The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has called on the Conservatives to maintain the cross-party consensus on gender identity services built before the last election in a letter to Kemi Badenoch.

Streeting wrote to opposition leader on Friday urging her to “take the heat and the ideology” out of debate amid controversy over a puberty blocker trial for children.

Both parties committed to implementing the recommendations of a report by the leading paediatrician Hilary Cass focused on gender identity services for under 18s in England, published in April 2024 when the Conservatives were in government. Cass recommended a puberty blocker trial as part of a wider research programme and supported a more “holistic” approach to care.

Badenoch and the shadow health secretary, Stuart Andrew, wrote to Streeting on 25 November, however, saying they were concerned NHS England was supporting a clinical trial involving drugs that halted natural puberty.

Cass found “remarkably weak” evidence the drugs were effective in treating gender-related distress, adding that there was no good evidenceon long-term outcomes.

She has said a trial is the only way forward in the attempt to understand if there are beneficial effects. The government has since banned the treatment for children outside clinical trials.

The new trial will study the effects of puberty blockers on more than 200 children presenting with gender identity conditions as part of a wider research project on possible treatment pathways. The £10.7m study is being carried out by researchers at King’s College London.

Streeting’s intervention came despite admitting he is “deeply uncomfortable” about medication which affects “a natural part of our human development”.

Puberty blockers stop the body from producing certain hormones, including oestrogen and testosterone. They were traditionally prescribed to children who entered puberty too early, but were later given to young people diagnosed with gender dysphoria and incongruence.

Badenoch and Andrew told Streeting the trial was based on the “discredited, yet still seemingly entrenched, belief in some quarters that a child can be ‘born in the wrong body’ or go through the ‘wrong’ puberty and a normal puberty can be ‘paused’ without causing irreparable harm to children”. They cited infertility and loss of sexual function as possible side effects.

Streeting expressed his own doubts about the trial in an LBC interview on Friday. “There’s something about the opposition to this. Medication that delays or indeed stops a natural part of our human development, which is puberty, I am deeply uncomfortable with,” he said.

He said, however, that he planned to follow clinical advice to go ahead with the trial. “It’s gone through rounds and rounds of ethical approvals to approve this kind of study. So that’s the basis on which we are proceeding,” he said.

In responding to Badenoch and Andrew, Streeting said some children were going to great lengths to source puberty blockers despite the ban and that gender incongruence was a “real and internationally recognised disorder”, but that the condition was distinct from “girls and boys experimenting with gender norms, which for many children is a normal part of growing up”.

“Only a clinical trial (and longer term follow up) can isolate which outcomes can be ascribed to these treatments, supporting evidence-based decisions for future care,” he said.

He also said the cross-party consensus on the Cass review when it was published last year was “a key moment for taking some of the heat out of what is an extremely sensitive issue without stifling debate, where the wellbeing and safety of children must remain paramount”.

“Dr Cass said, on publishing her review, that ‘toxic, ideological and polarised public debate has made the work of the review significantly harder’ and it will hamper the research that is essential to finding a way forward,” he said.

“It is incumbent on us as public representatives to take the heat and the ideology out of this issue, and make sure that children’s health is always led by evidence and medical expertise.”

Badenoch and Andrew said in their letter to Streeting that the trial would have no proper control group “creating obvious bias”.

In his reply, Streeting said that was incorrect and that a group of young people not in receipt of puberty blockers would also be studied by researchers. He said these children would be “compared to trial participants with respect to outcomes”.

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Scientists working with the James Webb Space Telescope discovered three unusual astronomical objects in early 2025, which may be examples of dark stars. The concept of dark stars has existed for some time and could alter scientists’ understanding of how ordinary stars form. However, their name is somewhat misleading.

“Dark stars” is one of those unfortunate names that, on the surface, does not accurately describe the objects it represents. Dark stars are not exactly stars, and they are certainly not dark.

