Arsenal and England star striker Chloe Kelly makes debut on Barbie Dream Team

The all-new Barbie Dream Team of global female role models Credit: Mattel

By Tokunbo Salako

Updated 06/03/2026

EURONEWS

Footballer Chloe Kelly, tennis legend Serena Williams and German pop star Helene Fischer are among several female changemakers being celebrated with a unique Barbie doll to mark International Women's Day.

Mattel is marking International Women's Day by launching its first-ever Barbie Dream Team in honour of eight women who're pioneering change in their chosen fields.

The plastic toy-maker has described the group, which includes legendary tennis star and 23 Grand Slam title holder Serena Williams, as "global trailblazers who are paving the way for the next generation."

Barbie has a history of celebrating trailblazing women. Alongside Serena's sister Venus it has recently paid tribute to several notable leaders in the STEM field by creating dolls in their likeness. Among those celebrated were Susan Wojcicki, the longtime CEO of YouTube, and British scientist Dr. Maggie Aderin-Pocock.

By honouring their achievements, Mattel says hopes the one-of-a-kind dolls will inspire girls everywhere to "pursue their passions boldly and realize their limitless potential.”

Also honoured is Arsenal and England striker, Chloe Kelly, who shot to fame after firing the extra-time winner against Germany at the 2022 European Championship final.

On the spot: Chloe Kelly scores in the shoot-out to decide the Women's Euro 2025 final as England beat Spain at Switzerland's St. Jakob-Park in Basel 27 July 2025 AP Photo/Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone

When the Lionesses defended their title in Switzerland last year, she cemented her star-striker status by successfully taking the penalty that ensured England's victory over Spain.

“Growing up, I dreamed about winning trophies and big moments in football, but I never imagined a different kind of milestone like this," said Kelly.

There's also a unique doll for multiple award-winning German pop icon Helene Fischer, and Poland's intrepid mountaineer Zoja Skubis. She climbed her way into the record books by becoming the youngest women to reach the summit of Mount Everest (8,849 m) and Manaslu (8,163 m).

Helene Fischer is one of Germany’s most famous and influential contemporary pop artists Credit: Mattel

The 'Dream Team' also includes the American research astronaut and payload specialist Kellie Gerardi, Mexican professional race car driver Regina Sirvent Alvarado and Smriti Mandhana, the first Indian woman cricketer to score a century in all three formats - T20, Test and One Day International.

Since Barbie debuted in 1959, the brand has spotlighted more than 100 women across industries and communities.

“Barbie has always championed the belief that girls can be anything. From astronauts to CEOs, Barbie has broken barriers and redefined what’s possible – igniting imagination and inspiring generations of girls to dream without limits,” said Nathan Baynard, Vice President and Head of Barbie, Mattel.

Tennis legend Serena Williams is a global icon with 23 Grand Slam tennis singles titles and also a leading entrepreneur Credit: Mattel

International Women’s Day: Celebrating a century of female legacy at Elizabeth Arthotel

By Tokunbo Salako

Published on 08/03/2026 - EURONEWS

Women in Frame is a two-week exhibition exploring heritage and cultural memory within the Austrian alpine resort of Ischgl and the impact over a century of the Aloys family and its influential matriach Elisabeth Aloys.

International Women's Day (IWD) on 8 March marks 115 years of women’s contributions to cultural, social and economic progress, and also the launch of 'Women in Frame', an exhibition at Austria's luxury Elizabeth Arthotel in Ischgl that's celebrating contemporary female artists.

Presented as part of the alpine resort's season-long cultural programme, The Art of Legacy, the new two-week show exploring themes of heritage and cultural memory.

The exhibition also aims to reflect on more than a century of female ownership within the Aloys family and honour the ArtHotel's founder Elisabeth Aloys.

The Aloys can trace their roots back to Annemarie Aloys in the early 1900s, through Olga Aloys mid-century, to hotel founder Elisabeth Aloys and now her daughter and the current owner, Mirjam Aloys.

Left: Annemarie Aloys Right: Erwin and Olga Aloys celebrate the opening of the Silvretta Bahn, 1963 Courtesy Elizabeth Arthotel

Each generation has been instrumental in the region’s growth, fostering community progress and shaping Ischgl into the renowned ski destination it is today, embodying the spirit of this year’s IWD theme, “Give to Gain”.

Women in Frame

A highlight of the showcase is a new rooftop sculptural commission, Sissy, by the Austrian sister duo Mercedes & Franziska Welte / NONOS.

