Science

A landmark on Pluto that was previously designated as an impact crater may actually be the caldera of a supervolcano that has exploded in the past few million years, new research suggests. When NASA’s New Horizons mission flew by Pluto in 2015, it revealed a geologically rich world, rather than the cold, dark landscape many had anticipated. Almost immediately, researchers …

Underwhelming performance The task in this case is predicting how gene activity might change when genes are altered. When an individual gene is lost or activated, it’s possible that the only messenger RNA that is altered is the one made by that gene. But some genes encode proteins that regulate a collection of other genes, in which case you might …

Wavy Dave the robot crustacean has been showing scientists how male fiddler crabs respond when they see a fellow crab waving. Famous for their enormous claws, the team made Wavy Dave blend in by giving him a huge claw of his own, only for it to get ripped off by a male crab. Before he was struck down, Wavy Dave’s …

In a theory that challenges what we know about aging, João Pedro de Magalhães, a molecular biogerontologist at the University of Birmingham, suggests humans may be biologically capable of living much longer than we do now—possibly 1,000 years or more. But there’s a catch: we may have evolved to age faster, and the reason traces back to the Age of …

Thirteen years into its mission, NASA’s Curiosity rover is still uncovering Martian mysteries — and learning to do more with less. Since landing in Gale Crater in 2012, Curiosity has traveled more than 22 miles (35 kilometers), studying rock layers, analyzing soil and revealing Mars’ ancient past, including signs that the planet once harbored liquid water, a thicker atmosphere and …

Sunspot region 4168 is certainly making quite a name for itself! Earlier this week, active region 4168 churned out three M-class flares within 24 hours, ending weeks of calm on the sun. Then, on Aug. 5, it fired off a strong M4.4-class flare, peaking at 11:58 a.m. EDT (15:58 GMT), and hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. But though …

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Researchers have just identified four new species of tarantulas whose genitals are so long they had to make a new biological classification for them. Meet the Satyrex ferox, S. arabicus, S. somalicus, and S. speciosus. They hail from the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa and are so different from their closest relatives—on both the morphological and molecular level—that …

The Perseids peak next week. Here’s where to see the meteor shower in California  San Francisco Chronicle The Perseid meteor shower 2025 peaks Aug. 12-13: Here’s what to expect from the dazzling cosmic light show  Space The Sturgeon Moon rises, followed by the Moon’s tour of the Solar System planets. Here’s how to see it  BBC Sky at Night Magazine Meteor Activity Outlook …

Space fans looking to camp out in style have a chance to pick up an Airstream trailer that once served as the Convoy Command Vehicle for NASA’s Space Shuttle operations at Edwards Air Force Base – if they have a couple hundred thousand to spare, that is. “This is the NASA 025 Command Vehicle,” current owner Jonathan Kitzen says of …