orbital decay aspect is potentially measurable, and this is the effect Bryant and Van Eylen considered in their model for how planets die.

"We're looking at how common planets are around different types of stars, with number of planets per star," Bryant said. Bryant and Van Eylen identified 456,941 post–main sequence stars in TESS data and, from those, found 130 planets and planet candidates with close-in orbits. "The fraction [of stars with planets] gets significantly lower for all stars and shorter-period planets, which is very much in line with the predictions from the theory that tidal decay becomes very strong as these stars evolved."

Astronomers use TESS to find exoplanets by looking for the diminishment in light as they pass in front of their host stars, a miniature eclipse known as a transit. As with any exoplanet detection method, transits are best suited to large, Jupiter-sized planets in relatively small orbits lasting less than half of an Earth year, sometimes much less. So these solar systems aren't much like ours in that respect. Studying planets orbiting post–main sequence stars poses additional challenges.

"If you have the same size planet but a larger star, you have a smaller transit," Bryant said. "That makes it harder to find these systems because the signals are much shallower."

However, though the stars in the sample data have a much greater surface area, they are comparable in mass to the sun, and that’s what matters most, the researchers said. A star with the same mass as the sun will go through the same life stages and die the same way, and that similarity is what helps reveal our solar system's future.

"The processes that take place once the star evolves [past main sequence] can tell us about the interaction between planets and host star," said Sabine Reffert, an astronomer at Universität Heidelberg who was not involved in the study. "We had never seen this kind of difference in planet occurrence rates between [main sequence] and giants before because we did not have enough planets to statistically see this difference before. It's a very promising approach."

Planets: Part of a balanced stellar breakfast

Exoplanet science is one of astronomy's biggest successes in the modern era: Since the first exoplanet discovery 30 years ago, astronomers have confirmed more than 6,000 planets and identified many more candidates for follow-up observations. At the same time, the work can be challenging when it comes to planets orbiting post–main sequence stars.

One tricky aspect of this work is related to the age of the stars, which formed billions of years before our sun. Older stars have a lower abundance of chemical elements heavier than helium, a measure astronomers call "metallicity." Observations have found a correlation between high metallicity and exoplanet abundance.

"A small difference in metallicity…could potentially double the occurrence rate," Reffert said, stressing that the general conclusions from the article would hold but the details would need to be refined with better metallicity data.

Future observations to measure metallicity using spectra, along with star and planet mass, would improve the model. In addition, the European Space Agency's Plato Mission, slated to launch in December 2026, will add more sensitive data to the TESS observations.

Earth's fiery fate is a long way in the future, but researchers have made a big step toward understanding how dying stars might eat their planets. With more TESS and Plato data, we might even glimpse the minute orbital changes that indicate a planet spiraling to its doom—a grim end for that world but a wonderful discovery for our understanding of the coevolution of planets and their host stars.

Over the past 12 months, we saw multiple spaceflight records broken, the debut of a powerful new reusable rocket and the first-ever fully successful private moon landing.

Here's a rundown of the top 10 spaceflight stories of the year.

10. Astronauts fly over Earth's poles for the first time ever

On March 31, SpaceX launched the private Fram2 mission, which sent four private astronauts on a 3.5-day mission to Earth orbit aboard a Crew Dragon capsule. It was SpaceX's 17th crewed mission to date, but it still broke new ground: Fram2 circled our planet over the poles, which no astronaut flight had ever done before.

There are a number of reasons why human spaceflight planners have avoided this trajectory. Chief among them is that the most common astronaut destinations — these days, the International Space Station (ISS) and China's Tiangong outpost — don't take polar paths. Flying over the poles also exposes astronauts to higher levels of radiation and imposes communications challenges.

The Fram2 crew — led by billionaire commander and mission funder Chun Wang — performed a few dozen scientific experiments during their flight. They also got unprecedented views of our planet's icy extremes, some of which they shared with those of us stuck down here on terra firma.

9. India completes its first in-space docking

India notched a big milestone shortly after the calendar turned this year: On Jan. 15, the two spacecraft of the nation's Space Docking Experiment, or SpaDex for short, linked up in Earth orbit. The success made India just the fourth nation ever to pull off an in-space docking, after the USSR/Russia, the United States and China.

Those other countries are all space powers, a status that India seeks to attain as well. And SpaDex is a step along this path: Mastery of docking tech is necessary to achieve big things in the final frontier, like building a space station and returning samples from the moon.

8. European mission creates its first artificial solar eclipse

An "eclipse machine" came online in 2025. The European Space Agency's two-satellite Proba-3 mission launched to Earth orbit in December 2024, tasked with generating artificial solar eclipses via precise formation flying: One Proba-3 spacecraft blocks out the sun from the perspective of the other, which observes the phenomenon using an onboard telescope.

Proba-3 was designed to help scientists study the sun's wispy, superhot corona, or outer atmosphere, which is swamped by our star's overwhelming brightness — except during total solar eclipses. And Proba-3 delivered the goods for the first time on May 23, capturing an eclipse of its own creation.

7. Suni Williams breaks spacewalk record

Suni Williams' latest space stay lasted far longer than she or anyone else had expected — and the unplanned extension allowed her to break a spacewalk record.

Williams and fellow NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore launched toward the ISS on June 5, 2024, on the first crewed flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. Their mission was supposed to last just 10 days or so. But Starliner suffered thruster problems and helium leaks on the way up, so NASA delayed the vehicle's return to study the issues. The agency eventually decided to bring Starliner home uncrewed, which happened without incident on Sept. 7, 2024, and kept Williams and Wilmore on the ISS until March of this year, when they returned to Earth aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

NASA integrated Williams and Wilmore into the ISS' full-time crew, and the duo used their extra time well. Williams, for example, performed two spacewalks: one on Jan. 16 and the other on Jan. 30. That second excursion brought her career spacewalking time (accrued over nine extravehicular activities) to 62 hours, 6 minutes. That set a new record for female spaceflyers, besting NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson's total time by 1 hour, 45 minutes. The overall record is 82 hours, 22 minutes, held by cosmonaut Anatoly Solovyev.

Whitson still holds the American and female-astronaut records for the most total time spent in space, at 675 days. Williams has been off Earth for a total of 608 days.

6. China launches a mission to sample a "quasi-moon" of Earth

China continued its bold advance into the final frontier this year, launching its first-ever asteroid sample-return mission. That project, called Tianwen 2, isn't targeting any old asteroid — it's on the way to Kamo'oalewa (also known as 2016 HO3), which may be a piece of the moon blasted into space by a giant impact. Kamo'oalewa is weird in another way as well: It's one of Earth's seven known "quasi-moons," objects that don't circle our planet but orbit the sun in lockstep with it.

Tianwen 2 launched on May 28. If all goes according to plan, it will return samples of Kamo'oalewa to Earth in 2027, giving scientists their first up-close look at an intriguing and mysterious object.

5. SpaceX breaks its launch record — again

No surprises here: SpaceX broke its single-year launch record in 2025. Elon Musk's company has launched 170 times so far this year — 165 flights of its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket and five suborbital test missions of Starship, the giant, fully reusable vehicle designed to help humanity settle Mars and the moon. More than 70% of the Falcon 9 launches have been devoted to building out SpaceX's Starlink megaconstellation, which consists of more than 9,000 operational satellites (and counting).

It was the sixth year in a row that SpaceX has set a new launch record. That mark has increased from 25 in 2020 to 31 (2021) to 61 (2022) to 98 (2023) to 138 (2024) and, now, to 170. And SpaceX is planning to launch two more Falcon 9 missions before the calendar turns, so that number should reach 172.

4. China launches its first reusable rocket

The Chinese company Landspace has developed its own version of the Falcon 9. The rocket, called Zhuque-3, features a reusable first stage powered by nine engines. Zhuque-3 took flight for the first time on Dec. 3, successfully reaching orbit and nearly pulling off a booster landing as well. Zhuque-3's first stage crashed and burned near its touchdown zone, however, apparently after suffering an engine loss during the descent.

Zhuque-3 may well pull off China's first-ever orbital rocket landing on its next flight. Or another vehicle may claim that mantle — Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3, perhaps, or the Long March 12A, which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. Both of those rockets feature reusable first stages and are scheduled to make their debut flights soon.

3. Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket comes online

An even more powerful, partially reusable rocket earned its wings this year: New Glenn, the heavy lifter developed by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' aerospace company.

New Glenn debuted Jan. 16, successfully reaching orbit with a dummy version of Blue Origin's Blue Ring spacecraft platform on board. The company tried to land the rocket's reusable first stage on a ship at sea during the flight, but that didn't work out. The second try was the charm, however: New Glenn's booster aced its ocean landing during flight number two, which occurred Nov. 13. The rocket succeeded in its primary mission that day as well, sending the twin ESCAPADE Mars probes into the final frontier for NASA.

Each New Glenn first stage is designed to fly at least 25 times, according to Blue Origin. If the company can attain such SpaceX-levels of reuse, it could achieve some very big things down the road.

2. SpaceX's Starship aces two straight test flights

Speaking of reuse: SpaceX's fully reusable vehicle, the Starship megarocket, flew five test flights in 2025. The first three were checkered affairs, featuring the loss of at least one of Starship's two stages. But the final two, which lifted off in August and October, were unqualified successes.

On both missions, Starship's Super Heavy booster came back to Earth for a pinpoint touchdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The vehicle's upper stage reached space, deployed dummy versions of SpaceX's Starlink satellites, and splashed down in the Indian Ocean as planned.

Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, still has to check off some pretty big boxes before it's up and running. It needs to reach orbit, for example, and demonstrate in-space refueling of the upper stage, which will be needed on all missions to the moon and Mars. But Starship enters 2026 with some serious momentum.

