Science

Last week, three tiny Australian satellites from Curtin University’s Binar Space Program burned up in Earth’s atmosphere. That was always going to happen. In fact, Binar means “fireball” in the Noongar language of the First Nations people of Perth. When a satellite is in low Earth orbit (2,000 km or less), it experiences orbital decay

There’s been an exciting new discovery in the fight against plastic pollution: mealworm larvae that are capable of consuming polystyrene. They join the ranks of a small group of insects that have been found to be capable of breaking the polluting plastic down, though this is the first time that an insect species native to

Almost no one thought SpaceX would make the catch, at least not on the first try. On the fifth integrated test flight of Starship, launched Oct. 13 from the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, site, the Super Heavy booster aimed to fly back to the launch tower, where massive mechanical arms — dubbed “chopsticks” — would

Alexithymia is a term you may not have heard before. But it describes something many people experience: difficulties in identifying, distinguishing and expressing emotions. It affects how people engage with their emotions at work, in relationships and even within themselves. It may also change how a person analyses their surroundings and how they interact with

For decades, we’ve thought we had a pretty good grasp of Uranus. The penultimate planet, our best measurements suggest, has a whole slew of idiosyncrasies. And one of the most puzzling is its magnetic field. According to measurements taken by Voyager 2 when the NASA probe conducted a flyby in 1986, Uranus’s magnetosphere is a

WASHINGTON — Reaction Engines Ltd., a British company that has worked for decades on an air-breathing rocket engine for spaceplanes and other hypersonic vehicles, has filed for bankruptcy. The company formally entered administration, a process under United Kingdom law to allow for the restructuring or liquidation of companies in financial distress, on Oct. 31 after

One stormy Monday in March, 1827, the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven passed away after a protracted illness. Bedridden since the previous Christmas, he was attacked by jaundice, his limbs and abdomen swollen, each breath a struggle. As his associates went about the task of sorting through personal belongings, they uncovered a document Beethoven had

How did everything begin? It’s a question that humans have pondered for thousands of years. Over the last century or so, science has homed in on an answer: the Big Bang. This describes how the Universe was born in a cataclysmic explosion almost 14 billion years ago. In a tiny fraction of a second, the

The carbon footprint from private jet travel grew 46 percent between 2019 and 2023 and will keep rising unless the ultra-luxury industry is regulated, according to new research published Thursday. Carbon dioxide emissions from private aviation peaked over the European summer and around major global events like the World Cup, Cannes Film Festival and UN

WASHINGTON — NASA has extended three contracts with companies to continue providing transportation of cargo to and from the International Space Station through the projected end of the station’s life in 2030. In procurement filings Nov. 8, NASA stated it planned to extend the existing Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contracts with Northrop Grumman, Sierra

Amidst a cache of glittering golden treasures from the Iberian Bronze Age, a pair of corroded objects might be the most precious of all. A dull bracelet and a rusted hollow hemisphere decorated with gold are forged, researchers have found, not out of metal from beneath the ground, but with iron from meteorites that fell

The Solar System’s little pocket of the Milky Way is, interestingly enough, exactly that. Our star resides in an unusually hot, low-density compartment in the galaxy’s skirts, known as the Local Hot Bubble (LHB). Why it’s not called the Local Hot Pocket is anyone’s guess; but, because it’s an anomaly, scientists want to know why

Artificial intelligence is rapidly getting better at mimicking its human creators. Generative AI can now convincingly hold conversations, produce art, make movies, and even teach itself how to replicate computer games. But as a new study by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Reichman University in Israel warns, artificial intelligence may also be

WASHINGTON — Commercial space station developer Vast Space has signed an agreement with the government of the Czech Republic that could allow a Czech astronaut fly on a future mission by the company. Vast announced Nov. 8 that it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Czech Ministry of Transport to explore potential partnerships

The devastation of Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE is one of the best-recorded disasters in human history. The ash and pumice that rained down preserved traces of the dying where they fell, leaving us to guess the identities and relationships of the people left frozen in time. But we humans are