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Still, the name captures the essence of this phenomenon. The “dark” in the name refers not to how bright these objects are, but to the process that makes them shine — driven by a mysterious substance called dark matter. The sheer size of these objects makes it difficult to classify them as stars.

As a physicist, I’ve been fascinated by dark matter, and I’ve been trying to find a way to see its traces using particle accelerators. I’m curious whether dark stars could provide an alternative method to find dark matter.

What makes dark matter dark?

Dark matter, which makes up approximately 27% of the universe but cannot be directly observed, is a key idea behind the phenomenon of dark stars. Astrophysicists have studied this mysterious substance for nearly a century, yet we haven’t seen any direct evidence of it besides its gravitational effects. So, what makes dark matter dark?

Humans primarily observe the universe by detecting electromagnetic waves emitted by or reflected off various objects. For instance, the moon is visible to the naked eye because it reflects sunlight. Atoms on the moon’s surface absorb photons – the particles of light – sent from the sun, causing electrons within atoms to move and send some of that light toward us.

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More advanced telescopes detect electromagnetic waves beyond the visible spectrum, such as ultraviolet, infrared or radio waves. They use the same principle: Electrically charged components of atoms react to these electromagnetic waves. But how can they detect a substance – dark matter – that not only has no electric charge but also has no electrically charged components?

Although scientists don’t know the exact nature of dark matter, many models suggest that it is made up of electrically neutral particles – those without an electric charge. This trait makes it impossible to observe dark matter in the same way that we observe ordinary matter.

Dark matter is thought to be made of particles that are their own antiparticles. Antiparticles are the “mirror” versions of particles. They have the same mass but opposite electric charge and other properties. When a particle encounters its antiparticle, the two annihilate each other in a burst of energy.

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If dark matter particles are their own antiparticles, they would annihilate upon colliding with each other, potentially releasing large amounts of energy. Scientists predict that this process plays a key role in the formation of dark stars, as long as the density of dark matter particles inside these stars is sufficiently high. The dark matter density determines how often dark matter particles encounter, and annihilate, each other. If the dark matter density inside dark stars is high, they would annihilate frequently.

What makes a dark star shine?

The concept of dark stars stems from a fundamental yet unresolved question in astrophysics: How do stars form? In the widely accepted view, clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium — the chemical elements formed in the first minutes after the Big Bang, approximately 13.8 billion years ago — collapsed under gravity. They heated up and initiated nuclear fusion, which formed heavier elements from the hydrogen and helium. This process led to the formation of the first generation of stars.

In the standard view of star formation, dark matter is seen as a passive element that merely exerts a gravitational pull on everything around it, including primordial hydrogen and helium. But what if dark matter had a more active role in the process? That’s exactly the question a group of astrophysicists raised in 2008.

In the dense environment of the early universe, dark matter particles would collide with, and annihilate, each other, releasing energy in the process. This energy could heat the hydrogen and helium gas, preventing it from further collapse and delaying, or even preventing, the typical ignition of nuclear fusion.

The outcome would be a starlike object — but one powered by dark matter heating instead of fusion. Unlike regular stars, these dark stars might live much longer because they would continue to shine as long as they attracted dark matter. This trait would make them distinct from ordinary stars, as their cooler temperature would result in lower emissions of various particles.

What could dark matter be made of? (Image credit: HyeongHan et al/Robert Lea)

Can we observe dark stars?

Several unique characteristics help astronomers identify potential dark stars. First, these objects must be very old. As the universe expands, the frequency of light coming from objects far away from Earth decreases, shifting toward the infrared end of the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning it gets “redshifted.” The oldest objects appear the most redshifted to observers.

Since dark stars form from primordial hydrogen and helium, they are expected to contain little to no heavier elements, such as oxygen. They would be very large and cooler on the surface, yet highly luminous because their size — and the surface area emitting light — compensates for their lower surface brightness.

