Science

WASHINGTON — Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner will return from the International Space Station in September without the two astronauts on board who launched on it in June after NASA concluded thruster problems posed too much risk. NASA announced Aug. 24 that Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the NASA astronauts who flew to the ISS on Starliner’s

A surprising number of us can sing with perfect pitch, according to a new study that analyzed the karaoke skills of 30 people – as long as we’re singing one of our ‘earworms’, those songs that get stuck in our heads. Breaking down the stats from the team at the University of California, Santa Cruz

Andromeda is the closest major galaxy to our Milky Way – and it’s getting closer. In fact, astronomers believe that the two galaxies are destined to crash into each other. But a new study suggests this fate isn’t necessarily written in the stars. Andromeda is currently barreling down on us at a speed of about

Underwater avalanches are powerful natural events that happen all the time under the surface of the ocean. They are impossible to see and extremely difficult to measure, which means we know little about how they work. Yet these phenomena pose a hazard to our global communication networks. The proliferation of the internet has required an

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Space Force awarded a $200 million contract to Northrop Grumman to construct a radar site in the United Kingdom to monitor objects in outer space. This initiative is part of the AUKUS security alliance involving Australia, the U.K. and the United States. The contract, announced Aug. 23, is for the second

A 400-year-old mystery around the identity of four men found buried in England’s first permanent settlement in the Americas may have at last been solved, revealing not just their identity but their scandalous connection. Based on a DNA analysis and archaeological research by a team of scholars, it’s now confirmed two of the anonymous souls

On Sept. 26th, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroids Redirect Test (DART) collided with Dimorphos, the small moonlet orbiting the larger asteroid Didymos. In so doing, the mission successfully demonstrated a proposed strategy for deflecting potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs) – the kinetic impact method. By October 2026, the ESA’s Hera mission will rendezvous with the double-asteroid system

Record breaking fossil fuel production, all time high greenhouse gas emissions and extreme temperatures. Like the proverbial frog in the heating pan of water, we refuse to respond to the climate and ecological crisis with any sense of urgency. Under such circumstances, claims from some that global warming can still be limited to no more

WASHINGTON — NASA added three companies to a contract for launching smallsat missions, including one publicly traded company that has had recent financial struggles. NASA announced Aug. 22 that it selected Arrow Science and Technology, Impulse Space and Momentus Space for its Venture-Class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare (VADR) contract. That selection allows them to

When the Moon fully slips into Earth’s shadow, a king shall die. So warns an ominous prediction from Old Babylonia, inscribed across several ancient clay tablets. For over a century now, these precious astrological artifacts have been housed at the British Museum, but only recently did archaeologists Andrew George and Junko Taniguchi finish translating them.

From afar, the Sun looks calm and peaceful in our daytime skies. But up close, it’s an erupting, chaotic display of solar activity the likes of which astrophysicists didn’t expect until the last year or so. “We didn’t think the Sun was going to be as active this particular cycle, but the observations are completely

A single coral in Fiji that is more than 600 years old has recorded how Pacific Ocean temperatures have varied during its long life. Scientists know the Pacific has generally been getting warmer over the centuries, with marine heatwaves and widespread coral bleaching in recent years due to anthropogenic climate change. But there are thought

Science fiction is riddled with artificial intelligence going rogue and turning on their human creators. HAL-9000. The Matrix. Skynet. GLaDOS. Cylons. Humanity, it seems, has a deep fear of the rebellion of the machine. With the rise of ever more sophisticated large language models (LLMs), such as Chat GPT, the question of what dangers AI

WASHINGTON — Axiom Space is working with Nokia to adapt terrestrial wireless technologies to provide high-speed communications for the Artemis spacesuits Axiom is developing. The two companies announced a partnership Aug. 21 to develop 4G/LTE communications technologies, called the Lunar Surface Communications System (LSCS), for the suits Axiom is developing for NASA for use starting

Two astronauts marooned in space may sound like the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster, but for two NASA crew members, it is now a reality. Commander Barry Wilmore and pilot Sunita Williams are currently in limbo on the International Space Station (ISS). They arrived in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft – the first test of the

Giant black holes in the centres of galaxies like our own Milky Way are known to occasionally munch on nearby stars. This leads to a dramatic and complex process as the star plunging towards the supermassive black hole is spaghettified and and torn to shreds. The resulting fireworks are known as a tidal disruption event.

