Science

It seems that we’re finally locating at least some of the Universe’s ‘missing’ black holes. A cluster of stars called IRS 13 near the center of the galaxy seems to harbor a black hole in its midst. Moreover, the way these stars swarm and orbit suggest that the black hole is a rarity – one

Humans are ‘mutilating’ the tree of life, lopping off whole branches, one by one, at a rapid pace of pruning Earth has never experienced before. But not all hope is lost. To save a diversity of plants and animals from the current mass extinction, the United Nations introduced a historic ‘peace pact with nature‘ at

BUSAN, South Korea — South Korea’s new space agency, less than two months old, is laying out ambitious goals in spaceflight as part of its efforts to serve as a “control tower” for the county’s growing space presence. The Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) 45th Scientific Assembly held here served as one of the first

Earth’s population will peak in the mid-2080s at around 10.3 billion people, then drop slightly to a level much lower than anticipated a decade ago, the United Nations said. The current population of 8.2 billion people will rise to that maximum over the next 60 years, then dip to 10.2 billion by the end of

What is the true definition of a planet, and could there be a more refined definition in the future? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers from the United States and Canada investigated the potential for a new definition of a “planet”.

Supplies of dissolved oxygen in bodies of water across the globe are dwindling rapidly, and scientists say it’s one of the greatest risks to Earth’s life support system. Just as atmospheric oxygen is vital for animals like ourselves, dissolved oxygen (DO) in water is essential for healthy aquatic ecosystems, whether freshwater or marine. With billions

BUSAN, South Korea — The European Space Agency will allow a proposed mission to the asteroid Apophis to proceed to a next stage of development to keep it on schedule even though it is not yet fully funded. ESA announced July 16 that its space safety program, which includes planetary defense, has given the Ramses

Why did the experience of consciousness evolve from our underlying brain physiology? Despite being a vibrant area of neuroscience, current research on consciousness is characterised by disagreement and controversy – with several rival theories in contention. A recent scoping review of over 1,000 articles identified over 20 different theoretical accounts. Philosophers like David Chalmers argue

A rock on Mars has just spilled a surprising yellow treasure after Curiosity accidentally cracked through its unremarkable exterior. When the rover rolled its 899-kilogram (1,982-pound) body over the rock, the rock broke open, revealing yellow crystals of elemental sulfur: brimstone. Although sulfates are fairly common on Mars, this is the first time sulfur has

As extreme storms, floods, fires, droughts, cold snaps, and heat waves hit us harder and more often than ever, more than half of our planet is predicted to shift into new climate zones by the end of the century. A new interactive map, The Future Urban Climates, allows you to explore how your home’s climate

BUSAN, South Korea — SpaceX will develop a souped-up version of its Dragon spacecraft for NASA to handle the deorbiting of the International Space Station around the end of the decade. At a July 17 briefing, NASA and SpaceX officials provided new details about the United States Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) spacecraft NASA selected SpaceX to

Uncontrollable yet predictable, obvious yet inexplicable, blushing can be agony when we’re made to feel mortified, ashamed, or simply self-conscious. A new study suggests that a key trigger of blushing is more about that heightened sense of self-awareness, of feeling seen or exposed, rather than some cognitive computation of what other people think of us.

New York has been the backdrop to countless “end of the world” storylines in film and TV. But on Tuesday an actual meteor shot over the city’s iconic Statue of Liberty before disintegrating high above Manhattan, NASA’s Meteor Watch said in a post on Facebook. Residents flooded the internet with reports of a fireball in

Five eagerly anticipated events in the Paris Olympics will be the mens and womens 10 kilometre marathon swimming races, as well as the 1,500 metre swimming section of three triathlon events. Why? Because all will be held in the Seine River in the centre of Paris. The swimmers – including four Australians – will pass

On the face of it, competitive distance running appears not to have changed much since the Olympic Games were revived in 1896. However, even the relative simplicity of racing from gun to tape has radically altered in recent years due to the rise of advanced running footwear known colloquially as “supershoes”. A few years ago,