They are also expected to be enormous, with radii of about tens of astronomical units — a cosmic distance measurement equal to the average distance between Earth and the sun. Some supermassive dark stars are theorized to reach masses of roughly 10,000 to 10 million times that of the sun, depending on how much dark matter and hydrogen or helium gas they can accumulate during their growth.

So, have astronomers observed dark stars? Possibly. Data from the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed some very high-redshift objects that seem brighter — and possibly more massive — than what scientists expect of typical early galaxies or stars. These results have led some researchers to propose that dark stars might explain these objects.

The James Webb Space Telescope may have detected some dark stars. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Northrop Grumman)

Dark stars may explain early black holes

What happens when a dark star runs out of dark matter? It depends on the size of the dark star. For the lightest dark stars, the depletion of dark matter would mean gravity compresses the remaining hydrogen, igniting nuclear fusion. In this case, the dark star would eventually become an ordinary star, so some stars may have begun as dark stars.

Supermassive dark stars are even more intriguing. At the end of their lifespan, a dead supermassive dark star would collapse directly into a black hole. This black hole could start the formation of a supermassive black hole, like the kind astronomers observe at the centers of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.

Dark stars might also explain how supermassive black holes formed in the early universe. They could shed light on some unique black holes observed by astronomers. For example, a black hole in the galaxy UHZ-1 has a mass approaching 10 million solar masses, and is very old – it formed just 500 million years after the Big Bang. Traditional models struggle to explain how such massive black holes could form so quickly.

The idea of dark stars is not universally accepted. These dark star candidates might still turn out just to be unusual galaxies. Some astrophysicists argue that matter accretion — a process in which massive objects pull in surrounding matter — alone can produce massive stars, and that studies using observations from the James Webb telescope cannot distinguish between massive ordinary stars and less dense, cooler dark stars.

Researchers emphasize that they will need more observational data and theoretical advancements to solve this mystery.

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While diving off the coast of Egypt, underwater archaeologists found the 2,000-year-old remains of a boat that may have been a luxurious “pleasure barge” for the ancient elite.

The team discovered the barge in the ancient harbor of Alexandria, the capital of Egypt during the Ptolemaic period (304 to 30 B.C.) and a major city when the Roman Empire later dominated the region.

The wreck consists of several well-preserved timbers, about 90 feet (28 meters) long, from a barge that had been about 115 feet (35 m) long and 22 feet (7 m) wide, according to a statement from French underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio. He thinks it was a “thalamagos” (also spelled “thalamegos”), a Greek word that literally means “cabin carrier” and was used to describe Ptolemaic Egypt’s floating palaces.

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Goddio said his team discovered the remains of the vessel in October, during underwater excavations of now-sunken ruins of a Temple of Isis. The temple once sat on the island of Antirhodos, which now lies underwater, and was within the “Portus Magnus,” or Great Harbor, used at Alexandria during the Ptolemaic period. The temple there was destroyed, probably during an earthquake in about A.D. 50, and the island sank beneath the waves between the fourth and the eighth centuries.

Goddio thinks the pleasure barge would have carried a luxuriously decorated central cabin and been propelled by oars. No remains of such a vessel have ever been found, although they were described by ancient writers and portrayed in Egyptian art.

The researchers have made a 3D model of the wreck from precise digital photographs.  (Image credit: Christoph Gerigk ©Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation)

Giant pleasure barges were popular during the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt and were described by the first-century-B.C. Greek geographer Strabo as ferrying the wealthy between choice spots: “… they hold feasts in cabin-boats in which they enter the thick of the cyami [Egyptian lotuses that grow in fresh water] and the shade of the leaves.”

In Strabo’s time, Alexandria was under direct Roman control — an ancient regime change that began at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., when naval forces commanded by Roman leader Octavian (later Augustus) defeated the navy of Cleopatra VII (the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty) and her lover, the Roman rebel Mark Antony.

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Exactly how the newfound vessel ended up by the island of Antirhodos is unclear.