This significant work pays tribute to the hotel’s founder Elisabeth, affectionately titled after her nickname — itself a reference to Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Artists Franziska and Mercedes Welte, NONOS sit beside their sculpture Sissy for the Art of Legacy exhibition Credit: Erika Laszlo Demeter/Elizabeth Arthotel

Reflecting on the commission and the Aloys’ family female legacy, the artistic sisters said: "In creating Sissy, we wanted to reflect the strength of female presence and the importance of remembering those whose vision continues to shape the present. By honouring legacy, we gain a deeper understanding of our future.”

Annette Goessel's work is one featured artists in 'Women in Frame' Credit: Elizabeth Arthotel

Throughout the building, visitors to 'Women in Frame' can also see the mixed-media work of several artists including Francesca Martí, Susana Anaya, Patricia Reinhart, Annette Goessel and Dhira Barein.

Francesca Martì works featur in Women in Frame exhibition Credit: Elizabeth Arthotel

The history and impact of the Aloys family is also central to an archival photography exhibition and a virtual gallery looking into their role in shaping the region and the hotel's 50-year history.

Women in Frame is on at the Elizabeth Arthotel until 22 March 2026.

ECO CRIMINALS

Here's why Trump is dangerously wrong about how climate change threatens our health

The Conversation
February 14, 2026 

The Trump administration took a major step in its efforts to unravel America’s climate policies on Thursday, when it moved to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding — a formal determination that six greenhouse gases that drive climate change, including carbon dioxide and methane from burning fossil fuels, endanger public health and welfare.

But the administration’s arguments in dismissing the health risks of climate change are not only factually wrong, they’re deeply dangerous to Americans’ health and safety.

As physicians, epidemiologists and environmental health scientists, we’ve seen growing evidence of the connections between climate change and harm to people’s health. Here’s a look at the health risks everyone face from climate change.
Extreme heat

Greenhouse gases from vehicles, power plants and other sources accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping heat and holding it close to Earth’s surface like a blanket. Too much of it causes global temperatures to rise, leaving more people exposed to dangerous heat more often.

Most people who get minor heat illnesses will recover, but more extreme exposure, especially without enough hydration and a way to cool off, can be fatal. People who work outside, are elderly or have underlying illnesses such as heart, lung or kidney diseases are often at the greatest risk.

Heat deaths have been rising globally, up 23 percent from the 1990s to the 2010s, when the average year saw more than half a million heat-related deaths. Here in the U.S., the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome killed hundreds of people.

Climate scientists predict that with advancing climate change, many areas of the world, including U.S. cities such as Miami, Houston, Phoenix and Las Vegas, will confront many more days each year hot enough to threaten human survival.

Extreme weather

Warmer air holds more moisture, so climate change brings increasing rainfall and storm intensity and worsening flooding, as many U.S. communities have experienced in recent years. Warmer ocean water also fuels more powerful hurricanes.

Increased flooding carries health risks, including drownings, injuries and water contamination from human pathogens and toxic chemicals. People cleaning out flooded homes also face risks from mold exposure, injuries and mental distress.

Climate change also worsens droughts, disrupting food supplies and causing respiratory illness from dust. Rising temperatures and aridity dry out forests and grasslands, making them a set-up for wildfires.
Air pollution

Wildfires, along with other climate effects, are worsening air quality around the country.

Wildfire smoke is a toxic soup of microscopic particles (known as fine particulate matter, or PM2.5) that can penetrate deep in the lungs and hazardous compounds such as lead, formaldehyde and dioxins generated when homes, cars and other materials burn at high temperatures. Smoke plumes can travel thousands of miles downwind and trigger heart attacks and elevate lung cancer risks, among other harms.

Meanwhile, warmer conditions favor the formation of ground-level ozone, a heart and lung irritant. Burning of fossil fuels also generates dangerous air pollutants that cause a long list of health problems, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma flare-ups and lung cancer.
Infectious diseases

Because they are cold-blooded organisms, insects are directly influenced by temperature. So with rising temperatures, mosquito biting rates rise as well. Warming also accelerates the development of disease agents that mosquitoes transmit.

Mosquito-borne dengue fever has turned up in Florida, Texas, Hawaii, Arizona and California. New York state just saw its first locally acquired case of chikungunya virus, also transmitted by mosquitoes.

