Science

WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration will allow SpaceX to resume Falcon 9 flights after an upper stage anomaly nearly two weeks ago as the company awaits approval for its next Starship launch. In a statement late Oct. 11, the FAA said it cleared launches of the Falcon 9 that, with one exception, had been

Near-Earth asteroid Bennu has taught us a lot about the nature of asteroids and the history of our planet, and it’s not done yet. A new study of Bennu tracking data gives us fresh clues on a potential fifth fundamental force in the Universe. If in fact it does exist, the fifth force of nature

As Hurricane Milton roared ashore near Sarasota, Florida, tens of thousands of people were in evacuation shelters. Hundreds of thousands more had fled coastal regions ahead of the storm, crowding highways headed north and south as their counties issued evacuation orders. But not everyone left, despite dire warnings about a hurricane that had been one

Imagine three people huddled in a circle so when one speaks, only one other hears. Scientists have created a device that works like that, ensuring sound waves ripple in one direction only. The device, developed by scientists at ETH Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, is made up of a disk-shaped cavity

WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates will launch a mission to visit several asteroids later this decade on a Japanese H3 rocket. The UAE Space Agency (UAESA) announced Oct. 10 it selected Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to launch its Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) on an H3 rocket in the first quarter of 2028.

A massive ball of plasma and accompanying magnetic field ejected from the Sun is expected to strike Earth on Thursday morning, potentially triggering auroras as far south as Alabama, according to US forecasters. It comes as the Sun approaches – or is possibly at – the peak of its 11-year cycle, when activity is heightened.

After an unseasonably quiet August, the Atlantic hurricane season is ramping up. Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4, is forecast to land over Florida Wednesday night as the state is still cleaning up the damage from Hurricane Helene, which hit less than two weeks prior. These back-to-back storms aren’t the end of what we may

If your jaw dropped as you watched the latest AI-generated video, your bank balance was saved from criminals by a fraud detection system, or your day was made a little easier because you were able to dictate a text message on the run, you have many scientists, mathematicians and engineers to thank. But two names

WASHINGTON — A startup led by a founder of a financial services company is taking a new approach to space-based solar power intended to be more scalable and affordable than previous concepts. Aetherflux announced Oct. 9 plans to develop and ultimately deploy a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit that will collect solar power

The inner workings of our brain’s ‘sewage system’ are finally coming to light after years of speculation. Deep within the crevices of five human brains, scientists have, for the very first time, imaged the dynamic intricacies of a underlying plumbing network – previously seen in mice and only hypothesized in our own species. The findings

There are worlds out there far stranger than those we might dream up – and a real oddball we’ve been studying in puzzlement for years just got even odder. Its name is WASP-107b, an exoplanet orbiting a star just 200 light-years away, and it caught humanity’s attention for its unusual composition. WASP-107b is 96 percent

Hurricane Milton went from barely hurricane strength to a dangerous Category 5 storm in less than 24 hours as it headed across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. As its wind speed increased, Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record. And with 180 mph sustained winds on Oct. 7, 2024, and

SAN FRANCISCO – As a group, NASA’s low-cost science missions have improved significantly. “There were lessons learned over the years that helped,” said Charles Norton, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory deputy chief technologist. “In the beginning there were a lot of failures. The community bootstrapped itself to become successful.” In fact, low-cost, risk-tolerant Class-D small satellite

A study on the brains of mice has identified a neurological relay race unfolding at meal time, dividing activity into four separate phases that ensure the animals don’t eat too much or too little. While the research doesn’t identify the exact physiological cues that define each act, the findings hint at a complex interplay of

Small primordial black holes (PBHs) are one of the hot topics in astronomy and cosmology today. These hypothetical black holes are believed to have formed soon after the Big Bang, resulting from pockets of subatomic matter so dense that they underwent gravitational collapse. At present, PBHs are considered a candidate for dark matter, a possible