“This intriguing shipwreck could have been used along the canals in Alexandria as Strabo described,” Goddio said in the statement. But it was found near the underwater ruins of the Temple of Isis on Antirhodos and may have been caught up in the destruction there.

A map of the Great Harbor at Alexandria showing (in red) the areas excavated by the researchers. Antirhodos was southwest of the harbor’s center. It sank, along with many other parts of the ancient harbor, between the fourth and the eighth centuries. (Image credit: Franck Goddio ©IEASM)

As a result, the researchers suggested “a ritual use for this barge,” Goddio said. It may have been part of the “navigatio iside,” a naval ceremony held in Roman-era Alexandria when a procession celebrating Isis carried a richly decorated vessel called the “Navigium” through the streets. The mock-up boat represented the solar barque that the Egyptian gods used to navigate across the heavens. (Isis was the goddess of the sea.)

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That, in turn, could mean that “this vessel was performing a yearly ritual voyage of the goddess from the Portus Magnus of Alexandria to the sanctuary of Osiris at Canopus, alongside the Canopic Channel” of the Nile, Goddio said.

The vessel is a “spectacular find,” said Timmy Gambin, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Malta whose research covers ancient vessels as well as wartime wrecks. However, it has not yet been scientifically determined if the vessel is actually a thalamagos, said Gambin, who was not involved in the discovery.

“It is yet early days to determine exactly what the vessel was used for,” he told Live Science in an email.

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A composite view of the Geminid meteor shower taken from Arizona in the United States. (Image credit: Alan Dyer/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)

The Geminid meteor shower peaks overnight tonight (Dec. 13-14), bringing with it the potential for a breathtaking display of shooting stars as Earth barrels through the debris trail shed by comet 3200 Phaethon.

Up to 150 Geminid meteors may brighten the night sky each hour as the shower hits its peak on Dec. 13-14, according to the American Meteor Society (AMS), though the number you’ll actually see will depend on your viewing conditions and the time at which you go hunting for the cosmic visitors.

Shooting stars appear when particles from ancient comets and asteroids collide with Earth’s atmosphere, burning up in a magnificent display that can be easily visible to the naked eye. A particle no larger than a grain of sand has the potential to create a beautiful, short-lived meteor, while larger fragments that can exceed 1 meter (3 feet) in size create magnificent “fireballs”, which can blaze brighter than the planet Venus during their passage through the night sky.

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How to see Geminid meteors

Geminid meteors appear to travel from a point of origin, or radiant, located close to the bright star Castor in the constellation Gemini, which rises above the Northern Hemisphere’s eastern horizon in the hours following sunset on Dec. 13. It is from this constellation that the shower gets its name.

It will be possible to see Geminid meteors as soon as darkness falls and the radiant is above the horizon, though only a few meteors will be visible during this early period passing low in the northern and southern sky, heading westward. “The few meteors that do appear at this time are special in the fact that they just skim the atmosphere rather than penetrate deeply,” said meteor expert Robert Lunsford in a post detailing observing tactics on the AMS website. “This allows them to last for several seconds rather than the normal sub-second duration.”

A composite view of Geminid meteors captured from the top of Niubei Mountain in the Sichuan Province of China. (Image credit: CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

A greater number of meteors will become visible after 10 p.m. local time, when up to 30 Geminids may be seen under dark sky conditions as the radiant soars higher in the autumn sky.

To see meteors with the longest trails, first locate the radiant by finding Castor with a smartphone astronomy app. If you need help finding it, you can first look for the planet Jupiter, which can be seen shining brightly in the constellation Gemini throughout December. Next, stake out a patch of sky 30-40 degrees above Castor, where the trails of shooting stars will be at their longest. Remember, the width of your clenched first accounts for approximately 10 degrees of sky, so this would be about three or four hand widths above Jupiter.