1. A private company lands on the moon

On March 2, Firefly Aerospace's robotic Blue Ghost lander touched down successfully on the moon. It remained operational for about two weeks thereafter, allowing the science instruments it carried to do their planned work.

This was an unprecedented achievement for private industry and spaceflight in general. Another company, Houston-based Intuitive Machines, put its Odysseus lunar lander down in February 2024, but that vehicle soon toppled over, shortening its mission and those of some of its payloads. Intuitive Machines' second lunar lander, Athena, suffered a similar fate shortly after its touchdown on March 6 of this year.

Blue Ghost's success was also a victory for NASA, which booked the mission (and those of Odysseus and Athena) via its Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. More CLPS missions — by Firefly, Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic and other companies — are scheduled to launch soon, potentially opening up the moon to more research and human exploration activities — and perhaps even settlement down the road.

The Ursid meteor shower is active during a relatively short window from Dec. 17 to Dec. 26, with peak activity expected overnight on Dec. 21-22, when up to 10 shooting stars may be visible each hour under dark skies, according to the American Meteor Society.

Shooting stars associated with the shower will appear to originate from a patch of sky close to the bright star Kochab in the constellation Ursa Minor, which can be found above the northern horizon throughout December. Ursa Minor, or the "Little Bear", is a circumpolar constellation. As such, it never sets from the perspective of viewers in the northern hemisphere and instead appears to spin around its brightest member — Polaris, the North Star.

How to spot Ursid meteors

The best time to hunt for Ursid meteors is from the evening of Dec. 21 straight through to dawn on Dec. 22. The shower's peak occurs just two days after December's new moon phase, which means that you'll have near pristine skies in which to hunt for shooting stars.

First, locate Kochab in the northern sky using a handy skywatching smartphone app. Next, find a patch of sky 40 degrees above the bright star in the direction of your local zenith (the point above your head). Here, the meteor trails will be at their longest. Remember, the width of your fist accounts for roughly 10 degrees of sky! So simply stack four "fists" on top of Kochab to find your ideal meteor hunting site.

The Ursid meteor shower coincides with the date of the winter solstice — the point when Earth's axis is tilted furthest from the sun, granting the northern hemisphere the longest night of the year. Be sure to wrap up warm to combat the late autumn cold and to allow up to 30 minutes for your eyes to fully adjust to the dark — this will help you spot the faintest meteors in the near-pristinely dark December sky.

Hoping to immortalize your view of the Ursid meteor shower? Then be sure to read our guide to imaging shooting stars and to check out our picks of the best cameras and lenses for capturing the majesty of the night sky.

Editor's Note: If you capture an image of an Ursid meteor and want to share it with Space.com's readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

In the new "Who" spin-off "The War Between the Land and the Sea", the Sea Devils (now referred to as "Homo Aqua") make landfall to confront humanity about its blatant disregard for Earth's oceans. It's the latest in a long line of altercations between human and Sea Devil — though this time, it appears the Doctor won't be on hand to play peacemaker.

So, if you've been wondering "Who are the Sea Devils?", this guide is for you. Ahead of the mini-series finale this sunday (December 21), we explain the species' origins, their previous appearances, and how they fit into "The War Between the Land and the Sea" plot, ensuring you'll be fully up to speed for the show.

What planet do the Sea Devils come from?

Unlike the vast majority of "Doctor Who" antagonists, the Sea Devils don't hail from some far-flung corner of the galaxy. Instead, like humans, they originated on planet Earth, though the two species don't usually have cause to interact.

Related: How to watch 'The War Between the Land and the Sea'

Why don't humans cross paths with Sea Devils on a more regular basis?

Firstly, as their name suggests, the Sea Devils are aquatic by nature and built their vast civilisation underwater, far away from surface-dwelling humans.

More importantly, however, we're separated by several million years of evolution. In common with their land-based reptilian cousins, the Silurians, the Sea Devils' technologically advanced culture was at its height when humans were still apes.

When their astronomers forecast that a great catastrophe would destroy all life on Earth millions of years ago, the Sea Devils put themselves into hibernation. "But the catastrophe that you predicted never happened," the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) explained when he encountered the soggy reptiles in 1972 serial "The Sea Devils". "And the apes that you left on the surface to die became man."

Although humans have long since become the dominant species on Earth, the Sea Devils still believe the planet belongs to them.

When was the Doctor's first encounter with the Sea Devils?

In the Doctor's timeline — though not in Earth's history — the Time Lord's first on-screen skirmish with the species came in the aforementioned Pertwee story "The Sea Devils". The serial was written by Malcolm Hulke, who had previously scripted the Silurians' debut in "Doctor Who and the Silurians" in 1970.

In the story, the Doctor and companion Jo Grant (Katy Manning) investigate reports of ships disappearing in the English Channel. It turns out that incarcerated renegade Time Lord "The Master" (one of the best "Doctor Who" villains, played here by Roger Delgado) has been using his skills in electrical engineering to manipulate the Sea Devils, in the hope of instigating his very own war between the land and the sea. As ever, world domination is a significant inspiration.

The Doctor attempts to broker peace between the two sides, pointing out that there's no reason the two species can't live side by side — as with the Silurians, the Sea Devils aren't so much villains as neighbors with a slightly different perspective on land/sea ownership. Nobody really listens, of course, and the Doctor ends up destroying the Sea Devil base by reversing the polarity of the neutron flow, a trick that would go on to become one of the Time Lord's favorite party pieces.

When have the Sea Devils appeared since?

Classic "Who" fans had to wait more than a decade for the Sea Devils to return. Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) serial "Warriors of the Deep" (1984) turned out to be something of a family reunion, as the Sea Devils appeared alongside the Silurians in a 2084-set, Cold War-inspired tale in which two human factions squabble over nuclear weapons.

Aside from a few archive flashbacks (Matt Smith's debut in 2010's "The Eleventh Hour", for example), nobody was rushing to resurrect the Devils for the new "Who" era. While the Silurians were unfossilized in Eleventh Doctor two-parter "The Hungry Earth" / "Cold Blood" (2010) — and the reptilian Madame Vastra even went on to become a recurring sidekick — the Sea Devils didn't show up again until Thirteenth Doctor Jodie Whittaker's penultimate spin in the TARDIS. In 2022's "Legend of the Sea Devils", the Doctor, Yaz, and Dan travel back to 1807 China, where legendary pirate Madam Ching is having some Sea Devil-related bother on the high seas.

Although "Legend of the Sea Devils" marks their most recent appearance in the Doctor's chronology, this is the first time the Time Lord has encountered the Sea Devils in terms of Earth's history (on screen, at least).

How do the Sea Devils fit into "The War Between the Land and the Sea"?

When the BBC first approached Russell T Davies about returning to "Doctor Who" as showrunner back in 2021, he'd already been planning an eco-themed sci-fi drama involving a race of undersea people. Rather than creating a new species — or approaching Hanna-Barbera about licensing the Snorks — he realized that the ideal candidates had been there all along.

"I had this idea separately first," Davies told Radio Times. "But weirdly, it needs the 'Doctor Who' setting. If I just go and pitch this cold, saying, 'There is a race of creatures that live in the sea…', [the commissioners] would say, 'Really? You sure?' The pre-existence of the Sea Devils takes all the problems out of it."

In "The War Between the Land and the Sea", the Sea Devils set an international crisis in motion when they emerge from the oceans, angry about the way humans have been treating their underwater home. Russell Tovey plays Barclay, a low-level UNIT operative recruited to lead the human side of the negotiations.

Are they the same Sea Devils the Doctor's encountered before?

As far as we can tell, though Davies has revealed that the term "Sea Devil" is considered racist in "The War Between the Land and the Sea" — "Homo Aqua" is now the preferred nomenclature. That said, Salt (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) — ambassador for the undersea realm — looks a lot more human than her lizardy predecessors.

Seeing as the trailer for the new show features a more traditional Sea Devil, it's likely that Salt is an entirely different species. Mbatha-Raw seemingly confirmed this when she said, "Salt is part of a species that lives under the sea that have been dormant for many years called Homo Amphibia. She comes with a posse of Home Aqua and other species from the sea, and they're incredibly intelligent. She is in this ambassadorial role and has this formal and regal quality to her, and as the series goes on, she becomes more human." She'll even share a love story with Barclay.

"The War Between the Land and the Sea" debuted on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK on Sunday, December 7, with the final episode, "The End of the War", dropping on December 21. '

The Sea Devils', 'Warriors of the Deep' and 'Legend of the Sea Devils' are also available on BBC iPlayer, while a new 90-minute cut of the original "The Sea Devils" also landed on the streaming platform on December 7.

Travelling outside the UK in December? You can always use a VPN to access BBC iPlayer from wherever you are. Read on to find out more.

As the astronomical start of winter, today is the moment the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky as seen from Earth. At noon, it appears directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, a latitude of 23.5 degrees south, creating the least daylight of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, which is tilted as far from the sun as it gets.

This turning point lasts only an instant. The exact moment of the 2025 winter solstice occurs today at 10:03 a.m. EST (1503 GMT), officially ushering in the new season.

With the sun tracking low across the horizon, its rays arrive at a shallow angle, spreading light over a larger area and reducing heating. It's this lower solar angle, not our distance from the sun, that drives the coldest months of the year. But from this point forward, daylight will slowly begin to increase as we begin the slow march toward spring.

Earth's seasons exist because our planet is tilted by 23.5 degrees on its axis. As Earth orbits the sun, different hemispheres lean toward or away from it, changing the intensity and duration of sunlight. When the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun, we get summer; when it tilts away — as it does now — we have winter.

Meanwhile, the Southern Hemisphere is experiencing its summer solstice today, enjoying the longest day of the year.

