
Ben Turner
Ben Turner is a U.K. based staff writer at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, among other topics like tech and climate change. He graduated from University College London with a degree in particle physics before training as a journalist. When he's not writing, Ben enjoys reading literature, playing the guitar and embarrassing himself with chess.
Latest articles by Ben Turner

Finally! NASA and SpaceX launch Crew-10 mission to bring 'stranded' ISS astronauts back to Earth
By Ben Turner published
Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams have spent nine months aboard the International Space Station following the failure of Boeing’s Starliner mission. Their rescue rocket has finally been launched.

Saturn gains 128 new moons, giving it more than the rest of the solar system combined
By Ben Turner published
Faint signatures detected by the Canada France Hawaii Telescope have revealed 128 new moons around Saturn, making it the indisputable frontrunner for having the most moons in our solar system.

Liftoff! NASA launches SPHEREx telescope — an infrared observatory that will help JWST solve the mysteries of the universe
By Ben Turner published
NASA's newly-launched SPHEREx space telescope will offer a complementary 'panoramic' view to the JWST's high resolution infrared snapshots, enabling astronomers to study some of the universe's biggest mysteries.

Nanoparticle breakthrough could bring 'holy grail' of solar power within reach
By Ben Turner published
Digital generated image of solar panel with purple-blue reflection.

Scientists spot water molecules flipping before they split, and it could help them produce cheaper hydrogen fuel
By Ben Turner published
A photograph of a water droplet.

Watch: SpaceX Starship explodes mid-flight for a 2nd time this year, raining fiery debris over Florida
By Ben Turner published
A photo of starship launching in the distance with massive plume of smoke.

'Cosmic Horseshoe' may contain black hole the size of 36 billion suns — one of the largest ever detected
By Ben Turner published
The "Cosmic Horseshoe" is an Einstein ring, a system made up of a foreground galaxy whose mass is so great, it warps the light from a galaxy behind it. Now, astronomers know where it gets this mass from.

'Jetsons' robot finally arrives: Sweater-wearing Neo Gamma android helps with household chores
By Ben Turner published
Built by the Norwegian startup 1X, the Neo Gamma humanoid robot is designed to complete mundane household tasks.

'Planet parade' photo captures 7 planets in a line over Earth — possibly for the 1st time ever
By Ben Turner published
A stunning photo of a "parade of planets", shows Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Venus, Neptune, and Mercury in alignment from Earth. The image could be the first of its kind.

Brewing tea can remove lead and other heavy metals from water, new study finds
By Ben Turner published
Tea leaves can remove heavy metals such as lead, cadmium and chromium from water. And steeping time has the biggest impact.

Did a supernova 6 million years ago kickstart evolution in Africa? New study offers a clue
By Ben Turner published
A curious connection between an ancient supernova and virus diversification in one of Earth's biggest lakes means that crazy cosmic events may have had more influence on our planet than we thought.

'Planet parade' 2025: See the ultra-rare planetary alignment peak this week, before Saturn gets swallowed by the sunset
By Ben Turner published
A stunning "parade of planets" will grace the night sky this week, with all seven of Earth's celestial neighbors joining the show. Here's how to spot it and why it happens.

Mars was once a 'vacation-style' beach planet, Chinese rover scans reveal
By Ben Turner published
China's Zhurong rover has found evidence of an ancient shoreline buried deep beneath the planet. That could point to an ocean, a beach, and to life.

Mars' red color explained by surprising new research
By Ben Turner published
New research has revealed that Martian dust's red hue comes from reactions that occurred in wet — not dry — conditions, and it could have implications for the possibility of life on the planet.

French scientists smash China's 'artificial sun' fusion record by 25%
By Ben Turner published
A new record for maintaining plasma burning inside a fusion reactor has been set in France, beating China's previous benchmark by 25%.

NASA supercomputer reveals strange spiral structure at the edge of our solar system
By Ben Turner published
The mysterious Oort cloud is the source of many of our solar system's comets, but astronomers still have no idea what it looks like. Now, new simulations may have given them a first glimpse.

Scientists identify tipping point for Greenland's ice sheet — and it's not far off
By Ben Turner published
Greenland's ice sheet has been losing a staggering amount of ice at an accelerating rate. A tipping point could come by the turn of the next century, a new study warns.

Humanoid 'Protoclone' robot twitches into action while hanging from ceiling in viral video
By Ben Turner published
Protoclone, an eerily lifelike humanoid robot built for home use, has left social media users aghast. And it's likely to be the first of many.

Scientists may have just discovered 300 of the rarest black holes in the universe
By Ben Turner published
How black holes grow to monstrous scales is one of astronomy's prevailing enigmas. A new record-breaking dataset, which reveals 300 potential 'missing link black holes', could help to unravel it.

'Plastics are there and seem to be getting worse': Viral study of microplastics in human brains shows worrisome trend, but has flaws
By Ben Turner published
A close-up shot of microplastics resting on a human finger.

James Webb Space Telescope discovers mysterious flares near the Milky Way's monster black hole
By Ben Turner published
Sagittarius A*, our galaxy's supermassive black hole, is constantly producing strange eruptions. Astronomers are using the James Webb Space Telescope to find out why.

'Perhaps it's only a matter of time': Intelligent life may be much more likely than first thought, new model suggests
By Ben Turner published
For decades, scientists assumed that life on Earth emerged through a chain of highly improbable flukes. But a new theory suggests it may have instead arrived just in time.

Euclid telescope spots rare 'Einstein ring' hiding near Earth — and an ancient, unnamed galaxy behind it
By Ben Turner published
Einstein predicted the existence of gravitationally-warped rings of light in 1915. Now, a new one has been discovered just a cosmic stone's throw from our own planet.

Most energetic neutrino ever found on Earth detected at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea
By Ben Turner published
Physicists have detected the highest-energy 'ghost particle' ever felt on Earth, with nearly 100 times more energy than any neutrino previously detected.

Stunning, rainbow-colored object spotted by James Webb telescope could be an alien solar system in the making
By Ben Turner published
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a belching protostar in its infancy. By studying the dust grains whirling around it, astronomers hope to better understand how solar systems like our own take shape.
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