Science news this week: ISS medical evacuation, Mars Sample Return canceled, and woolly rhino flesh found in permafrost wolf

This week’s science news was way over our heads, as astronauts and space agencies rocketed to the front pages. Topping the list is the early return of the International Space Station’s (ISS) Crew-11 on Thursday (Jan. 15) due to a medical event.

News of the crew’s early return, the first in the station’s 25-year history, was announced less than a week before. It was prompted when one of its astronauts experienced an undisclosed medical issue. The evacuation leaves the ISS occupied by only four astronauts until the arrival of the replacement Crew-12 next month.

That wasn’t the only news from NASA this week. The agency also announced it was making the final preparations to roll out its Artemis 2 mega moon rocket ahead of a targeted early February launch. The Artemis program, which plans to return American astronauts to the moon’s surface, survived potential cuts from the Trump administration’s FY2026 budget. Also rescued from the chopping block is NASA’s now-complete Roman Space Telescope, which will work alongside the Hubble and James Webb telescopes to survey alien worlds.

However, not all NASA missions were as fortunate: The Mars sample return mission, slated to retrieve rocks collected by the Perseverance rover, saw its funding officially dropped this week.

The cancellation of the mission means that The China National Space Administration (CNSA) will likely be the first to return Martian samples — which may hold evidence for life on the Red Planet — to Earth, with the agency this week announcing separate plans to build a reliable relativistic clock for the moon.

Earth’s biggest river deltas are rapidly sinking

Our world is rapidly warming, so it’s no surprise that rising sea levels are the biggest cause of land loss in coastal regions.

Yet a startling study revealed that this isn’t the case everywhere. The research published this week found that the world’s biggest river deltas — including the Nile, Amazon and Ganges — are now sinking faster than the seas are rising.

The biggest culprit is groundwater pumping, with rapid urban growth and shrinking sediment flows worsening the problem. The combination of rising oceans and sinking land means the world’s largest cities will face even greater challenges from catastrophic floods in the future.

Discover more planet Earth news

—Fragment of lost tectonic plate discovered where San Andreas and Cascadia faults meet

—New map of Antarctica reveals hidden world of lakes, valleys and mountains buried beneath miles of ice

—Scientists watch microscopic plant ‘mouths’ breathing in real time with palm-sized tool

Life’s Little Mysteries

Monty Python’s Black Knight may insist that losing all four of his limbs in quick succession is “only a flesh wound,” but just how much of the human body can be removed without a person dying? As it turns out, it’s much more than you might think.

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Woolly rhino flesh in wolf reveals extinction mystery clue

The last meal of a wolf pup that was naturally mummied 14,400 years ago in Siberian permafrost is helping scientists unravel the fate of the woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) and the reasons behind the ice age giant’s extinction.

By extracting a piece of woolly rhino flesh from the wolf’s stomach and sequencing the genome of the partially digested chunk, scientists discovered that the horned beast existed in a genetically uniform population that may have struggled to adapt to ancient climate change.

But the new genome is just one strand of evidence in the mystery of the rhino’s extinction. In a win for science, this is the first time scientists have recovered the DNA of an ice age animal from the stomach of another one.

Discover more animals news

—Rare nocturnal parrots in New Zealand are breeding for the first time in 4 years — here’s why

—Never-before-seen footage captures moment scientists find new, giant anaconda species in Amazon

—How to watch ‘Pole to Pole with Will Smith’ — TV and streaming details as Oscar-winning actor blends adventure and scientific discovery

Also in science news this week

—Most complete Homo habilis skeleton ever found dates to more than 2 million years ago and retains ‘Lucy’-like features

—MIT’s chip stacking breakthrough could cut energy use in power-hungry AI processes

—Diagnostic dilemma: A man’s sudden seizures were set off by sudoku

—Ötzi the Iceman mummy carried a high-risk strain of HPV, research finds

Science long read

In December, The Trump administration announced plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), describing it as “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.”

Yet whether it is forecasting high winds, wildfires, floods or hazards in the air and space, the research center is at the forefront of world weather and climate research and vital for reducing risk. In this long read, Live Science investigated the work done by the center and the likely consequences of shutting it down.

Something for the weekend

If you’re looking for something a little longer to read over the weekend, here are some of the crosswords, book excerpts and quizzes published this week.

Live Science crossword puzzle #25: Ancient hominin species famous for their ‘upright’ posture — 11 across [Crossword]

—Parkfield, San Andreas, and the quest for a ‘crystal ball’ for predicting earthquakes before they happen [Book Excerpt]

—Human origins quiz: How well do you know the story of humanity? [Quiz]

Science in pictures

The Hubble Space Telescope’s shot of “Dracula’s Chivito” — a protoplanetary disk that earned its nickname due to its gothic-tinged likeness to a Uruguayan sandwich — has captured a stunning insight into how planets form.

Spanning nearly 400 billion miles (640 billion kilometers) and containing a hot star at its center, the system is the largest planet-forming disk ever observed around a young star.

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