And it’s not just insect-borne infections. Warmer temperatures increase diarrhea and foodborne illness from Vibrio cholerae and other bacteria and heavy rainfall increases sewage-contaminated stormwater overflows into lakes and streams. At the other water extreme, drought in the desert Southwest increases the risk of coccidioidomycosis, a fungal infection known as valley fever.

Other impacts

Climate change threatens health in numerous other ways. Longer pollen seasons increase allergen exposures. Lower crop yields reduce access to nutritious foods.

Mental health also suffers, with anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress following disasters, and increased rates of violent crime and suicide tied to high-temperature days.

Young children, older adults, pregnant women and people with preexisting medical conditions are among the highest-risk groups. Lower-income people also face greater risk because of higher rates of chronic disease, higher exposures to climate hazards and fewer resources for protection, medical care and recovery from disasters.

Policy-based evidence-making

The evidence linking climate change with health has grown considerably since 2009. Today, it is incontrovertible.

Studies show that heat, air pollution, disease spread and food insecurity linked to climate change are worsening and costing millions of lives around the world each year. This evidence also aligns with Americans’ lived experiences. Anybody who has fallen ill during a heat wave, struggled while breathing wildfire smoke or been injured cleaning up from a hurricane knows that climate change can threaten human health.


Yet the Trump administration is willfully ignoring this evidence in proclaiming that climate change does not endanger health.

Its move to rescind the 2009 endangerment finding, which underpins many climate regulations, fits with a broader set of policy measures, including cutting support for renewable energy and subsidizing fossil fuel industries that endanger public health. In addition to rescinding the endangerment finding, the Trump administration also moved to roll back emissions limits on vehicles – the leading source of U.S. carbon emissions and a major contributor to air pollutants such as PM2.5 and ozone.
It’s not just about endangerment

The evidence is clear: Climate change endangers human health. But there’s a flip side to the story.

When governments work to reduce the causes of climate change, they help tackle some of the world’s biggest health challenges. Cleaner vehicles and cleaner electricity mean cleaner air — and less heart and lung disease. More walking and cycling on safe sidewalks and bike paths mean more physical activity and lower chronic disease risks. The list goes on. By confronting climate change, we promote good health.

To really make America healthy, in our view, the nation should acknowledge the facts behind the endangerment finding and double down on our transition from fossil fuels to a healthy, clean energy future.

By Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University; Howard Frumkin, Professor Emeritus of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington;

Jonathan PatzProfessor of Environmental Medicine, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Vijay LimayeAdjunct Associate Professor of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This article includes material from a story originally published Nov. 12, 2025.

US lawmaker moves to shield oil companies from climate cases


By AFP
February 12, 2026


Dozens of cases against oil copmanies modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts -- including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering

 - Copyright AFP/File Patrick T. Fallon

Issam AHMED

A US lawmaker is drafting legislation to block a wave of state and local climate-damage lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, advancing a top priority of the oil and gas industry.

Republican Representative Harriet Hageman announced the effort during a hearing on Wednesday, following a letter last year from a group of attorneys general from conservative-led states urging the creation of a federal “liability shield” similar to the one Congress granted gunmakers in 2005.

Hageman also targeted so-called climate “superfund” laws, enacted in New York and Vermont and under consideration in other states, which require fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate-related damages tied to the destabilization of the global climate system.

“Clearly, this is an area in which Congress has a role to play,” Hageman, of the oil-rich western state of Wyoming, told Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“To that end, I’m working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to craft legislation tackling both these state laws and the lawsuits that could destroy energy affordability for consumers.”

Dozens of cases modeled on successful actions against the tobacco industry in the 1990s are playing out in state and local courts — including claims of injuries, failure-to-warn, and even racketeering, meaning acting like a criminal enterprise.

Michigan last month sued oil majors in federal court, alleging they had acted as a cartel in an unlawful conspiracy by preventing meaningful competition from renewable energy.

Environmental advocates see such lawsuits as crucial means for climate accountability as President Donald Trump’s second term has seen the United States go all-in to boost fossil fuels and block renewables.

Some cases have been dismissed, and none have yet gone to trial — though crucially, the conservative-dominated Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to intervene and block them.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the industry’s largest trade group, spoke out against the cases in a keynote address last month.

Material on API’s website confirms the group wishes to “Protect US energy producers and consumers from abusive state climate lawsuits and the expansion of climate ‘superfund’ policies that bypass Congress and threaten affordability.”