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A red flashlight, warm clothing, a hot drink and a comfortable chair are useful during a night of meteor-hunting. (Image credit: Created in Canva by Daisy Dobrijevic)

Nikon Z8

(Image credit: Jason Parnell-Brookes)

Want to capture the natural splendor of the Geminid meteor shower for yourself? We rate the Nikon Z8 as the best overall camera out there! Be sure to check out our Nikon Z8 review for a more in-depth look at its capabilities.

“As each hour passes, hourly rates will increase reaching maximum near 2 a.m.,” continued Lunsford. “At this hour expect to see up to 60 Geminid meteors from dark rural sites.” Things will get a little trickier when the 25%-lit waning crescent moon rises around 2 a.m. local time. Thankfully, it will still be possible to see many shooting stars brightening the sky around this time by keeping the lunar disk out of your field of view.

When hunting meteors, It’s best to allow 30 minutes to allow your eyes to fully adapt to the dark and to use a red light where possible to preserve your night vision. Remember to dress warmly to make the experience enjoyable, and try to take a reclining chair or sleeping bag that will allow you to lie back and take in as much sky as possible in a comfortable position.

Photographers interested in capturing the shower should read our guide to imaging meteor showers, while those looking to upgrade their gear should read our roundups of the best astrophotography lenses and cameras for capturing the night sky.

Editor’s Note: If you capture an image of a Geminid shooting star and want to share your astrophotography with Space.com’s readers, then please send your photo(s), comments, name and location to spacephotos@space.com.

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Around 6,200 years ago, a teenage boy survived a brutal lion attack in what is now Bulgaria — although deep holes in the youngster’s skull suggest his brain was badly damaged, a new study finds.

The 16- to-18-year-old may have been hunting when he encountered the lion (Panthera leo), according to the study, which was published Nov. 30 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Lions roamed what is now Eastern Europe in the Copper Age (4500 to 3500 B.C.), and cut marks on lion bones from prehistoric settlements on the Black Sea coast suggest humans occasionally ate them.

“The skull shows a specific pattern of puncture and compressive injuries that are inconsistent with human-made weapons or postmortem damage,” study lead author Nadezhda Karastoyanova, an archaeozoologist at the National Museum of Natural History of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (NMNH-BAS), told Live Science in an email. “The size, shape, depth, and spacing of the defects are compatible with trauma produced by the bite of a very large carnivore.”

To work out which carnivore was responsible for the attack, the researchers examined various skulls in the NMNH-BAS collection, including lion and bear skulls. Using a special moulding process, they compared different tooth imprints to those found on the teenager’s skull. The team also considered the distribution of large carnivores during the Copper Age and found the most likely culprit was a lion.

Prehistoric evidence of lion attacks on humans is extremely rare, but what makes this case even more exceptional is that the teenager survived the initial trauma, Karastoyanova said. There are clear signs of healing on the youngster’s skull, suggesting he received medical care after the attack. However, the stage of healing is not very advanced — only two or three months along — so it appears the teenager succumbed to his wounds.

The lion attack likely left the teenager with severe brain injuries. (Image credit: Karastoyanova et al. (2025), Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports; CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

One wound in particular looks like it may have damaged the teenager’s meninges — the membranes that line the inside of the skull — leaving the integrity of his brain in a “questionable” state, according to the study.

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The youngster’s legs and left arm also sustained deep wounds, possibly damaging his muscles and tendon attachments, Karastoyanova said. “Because the individual was seriously impaired as a result of these injuries, yet survived for a considerable period, it is highly likely that they received care and assistance from others in the community,” she said.

The teenager was buried near a prehistoric settlement called Kozareva Mogila, or “Goat Mound,” in eastern Bulgaria. Previous discoveries indicate that the inhabitants of Kozareva Mogila tried to treat diseases and performed surgeries on the skulls of living and dead individuals. This suggests they had some level of medical knowledge that may have helped the teenager survive after the attack.

