Science

There’s a light that never goes out… well, almost never. Since the invention of commercial light bulbs in the late 19th century, one bulb has outshone all others. In 2025, it could enter its 124th year of working life. Exactly when the 60-watt bulb was manufactured and the year it was first turned on are

This is a customer submitted press release. Submit your press release. The EAST SPACE Company has developed and brought to market three new products in the field of telemetry, propulsion and power with the approach of reducing costs and increasing the quality of technical specifications. S & X Band Module Due to the small size

If you’re stuck for something to play with family members or friends, why not the ancient board game found in Shahr-i Sokhta in southeastern Iran? Almost 50 years after it was dug up in 1977, experts have worked out the rules of play. What’s assumed to be a complete set, including a board, 27 pieces,

Some 2,600 light-years from our own Solar System dwells one of the most peculiar planetary systems in the entire galaxy. Called Kepler-51, the Sun-like yellow dwarf star was found in 2012 to have three exoplanets in its orbit; each, it would turn out, with a density lighter than cotton candy, putting them all in a

WASHINGTON — A NASA authorization bill introduced in the Senate in the final days of the current Congress would have directed NASA to accelerate work on commercial space stations and address cost overruns on science programs. The NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2024 was formally introduced in the Senate Dec. 18 by Sen. Maria Cantwell

An unlucky child born with a heart condition 17,000 years ago also had the earliest known instance of blue eyes. Based on genetic data from his remains, found in what’s now Italy, “the infant most likely had blue eyes, dark skin, and curly dark brown/almost black hair,” University of Bologna archeologist Owen Higgins and team

A glowing galaxy not far from the Milky Way has been harboring a strange, puzzling secret at its core. In the center of NGC 5084, some 80 million light-years away, the supermassive black hole around which the whole galaxy revolves has been discovered tipped over on its side, with its rotational axis parallel to the

TAMPA, Fla. — The British government is funding a group of in-orbit servicing ventures to help develop ground rules for their planned rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO).  The British subsidiaries of Japan-based Astroscale, Switzerland’s ClearSpace, and D-Orbit of Italy said Dec. 23 they jointly secured 690,000 British pounds ($869,000) from the U.K. Department for Science,

The speed of the human brain’s ability to process information has been investigated in a new study, and according to scientists, we’re not as mentally quick as we might like to think. In fact, research suggests our brains process information at a speed of just 10 bits per second. But how is this possible, in

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is about to make history, once again. On Christmas Eve, the spacecraft is going to get closer to the Sun than any human-made object ever has, traveling at speeds faster than any human-made object has traveled. In its 22nd close flyby, the probe will skim just 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million

Sadly, we know that microplastics are getting everywhere, including our drinking water – but researchers have developed a new way to tackle the problem: a filter made of a rather unusual combination of material, which is able to remove up to 99.9 percent of tiny plastic fragments from water. The researchers, led by a team

WASHINGTON — Liechtenstein became the latest country to sign the Artemis Accords Dec. 20, bringing the total number of signatories to more than half of a key United Nations body. Rainer Schnepfleitner, director of Liechtenstein’s Office for Communications, the government agency responsible for space issues, signed the Artemis Accords in an event at NASA Headquarters

Ancient sheep buried in an elite grave in Egypt show the oldest evidence of humans deliberately deforming the horns of livestock. Exactly why it was done remains a mystery. In the 5,700-year-old dig site of Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt, archaeologists uncovered the remains of five male sheep that showed clear evidence of having their horns artificially

Two US astronauts stranded for months on the International Space Station will remain there at least until late March, NASA said Tuesday as it announced another delay in the mission to bring them home. Veteran astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the ISS in June aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, and were due to

A living time capsule frozen in the depths of Lake Enigma in Antarctica contains a unique ecosystem that has been isolated from the rest of the world since its surface permanently froze. Now, scientists have retrieved samples of the unique microbes, which have survived in a massive chamber of liquid fresh water below more than

I’m a computer scientist and a bad Christmas shopper. Over the weekend, I wondered whether AI systems might be able to help me out. Could I just prompt ChatGPT to pick a personalised gift for my cousin Johnny and have it shipped in time to reach him? Alas, the cheerful chatbot couldn’t help, telling me

WASHINGTON — A defunct military weather satellite has broken up in orbit and created more than 50 pieces of debris, the latest in a series of similar incidents involving that line of spacecraft. The U.S. Space Force reported Dec. 19 that it had identified a “low-velocity fragmentation event” involving the DMSP-5D2 F14 spacecraft. The event

In a surprise conclusion to a project dubbed The Final Experiment, several well-known believers in a non-spherical Earth have had a change of heart. “All right, guys, sometimes, you are wrong in life,” announced Jeran Campanella, a prominent flat-Earth theorist who joined an all-expenses-paid expedition to Antarctica to see the Sun circle the sky for

At the centre of the Milky Way is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A*. It is roughly 27,000 light years from Earth and 23.5 million kilometres in diameter. In a world first, a team of astronomers led by Florian Peißker from the University of Cologne, Germany, have discovered a binary star system orbiting this

The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory – and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested

HELSINKI — Chinese launch startup Galactic Energy conducted its fourth sea launch early Thursday as China continued its recent high launch cadence. The Ceres-1 solid rocket lifted off at 5:18 a.m. Eastern (1018 UTC) Dec. 19 from a converted mobile sea platform off the coast of Shandong province, near Rizhao city. The launch was streamed

Twins have been rare in human history and for that reason can seem special. Many cultures associate twins with health and vitality, while others see them as a philosophical reminder of the duality of life and death, good and evil. Some famous twins are credited with the birth of nations, others are described as deities.

The formation of the Moon may have come harder on the heels of Earth’s birth than we thought. According to a new analysis by researchers from the US, France, and Germany, Earth’s constant companion may have formed as early as 4.53 billion years ago – hundreds of millions of years earlier than previous estimates. It’s

This is a customer submitted press release. Submit your press release. Ontario, N.Y. / Livermore, Calif. — Starris: Optimax Space Systems and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announce a commercialization partnership for LLNL’s patented monolithic telescope technology — which accelerates rapid deployment of modular optical designs for high-resolution or high sensitivity space imagery. Starris has

Researchers have linked spending more time playing video games with a boost in intelligence in children, which goes some way to contradicting the narrative that gaming is bad for young minds. While the difference in cognitive abilities was a small one and isn’t enough to show a causal relationship, it is enough to be notable

When you wish upon a star, Jiminy Cricket told us, your dreams come true. But according to an idea doing the rounds on social media, that may not be the case: According to astronomy, when you wish upon a star you’re a million years too late. The star is dead, just like your dreams. @robbnwa

TAMPA, Fla. — Eutelsat has ordered 100 broadband satellites from Airbus Defence and Space to start replenishing its OneWeb low Earth orbit (LEO) constellation in a few years. The first batches of satellites are due to be completed before the end of 2026, the French operator said Dec. 17. Most of the 654 satellites in OneWeb’s

A few years ago, late in the fall of 2021, locals fishing Georgia’s Bashplemi Lake in the municipality of Dmanisi came across a long-forgotten piece of history – a small stone tablet inscribed with dozens of mysterious symbols. Now a team of archaeologists from across Georgia has confirmed the impressions represent samples of a script

Jupiter‘s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in our Solar System, with around 400 volcanoes and extensive lava flows spread across its surface – but contrary to what scientists thought, a new study suggests this geological chaos is not powered by a global, moonwide ocean of magma below the surface. Using images snapped