Richard Wiles, president of the nonprofit Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement the announcement was proof “the fossil fuel industry is panicking and pleading with Congress for a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

Any legislation however could face an uphill battle since Republicans only enjoy a slim majority in the House of Representatives and bills normally require 60 votes in the Senate, where they hold 53 seats of the 100 seats.

Greece’s Cycladic islands swept up in concrete fever


By  AFP
February 12, 2026


Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis has called the construction project on the island an 'environmental crime' - Copyright AFP Aris MESSINIS

Yannick PASQUET

On the sloping shoreline of the Greek Aegean island of Milos, a vast construction site has left a gaping wound into the island’s trademark volcanic rock.

The foundations are for a hotel extension that attracted so much controversy last year that the country’s top administrative court ended up temporarily blocking its building permit.

Construction machinery still dots the site for a planned 59-room extension to the luxury resort, some of whose suites have their own swimming pools.

Milos Mayor Manolis Mikelis calls the project an “environmental crime”.

“The geological uniqueness of Milos is known worldwide. We don’t want its identity to change,” he told AFP in his office, adorned with a copy of the island’s most famous export, the Hellenistic-era statue of the love goddess Venus.

Fuelled by a tourism boom, real estate fever has broken out across the Cyclades archipelago, threatening to destroy iconic landscapes of whitewashed houses and blue church domes.

In December, several mayors from the Cyclades as well as the Dodecanese — which includes the highly touristic islands of Rhodes and Kos — sounded the alarm.

“The very existence of our islands is threatened,” they warned in a resolution initiated by the mayor of Santorini, Nikos Zorzos.

Tourism has become “a field for planting luxury residences to sell or rent,” said Zorzos, whose island — a top global destination — welcomes roughly 3.5 million visitors for a population of 15,500.



– Rejecting ‘plunder’ –



The “Cycladic islands are not grounds for pharaonic projects”, the mayors continued.

V Tourism, the company operating the hotel, argues that the expansion was approved in 2024 with “favourable opinions from all competent authorities”.

But Mikelis, the mayor, noted that there are legislation “loopholes” when it comes to construction.

Like Santorini, Milos is a volcanic isle that is home to one of Greece’s most unique beaches, Sarakiniko.

With its spectacular white formations rounded by erosion, the so-called ‘moon beach’ has bathers packed tighter than an astronaut’s suit during summertime.

Yet Sarakiniko is not protected under Greek law.

Another hotel project there was blocked last year, and the environment ministry has given the owners a month’s time to fill in its construction dig.



– ‘Voracious’ –



Ioannis Spilanis, emeritus professor at the University of the Aegean, says what is happening in the Cyclades “is voracious, predatory real estate”.

Once marginal land intended for grazing “have become lucrative assets. (Locals) are offered very attractive prices that are still low for investors.”

“Then you build or resell for ten times more,” he said.

In Ios, a small island with a vibrant nightlife, a single investor — a Greek who made a fortune on Wall Street — now owns 30 percent of the island, the mayors said in their December statement.

Tourism contributes between 28 and 33.7 percent of GDP, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), making it a key sector that has propped up the country’s economy for decades.

Arrivals have been breaking record after record with more than 40 million visitors in 2024, a performance that was likely surpassed in 2025.

In Milos, which has more than 5,000 inhabitants, 48 new hotel projects are currently underway, according to the mayor, and 157 new building permits were awarded from January to the end of October 2025, according to the state statistical body.

On Paros, which has also experienced a real estate frenzy for several years, 459 building permits were granted over the same period, and on Santorini, 461.

The most ambitious projects in Greece are classified as “strategic investments”, a fast-track procedure created in 2019 to facilitate investments deemed priorities.

But “there’s often no oversight,” said Spilanis, the academic.



– Golden goose –



And many of the new constructions are far removed from traditional Cycladic architecture.

But the tourism industry is a vital source of income on islands which are usually deserted in winter, and offering few other job prospects.

“This island is a diamond, but unfortunately in recent years it’s become nothing but money, money, money,” fumes a resident who spends half the year in Germany.

“But if I say that in public, everyone will jump down my throat!” she said.

In a 2024 report, the state ombudsman of the Hellenic Republic stressed the deterioration in quality of life on islands where residents can no longer find housing, as many owners prioritise lucrative short-term rentals, while waste management and water resources are also under major strain.

But there are signs of a slowdown in the Cyclades.