Although many assume winter corresponds to Earth being farther from the sun, the opposite is true. Earth actually reaches perihelion, its closest point to the sun, early next month on Jan. 3, 2026. At that moment, our planet will sit about 91.4 million miles (147.1 million kilometers) from the sun, slightly closer than its average distance of 93 million miles (149.6 million km).

Many cultures mark the winter solstice as a moment of renewal and the symbolic return of light. Starting tomorrow, daylight begins to grow again, a reminder that brighter, warmer days are on the way.

Black Friday week is your best chance to save big. Technically, it's the Friday after thanksgiving but, in practice, retailers kick off their Black Friday sales well before the big day. Part of our job is bringing you the best deals and, we've got to say, this Black Friday saw some amazing savings.

Unfortunately, those deals are behind us, so you might be wondering, just what are the next best sales after Black Friday? Join us as we journey through the year to bring you the answer.

The best current deals

While Black Friday is behind us and Boxing Day is yet to arrive, there are still some deals to be had. Below are the best deals on telescopes, cameras and binoculars.

Boxing day sales

The answer, surprisingly enough, is that Boxing Day sales are the next best sales after Black Friday. As the day after Christmas, this year's Boxing Day falls on Friday December 26, when you can expect to see some major price drops.

However, compared to Black Friday, when companies offer discounts on a wide range of products, Boxing Day sales tend to be a little different. Many of the discounts are on clearance products, items that the retailer wants to get rid of, in time for new stock to come in.

Granted, telescopes and drones are less seasonal than, say, winter coats, but retailers will still want more space for new models and new product lines. The good news is that unlike phones, that can have their operating systems become obsolete, telescopes, drones and the like don't automatically become less useful.

So, if you're looking for a great deal, and you've missed out on Black Friday, Friday December 26's Boxing Day sale is the one to watch out for. You can expect some deals to run until January 1st.

January clearance

However, while the Boxing Day sales are often used by retailers to get rid of older lines, that doesn't mean they just stop in January. In fact, you can expect further discounts to continue into the new year, whenever a company releases a product that supersedes an old model.

For example, when the DJI Mini 3 launched, we started seeing retailers offer discounts on the DJI Mini 2. And the Sony A7R IV mirrorless camera is currently discounted at Walmart, having been succeeded by the Sony A7R V. The Sony A7R VI is also rumoured to get a 2026 release, which could result in a price drop for the Sony A7R V.

We keep our eyes open for any deals, so it's also a good idea to regularly check in with us if you're after a bargain next year.

Prime Day

After the Boxing Day/New Year sales, the next big sale will be Amazon's Prime Day sale which, despite the name, lasts several days. This annual event, open to Amazon Prime members, ran from July 8-11 in 2025. We expect this year's to also take place early to mid-July. We also wouldn't be surprised if, this year, Amazon had Prime Day last a full calendar week.

And, while it didn't quite hit the highs of Black Friday, there were some great deals for Prime Day this year. For example, we saw these Nikon Prostaff P3 10x42 binoculars drop to $100, only three dollars more than they were on Black Friday. Walmart also slashed the price of this Fujifilm X-T5 by nearly $500.

Hang on.. Walmart? That's right, because while Prime Day is Amazon's event, other retailers often either try to match their prices or offer their own discounts. Even the retailers that aren't officially competing, or won't admit to it, tend to kick off their own summer sales or back-to-school sales around this time.

Prime Big Deal Days

Prime Big Deal Days is another Amazon sales event, which has been running since 2022. In 2025, it took place on October 7 and 8 and Amazon has already confirmed it'll be back for 2026. From our experience, there are good deals to be had, but it doesn't quite beat Prime Day, Black Friday or Boxing Day in terms of discounts.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

Here, you'll find a range of gifts from clothes to collectibles to trinkets, replicas and more. The holiday season is here and the final episodes of Stranger Things will air on Christmas Day and New Year's Eve, so there's never been a better time to search for the best Stranger Things gifts out there. While we haven't reviewed any of the items we've highlighted, we wouldn't include them if we didn't recommend having them.

With Stranger Things being one of the most anticipated sci-fi TV shows around, there's a huge range of Stranger Things gifts available. If you don't find something suitable though, you can always check out the best streaming deals, Fallout gifts, 10 best space gifts under $100, or something a little different like the best star projectors and best Lego Star Wars sets ahead of the holidays. But, for the best Stranger Things gifts on the market, scroll down below.

Best Stranger Things Gifts We Recommend

Best Stranger Things merch

Best Stranger Things apparel

Best Stranger Things replicas

The Canadian filmmaker has carved out an iconic status in the movie industry for his visual effects artistry, incredible research, and extraordinary storytelling – and while The Terminator might be the first sci-fi title that comes to mind, it actually wasn't his debut.

A short film called Xenogenesis was the launching pad of his directorial work, but at 12 minutes long, it won't feature in the rankings. Still, it's a piece of cinematic history that illustrates Cameron's nearly 50-year love affair with the sci-fi genre.

We'd be incredibly surprised if you didn't recognise every single movie on the list below, and you'll also notice some recurring actors that Cameron hires, with both Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn appearing in three movies each.

We're not adding Avatar: Fire & Ash to the list just yet — we need to stew on it before we can firmly slot it into the rankings — but otherwise, here's every James Cameron sci-fi movie ranked, worst to best.

6. The Abyss

Release date: August 9, 1989 | Cast: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn | Rotten Tomatoes: 76% on the Tomatometer

The deep sea is scary enough, but you know what makes it even scarier? Finding aliens down there. Unfortunately for Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, — starring as estranged husband and wife, Bud and Lindsey — their passion for diving takes them on a horrifyingly claustrophobic adventure to the depths of the ocean.

When a nuclear submarine disappears, the crew of a civilian oil rig goes on a search and rescue mission with jaw-dropping consequences. For James Cameron, who'd already risen to fame with The Terminator and Aliens, it was a watery shift that no one saw coming. And, unfortunately, it wasn't a massive hit at the time (though it still won an Oscar for best visual effects).

More recently, though, it's become a well-loved sci-fi pick, with a revised (and extended to a hefty 171 minutes) version that viewers are even more eager to dive right into and experience the unexpected.

Cameron tells a fantastically tense sci-fi tale, gripping audiences with the heart-wrenching relationship of Bud and Lindsey, and the romantic tension that builds throughout is a welcome reprieve from the intense water-dwelling extraterrestrials. Nothing like a fear for human life to put your love into perspective, right?

5. Avatar: The Way of Water

Release date: December 16, 2022 | Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang | Rotten Tomatoes: 76% on the Tomatometer

13 years after Avatar stormed onto the big screen, the sequel arrived. And it says a lot about Cameron's abilities as a director that it felt like no time had passed at all. Jake Sully has fully integrated himself into his life as a Na'vi, still with Neytiri, and now with a family to look after. Unfortunately, they don't get their 'happily ever after' as humanity returns to Pandora. So instead, they get to star in another exhilarating action movie.

Once again, Cameron intertwines the pillars of his directorial work: outstanding visuals, epic storytelling, and an unwavering ability to create tension. VFX is the cornerstone of a movie like Avatar, transforming actors into their Na'vi form and formulating their lives in a whole new world. Cameron's always had bigger plans for Avatar, though, telling Variety: "We were working on three scripts and then it turned into four."

In fact, Avatar: Fire and Ash is the second half of the original The Way of Water script. With plans for another sequel, that kind of freedom and ability to plan ahead is something most directors can only dream of. For Cameron, it's a well-deserved reality.

4. The Terminator

Release date: October 26, 1984 | Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, Linda Hamilton | Rotten Tomatoes: 90% on the Tomatometer

We've been talking about The Terminator for years. I even ranked The Terminator movies back in 2022 – and it's still an absolute pleasure to discuss. And yet, it's in fourth place on this list, a testament to just how strong Cameron's sci-fi chops are.

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as The Terminator, a time-travelling cyborg on a mission to take out one Sarah Connor. Why? Well, because one day she's destined to become the mother of humankind's salvation, and as far as The Terminator is concerned, that can't happen.

Not only is The Terminator a bona fide sci-fi classic, but it's the first major work of Cameron's career, and its success was the spark to sent him on the path to directorial superstardom. Up until this point, Cameron had been mainly working in visual effects, and he poured everything he'd learned up to this point into The Terminator, bringing the entire story to life in a way that's still incredible to watch to this day.

3. Avatar

Release date: December 18, 2009 | Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez | Rotten Tomatoes: 81% on the Tomatometer

Cinematically breathtaking, deeply immersive, and the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar is a piece of cinematic history. It feels almost criminal to place it third, but perhaps Cameron shouldn't be so good at directing sci-fi movies. Avatar is the first movie I saw in 3D in the cinema, and I distinctly remember feeling like if I just reached out, I could touch the falling leaves of Pandora.

Avatar sees Jake Sully, a paraplegic veteran, on a mission to the moon Pandora, in an entirely new form, adopting that of the Na'vi people. But while he's there to gather a rare resource, he falls in love and vows to protect Pandora and the Na'vi as his own.

The groundbreaking use of 3D technology was one of the main reasons Avatar was such and is still such a huge success, but beyond that, it just tells such a compelling and relatable tale.

2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Release date: July 3, 1991 | Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Robert Patrick | Rotten Tomatoes: 91% on the Tomatometer

Terminator 2: Judgment Day holds the top spot amongst the best Terminator movies, and it's also arguably one of the best sequels to any movie, ever. Acting as Cameron's own conclusion to the Terminator franchise (disputes over rights saw his directorial ties severed after this), it's a sequel that took everything about the first movie and made it even better.

In Terminator 2, Arnie returns as the T-800, but this time as a reprogrammed good cyborg protecting a young John Connor. That leaves a gap for a bad cyborg to take his place, and that's where Robert Patrick's T-1000 comes into play.

