Science

Alone among known planets, Earth has vast oceans on its surface and its landmasses are marked with lakes and extensive river drainage systems. Water is the biosphere’s lifeblood, and without it, Earth would be just another dead world. If Earth life is a reliable indicator, then water is necessary for life, full stop. That’s why scientists are so interested in …

On 15 July 1965, NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft made Solar System history. As it flew by Mars, the spacecraft’s onboard camera snapped 22 pictures of the planet’s surface, sending them back home to Earth – the first-ever close-up photos of Mars obtained by humans, and the very first photos of another planet obtained from a position in deep space. Those …

Sign up for the Starts With a Bang newsletter Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all. If you want to detect a gravitational wave, you have to design something extraordinary. Gravitational waves are ripples in spacetime — distortions in the very fabric of spacetime itself — that propagate at the speed of …

Scientists have detected a hidden alien planet by examining the orbits of the known worlds in the star system, known as Kepler-139. The newfound exoplanet, called Kepler-139f, is a gigantic world roughly twice the mass of Neptune and 35 times the mass of Earth, and it takes 355 days to orbit its star, astronomers reported in a study published May …

The Perseids, often considered one of the best and biggest meteor showers of the year, is on deck to start soon. Each summer, it lasts for weeks and hits its peak in mid-August. The Perseids are active from around July 17 to Aug. 23. They come at the perfect time of year for backyard viewing – no telescopes needed! They’re …

Recent research from Stanford University has revealed a groundbreaking finding about rocky exoplanets that seem inhospitable due to their volcanic activity. Many of these planets, which display volcanic scars but have static crusts, may actually harbor conditions conducive to life. The study, led by doctoral researcher Matthew Reinhold and assistant professor Laura Schaefer, shows that despite their outwardly harsh environments, …

Videos From the Amazon Reveal an Unexpected Animal Friendship  The New York Times Source link

In 1995, renowned physicist Stephen Hawking made several bold predictions about what life would look like in 2025. Now that we’ve reached this milestone year, it’s fascinating to evaluate which of his forecasts hit the mark and which ones missed. The brilliant cosmologist, who lived with ALS for most of his life, shared these predictions during a BBC television program called …

Researchers have demonstrated a new technique that allows “self-driving laboratories” to collect at least 10 times more data than previous techniques at record speed. The advance – which is published in Nature Chemical Engineering – dramatically expedites materials discovery research, while slashing costs and environmental impact. Self-driving laboratories are robotic platforms that combine machine learning and automation with chemical and …

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