Santorini last year saw a 12.8-percent drop in air arrivals between June and September, while Mykonos had to settle for a meagre 2.4-percent increase.

SPACE/COSMOS

“It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,”

France's Adenot and international crew take off for space station

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission launched to the International Space Station on Friday, sending four astronauts, including France’s Sophie Adenot, to replace a crew evacuated early because of a medical issue.


Issued on: 13/02/2026 - RFI

From left to right: Andrei Fedyaev, Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and Sophie Adenot, now bound for the International Space Station. © SpaceX via AP


The US space agency NASA launched the Crew-12 mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at 5:15am EST from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The pre-dawn launch was delayed by two days because of adverse weather forecasts across the US East Coast, including high winds that could have complicated emergency manoeuvres.

The astronauts are expected to arrive at the orbiting ISS at about 3:15 pm on Saturday. They will spend nine months there.

Crew-12 is composed of Americans Jessica Meir, the mission commander, and Jack Hathaway, the pilot, along with French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev, a mission specialist.

They will replace Crew-11, which returned to Earth in January one month earlier than planned in the first medical evacuation in the space station’s history.

The ISS, a scientific laboratory orbiting 400 kilometres above Earth, has since been staffed by a skeleton crew of three.

NASA declined to disclose details about the health issue that cut the mission short.

All systems are go as France zeros in on space ambitions

'One day that will be me'

Once the astronauts arrive, they will be among the last crews to live aboard the football field-sized space station.

Continuously inhabited for the last quarter century, the ageing ISS is scheduled to be pushed into Earth’s orbit before crashing into an isolated area of the Pacific Ocean in 2030.

Adenot, an astronaut at the European Space Agency, will become the second French woman to fly to space, following in the footsteps of Claudie Haignere, who spent time on the Mir space station.

France's second woman in space prepares for launch after 30-year wait

When Adenot saw Haigneré’s mission launch, she was 14 years old.

“It was a revelation,” the helicopter pilot said during a recent briefing. “At that moment, I told myself: one day, that will be me.”

Adenot will carry out more than 200 scientific and medical experiments in microgravity while completing intensive training and maintenance work in space.

Among other research, she will test a system that uses artificial intelligence and augmented reality to allow astronauts to carry out their own medical ultrasounds.

(with newswires)

International astronauts launch to ISS after NASA's first medical evacuation

Copyright AP Photo/John Raoux

By Pascale Davies & AP

Published on 13/02/2026 - EURONEWS

“It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day,” SpaceX Launch Control radioed once the astronauts reached orbit.

A fresh team of astronauts launched toward the International Space Station on Friday aboard a SpaceX rocket, set to take over for crew members who had been brought back to Earth in what marked NASA's first medical evacuation from orbit.

NASA requested the expedited launch to quickly fill the positions left vacant by the evacuated astronauts.

The incoming crew—comprising astronauts from the United States, France, and Russia—is scheduled for an eight- to nine-month stay that will extend through until autumn. They arrive on Saturday and will restore the space station to its complete crew complement.

Once the spacecraft reached orbit, SpaceX Launch Control jokingly noted, "It turns out Friday the 13th is a very lucky day." Mission commander Jessica Meir responded with enthusiasm: "That was quite a ride."

During the month-long crew shortage, NASA suspended spacewalks and postponed various tasks while awaiting the replacements. Americans Meir and Jack Hathaway, alongside France's Sophie Adenot and Russia's Andrei Fedyaev, will now join the skeleton crew of three astronauts—one American and two Russians—who maintained station operations in the interim.

Related

• SpaceX puts Mars mission plans on ice and U-turns for Moon city instead

NASA said it saw no need for additional pre-launch medical screenings or specialised diagnostic equipment, expressing confidence in existing protocols aboard the station. However, an onboard ultrasound machine, typically used for research purposes, was pressed into urgent service on January 7 to examine the unwell crew member.

NASA has declined to identify the astronaut or disclose details about their condition. All four returning crew members were hospitalised immediately upon their Pacific Ocean splashdown near San Diego.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a crew of four aboard the Dragon space craft lifts off from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Feb 13 AP Photo/John Raoux

It marked the first instance in 65 years of human spaceflight that NASA terminated a mission early due to medical concerns.

Satisfied with medical procedures already in place, NASA ordered no extra checkups for the crew ahead of liftoff, and no new diagnostic equipment was packed.