Action-packed and full of robotic terror, Terminator 2 is the T-800's redemption arc perfectly translated onto the big screen with Cameron's dedication to telling a perfectly paced story. And, by this point, Cameron has sci-fi thrills down to a tee, building on his work from the first Terminator movie. It's not quite the best sci-fi movie he's ever made, though; that title goes to…

1. Aliens

Release date: July 18, 1986 | Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton | Rotten Tomatoes: 94% on the tomatometer

Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen! You knew it was going to be Aliens.

Picking up a sequel when you didn't direct the previous title is a hard task, but Cameron's bold decision gave us a bigger and (arguably) better Alien movie than the original. In fact, between this and T2, Cameron might be the best sequel director out there.

For Aliens, the xenomorphs are back. We all knew it would happen, but none more so than Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who returns after a deep freeze to find that big corporation Weyland-Yutani is very close to rattling their nest again.

And here comes Cameron's absolute genius in the director's chair, building on the sci-fi horror of the first with visually terrifying xenomorphs, suffocating tension, and world-building prowess that truly takes you away from reality. Ellen Ripley may have started as a character that Cameron didn't have a say in, but he transformed her role into an Oscar nomination-worthy performance, cemented in a sci-fi world that you'd be primed to visit again and again.

On Episode 190 of This Week In Space, Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik look back at the past year in space — its ups, its downs, its all-arounds.

What a year it's been, and after all the challenges and hullabaloo, we're grateful in a post-Thanksgiving fashion to welcome Jared Isaacman, at last, as the new NASA Administrator. What he will do and how remains largely unknown, but we do believe he has the nation's interests at heart, and the man knows people are watching.

But there are a lot of other stories and we've done our best to stuff as many as we can into this virtual Christmas space stocking! Please join us for this year-end roundup!

Download or subscribe to this show at: https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-space.

Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit

Space news of the week

• Trump signs sweeping executive order aimed at 'ensuring American space superiority'
• What time will interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS be closest to Earth today?
• A SpaceX Starlink satellite is tumbling and falling out of space after partial breakup in orbit
• space.com on X
• Tariq saw a spent Falcon 9 Booster! - X
• Stories of Space
• NASA Admin Jared Isaacman on X
• Could NASA's Mars Sample Return be saved? Lockheed Martin proposes $3 billion plan to haul home Red Planet rocks
• Did NASA's Perseverance rover actually find evidence of life on Mars? We need to haul its samples home to find out, scientists say
• Trump's signing of 'One Big Beautiful Bill' includes $85 million to move space shuttle Discovery from Smithsonian to Texas
• 25 Years on the International Space Station
• Hubble's 35th Birthday
• New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA’s Webb Telescope

Model Falcon 9!

Finally, did you know you can launch your own SpaceX rocket? Model rocket maker Estes' stunning scale model of a Falcon 9 rocket that you can pick up now. The launchable model is a detailed recreation of the Falcon 9 and retails for $149.99. You can save 10% by using the code IN-COLLECTSPACE at checkout, courtesy of our partners collectSPACE.com.

About This Week In Space

This Week in Space covers the new space age. Every Friday we take a deep dive into a fascinating topic. What's happening with the new race to the moon and other planets? When will SpaceX really send people to Mars?

Join Rod Pyle and Tariq Malik from Space.com as they tackle those questions and more each week on Friday afternoons. You can subscribe today on your favorite podcatcher.

But one overlooked sci-fi release launched at Christmastime on Dec. 20, 1985, is director Wolfgang Petersen's "Enemy Mine." Set in the year 2092 as an interstellar war erupts, Earthling space pilot Will Davidge (Dennis Quaid) and a reptilian alien Drac (Lou Gossett Jr.) crash land on barren Fyrine IV after an intense dogfight over the hostile planet, where they must set aside their hate to defeat monstrous threats lurking above and beneath the world's surface.

Warning: Potential spoilers for "Enemy Mine" ahead!

"Enemy Mine" firmly occupies a particularly small niche in the annals of Hollywood science fiction films in the tsunami of post-"Star Wars" screenplays that flooded studio executives’ offices from Burbank to Buena Park. It's one that opted for a gentler, more universal humanistic tale of forging friendships in severe adversity, overcoming prejudices, battling together for survival, and the precious nature of life, no matter what your species or what side of the galaxy you were born in.

This original feature is a curious and compelling film, especially if you haven’t seen it in a while. Produced for an estimated $40 million by 20th Century Fox, it was the first English-language project for German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot," "The Neverending Story," "The Perfect Storm") and was based on the 1979 novella written by sci-fi author Barry B. Longyear.

The scaly lizard-like race of the Drac plainly acts as a generic symbol of any misunderstood or aggressive adversary with a culture, agenda, or ideology that happens to clash with our own and feels uncomfortably foreign.

Oh yeah, and there's the surprise gender-bending twist where it’s revealed that "Jerry" the asexual Drac is pregnant and gives birth to an infant alien later lovingly cared for and raised by Davidge. The notion of found families plays heavily in the plot as Davidge protects the child named Zammis against Scavenger miners and finally returns him to the Drac homeworld.

Released a few days before Santa's sleigh traversed the skies, "Enemy Mine" was a financial failure, mainly because Petersen had to scrap nearly all of the production when the project’s original director, Richard Loncraine, left the movie when difficult creative differences arose. When all the tickets were tallied, the sci-fi release managed to collect just $12.3 million total worldwide.

After its theatrical run, the film did enjoy a resurrection in video stores and on premium cable services of the day like HBO.

If anything, "Enemy Mine" shares complementary aspects with John Carpenter's "Starman," which was released a year earlier in 1984, and one that I consider to be one of his finest and most underrated films. (I might be a bit partial because my uncle, Bill Varney, was the re-recording mixer on it!) Both take an empathetic approach to encounters between Humankind and extraterrestrials and provide noble intellectual ingredients for hope eternal.

It could be slightly hampered by its dated practical visual effects and stage-bound planetary sets, but what it lacks in technical merits, it more than makes up for in emotional complexity, as evidenced by the fantastic performances delivered by Quaid and Gossett Jr.

Hot topics such as race, gender, religion, and the dehumanizing effects of war never go out of style, unfortunately, but during the holidays, the harsh mechanics of the world do seem to pause for a brief, blessed period.

Most notable here is composer Maurice Jarre's lush synth-heavy score and the exceptional Drac alien makeup by Chris Walas, the creature effects master who'd just wowed audiences with his fantastic "Gremlins" work.

Last summer, news broke that a Disney (Uh-oh!) remake is currently in the pipeline through its 20th Century Studios division from "Star Trek: Picard" showrunner Terry Matalas ("12 Monkeys"). Though it's a tall order, we can only hope this reboot retains the charm and warmth of the original that's bravely stood the test of time as a true '80s treasure.

Sure, it's a thinly-veiled allegory of America's frosty Cold War with the Soviet Union that was still brewing hotly in 1985, but those compassionate “love thy enemy” themes can traverse the decades. And if you don't consider that a beautifully apt message of tolerance at Christmas this year during the rash of turbulent current events, then you don’t know a candy cane from a crowbar.

Enemy Mine isn't currently available as part of any streaming service, but you can rent or buy a digital version on Amazon Prime Video. Alternatively, you can pick up the physical Blu-ray from Amazon.

Wheeler's thought experiment, which eventually became a real experiment, involved the famous double-slit experiment. Let's say you have a source of light and a screen with two thin, vertical slits. When you shine the light through the slits, the light acts like a wave. It interferes with itself, causing a ripple-like pattern on a far wall, with strips of brightness alternating with darkness. This is exactly how waves work, and if you ever find yourself in a harbor with two narrow openings, you'll see the waves washing up onshore with a similar pattern.

Now, let's say you make the light really weak — so weak that, eventually, only one photon at a time goes through the double slit. Amazingly, even though each individual photon acts like a particle — it hits the far wall in one specific spot — after enough photons arrive, the same interference pattern emerges. The usual conclusion is that the wave nature of a single photon interferes with itself to create the pattern.

Now, let's add one more layer. Let's say you introduce a detector to the slits, to figure out which slit the photon actually passed through on its way through the screen. When you do this, the wave nature of the photon goes away. You get to see which slit the photon passed through — but it only ever acts like a particle, and you never get an interference pattern on the far wall.

When we design a quantum experiment, we must choose to investigate either the wave nature or the particle nature of photons — but we can't do both. OK, it's weird. But so far, it's the standard sort of quantum weirdness.

Wheeler upped the ante. He asked what would happen if you were to introduce a delay. What if you were to insert a detector at the slits after the photon had already passed through?

Wheeler proposed a helpful analogy. Imagine a distant light source, like a quasar, that sends light traveling for billions of light-years. Some of that light heads right for us, while some beams follow a curved path through a gravitational lens, like a massive cluster. Both beams arrive on Earth at the same time, and we can set up an experiment to interfere with those beams. In that experiment, we can choose to study either the wave nature or the particle nature of light.

Wheeler guessed the answer. He was right, and his correctness was later borne out by experiments. Even when we make a delayed choice, the photons somehow keep track of that and alter whether they're going to make an interference pattern.

How does this work? We're making our choice at the final leg of the light's journey. How did the photons "know" what choice we were going to make ahead of time? It seems as if our choice in the future went back in time to alter how the photons behaved in the past.

An updated version of the experiment, known as the "delayed choice quantum eraser," makes this even crazier. In this experiment, the photons pass through the slits. Then, the experiment decides whether to monitor the slits. Well after the photons have struck the screen, the experimenter decides to read the information. If the experimenter reads the information about which slit the photon passed through, there will never be an interference pattern. If the experiment throws away the information, an interference pattern emerges.

Remember, all of this is after the photon has already hit the screen.

