Live Science Today: Super El Niño looms and Starlink hits 10,000 satellites in orbit

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Today's top story

Super El Niño cometh

The sunset at La Jolla's Windansea Beach during a winter heat wave on January 31, 2026 in San Diego, California. — More heatwaves could be on the way as forecasters predict the onset of El Niño. (Image credit: Kevin Carter via Getty Images)

A "super El Niño" is on the cards this summer, and it could supercharge temperatures to make 2027 a contender for the hottest year on record.

That's according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center, which declared there is a 62% chance the natural climate pattern will emerge between June and August, and a 1-in-3 likelihood it will be especially strong.

That's big news for our increasingly disrupted climate, with El Niño tending to strengthen hurricane activity over the central and eastern Pacific while suppressing hurricanes in the Atlantic, and triggering extreme weather such as floods, droughts and heatwaves across the globe.

The trend

Crowded skies

Parallel streaks in the skies left by satellites, many of them Starlink satellites. Starlink accounts for roughly two-thirds of all active satellites in space. — Parallel streaks in the skies left by satellites, many of them Starlink constellations. Starlink accounts for roughly two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit. (Image credit: Alan Dyer/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

There are now 10,000 Starlink satellites above our heads. The news comes as a Falcon 9 rocket, which launched from California last night, added 25 new satellites to the growing low Earth orbit constellation. [Spaceflight Now]

It's a remarkable technical achievement, especially considering the tens of thousands of avoidance maneuvers satellites in the array need to complete to avoid crashing into each other. But it also comes at a great cost to radio astronomy and potentially to nearby spacecraft, while also raising the odds of an uncontrolled orbital chain reaction.

Three to read

Say it, said it

Word of the day: Etosha — An Oshindonga (dialect of Namibian) word that translates roughly to "Great White Place." The Etosha Pan is a roughly 1,800-square-mile (4,700 square kilometers) salt flat north of Namibia's capital, Windhoek. And it looks absolutely stunning from space.

Quote of the day: "Think of your brain like a city: while the whole city is awake and active, a few specific 'neighborhoods' (brain regions) decide to turn off their lights for a second. If those neighborhoods are responsible for attention, you experience a lapse."

Elaine Pinggal, a neuroscientist at Monash University, Melbourne, on how sleep-like brain activity can make our attentions lapse, and how adults with ADHD experience them much more often.

Fun and games

This crossword by Senior Staff Writer Harry Baker took our Editor-in-Chief Alexander McNamara one minute and 55 seconds to complete. Think you can beat him?

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Ben Turner is a U.K. based writer and editor at Live Science. He covers physics and astronomy, 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.

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