But the youngster likely retained deep scars on his head, arms and legs that changed his appearance considerably, according to the study. He probably needed support for everyday movements, meaning he couldn’t do physical labor such as farming, and his neurological functions may have been severely impaired.

Archaeologists found the teenager buried in a crouched position with his hands in front of his face. Measurements indicate he was about 5 feet, 9 inches (175 centimeters) tall. No grave goods were found next to his skeleton, and his burial was deep compared with others at Kozareva Mogila, suggesting he had a low social status and was feared by his community after the attack.

“His individual life experience, possible intimidating behaviour and appearance could have made him an extraordinary and dangerous dead [person], demanding deeper deposition,” the researchers wrote in the study.

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Usually, we get tattoos on purpose. But some injuries leave us with a different type of mark known as a “traumatic tattoo” — and these tattoos have nothing to do with needles or ink. So what exactly are traumatic tattoos?

Traumatic tattoos are formed when everyday materials, like graphite, dirt or gravel; or metal pieces, like shrapnel, become lodged beneath our skin, leaving a visible (and often long-lasting) mark.

“It’s when foreign particles like dirt, asphalt, metal, sand, etc become embedded into the skin’s … dermis,” Dr. Mara Weinstein Velez, a dermatologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, told Live Science in an email. “And it happens more often than you’d think! Events like car accidents, scrapes and falls can cause this.”

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These residual marks don’t always cause pain or even discomfort in the long term, but their appearances can last a lifetime. While some are born from truly traumatic events, like a motorcycle crash that ends in road rash, leaving gravel or asphalt trapped under the skin, or a gunshot wound that isn’t fully cleaned, others originate from common experiences, like the poke of a pencil in an elementary school classroom.

Sometimes the material itself becomes unlodged naturally over time, and sometimes it travels nearby within the body. For instance, one child had a pencil lead in their hand travel to their wrist. But in these cases, particles sometimes remain at the original entry spot, which is why a dark-colored scar can be left behind, under the skin.

Although the presence of an old traumatic tattoo isn’t necessarily harmful or worthy of a trip to the doctor on its own, experts say it’s best to seek medical advice when you’re first wounded. The biggest risk is usually the possibility of infection, as harmful bacteria can enter the body along with the foreign object. However, surgery may also become necessary if the object has migrated under the skin to a more risk-prone location or if it has become uncomfortable. Always consult a doctor if you experience this type of injury.

Traumatic tattoos can occur when foreign particles, like graphite from pencils, get trapped in our skin’s dermis layer. (Image credit: seamartini/Getty Images)

“It’s very important to seek medical help right away to avoid infection, since it is a foreign object,” Weinstein Velez said. “Treatments like minor surgeries, laser and dermabrasion can help safely remove the foreign matter from the skin.”

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People who work in physically demanding industries, like mining and construction, are more likely to develop traumatic tattoos in the workplace, as they’re exposed to fast-moving foreign materials like silt and rock more often during their day-to-day life.

But the traumatic tattoos we’re perhaps more familiar with are small, barely noticeable scars from pencils. Pencils are made with graphite, which is a soft mineral held together with clay and wax, and is considered nontoxic and safe. However, “a doctor will probably need to see deep stab wounds that go further than the skin and any that are close to the eyes,” according to Missouri Poison Control.

Traumatic tattoos also appear frequently in the military, often from the enmeshment of gunpowder and ammunition under service members’ skin after explosions or gunshots — and even during weapon malfunctions during live drills, as seen in one study conducted by researchers with the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Womack Army Medical Center in North Carolina.

Even if not otherwise treated, traumatic tattoos can be addressed from a cosmetic standpoint. To disguise or cover these marks, dermatologists employ the same types of lasers that are typically used to remove professional tattoos, matching the color of the trapped pigment to the appropriate wavelength of light. The pigment fragments into smaller pieces when targeted by these lasers. However, because some tattoo colors are able to absorb a wider range of wavelengths than others, meaning they can be broken into even smaller particles that the immune system can then target, dermatologists use different tools on different marks depending on color and placement.