Wheeler taught us how to think about this. He argued that it doesn't make sense to talk about photons "in flight." We only have measurements and observations — the final results of our experiments. The order of the events and what happened during the experiment itself don't matter. Photons aren't really in flight in the way we think of it, and the wave-particle duality of photons doesn't make sense in the way we usually think about things.

What we get, whether particles or waves, is what we get. And it's only once we make that measurement that nature reveals what aspect of reality to show us.

Yes, you've left it a little late, but that's no cause for panic. Why? Because Amazon, Walmart and some other retailers offer expedited shipping. That means you can, in theory, order something as late as December 23 and get it in time for Christmas!

However, you shouldn't leave your shopping until Christmas Eve. Firstly, express shipping may cost you more and it's not available on every item. Secondly, deliveries can get delayed unexpectedly.

So read on for our last-minute optical deals and, when something's caught your eye, order sooner rather than later.

Telescope deals

Christmas is a great time to pick up a telescope. The nights are long, there are plenty of night sky sights and on the day itself, December 25, you can test out your new scope by training it on Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

Our experts have rounded up the best last minute deals on telescopes, from super portable scopes to motorized telescopes that are a boon for any beginner. So read on to save on stargazing and nature watching, but don't leave your shopping too late!

Smart telescope deals

The best smart telescopes are fantastic if you want to take the work out of stargazing. They are indeed a little pricier than 'regular' telescopes, but with a smart scope, there's no need to spend minutes or even hours sweeping the heavens to find certain objects. Instead, they come with a built-in bank of objects of interest; press a couple of keys, or tap a button, and the scope will hone right in on that object. It really is that simple. It could be a real boon if you've got children who are easily bored.

On top of that, all the scopes in our guide allow you to take pictures through your smartphone, without the need to use one of the best dedicated astrophotography cameras. Here are the smart scopes you can save on.

Binocular deals

As stunning as the view from a telescope, smart or otherwise, can be, there's plenty to be said for the power and portability of binoculars. The best binoculars can, in the right circumstances, actually be a better choice than telescopes, especially on the go.

Want stunning views of deep space, without light pollution? Just grab a pair of reasonably powerful binoculars, drive or walk away from civilization, and point them at the night sky.

The models we've selected are also excellent for nature watching or zooming in on sporting events. Some even boast image stabilization, which essentially eliminates handshake.

Monocular deals

Depending upon who you listen to, monoculars are either a mini-telescope, or half a binocular. But that's no reason to overlook these optical devices; the best monoculars are even more portable than binoculars or telescopes, and can be popped into a pocket with ease.

If monoculars are new to you, here's what you should look for in a monocular for stargazing. So, if you want to observe the skies on the go, take advantage of these last-minute monocular deals.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

From tabletop telescopes to actual pieces of the moon, we've searched across the web for the best gifts at the best prices so you don't have to. And we're not talking about your average cosmic gifts from space-themed socks to star maps, although they're still great picks. No, these are for the space fans who are madly obsessed with the universe.

Of course, if you don't find what you're looking for here, our guides to the best telescopes, best star projectors, best Lego Star Wars sets and best binoculars will point you in the right direction.

So, with the holidays finally upon us, here's what you should be shopping for if you're on your own intergalactic journey to find something extra special for a space lover this holiday season. Or, if you're incredibly organized, bag a deal now and save it for their birthday.

Best holiday gifts for diehard space fans we recommend

At the heart of the discovery is a signal from a so-called Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT), designated AT 2024wpp, first spotted in 2024. The signal revealed to a team of scientists that LFBOTs are the result of extreme Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs), in which a black hole with a mass up to 100 times that of the sun, completely shreds a companion star in just a matter of days.

Just over a dozen LFBOTs have been discovered to date, and their cause has puzzled astronomers for around a decade. Now off the hook, previous suspects have included strange types of exploding stars (supernovas) and interstellar gas being gobbled up by black holes.

LFBOTs are so named because they are incredibly bright, visible at distances up to billions of light-years, shining high-energy light ranging from the blue end of the optical region of the electromagnetic spectrum through ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths, and only last a few days. While the first LFBOT was spotted in 2014, it wasn't until four years later that astronomers caught one in enough detail to properly analyse.

This 2018 event was designated AT 2018cow, leading to its nickname Tthe Cow," with LFBOT that followed also getting zoological nicknames: the Koala (ZTF18abvkwla), the Tasmanian devil (AT 2022tsd), and the Finch (AT 2023fhn). AT 2024wpp doesn't have its nickname yet, but the Wasp is a fairly good bet.

No ordinary Tidal Disruption Event

When researchers assessed AT 2024wpp, they found that it emitted around 100 times as much energy as the average supernova, seemingly ruling exploding stars out as a potential cause. In fact, to produce this much energy, an exploding star would have to convert around 10% of its mass instantly into energy via Einstein's energy/mass relation E=mc^2 over the course of just a few weeks.

The team's observations, using the Gemini South observatory, revealed an excess of near-infrared light from the source of AT 2024wpp, something only seen before around AT 2018cow, which is not associated with normal supernovas.

"The sheer amount of radiated energy from these bursts is so large that you can't power them with a core collapse stellar explosion — or any other type of normal stellar explosion," team member Natalie LeBaron of the University of California, Berkeley said in a statement. "The main message from AT 2024wpp is that the model that we started off with is wrong. It's definitely not just an exploding star."

TDEs are fairly common occurrences across the cosmos, happening when stars venture too close to ravenous black holes and are "spaghettified," creating a noodle of stellar pasta that wraps around the culprit black hole like linguine around a fork. However, not all TDEs create an LFBOT, so the question is: what is so special about these particular TDEs?

The team theorizes that in the case of the TDE behind AT 2024wpp, the black hole has been parasitically feeding from a companion star for a long time. This resulted in the black hole being completely encased in a spherical shell of material. However, this shell is too far away from the black hole to be devoured by it.

However, the companion star eventually spirals close enough to the black hole to be spaghettified by its immense gravitational influence. This results in new stellar material slamming into the matter that the black hole has been stealing throughout the system's history. This generated X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical blue light, seen as AT 2024wpp. Radio waves are generated when material from around the black hole is channelled to its poles, where it is accelerated to around 40% the speed of light and blasted out as jets. The team estimated that the star shredded in the event that launched AT 2024wpp has a mass around 10 times that of the sun and was a highly evolved star nearing the end of its life, called a Wolf-Rayet star, explaining the weak hydrogen emission seen around AT 2024wpp. Stars like this are thought to be common in actively star-forming galaxies like the one 1.1 billion light-years away from which AT 2024wpp erupted.

The team's research has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and is currently available as a pre-peer-review paper on arXiv.

Get a freebie when you buy the Lego Star Trek USS Enterprise before Christmas Eve.

As Lego space sets go, this is unquestionably one of the best for Lego purists. Lego released its USS Enterprise set at the end of November, and if you grab it before December 24, you also get a free Brite Bomber Brick Headz character. As well as 3,600 pieces, you also get nine minifigures and features including a detachable command saucer, an angled display stand and an opening shuttlebay. We have a soon-to-be-released review of this model, and we absolutely love it. After initially selling out, this set is back in stock, but if this interests you, but it isn't quite right, we recommend checking out the best Lego Star Wars sets and best Lego Marvel sets on the market.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

Beamed up for the holidays, this is Lego's first-ever Star Trek set, and it's a beaut. 3,600 pieces and nine minifigures (Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander William Riker, Lieutenant Worf, Lieutenant Commander Data, Dr. Beverly Crusher, Lieutenant Commander La Forge, Counselor Deanna Troi, Bartender Guinan and Wesley Crusher).

But it's more than just that, stunning features including blue and red details, a detachable command saucer, an angled display stand, an opening shuttle bay, two mini shuttlepods, a secondary hull and a display plaque with ship statistics.

This set initially sold out when it went on sale for Black Friday, but it's back in stock now and you can claim a free Brite Bomber Brick Headz if you purchase it before Christmas Eve. It's unquestionably one for serious Lego collectors and Star Trek fans, but we love it and we'll soon be releasing our review of it after our expert staff got their hands on it.

Key features: 3,600 pieces, nine minifigures, three freebies with purchase, detachable command saucer, an angled display stand, an opening shuttle bay, two mini shuttlepods, a secondary hull and a display plaque with ship statistics

Product launched: November 2025

Price history: This set was released last month and while it hasn't fluctuated in price, you do get a free gift with the purchase.

Reviews consensus: Lego's first-ever Star Trek set, it's a monster and it's definitely a collectible. If you're serious about Lego or Star Trek, or both, you want this set.

✅ Buy it if: You want Lego's first-ever Star Trek set.

❌ Don't buy it if: You're on a budget, at just shy of $400, it's not cheap.

Check out our other guides to the best telescopes, binoculars, cameras, star projectors, drones, lego and much more.

Astronomers may have discovered the first example of an explosive cosmic event called a "superkilonova," in the form of a gravitational wave signal detected on Aug. 18, 2025.

A kilonova describes the explosion generated when two neutron stars — stellar remnants left behind when massive stars die — slam together, creating the only environment in the known universe violent enough to forge elements heavier than iron, such as the gold and silver in your jewelry box.

Superkilonovas differ because they begin with the supernova explosion that marks the death of a star and the birth of two neutron stars, not one. These extreme dead stars then spiral together and merge, creating a scream of gravitational waves and a blast of electromagnetic radiation.

Thus far, astronomers have made the unambiguous detection of just one kilonova when, in 2017, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) and its European partner, Virgo, detected the gravitational wave signal known as GW170817. This event was then seen in electromagnetic radiation by a host of space and ground-based telescopes, instruments of "traditional astronomy."