No one yet knows what threat plastic pollution poses to human health, but the recent realization that we are drinking invisible fragments of plastic along with our water is making many understandably uneasy. To stop microplastics and nanoplastics from penetrating deep into our bodies and brains, researchers at the University of Missouri have come up

Artificial intelligence (AI) prophets and newsmongers are forecasting the end of the generative AI hype, with talk of an impending catastrophic “model collapse”. But how realistic are these predictions? And what is model collapse anyway? Discussed in 2023, but popularised more recently, “model collapse” refers to a hypothetical scenario where future AI systems get progressively

TAMPA, Fla. — Globalstar has secured permission to start deploying up to 17 improved direct-to-smartphone connectivity satellites next year despite SpaceX objections. The Federal Communications Commission authorized the proposed satellites Aug. 16 and extended the company’s operating license by 15 years to 2039. However, the U.S. regulator deferred deciding on plans to deploy another nine satellites,

No one is certain why Stonehenge was built. This world-famous monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire is thought to commemorate the dead, and is aligned with movements of the Sun and Moon. It consists of an outer ring and inner horseshoe of large “sarsen” and “trilithon” stones, and an inner circle and horseshoe of smaller

The amazing Gaia mission to chart stars in the Milky Way Galaxy is also an expert asteroid hunter. Now, astronomers are reporting its success at spotting more moons of asteroids in our solar system. Once the Gaia data from its release 3 are confirmed, those observations will add 352 more binary asteroids to the known

Antarctica is shedding weight, allowing the continent to rise from the ocean somewhat like a once-squished sponge now free to expand again. That weight is its ice. The process is called post-glacial uplift, and new research suggests it will have a massive impact on future global sea level rise. It could reduce Antarctica’s contribution by

A new ‘laser-powered’ project being launched in the state of Western Australia could revolutionize global communications. Two optical ground stations in a strategically placed network have successfully received laser signals from a German satellite, researchers say, paving the way to increase the capacity of space-to-Earth communications by a staggering 1,000 times. The ‘TeraNet‘ initiative is

WASHINGTON — Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) is “a matter of weeks” away from attempting its first orbital launch, according to the chief executive of its corporate parent. In an earnings call Aug. 8 to cover the company’s financial results for the first half of 2024, OHB Chief Executive Marco Fuchs said preparations were going well

The year was 1920. It was George “Babe” Ruth’s first season playing for the New York Yankees. During that season, he scored an amazing 54 home runs. He alone scored more home runs than any team. However, “The Bambino,” as he was nicknamed, was far from an example of athletic prowess. He was chubby, did

Given the age and size of the Milky Way, there should be intelligent civilizations all over the place. But where is everybody? A new study suggests that alien civilizations could be too advanced for us to detect. If aliens were looking at Earth, they might spot the glint of sunlight reflecting off our solar panels.

If world agricultural authorities don’t get their act together soon enough, your morning orange juice may disappear from the supermarket shelves – for good. This is how critical the situation has become in the citrus growing world. In the past decades, a disease called Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as “citrus greening” disease, has been devastating

WASHINGTON — SpaceX launched the latest in its series of dedicated rideshare missions Aug. 16, putting more than 100 satellites for commercial and government customers into orbit. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 2:56 p.m. Eastern on the Transporter-11 mission. The rocket’s booster, on its 12th flight, landed

The once-majestic, now fallen stone that represents perhaps the strangest component of Stonehenge traveled a very long way to take pride of place in the mysterious ancient megalith. The so-called Altar Stone, new research has revealed, was transported all the way from Scotland, a journey of more than 750 kilometers (466 miles), to be installed

Two giant clusters of galaxies observed in the process of colliding are going so hard that their dark matter has basically detached from normal matter and flown ahead. It’s like untethered cargo during a collision between two vehicles. Other forces stop the vehicles themselves, but the cargo, under the influence of momentum, keeps going. It’s