The laser “breaks up the pigment, and then your body’s immune cells, called macrophages, clear out the pigments,” said Dr. Anna A. Bar, a professor of dermatology and co-director of Mohs micrographic surgery at Oregon Health and Science University. “It’s not an instant result — you have to wait like a month for the tattoo to fade.”

Even though a traumatic tattoo may take time and multiple sessions to address, because there is usually less pigment involved, “they’re often easier to remove than professional tattoos,” she added. “Usually, it’s a bit easier to remove amateur tattoos or traumatic tattoos.”

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

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One of SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites just dodged a bullet in orbit.

That bullet was one of the nine spacecraft that launched atop a Chinese Kinetica 1 rocket on Tuesday (Dec. 9) from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. It zoomed dangerously close to a Starlink satellite, according to SpaceX, which was none too pleased with the close shave.

“As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200-meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude. Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators — this needs to change,” Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, said via X on Friday evening (Dec. 12).

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Kinetica 1 is a 100-foot-tall (30 meters) solid-fuel rocket operated by CAS Space. The company, which is based in Guangzhou, responded to Nicolls’ post, saying that it did its due diligence as the launch services provider (LSP) but is looking into the incident nonetheless.

“Our team is currently in contact for more details. All CAS Space launches select their launch windows using the ground-based space awareness system to avoid collisions with known satellites/debris. This is a mandatory procedure. We will work on identifying the exact details and provide assistance as the LSP,” CAS Space said via X on Friday night.

Tuesday’s Kinetica 1 launch lofted “six Chinese multifunctional satellites, an Earth-observation satellite for the UAE [United Arab Emirates}, a scientific satellite for Egypt and an educational satellite for Nepal,” according to China Daily. Nicolls’ post did not specify which of these spacecraft zoomed close to the Starlink satellite.

The coordination that Nicolls cited is becoming more and more important, for Earth orbit is getting more and more crowded. In 2020, for example, fewer than 3,400 functional satellites were whizzing around our planet. Just five years later, that number has soared to about 13,000, and more spacecraft are going up all the time.

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Most of them belong to SpaceX. The company currently operates nearly 9,300 Starlink satellites, more than 3,000 of which have launched this year alone.

Starlink satellites avoid potential collisions autonomously, maneuvering themselves away from conjunctions predicted by available tracking data. And this sort of evasive action is quite common: Starlink spacecraft performed about 145,000 avoidance maneuvers in the first six months of 2025, which works out to around four maneuvers per satellite per month.

That’s an impressive record. But many other spacecraft aren’t quite so capable, and even Starlink satellites can be blindsided by spacecraft whose operators don’t share their trajectory data, as Nicolls noted.

And even a single collision — between two satellites, or involving pieces of space junk, which are plentiful in Earth orbit as well — could spawn a huge cloud of debris, which could cause further collisions. Indeed, the nightmare scenario, known as the Kessler syndrome, is a debris cascade that makes it difficult or impossible to operate satellites in parts of the final frontier.

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It has been an exciting week in science news, with our understanding of human evolution and animal behavior taking interesting turns. But before we dip into matters on Earth, let’s look to the skies and see what we’ve discovered in space.

A bright binary star system could soon light up with the nuclear brilliance of thousands of suns. The star system, called V Sagittae, is giving off brilliant flares before going supernova a century from now. Skywatchers are in for a treat, because the flares will be visible with the naked eye — day or night. Meanwhile, a mysterious X-ray signal from deep space may in fact be the death throes of a star getting ripped to bits by two separate black holes.

Finally, in a bit of out-of-this-world holiday news, Jupiter will be big and bright in the skies this month, making some wonder if it could have been the Star of Bethlehem described in the story of Jesus’ birth. We’ll never know for sure, but it’s unlikely.

