Science

Dark energy—the hypothetical force accelerating our universe’s expansion—sometimes raises more questions than it answers. A new study, however, presents surprising evidence that black holes may be an incubator for dark energy—suggesting that the force may be less constant than we believed. In a paper published August 21 in Physical Review Letters, researchers used data from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument …

Prehistoric paintings found deep inside a perilously inaccessible cave in the French Pyrenees reveal how ancient hunter-gatherers risked their necks to conduct ritual activities in the bowels of the Earth. Known as Etxeberri Cave, the site is considered one of the most challenging caverns to have been explored by Palaeolithic humans, and may have been decorated as part of a …

On Sept. 11, 2022, engineers at a flight control center in Turin, Italy, sent a radio signal into deep space. Its destination was NASA’s DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) spacecraft flying toward an asteroid more than 5 million miles away. The message prompted the spacecraft to execute a series of pre-programmed commands that caused a small, shoebox-sized satellite contributed by the …

Most people imagine our early primate ancestors swinging through lush tropical forests. But new research shows that they were braving the cold. As an ecologist who has studied chimpanzees and lemurs in the field in Uganda and Madagascar, I am fascinated by the environments that shaped our primate ancestors. These new findings overturn decades of assumptions about how – and …

A space sensation will occur this weekend but down on Earth, no one will be able to view it. A “black moon” is set to rise Saturday, which Hunter Miller, an astronomy educator at the Adler Planetarium, said is most akin to its opposite — a “blue moon.” “This is just something that kind of happens by chance every couple …

Asteroid Bennu, sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in 2020, is a mixture of dust that formed in our solar system, organic matter from interstellar space, and pre-solar system stardust. Its unique and varied contents were dramatically transformed over time by interactions with water and exposure to the harsh space environment. These insights come from a trio of newly published papers …

Facebook Tweet Email Link Astronomers have observed what they are calling a new type of supernova, which has provided an unparalleled glimpse into what happens deep within a star just before it explodes. A study detailing the surprising discovery published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Massive stars are like celestial onions: the outermost layers are made up of lightweight elements …

Scientists are calling for a new global regime to address air pollution caused by the space industry. Prof Eloise Marais’s team at University College London (UCL) began tracking space activities in 2020. Their latest figures reveal 259 rocket launches in 2024, and 223 launches in 2023. These burned more than 153,000 tonnes of fuel. Marais said: “More pollutants are being …

Sign up for the Starts With a Bang newsletter Travel the universe with Dr. Ethan Siegel as he answers the biggest questions of all. Here on planet Earth, humans have long sought to harness the power of nature to perform difficult tasks for them. Thousands of years ago, agriculture advanced greatly when the combination of domesticated animals and the plow …