COCOA BEACH, Fla. — The Federal Aviation Administration has granted approval for the Falcon 9 launch of the European Space Agency’s Hera asteroid mission, but is keeping the vehicle grounded for now for other missions. In an Oct. 6 statement, the FAA stated it authorized a return to flight for the Falcon 9 solely for

A dwarf planet thought to have some ice mixed in with its dirty surface may have a lot more cool than we ever expected. Ceres – the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter – could have a crust consisting of more than 90 percent water ice. If this is the case,

WASHINGTON — The first satellites of a Chinese broadband constellation are significantly brighter than those of Western systems, posing a new challenge for astronomers. In a paper posted on the arXiv preprint server Sept. 30, a group of observational astronomers reported on observations of a set of 18 Qianfan, or “Thousand Sails,” satellites launched in

The way the human brain remembers certain individuals is closely linked to how we talk about them. Neuroscientists have now shown that pronouns like ‘he’, ‘she’, or ‘they’ can activate the same neuron in the brain as a person’s specific name. Take these two sentences as an example: “Shrek and Courtney Love walked into a

There’s nothing else like Earth and its Moon in the entire Solar System. Other planets either have multiple moons, or none at all, but the mass ratio of our world and its hefty satellite is quite unique. The question of our unusual moon’s origin, therefore, is one of planetary evolution, figuring out the pathways for

Updated 6 p.m. Eastern with additional details on nozzle anomaly. WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance’s second Vulcan Centaur lifted off Oct. 4 on a test flight needed to certify the vehicle for carrying national security payloads, but may have suffered a problem with one of its solid rocket boosters. The Vulcan Centaur lifted off at

Supermassive black holes are some of the most impressive (and scary) objects in the universe – with masses around one billion times more than that of the Sun. And we know the’ve been around for a long time. In fact, astronomers have detected the extremely luminous compact sources that are located at the centres of

WASHINGTON — Impulse Space, a startup specializing in in-space transportation services, has secured a $34.5 million contract to support two U.S. military space missions set for 2026, the Defense Department announced Oct. 3.  The deal, awarded under a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase 3 agreement, is funded by the U.S. Space Force and the

The presence of a partially-molten layer between the Moon‘s rocky mantle and solid metal core is looking more likely following a study on its changing shape and gravity. Researchers from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Arizona analyzed new data describing the Moon’s rigidity under the gravitational influence of Earth and

WASHINGTON — NASA has selected proposals for X-ray and far-infrared space telescopes for additional study as part of a new line of astrophysics missions. NASA announced Oct. 3 that it selected two proposals for further assessment as part of a new line of missions the agency is calling Probe Explorers. Each proposal will receive $5

Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” is one of the world’s most popular paintings – and now scientists believe they know why, by measuring how the brain reacts when the work is viewed. The Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, which houses the 17th century masterpiece, commissioned neuroscientists to measure brain output when viewing the

The Sun has started spooky season with a bang, letting loose on October 1 with a colossal flare and coronal mass ejection headed right for Earth. The flare clocked in at X7.1 – the second most powerful flare of the current solar cycle, and one of the most powerful solar flares ever measured, sitting within

Hurricane Helene’s flooding has subsided, but health risks are growing in hard-hit regions of the North Carolina mountains, where many people lost access to power and clean water. More than 150 deaths across the Southeast had been attributed to Hurricane Helene within days of the late September 2024 storm, according to The Associated Press, and

WASHINGTON — United Launch Alliance is ready for a second test flight of its Vulcan Centaur rocket as it gears up for a sharp increase in launch activity next year. ULA announced Oct. 2 that it was in final preparations for the Cert-2 launch of Vulcan Centaur, scheduled for a three-hour window that opens at

Sir John Franklin’s Northwest Passage expedition is a moment of history that piques a great deal of interest and imagination today. The sailors who died trying to escape the Arctic after their ships Terror and Erebus became frozen and icebound in 1846 are a testament to human endurance – and desperation. The bones of James