Science

Topline The northern lights could appear in several states in the northern U.S. on Thursday night, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as the Perseids meteor shower may also appear in the night sky. The possible aurora borealis coincides with the Perseids meteor shower, with hundreds of meteors … More likely visible in the night sky during its …

This past May, employees at the Honister Slate Mine in Cumbria, England, stopped short when they noticed an animal perched precariously on the rocky mountain ledge above their heads. Worried for the animal’s safety, and concerned she might topple rocks onto the pedestrians below, the workers contacted the Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team for help. Cockermouth Mountain Rescue Team Rescuers Andrew …

The newly discovered “interstellar visitor” 3I/ATLAS can be seen shining like a rainbow-colored string of cosmic pearls in a trippy new timelapse image captured by a telescope in Hawaii. The interloper was discovered on July 1, and within 24 hours NASA confirmed it was an interstellar object — an ejected piece of an alien star system that is shooting through …

It’s been more than a year since Starliner’s failed test flight left a crew stranded in space, and Boeing’s spacecraft still isn’t ready to fly. In a recent update, NASA officials said they are working toward launching a mission aboard Starliner in 2026, and there probably won’t be any astronauts involved. During a press briefing last week, Steve Stich, NASA’s …

Despite the powerful telescopes that modern astronomers have to work with, the distant reaches of the Solar System are still mysterious. Not much sunlight pierces these regions, and there are strong hints that undiscovered objects lurk there. The objects that astronomers have discovered in these dim reaches are primordial, and their orbits suggest the presence of more undiscovered objects. Piecing …

Early risers will get a rare opportunity to see something extraordinary in the early hours of July 18 — the dark shadow of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, sweeping across the planet’s cloud tops. Once every 15 years, Saturn‘s tilted orbit brings its iconic rings — and Titan‘s orbital path — into an edge-on alignment with Earth. This event, known as …

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KEY POINTS Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune each emit more energy than they receive from the Sun, meaning they have comparatively warm interiors. NASA’s Uranus flyby with Voyager 2 in 1986 found the planet colder than expected, which challenged ideas of how planets formed and evolved. However, with advanced computer modeling and a new look at old data, scientists think the …

Soil excavated from the moon could be used to produce oxygen and methane, which could be used by lunar settlers for breathing and for rocket fuel. This is the conclusion of a team of scientists from China who have found a one-step method of doing all this. Whether it is economically viable, however, is up for debate. But the Chinese …

In April, when Yellowstone National Park geologists made their first visit this year to the Norris Geyser Basin, they encountered a new feature they hadn’t seen before. They were checking the area’s temperature logging stations, a routine maintenance job – but since their last visit, something was different. Where previously there had been a rather featureless patch of ground at …