BUSAN, South Korea — NASA rolled out the second core stage for the Space Launch System rocket July 16 to ship it to Florida for the Artemis 2 mission next year. The core stage, built at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, rolled out of the manufacturing facility there and onto the Pegasus barge

In the guts of an ancient mummified crocodile, researchers have discovered a telltale bronze hook. Up to 3,000 years ago, the 2.2-meter (7.2-foot) long crocodile died before it had even begun to digest a fish found intact around the hook in its stomach. The human-made object and state of the carefully preserved animal suggest it

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, tasked with taking a close-up look at the Sun’s outer corona, has just equalled the record for the fastest-moving human-made object ever. The previous record holder? The Parker Solar Probe, again. The probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour on June 29, the second time it’s reached

It’s well known that as far as the climate crisis goes, time is of the essence. Now a study out Monday shows that the melting of the polar ice caps is causing our planet to spin more slowly, increasing the length of days at an “unprecedented” rate. The paper, published in Proceedings of the National

WASHINGTON — The United States should harden its low Earth orbit satellites that support nuclear command and control against radiation effects from potential high-altitude nuclear detonations, according to a new report from a prominent think tank. The Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security released a study July 15 titled “Modernizing Space-Based Nuclear Command,

Chris Bianchi loves flying. “The fact that you can go from being on a 737 sitting on the ground to hurtling through the air at 500 miles an hour in five minutes, is just fascinating to me,” he told Business Insider. “I’m never not awestruck when I’m taking off, and on a plane. It’s just

Neutron stars are some of the most extreme objects in the universe. Formed from the collapsed cores of supergiant stars, they weigh more than our Sun and yet are compressed into a sphere the size of a city. The dense cores of these exotic stars contain matter squashed into unique states that we can’t possibly

Coastal Texas was under hurricane and storm surge warnings on Sunday, as the southern US state braced for the approach of Beryl, which was threatening to make landfall as a hurricane. The city of Galveston, southeast of Houston, had issued a voluntary evacuation order for some areas, with videos on social media showing lines of

In 1959, the famous theoretical physicist, Richard Feynman, fantasized about a future in which microrobots swam through our bloodstreams, fixing up our insides or delivering drugs as they go. Sixty-five years later, scientists are inching closer to that reality. Engineers at the University of Tokyo have now figured out a way to motorize tiny microscopic

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is poised to award an estimated $3 billion multi-year contract for commercial data and analytics services to monitor potential threats across the Indo-Pacific region, a focal point of global geopolitics and a priority theater for the Department of Defense. The program, known as Long-Range Enterprise Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Activity

Being curious is a quintessential part of being human, driving us to learn and adapt to new environments. For the first time, scientists have pinpointed the spot in the brain where curiosity emerges. The discovery was made by researchers from Columbia University in the US, who used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to measure

Any night now, a “new star” or nova will appear in the night sky. While it won’t set the sky ablaze, it’s a special opportunity to see a rare event that’s usually difficult to predict in advance. The star in question is T Coronae Borealis (T CrB, pronounced “T Cor Bor”). It lies in the

Less than a month into summer 2024, the vast majority of the US population has already experienced an extreme heat wave. Millions of people were under heat warnings across the western US in early July or sweating through humid heat in the East. Death Valley hit a dangerous 129 degrees Fahrenheit (53.9 C) on July

TOKYO — SpaceX says it will not be able to recover the 20 Starlink satellites left in a very low orbit after a malfunction of a Falcon 9 upper stage on a July 11 launch. In a statement July 12, the company said that the 20 satellites on the Group 9-3 launch have been unable

Performing at the absolute pinnacle of athletic endeavor can play havoc on the human body. When you push yourself beyond your limits, you can end up in a world of pain. There are the injuries, of course. And for the 14,500 or so athletes – and their staff – expected to take up residence in