An ultrasound machine already up there for research went into overdrive on Jan. 7 when used on the ailing crew member. NASA has not revealed the ill astronaut’s identity or health issue. All four returning astronauts went straight to the hospital after splashing down in the Pacific near San Diego.

Relate

With missions becoming longer, NASA is constantly looking at upgrades to the space station’s medical gear, said deputy programme manager Dina Contella.

“But there are a lot of things that are just not practical, and so that’s when you need to bring astronauts home from space,” she said earlier this week.

In preparation for moon and Mars trips, where health care will be even more challenging, the new arrivals will test a filter designed to turn drinking water into emergency IV fluid, try out an ultrasound system that relies on artificial intelligence and augmented reality instead of experts on the ground, and perform ultrasound scans on their jugular veins in a blood clot study.

They will also demonstrate their Moon-landing skills in a simulated test.

Adenot is only the second French woman to launch to space. She was 14 when Claudie Haignere flew to Russia’s space station Mir in 1996, inspiring her to become an astronaut. Haignere travelled to Cape Canaveral to cheer her on.

“I thought it would have been a quiet joy with pride for Sophie, but it was so hugely emotional to see her with a successful launch," Haignere said.

Hathaway, like Adenot, is new to space, while Meir and Fedyaev are making their second station trip. Just before liftoff, Fedyaev led the crew in a cry of “Poyekhali" — Russian for “Let's Go” — the word uttered at liftoff by the world's first person in space, the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.

On her first mission in 2019, Meir took part in the first all-female spacewalk. The other half of that spacewalk, Christina Koch, is among the four Artemis II astronauts waiting to fly around the moon as early as March. A ship-to-ship radio linkup is planned between the two crews.

ESA satellite finds 'inside-out' planetary system that challenges formation theories

Copyright European Space Agency

By Roselyne Min with AFP

Published on 13/02/2026 - EURONEWS

A newly discovered planet orbiting a distant star may change scientists’ understanding of how planetary systems form.

Astronomers say they have discovered a distant planetary system with planets arranged in a surprising order, challenging long-standing ideas about how planets form.

In our Solar System, the four planets closest to the Sun are small and rocky, while the four farther away are large gas giants. Scientists have long believed this pattern — rocky planets near the star and gaseous planets farther out — was common across the universe.

However, a star called LHS 1903 discovered in the Milky Way's thick disc suggests otherwise.

In a collaborative effort involving researchers across Europe, astronomers analysing data from several telescopes had already identified three planets orbiting the red dwarf star, which is cooler and dimmer than our Sun.

The closest planet to the star was rocky, followed by two gas giants. That is the order scientists expect.

But digging into observations made by the European Space Agency (ESA)'s exoplanet-probing Cheops space telescope revealed a fourth planet farther from the star. Surprisingly, this outermost planet also appears to be rocky.

"That makes this an inside-out system, with a planet order of rocky-gaseous-gaseous-and then rocky again," Thomas Wilson, the lead author of the study and a planetary astrophysicist from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, said in a statement with ESA.

"Rocky planets don't usually form so far away from their home star," Wilson added.

One planet after another

Inner planets are expected to be small and rocky because intense radiation from the nearby star blasts most of the gas away from their rocky core.

But farther out in the cold reaches of the system, a thick atmosphere can form around cores, creating gas giants.

Trying to explain the unusual LHS 1903 system, researchers tested several possibilities before proposing a new idea: the planets may have formed one after another rather than all at once.

According to the currently most widely accepted theory, planets form simultaneously in a massive ring of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disc.

Related

This involves tiny dust grains clumping together, then snowballing into cores that eventually evolve into mighty planets.

But in this system, scientists believe LHS 1903 may have formed after most of the gas had already disappeared.

"Yet here is a small, rocky world, defying expectations," Wilson said.

"It seems that we have found the first evidence for a planet which formed in what we call a gas-depleted environment," he added.

Since the 1990s, astronomers have discovered more than 6,000 planets outside our Solar System, called exoplanets, mostly by spotting slight changes in brightness as they cross in front of their star.

"Historically, our planet formation theories are based on what we see and know about our Solar System," said Isabel Rebollido, a planetary disc researcher at ESA.

"As we are seeing more and more different exoplanet systems, we are starting to revisit these theories."