Thus, scientists were already excited when LIGO and Virgo "heard" a signal designated AT2025ulz, which seemed to be the second detection of a neutron star merger. However, the situation soon seemed to take on added complexity. After the detection, an alert was sent out to astronomers across the globe, with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a survey camera at Palomar Observatory in California, the first to spot a rapidly fading red object 1.3 billion light-years away. That's around the same location as the source of the gravitational waves.

"At first, for about three days, the eruption looked just like the first kilonova in 2017," study lead author Mansi Kasliwal, an astronomy professor at the California Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "Everybody was intensely trying to observe and analyze it, but then it started to look more like a supernova, and some astronomers lost interest. Not us."

Kasliwal and colleagues began to realize that what this event seemed to be was a kilonova stemming from a supernova explosion that's obscuring the view of astronomers. That would make AT2025ulz the result of a superkilonova, a type of powerful cosmic event long hypothesized but never before detected.

A very strange signal

Following the detection of gravitational waves from this event, further investigation by several other telescopes, including the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i and the Fraunhofer telescope in Germany, revealed that the burst of light associated with AT2025ulz faded rapidly, leaving a glow in red wavelengths of light.

That was exactly the same pattern the electromagnetic signal associated with GW170817 had followed in 2017. This red glow is the result of heavy elements like gold around the kilonova blocking short-wavelength blue light but allowing longer-wavelength red light through. So far, so kilonova.

However, days after the explosion, AT2025ulz began to brighten and turn blue with evidence of hydrogen emissions appearing. These are characteristics of supernovas, not kilonovas. The problem is, while supernovas do generate gravitational waves, unlike a kilonova, a supernova 1.3 billion light-years away shouldn't be able to generate gravitational waves strong enough to be detected by LIGO.

While several astronomers were ready to conclude that AT2025ulz was just a run-of-the-mill supernova (if there is such a thing as a run-of-the-mill exploding star!), Kasliwal and team had noticed clues that indicated this was a very special event indeed. Specifically, the gravitational wave signal indicated that one of the neutron stars involved in the merger was less massive than the sun. Neutron stars are generally between 1.2 and two times the mass of the sun. This implied to the team that one or two small neutron stars might have merged to produce a kilonova.

Not all neutron stars are created equal

When stars with around 10 times the mass of the sun exhaust their fuel for nuclear fusion, their cores collapse under their own gravity, sending shockwaves rippling out that trigger a supernova explosion and blow away the outer layers of that star.

The result is a stellar core with a mass between 1.2 and 2 times the mass of the sun crammed into a diameter of around 12 miles (20 kilometers), packed with the densest matter in the known universe. However, scientists have theorized two ways in which some neutron stars could be created that are smaller than 1.2 solar masses.

The first scenario of undermassive neutron star creation suggests that, if a star that is spinning rapidly undergoes a supernova explosion, it could split into two sub-solar-mass neutron stars, a process called fission. In the second scenario, a rapidly spinning star undergoes a supernova explosion, but the resulting neutron star is surrounded by a disk of material that then gathers to form another neutron star, in a way similar to how planets form around infant stars.

In both cases, these neutron stars emit gravitational waves as they swirl around each other, carrying angular momentum away from the system. This causes the neutron stars to spiral together, collide and merge, churning out heavy elements. This would result in the red glow seen by the telescopes chasing AT2025ulz.However, the view of the kilonova was eventually obscured by the expanding shell of debris ejected by the supernova as it created the twin neutron stars.

"The only way theorists have come up with to birth sub-solar neutron stars is during the collapse of a very rapidly spinning star," team member Brian Metzger of Columbia University said in the same statement. "If these 'forbidden' stars pair up and merge by emitting gravitational waves, it is possible that such an event would be accompanied by a supernova rather than be seen as a bare kilonova."

Unfortunately, there currently isn't enough data to confirm that this is a superkilonova. The only way to do this is to gather more information.

"Future kilonovae events may not look like GW170817 and may be mistaken for supernovae," Kasliwal said. "We can look for new possibilities in data like this from ZTF as well as the Vera Rubin Observatory, and upcoming projects such as NASA's Nancy Roman Space Telescope, NASA's UVEX, Caltech's Deep Synoptic Array-2000, and Caltech's Cryoscope in the Antarctic. We do not know with certainty that we found a superkilonova, but the event is nevertheless eye-opening."

The team's research was published Dec. 15 in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Space insurance underwriters typically offer premiums that are mission-wide and include possible satellite replacement and can therefore be very expensive. California on-orbit services startup Arkisys is now teaming up with London-based Odin Space to offer its customers specific collision insurance, based on verified debris impact data from Odin Space's sensors.

Arkisys's upcoming Cutter mission will carry sensors from Odin Space, which is developing advanced space debris detection. Odin Space's Nano Sensors are designed to act as a "black box" for spacecraft, being able to pinpoint the exact moment of an impact to a spacecraft and its location. Forensic on-orbit data collected by the sensors can then be used to verify that a damaged spacecraft experienced an on-orbit impact event consistent with debris or micrometeoroid strikes.

Cutter is designed to host payloads or provide "last mile" transportation after launch, such as delivery to Arkisys Port modules in orbit. The new move aims to provide assurance to customers in an evolving and innovative space ecosystem amid the growing threat of space debris, without being prohibitively expensive.

"By enabling insurance for the Arkisys Port Architecture flight elements (Cutter and Port Modules) in orbit, this partnership offers customers not just a new on-orbit commercial logistics domain but a proven method to safeguard their business investments and operations," David Barnhart, CEO and co-founder of Arkisys, said in a statement.

"We see this partnership as one of the key enablers for the new in-space circular economy to enable thousands of new customers to develop new commercial innovations in space," he added. "We are proud to host Odin's unique new technology that enables this next step in space commercialization."

Odin Space is working to predict and monitor dangerous sub-centimeter orbital debris, which can't be tracked from the ground. Even such tiny pieces can do serious damage: Space debris travels at orbital speeds of roughly 4.5 to 5 miles per second (7 to 8 kilometers per second), with relative collision velocities of up to 9.3 miles per second (15 km per second), meaning any impact with a spacecraft will be highly energetic and potentially mission-ending. Earlier this month. the company secured seed funding of $3 million from investors, boosting its plans to track and map debris threats with its Nano Sensors and Scout Satellites.

"Our partnership with Arkisys marks a pivotal shift in how the industry tackles the rising threat of lethal, non-trackable debris," James New, CEO and Co-founder of Odin Space, said in the same statement. "Equipping Arkisys spacecraft with Odin's Nano Sensors is the first move in a new era of safer, smarter, more sustainable space activity."

Odin Space carried out its first orbital space junk tracking system test in 2023, hitching a ride on SpaceX's Transporter 8 mission.

Even two years ago, right as it launched, we thought Frontiers of Pandora was a great game — not just worthy of the IP — but also a much-needed expansion of its themes and the rich, vibrant world. By putting the Na'vi at the very center of the story and exploring the matters of colonialism and cultural erasure up close (and without the many limits which come with a movie's runtime), Cameron's sci-fi universe gained an edge which the more demanding moviegoers had been looking for since 2009.

Time has been kind to Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Despite a softer-than-desirable (at least by Disney and Ubisoft's standards) launch in late 2023, the open-world game's many updates and story expansions have kept Pandoran diehards and curious players well-fed. Online, conversation gradually became more positive as more people gave it a chance. It's one of Ubisoft's more refreshing sandboxes in recent memory, and one thing about Avatar everyone can agree on is the beauty of its world, which was always the perfect fit for a gigantic action-adventure game.

There was, however, little hope that support would continue once its original roadmap was done, which is why the announcement of a much-requested third-person mode and an even bigger (paid) story DLC focusing on the Ash People came as a shock. The game was in pretty good shape, but after not quite finding an Avatar-sized audience, it was safe to assume no more Frontiers of Pandora was happening. Well, we're glad to be proven wrong on that one.

At its core, Massive Entertainment's (The Division, Star Wars Outlaws) game has all the key traits of Ubisoft's much-loved/derided open-world output: Massive maps, tons of side content to go through, a stunning level of attention to detail, and often disjointed (due to its sheer size) storytelling. Players who are all about more contained and linear experiences won't change their mind because of the setting, but if you love massive digital worlds where you can just get lost for hours and hours, it's a perfect fit.

What made (and still makes) Fronters of Pandora special is how it takes advantage of the property's uniqueness better than other big-budget video game adaptations. Na'vi don't control like beefier humans in similar games. Their strength, weight, agility, and even heightened perception are perfectly recreated, making the moment-to-moment fun of this blue power fantasy stand out even if you've spent time in Ubisoft's Far Cry and Assassin's Creed titles.

Pandora's dense jungles and wide plains, even after two years of remarkably beautiful AAA video games, still hold up as one of the top tech showcases of this game generation so far. By eschewing dull photorealism for highly detailed and otherworldly vistas that are even more saturated than their movie counterparts, Massive's work on Frontiers of Pandora is transportive on a level that few (if any) big-budget video game productions have been able to capture. Far too often, video game adaptations of dense sci-fi worlds on the big screen have only produced fancy set dressings for one-note adventures. Frontiers of Pandora, on the other hand, stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of them.

The conflict disrupting the peace of such soothing locales doesn't disappoint either. As the RDA's all-out invasion effort begins to take shape — and while Jake Sully and his family fight their own battle elsewhere — the Na'vi are facing trouble across several regions. It doesn't take long to see this is a war. A scattered one, sure, but an ongoing conflict that will reshape Pandora.

As the plot (no spoilers here) progresses, it becomes clearer that ignoring an existential threat doesn't make it go away. The Sullys learned this the hard way in The Way of Water, and this story doesn't shy away from the necessity of an armed revolution when an ontological evil comes knocking.

