The summer solstice is here. What to know about the longest day of the year

King Charles made history by becoming the first British monarch to participate in the BBC's annual midwinter broadcast to Antarctic researchers. The tradition aims to boost spirits for scientists working in extreme isolation during the long polar night. His message likely offered encouragement and recognition for their critical but often overlooked work.

Editor’s Note: It’s a small but meaningful gesture—connecting a distant monarch with researchers who endure months of darkness and isolation. For scientists cut off from the world, a royal shout-out isn’t just ceremonial; it’s a rare reminder that their work matters. Plus, it’s a fresh way for the monarchy to show relevance in modern, global efforts like climate research.

This week’s science roundup serves up a mix of intrigue and cosmic detective work. First, researchers are piecing together the identity of "Dragon Man," a mysterious ancient hominin whose skull might rewrite parts of human evolution. Meanwhile, astronomers are closing in on the universe’s "missing matter"—the elusive stuff that’s been hiding in plain sight but defying detection for decades. Plus, a few quirky reads to spice up your weekend.

Editor’s Note: Science isn’t just about lab coats and equations—it’s about solving real-life mysteries, from our own origins to the fabric of the cosmos. The "Dragon Man" story could shake up what we know about early humans, while finding the universe’s missing matter would finally plug a gap in our understanding of how everything fits together. It’s the kind of stuff that makes you go, "Huh, the world’s weirder (and cooler) than we thought."

Today’s the summer solstice—the longest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, kicking off astronomical summer. Meanwhile, down south, it’s the shortest day and the start of winter. This all happens because Earth’s tilted on its axis, so sunlight isn’t evenly distributed year-round. (Equinoxes, by contrast, give us equal day and night.)

Editor’s Note: The solstice isn’t just a celestial quirk—it shapes seasons, cultures, and traditions worldwide. For centuries, people have marked it with festivals, rituals, and even modern-day celebrations (think Stonehenge gatherings). It’s a cool reminder of how Earth’s tilt affects everything from weather to agriculture. Plus, who doesn’t love extra daylight?

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has snapped photos of the crash site where ispace's lunar lander, Resilience, met its unfortunate end on the moon's surface. The images show a dark smudge and a faint halo of disturbed lunar soil in Mare Frigoris, a region on the moon's far north. This marks the second time in two years that the Tokyo-based company has failed to land a spacecraft on the moon.

Editor’s Note: Landing on the moon is still really hard—even for private companies with serious backing. While NASA's images confirm Resilience didn't stick the landing, the attempt itself is part of a bigger push to commercialize lunar exploration. Failures like this highlight the risks of venturing beyond Earth, but they also provide crucial data for future missions. For ispace, it’s a setback, but the race to the moon is far from over.

Scientists working with the Vera C. Rubin Telescope are gearing up to handle an astronomical amount of data—60 million billion bytes (that's 60 petabytes!) of imagery from scanning the night sky. They're developing new tech and strategies to process, store, and analyze this flood of cosmic snapshots without drowning in the numbers.

Editor’s Note: This isn't just about storing a bunch of space pics—it's a glimpse into the future of big-data astronomy. The Rubin Telescope will revolutionize how we study the universe, but only if scientists can keep up with the deluge of data. The solutions they're crafting now could set the standard for handling massive datasets in science (and beyond) for decades.