Science

Jupiter‘s icy moon Europa has long been thought of as one of the most habitable worlds in the Solar System. Now the Juno mission to Jupiter has directly sampled its atmosphere in detail for the first time. The results, published in Nature Astronomy, show that Europa’s icy surface produces less oxygen than we thought. There

If you stand at practically any point on Earth, there is water moving through the ground beneath your feet. Groundwater provides about half of the world’s population with drinking water and nearly half of all water used to irrigate crops. It sustains rivers, lakes and wetlands during droughts. Groundwater is a renewable resource, but it

WASHINGTON — The first crewed flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner has slipped from late April to early May because of International Space Station schedule conflicts and not due to any issues with the spacecraft itself. In a media advisory released by NASA late March 8, the agency said the Crew Flight Test (CFT) mission, previously

The afterlife could be a lonely place with your loved ones staying behind in the land of the living. In the ancient Coclé culture, which existed in Panama between 200 BCE and 1550 CE, elite individuals didn’t have to worry about eternal solitude. The tomb of a young Coclé lord from roughly 1,200 years ago

We know that there are thousands of exoplanets out there, with many millions more waiting to be discovered. But the vast majority of exoplanets are simply uninhabitable. For the few that may be habitable, we can only determine if they are by examining their atmospheres. LIFE, the Large Interferometer for Exoplanets, can help. The search

The United Nations Environment Assembly this week considered a resolution on solar radiation modification, which refers to controversial technologies intended to mask the heating effect of greenhouse gases by reflecting some sunlight back to space. Proponents argue the technologies will limit the effects of climate change. In reality, this type of “geoengineering” risks further destabilising

A global race to build powerful computer chips that are essential for the next generation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools could have a major impact on global politics and security. The US is currently leading the race in the design of these chips, also known as semiconductors. But most of the manufacturing is carried out

WASHINGTON — Kurs Orbital, an Italian startup developing technology for in-space satellite servicing, announced March 7 it has secured $4 million in seed funding. Based in Turin, Italy, Kurs was co-founded in 2021 by former director of Ukraine’s space agency Volodymyr Usov. The company relocated to Italy in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine and set

A medieval astronomical instrument discovered entirely by accident has turned out to be a powerful record of cross-cultural scientific collaboration. The brass astrolabe dates back to 11th century Spain – but was subsequently engraved with annotations and amendments over the centuries, in multiple languages, as changing owners adapted and updated it for their own use.

A few years ago, astronomers ruled out the chance of a potentially hazardous asteroid named Apophis redirecting and hitting Earth as it whizzes by. That’s a huge relief. But we weren’t entirely out of the woods. We’ve seen, thanks to the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, that it’s possible to change the orbital course of an

A couple feet of sea level rise may not sound like a lot. But if sea levels rose by two feet (0.6 meters) worldwide, the effects on coastal communities would be catastrophic. Cities like New York, Miami, and New Orleans would experience devastating flooding. Across the globe, 97 million people would be in the path

Water and electronics don’t usually mix, but as it turns out, batteries could benefit from some H2O. By replacing the hazardous chemical electrolytes used in commercial batteries with water, scientists have developed a recyclable ‘water battery’ – and solved key issues with the emerging technology, which could be a safer and greener alternative. ‘Water batteries’

TYSONS, Va. — Despite Russia’s troubles on the battlefield in Ukraine and its relative decline as a space power, the head of United States Space Command warned against underestimating Moscow’s capabilities and intentions to challenge America’s dominance in the space domain. “Russia’s struggles following their invasion of Ukraine should not create a false sense of

A small, tube-shaped stone container discovered in Iran seems to have once encased a bright red pigment similar to lipstick. Analysis of traces left inside the container show ingredients that are remarkably close to the ingredients in lip pigments used today. It is, scientists say, probably the earliest known example of the use of lip

A galaxy some 750 million light-years away has been discovered hosting the heftiest pair of supermassive black holes we’ve ever seen. The pair have a combined mass of a whopping 28 billion times the mass of the Sun. While there are certainly individual black holes that exceed that mass, the pair – lurking in a

All that glitters is not gold. Actual glitter, for instance, can be a surprisingly harmful environmental pollutant, as a new study demonstrates. Despite its association with fun and frivolity, glitter has a dark side. Flecks of glitter reduce the amount of sunlight that penetrates into bodies of water, the new study shows, potentially impairing the

Updated 1 a.m. Eastern March 4 with comments from post-launch briefing. WASHINGTON — A Crew Dragon spacecraft is on its way to the International Space Station with four Americans and Russians on board after a launch March 3. A Falcon 9 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at 10:53 p.m. Eastern on NASA’s Crew-8 mission.

Empathy is the sensing of another’s emotions and ability to imagine how they are feeling, a quality that seems in pretty short supply in large parts of today’s world. The good news is, we might be able to spread empathy and compassion through social interaction. That’s the conclusion of a new study from an international

We finally know what brought light to the dark and formless void of the early Universe. According to data from the Hubbles 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

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX has announced it will dispose of 100 Starlink satellites over the next six months, after it discovered a design flaw that may cause them to fail. Rather than risk posing a threat to other spacecraft, SpaceX will “de-orbit” these satellites to burn up in the atmosphere. But atmospheric scientists are increasingly concerned

WASHINGTON — A NASA safety panel says the agency is studying issues with the design of the side hatch of the Orion spacecraft that could affect its ability to be opened in an off-nominal situation. During a Feb. 28 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), members said NASA has been looking at

Known today largely for a theorem on right-angled triangles, the Greek philosopher Pythagoras famously attempted to use mathematics to understand the beauty of music. Accordingly, harmonious combinations of notes known as musical consonance relied on simple ‘integer ratios’ in the sounds’ frequencies, or tones, to sound appealing. What’s more, the philosopher maintained that this held

Just over five years ago, on 22 February 2019, an unmanned space probe was placed in orbit around the Moon. Named Beresheet and built by SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries, it was intended to be the first private spacecraft to perform a soft landing. Among the probe’s payload were tardigrades, renowed for their ability to

The art of speaking to AI chatbots is continuing to frustrate and baffle people. A study attempting to fine-tune prompts fed into a chatbot model found that, in one instance, asking it to speak as if it were on Star Trek dramatically improved its ability to solve grade-school-level math problems. “It’s both surprising and irritating

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Scientists have identified a unique form of cell messaging occurring in the human brain, revealing just how much we still have to learn about its mysterious inner workings. Excitingly, the discovery hints that our brains might be even more powerful units of computation than we realized. Back in 2020, researchers from institutes in Germany and

An exciting discovery could shed some light on how Earth got its water. New observations of a disk of dust and gas circling a baby star have revealed a large amount of water vapor, at the exact location where baby planets might be starting to form. It’s the first time that astronomers have been able

Rivers of intense moisture wend their way through our atmosphere just as their liquid counterparts do across the land. Unfortunately the sky streams are much harder for us to see. Often a product of cyclones, atmospheric rivers can dictate where intense rain will fall, making their lack of visibility a problem. Understanding them grows increasingly

HELSINKI — India plans to conduct a first uncrewed orbital test flight for its Gaganyaan human spaceflight program in July this year. India will conduct three uncrewed test flights before a full crewed mission next year, S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told Asianet News Feb. 28. The G1 mission, slated