Video games have made a habit of presenting violence as the answer to all conflicts, as it translates so well into the medium. This can make it hard not to feel icky when you're playing a realistic rendition of modern (or past) war scenarios. However, gunning down hordes of zombies, Nazis, demons, and whatnot with prejudice? Perfectly okay. The evil must be cleansed. In Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora – much like in Cameron's anti-imperialist flicks – the same applies. Is humanity worth saving when it's turned against nature and would rather repeat past cycles of violence on a distant moon than learn from its mistakes? Probably, as the Na'vi clearly believe in redemption and empathy, but those who refuse to abandon their path of destruction and suffering must be dealt with.

The Na'vi are peaceful people – okay, maybe not the Eywa-hating Mangkwan – but they also know skewering Terran fascists with two-meter arrows could save Pandora. As for human rebels, they're probably even more okay with the idea of removing the RDA from the equation. After all, violence is historically one of our biggest exports. Unlike in other video games, the narrative and gameplay beats aren't at odds with themselves. Yes, Pandora is a pretty place, and living in harmony with nature rocks. But puny xenophobic humans won't ever see the light of Eywa? Also yes.

Ultimately, it all circles back to the earnestness of James Cameron's movies. While it's common to talk of (or dismiss) them as cheesy and tree-hugging to a fault, the reality is there's a dark side to all the colorful and family-friendly adventure.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora understands this quite well, and with the From the Ashes expansion promising to introduce Pandora's own gloomy people as the third movie does the same, things are only getting more serious and weighty for the blue humanoids.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is available for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. The new 'From the Ashes' DLC arrives today (December 19, 2025).

How much time? That depends on where you shop; Amazon, Walmart and many other retailers are still delivering in time for Christmas. Some will even let you order as late as December 23, for delivery on Christmas Eve. However, we wouldn't recommend you leave it that long. Aside from the fact that express shipping can cost extra, there's always the risk that a delivery will get unexpectedly delayed. So the sooner you order, the better.

That's where our guide to the best last-minute camera and lens deals comes in. We'll show you how to save serious money on photography gear, in time to capture December 27's first quarter moon.

Camera deals

If you're into astrophotography, or are thinking of getting into it, Christmas is a fantastic time to buy a camera and not just because of the savings on offer. The long nights also mean you'll have plenty of time to test your new gear out.

Aided by our experts, we've picked out the best last-minute deals on cameras, including major manufacturers like Sony, Canon and Nikon. Bear in mind that these deals are for the camera body only. So, if you don't already have a lens, look down the page where we delve into the best last-minute lens deals.

Camera lens deals

When it comes to photography, whether you're snapping the night sky or taking pictures at a wedding, the best camera lenses can make all the difference. And, while you can buy body/lens bundles, most serious cameras are sold as bodies, allowing you to pick a lens that suits your needs.

To that end, we have rounded up the best last-minute deals on camera lenses, from wide-angle to telephoto and beyond.

• We've got you covered with reviews and rankings of the best telescopes, binoculars, star projectors, cameras, drones, Lego, streaming and more.

For a fleeting moment on Nov. 26, the night sky above northern Italy delivered a spectacle so rare that even seasoned skywatchers might never witness it in a lifetime.

From his home in Possagno, nestled in the foothills of the Italian Alps, photographer Valter Binotto captured an image showing two of Earth's rarest phenomena, an elve and a sprite, appearing at the same time.

Elves and sprites belong to a family of electrical flashes known as Transient Luminous Events (TLEs), which occur high above thunderstorms rather than within them. While ordinary lightning strikes downward between clouds or toward the ground, TLEs ignite the thin air near the edge of space.

An elve appears as a vast ghostly red ring that can grow to be 300 miles (480 kilometers) across and last for less than a thousandth of a second, according to NOAA. They form when a powerful lightning strike sends an electromagnetic pulse upward into the ionosphere, causing nitrogen molecules to glow briefly in red light, according to NASA. Their fleeting nature makes them exceptionally difficult to photograph.

Sprites, by contrast, often resemble crimson jellyfish or branching tendrils rising above thunderstorms. They are the most commonly observed type of TLE, but they are still elusive, unpredictable and last only milliseconds. Projects like Spritacular invite photographers worldwide to document sprites and related phenomena to help scientists better understand how thunderstorms interact with Earth's upper atmosphere.

Catching either even on camera. Capturing both in a single frame is extraordinary. "This has been one of the most surprising and exciting photos I've ever taken," Binotto told Space.com in an email. "Elves are already very rare, and the double phenomenon even more so. I don't think there are similar photographs today."

To capture the image, Binotto used a Sony A7S with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. The photo is a frame taken from a video recorded at 25 frames per second.

Binotto is no stranger to chasing the impossible. This marks the third elve he has photographed from his home in Possagno, but the addition of a sprite takes his TLE photography to a whole new level.

If this rare sky spectacle has you feeling inspired to try capturing the night sky yourself, be sure to check out our guides to the best cameras for astrophotography and the best lenses for astrophotography.

Editor's Note: If you snap an interesting Earth or space photo and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers watched as the Virgil transformed before their eyes, revealing its monstrous nature and a supermassive black hole at its heart that is feeding on matter at an incredible rate. The black hole now appears far too massive for its host galaxy to support, placing it in a rare category of "overmassive" black holes that challenge leading models of how galaxies first formed and of how they nurture supermassive black holes at their cores, growing in lock step.

"[The] JWST has shown that our ideas about how supermassive black holes formed were pretty much completely wrong," co-team leader George Rieke, of the University of Arizona, said in a statement. "It looks like the black holes actually get ahead of the galaxies in a lot of cases. That's the most exciting thing about what we're finding."

Virgil belongs to a mysterious class of objects known as "Little Red Dots," galaxies that JWST has been discovering in large numbers around 600 million years after the Big Bang. These objects seem to disappear by the time the universe reaches an age of around 2 billion years. Quite what these galaxies are is a mystery, but the more puzzling question is why they disappeared around 1.6 billion years after they reached their largest population.

The study of Virgil could solve this twin dilemma by suggesting what form Little Red Dots may have transformed into, allowing us to identify their descendants in the modern universe.

The research also suggests that some terrifying cosmic monsters may be out in the universe, hiding in plain sight.

An infrared monster

Light comes in multiple wavelengths, which astronomers often use to reveal different characteristics about the same objects. The true nature of Virgil was only revealed when astronomers studied this galaxy in infrared light, invisible to the human eye, using the JWST's Mid-infrared Instrument (MIRI).

"Virgil has two personalities," Rieke explained. "The UV and optical show its 'good' side – a typical young galaxy quietly forming stars. But when MIRI data are added, Virgil transforms into the host of a heavily obscured supermassive black hole pouring out immense quantities of energy."

This violent side of Virgil had remained hidden in other wavelengths of light because its heart, where the ravenous supermassive black hole dwells, is shrouded in thick clouds of dust. This dust is very good at absorbing ultraviolet and visible light, but infrared light is able to give it the slip. That means viewing Virgil in infrared gives a more complete picture of what is happening at its core.

"MIRI basically lets us observe beyond what UV and optical wavelengths allow us to detect," team co-leader Pierluigi Rinaldi of the Space Telescope Science Institute said. "It's easy to observe stars because they light up and catch our attention. But there's something more than just stars, something that only MIRI can unveil."

The research may have wider implications for astronomers, suggesting there could be a whole population of dust-obscured supermassive black hole monsters out in the cosmos, which may have played a significant early role in the evolution of the universe.

As of yet, scientists aren't aware of any other cosmic monsters like Virgil roaming the early universe, but that could be because the way we study the cosmos allows them to fool us with their mild-mannered alter egos.

"Are we simply blind to its siblings because equally deep MIRI data have not yet been obtained over larger regions of the sky?" Rinaldi said. "JWST will have a fascinating tale to tell as it slowly strips away the disguises into a common narrative."

The team's research was published on Dec. 8 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Nearly five years into its mission on the Red Planet, the car-sized rover still has enough remaining capability to drive more than twice the distance it has already logged, mission scientists said Wednesday (Dec. 17) at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Louisiana. If all goes according to plan and nothing breaks, Perseverance could drive as much as 62 miles (100 kilometers) by the time its mission is over.

That estimate puts the six-wheeled robot on track to surpass the current distance record of 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers), set by NASA's Opportunity rover after more than 14 years of exploration on Mars before a monster dust storm ended its mission in 2018. Perseverance is "in excellent shape," Steve Lee, the rover's deputy project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, told reporters at the conference.

Lee said engineering tests completed over the summer certified that the rotary actuators used to steer Perseverance's wheels can operate optimally for at least another 37 miles (60 kilometers). Since touching down inside Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, the rover has already traveled about 25 miles (40 kilometers), according to NASA. "It just turned out to add up to a nice even 100 kilometers," Lee said.

Perseverance was originally tested and certified to drive a total of just 12 miles (20 kilometers). Its extended durability reflects lessons learned from Curiosity, its predecessor, whose wheels accumulated an increasing number of dings and punctures after encountering terrain sharper and more rugged than anticipated. That led engineers to design Perseverance's wheels for even tougher conditions, making them larger in diameter and giving them twice as many treads as Curiosity's, Lee said.

"That is proving to play out very well," Lee added. The rover's wheels, he said, "are in fantastic shape" with no known punctures or tears.

Since its wheels-down landing in Jezero Crater — the remnant of a massive impact about 3.9 billion years ago that was later home to a large lake and river delta — Perseverance has drilled and cached rock samples in its search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover has since climbed more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) up the crater's inner wall and onto the rim, exploring new terrain.

Along the way, Perseverance found one of its most intriguing targets yet — an arrowhead-shaped rock nicknamed Cheyava Falls that contains chemical signatures and structures scientists say could have formed through processes associated with microbial life billions of years ago, when Mars was much wetter than it is today.