We finally know what brought light to the dark and formless void of the early Universe. According to data from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes, the origins of the free-flying photons in the early cosmic dawn were small dwarf galaxies that flared to life, clearing the fog of murky hydrogen that filled intergalactic

The mysterious black balls that washed up on Sydney’s beaches in mid-October were likely lumps of “fatberg” containing traces of human faeces, methamphetamine and PFAS, according to a new detailed analysis of their composition. Initial reports suggested the ominous lumps were probably tar balls from an oil spill. However, analysis with a barrage of scientific

WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic is proposing to raise $300 million in additional capital to accelerate production of suborbital spaceplanes and a mothership aircraft the company says can fuel its long-term growth. In a Nov. 6 earnings call to discuss the suborbital spaceflight company’s third quarter financial results, Virgin Galactic executives said that while work on

Are you scared of clowns? You are not alone. Coulrophobia, or the fear of clowns, is a widely acknowledged phenomenon. Studies indicate this fear is present among both adults and children in many different cultures. Yet it is not well understood due to a lack of focused research. While numerous possible explanations of the phobia

From all over the sky, the Universe is hurling mysterious signals. We don’t really know what they are, or what’s making them; but a new analysis of where they are coming from gives us clues about the sources of the strange emissions we call fast radio bursts (FRBs). Led by astronomer Kritti Sharma of the

If you’ve ever seen yourself through a thermal imaging camera, you’ll know that your body produces lots of heat. This is in fact a waste product of our metabolism. Every square foot of the human body gives off heat equivalent to about 19 matches per hour. Unfortunately, much of this heat simply escapes into the

WASHINGTON — Japan and Poland are set to gain access to the U.S. military’s Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) satellite network, marking a strategic expansion of the system that currently supports the United States and several other partner nations.  Officials said the inclusion of these new partners reflects the growing importance of space-based communications for military

Anthropologists have peered through the thick jungle of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and identified a long-lost Maya city with stepped temple pyramids to rival Chichén Itzá, Río Bec, and Tikal. Fieldwork on the ground is yet to be conducted by archaeologists, but based on remote sensing data, which maps entire landscapes under dense forests in minute

Early in the life of the Solar System, things were a lot more violent than they are today. Rocks were flying everywhere, willy-nilly, smacking into the newly formed planets, pocking them with craters and gouging out impact basins. Mercury, Mars, and the Moon are all heavily scarred. Even Earth – where geological and weathering processes

A new study published in the journal One Earth explores how marine biodiversity conservation, human health and wellbeing are connected. The results suggest that marine protected areas can be good for both planet and people. These areas of the ocean are legally recognised by governments as being important for marine conservation. They are protected by

WASHINGTON — Rocket Lab is aiming to chip away at SpaceX’s dominance in military space launch, confirming its bid to compete for Pentagon contracts with its new medium-lift rocket Neutron. “We’re excited to bid this time round for NSSL Lane 1, and we think Neutron is a really good vehicle for it,” Rocket Lab’s founder

Early Homo sapiens and their Neanderthal cousins started burying their dead around the same time and roughly the same place, some 120,000 years ago. This suggests the two species may have had, at least in part, a shared culture at the time. A new study of these ancient burial sites across the Levant region in

Scientists have long thought that the highest-energy gamma rays in space are forged in the intense furnaces of very active supermassive black holes, far, far away. But a new study has traced some of these high-energy photons to an object much closer to us. V4641 Sagittarii is a system about 20,000 light-years from Earth, in

Editor’s note – In 2022, as generative AI began to take the world by storm, a very creepy phenomenon started to emerge. This Halloween we’re revisiting the eerie mystery of Loab. Here’s our original story from December 2022: She’s out there somewhere, lurking in a parallel universe of possibilities. All you have to do to

TAMPA, Fla. — Satellite operator Globalstar stock closed up more than 30% Nov. 1 after disclosing Apple’s plans to invest $1.5 billion in a new constellation to improve space-based communications for iPhones. Apple would take a 20% equity stake in the constellation for $400 million, if the deal closes as expected Nov. 5, and make