 

Cheops Discovers Late Bloomer From Another Era

Artist impression of the planetary system with four planets, around a small red star, called LHS1903 CREDIT: ESA

 February 13, 2026  

By Eurasia Review

Many Vile Earthlings Munch Jam Sandwiches Under Newspapers and My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos. What sounds like gibberish half-sentences are memory aids taught to children to help remember the order of the planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

The eight familiar planets can be sorted into two different types: rocky and gaseous. The inner planets that are closest to the Sun – Mercury to Mars – are rocky, and the outer planets – Jupiter to Neptune – are gaseous.

This general pattern, that planetary systems form with rocky planets closer to their star, followed by gaseous planets as the outer bodies, has been commonly observed across the Universe. It is what our current planet formation theories predict and what observations have widely confirmed to be true.

That was until scientists took a closer look at the planetary system around a star called LHS 1903 with ESA’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops). What they have just discovered might flip our understanding of how planets form upside down.

The four planets of LHS 1903

LHS 1903 is a small red M-dwarf star that is cooler and shines less brightly than our Sun. Thomas Wilson from the University of Warwick in the UK and his international team combined the efforts of various telescopes in space and on Earth to classify three planets that they had spotted orbiting LHS 1903. They were able to conclude that the innermost planet seemed to be rocky, and the two that followed it gaseous.

So far, so normal. It wasn’t until Thomas and his colleagues were analysing observations made by ESA’s Cheops, that they discovered something strange: the data showed a small fourth planet, furthest from LHS 1903. And upon closer inspection, the scientists were surprised to discover that this planet seems to be rocky!

“That makes this an inside-out system, with a planet order of rocky-gaseous-gaseous-and then rocky again. Rocky planets don’t usually form so far away from their home star,” says Thomas.

Current planet formation theories predict that the inner planets in a system are small and rocky, because close to the star the radiation is so powerful that it sweeps away most of the gas around the planets’ rocky core. Further away from the star, in the outer part of a planetary system, the conditions are cool enough for a thick atmosphere to gather into a gaseous planet.

ESA’s Cheops project scientist Maximilian Günther is enthusiastic: “Much about how planets form and evolve is still a mystery. Finding clues like this one for solving this puzzle is precisely what Cheops set out to do.”

Born to be weird?

Scientists are not quick to say that an established theory needs to be reconsidered, based on a single contradictory observation. So, Thomas and his colleagues set out to explore various explanations for why this strange rocky planet breaks the familiar pattern.

Was the planet, for example, at some point in its past hit by a giant asteroid, comet, or another big object, that blew away its atmosphere? Or had the planets around LHS 1903 swapped places at some point during their evolution? After testing these scenarios through simulations and calculations of the planets’ orbital times, the team of scientists ruled them out.

Instead, their investigation led them to a more intriguing explanation: the planets may have formed one after the other, instead of at the same time. According to our current understanding, planets form from discs of gas and dust (protoplanetary discs) by clumping into planetary embryos at roughly the same time. These clumps then evolve into planets of different sizes and compositions over millions of years.

In contrast, here Thomas and his team discovered a planetary system where the star might have given birth to its four planets one after the other, instead of bearing quadruplets at once. This idea – known as inside-out planet formation – was proposed by scientists as a theory about a decade ago, but until now, never has the evidence been so strong.

A late bloomer defying expectations

This conclusion comes with an additional catch: Much like how our younger siblings are growing up in a world that is different from the one of our childhoods, this small rocky planet seems to have evolved and formed in a very different environment than its older sibling-planets.

“By the time this outer planet formed, the system may have already run out of gas, which is considered vital for planet formation. Yet here is a small, rocky world, defying expectations. It seems that we have found first evidence for a planet which formed in what we call a gas-depleted environment”, says Thomas.

The small rocky world is either an odd outlier, or the first evidence for a trend we hadn’t known about yet. Either way, its discovery begs for an explanation that lies beyond our usual planet formation theories.

Our Solar System as a one-size-fits-all

“Historically, our planet formation theories are based on what we see and know about our Solar System,” Isabel Rebollido who is currently a Research Fellow at ESA points out. “As we are seeing more and more different exoplanet systems, we are starting to revisit these theories.”

As our instruments improve, we continue to discover more and more ‘weird’ planetary systems in the vastness of space. They force us to question our understanding and make us reconsider established theories of planet formation. Ultimately, these discoveries are helping us learn about how our Solar System fits into the big family of diverse planetary systems. They make us wonder how special the order of the planets is that we teach our children, and if maybe it is our home Solar System that is the weird one after all.