In a paper published Dec. 17 in the journal Science, scientists report results from the crater's "Margin Unit," where Perseverance collected samples rich in the mineral olivine. This olivine likely formed at high temperatures deep within the Red Planet until being later exposed at the surface, where it interacted with water from Jezero's long-gone lake and with carbon dioxide in Mars' early atmosphere.

Those interactions produced carbonate minerals, which can preserve chemical signatures of past environments and potentially of biological activity, scientists say.

"This combination of olivine and carbonate was a major factor in the choice to land at Jezero Crater," study lead author Ken Williford of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science in Washington said in NASA's statement. "These minerals are powerful recorders of planetary evolution and the potential for life."

As Perseverance moves beyond the crater's rim, scientists hope to collect additional olivine-rich samples and compare them with those gathered from the Margin Unit.

The rover currently carries six unused sample tubes, and at least two tubes contain samples that have been collected but not yet sealed, meaning they could be replaced if more compelling targets emerge, Lee said.

That flexibility may prove important as the rover pushes into new terrain. This week, the rover is expected to reach a site nicknamed Lac de Charmes, just beyond the rim of Jezero Crater, where ancient rocks appear to be more intact — and potentially more revealing of early Martian geological processes — than those closer to the crater, Briony Horgan of Purdue University in Indiana who co-authored the new Science paper, told reporters on Wednesday.

Perseverance captured this panoramic view that includes Lac de Charmes, where it will look to collect additional samples next year. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

Scientists are eager to bring Perseverance's haul — the 10 sample tubes dropped onto the crater floor in 2023 — back to laboratories on Earth, but their return remains uncertain as NASA's troubled Mars Sample Return program languishes in limbo.

That uncertainty has not altered Perseverance's near-term science plans, Lee said. The mission team is working with NASA headquarters to finalize the rover's next 2.5 years of exploration, extending through most of 2028, he said, with no current plans to deposit additional sample tubes beyond those already awaiting potential pickup.

The team is also beginning to explore how artificial intelligence might assist mission operations and data analysis. Lee described AI as "an exciting emerging capability," particularly for identifying long-term trends in the rover's growing data archive, and potentially helping develop short-term activity plans.

"We still are at that stage where we want to make sure to do that very carefully," Lee said.

Any AI-assisted plans would still undergo the same rigorous simulations and human oversight as traditional command sequences, he said, "to make sure any plans that are developed are going to make sense and are safe."

When asked how long Perseverance may last on Mars, Lee said the rover carries no consumables, such as propellant, that would impose a hard end to the mission. A NASA assessment of the rover's subsystems predicts that Perseverance could continue operating through at least 2031.

The primary life-limiting factor for the rover is its radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which generates electricity from the heat released by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238 and gradually produces less power over time. That will require more conservative operations, Lee said, likening it to a phone charging more slowly on a weaker power source.

"We'll start seeing that and have to adjust our appetites in operations," Lee said. In the meantime, "there is a lot to keep us busy."

At the time of writing, we haven't seen what The Lego Group and other toymakers have prepared for Avatar: Fire and Ash, but we aim to update this list of our favorite Lego Avatar sets with the latest as they're announced and set to hit the market. Mind you, there are plenty of stunning scenes from the first two movies worth recreating in detail with colorful bricks and cute minifigures. Even Col. Miles Quaritch is adorable when turned into a Lego.

We've also rounded up the best Lego Marvel and Star Wars sets money can buy, as well as the best Lego space sets, including NASA replicas, STEM kits and stunning art you can build, which are worth looking at, too.

From futuristic vehicles perfect for hard Sci-Fi lovers to the more whimsical flora and fauna of Pandora, James Cameron's massive series has received several awesome Lego builds so far, so let us show you our favorites and where you can grab them before they're gone forever.

Lego Avatar — Toruk Makto & Tree of Souls

The only flying creature on Pandora (that we know of) that banshees fear is the great leonopteryx (Toruk), and that rare aerial predator translates into a beautiful figure that also comes with an excellent diorama of a Na'vi congregation around the mighty Tree of Souls. Of course, Jake is riding the Toruk, thus becoming the Toruk Makto, who can bring the Na'vi peoples together against the human invaders.

If we had to pick a single Avatar set to gift to a huge fan of James Cameron's movies, it'd be this one. It packs everything you'd want out of a Lego Avatar box: iconic fauna and flora (there's even a direhorse), plenty of Na'vi and enough environmental chunks to display the whole thing in a satisfactory manner without the need for extra sets.

The two highlights are how flexible and intricate the Toruk build is, and how gorgeous the Tree of Souls ends up being (especially if you use adequate lighting to make it pop) thanks to the glow-in-the-dark elements. The substantially higher piece count and age recommendation underlines how this one's aimed at older fans, but if your children enjoy a good challenge, why shouldn't you dive into it with them?

Lego Avatar: The Way of Water — Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit

Though the Payakan the Tulkun & Crabsuit Lego set, which brings to life some of the main players of Avatar: The Way of Water's final act, isn't the most complex or cheap build (it's technically retired, but stock is still being sold by some stores), it's clearly a must for Tulkun fans. Kids who loved the surprising side character that Payakan turned out to be won't let go of the completed figure either.

The set also includes a human Crabsuit driver inside the mech-like build, and Lo'ak and Tsireya complete the recreation of one of the movie's latter scenes. Though they didn't take advantage of the opportunity to craft a cohesive diorama with this one, the two bits of underwater terrain and flora that come with it work well if used alongside other Way of Water sets we're about to recommend.

Of course, the main reason anyone will grab this one is Payakan, and the whale-like alien doesn't disappoint in its brickified form. The main twist here is that he's fully posable and can be elegantly displayed with a custom stand, so this isn't a rushed package designed only for the youngest fans.

The Way of Water — Metkayina Reef Home

A perfect set to pair with the Payakan one is the Metkayina Reef Home box, which includes four Na'vi characters — Neytiri, Kiri, Ronal and Tonowari — a striking Metkayina clan dwelling, a canoe and the flora and terrain that elevate it above the water. This one's heavy on little accessories and small details, too; those objects and Pandora's fish are perfect for more complex custom builds.

While the official description doesn't shy away from the fact that it's primarily targeted at kids who want to relive scenes from the first Avatar sequel, it also states it was really designed with 'play and display' in mind. Considering how rickety these smaller and more detailed Lego sets can be, it feels like a perfect candidate to carefully set up and embellish alongside other oceanic sets, like the Payakan one we just recommended.

Notice the piece count is also lower, which makes it an easier recommendation for children who haven't crossed the 10-year barrier, as long as you're happy to help assemble the more delicate parts. In our experience, these mid-sized sets can be very deceiving. Regardless, the guide that comes with it and the digital LEGO Builder app will put anyone on the right track.

Lego Avatar — Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch

As part of Avatar's first push into Lego, we also received the Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch set, which focused on letting kids and fans build and display (or play with) the main players of the final duel of the original movie.

The Thanator is among everyone's favorite creature designs from Avatar, so it came as no surprise that creators approached it with reverence to craft a pretty sweet posable figure.

Neytiri can also be used alongside or on top of the Thanator. She has her lethal bow and is ready to strike down villain Col. Miles Quaritch, who's still a human at this point, but has jumped into an imposing mech (AMP) suit with weapons of its own. In a way, this Lego set perfectly captures the two colliding aesthetics of the Avatar movies: Pandora's colorful but deadly organisms and the RDA's striking, advanced and chunky technology.

The downside is that the set is light on environmental extras that can enhance the scene if you're going for a diorama build. We like the design on those colorful plants, but we would've celebrated something more ambitious when it comes to representing the location of the scene.

Lego Avatar — Jake & Neytiri’s First Banshee Flight

There's something that's particularly enchanting about the Ikran (banshees) across all the Avatar movies. The wyvern-like flying reptiles sport eye-catching colors and Na'vi use them as their go-to air mounts. The bond between a rider and their banshee doesn't break, and chances are your bond with this two-figure set won't either.

Jake's first flight remains one of the most memorable scenes of the movie series, full of epic thrills and some hints of the approaching romance. Traditional Sci-Fi moviemaking at its finest. This set perfectly captures that freeing sense of wonder with two Ikrans, the accompanying riders (Jake and Neytiri) and a big-enough rock formation to place both of the creatures on. The full thing can be assembled together, perfect to be displayed out of the box (once you're done building it).

At the same time, given the completed banshees' size and the pterodactyl-like features, this set is an easy win with young ones, who will no doubt spend hours running around the house, recreating Jake and Neytiri's first flight together. This is what Lego has always been all about.

Lego Avatar — Floating Mountains: Site 26 & RDA Samson

Last but not least, we're wrapping the list up (for now) with the Site 26 & RDA Samson set, which works perfectly in tandem with the Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit one we also recommend. If you remember (time to rewatch the original movie if not), the final duel in Avatar took place right next to the Site 26 mobile link station, with Jake Sully's human form also in the mix. We think the other (otherwise excellent) set was a bit dry when it came to environmental extras, so this one's the perfect companion if you have the extra money.

But of course, you'll be eyeing this one because of its unambitious but perfect rendition of the iconic SA-2 Samson helicopter, taken away from the RDA by Jake's allies. It can also be placed on a natural-looking build with glow-in-the-dark elements, so you don't have to just leave it placed on a flat surface next to Site 26 and the minifigures. Overall, this unassuming but varied package works well on its own, but also adds to the Neytiri vs. Quaritch set, making them an ideal combo pick, especially if you manage to catch a good deal.

Looking at other Lego Avatar sets, this one also hits a sweet spot between the complex build process of the top-notch ones and the more kid-friendly boxes that may not be as enticing on their own. We know it's light on Pandoran flora and fauna, but don't let it fly under your radar.