—CDC panel, stuffed with vaccine skeptics, votes to end recommendation for universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination

—Earth’s crust hides enough ‘gold’ hydrogen to power the world for tens of thousands of years, emerging research suggests [Feature]

Want more science news? Follow our Live Science WhatsApp Channel for the latest discoveries as they happen. It’s the best way to get our expert reporting on the go, but if you don’t use WhatsApp we’re also on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Flipboard, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and LinkedIn.

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The seven members of the Expedition 74 crew studied stem cells, packed up a cargo ship and maintained their toilet this week, Dec. 8-12, 2025, on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Orbital observation

It is a “wonderful world” indeed.

“Thinking, ‘I’m sure everyone would want to see a photo of Earth,’ I took a few shots right before going to bed. I think the amazing thing about the ISS is that you can see views like this without even trying,'” JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, an Expedition 74 flight engineer, wrote on social media on Thursday (Dec. 11).

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Yui’s photo nicely captures the “skies of blue and clouds of white” as sung by the iconic Louis Armstrong.

Expedition 74 flight engineer Kimiya Yui, a JAXA astronaut, captured this view of Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Image credit: NASA / JAXA/Kimiya Yui)

Science status

Among the research that was conducted by the Expedition 74 crew aboard the space station this week was:

StemCellEx-IP1 — In an effort that may someday lead to ways to repair damaged organs and tissue, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman studied stem cells under a microscope, observing their production in microgravity as compared to on Earth.

Virtual — In a Roscosmos experiment that looks at how the vestibular system adapts to microgravity, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev traded off wearing a different set of VR (virtual reality) goggles to track their vision. The study could lead to developing additional countermeasures when readjusting to gravity.

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Station keeping

The Expedition 74 crew also devoted time to maintaining the space station’s systems, including:

JEM DRCS — In a demo that has applications to future Artemis missions to the moon and ultimately to Mars, JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui installed and soundproofed the JEM Demonstration of CO2 Removal System in the station’s Kibo module. The experimental device traps carbon dioxide from the air and vents it overboard.

JAXA’s HTV-X1 — NASA astronauts Chris Williams and Mike Fincke, together with some help from Zena Cardman and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, continued preparing the cargo ship for its departure in January. Williams worked on loading refuse and no-longer-needed equipment, while Fincke focused on preparing a science rack for its transfer from the space station to inside the HTV-X.

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Waste and Hygiene Compartment — Fincke also spent some of his time this week servicing one of the space station’s restrooms, replacing orbital plumbing components in the Tranquility node.

Astronaut activity

NASA astronaut Chris Williams is living out his boyhood dream as an Expedition 74 flight engineer.

“For as far back as I can remember, so when I was a little kid, I was always fascinated by exploration and in particular, space,” said Williams. “I think it is one of those things that a lot of kids have a fascination with, and I just never grew out of it. It is something that has always been a point of curiosity for me, and being an astronaut felt like the best way to explore space.”

Williams discussed his path to flying in space and serving aboard the International Space Station during an in-flight interview on Thursday (Dec. 11), with The Washington Post. You can watch the full discussion in the video above.

By the numbers

As of Friday (Dec. 12), there are 7 people aboard the International Space Station: Expedition 74 commander Mike Fincke and Zena Cardman and Chris Williams of NASA; JAXA (the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui; Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev of Roscosmos, all flight engineers.

There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX’s Dragon “Endeavour” attached to the space-facing port of the Harmony module and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-28 attached to the Earth-facing port of the Rassvet module.

There are four cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progress MS-31 (92P) docked to the space-facing port of the Poisk module, Progress MS-32 (93P) attached to the aft port of the Zvezda service module, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus XL, the S.S. William C. “Willie” McCool, berthed to the Earth-facing common berthing mechanism (CBM) on the Unity node and Japan’s HTV-X1 attached to the Earth-facing CBM on the Harmony node.

As of Friday, the space station has been continuously crewed for 25 years, 1 month and 10 days.

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