Science

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 …

A new study has returned to a popular Milky Way attraction, formed by a fast-spinning dead star core that scientists say is one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the galaxy.  At the heart of this colorful nebula is a so-called pulsar, a type of neutron star that blasts streams of high-energy particles through space as it revolves like …

A team of astronomers has found what appears to be a previously undiscovered moon orbiting Uranus. If confirmed, this finding would mean the gigantic blue-green ice planet would have 29 moons. The discovery was made using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), extending the instrument’s list of achievements and raising expectations that other new discoveries might be made within the …

A TikTok account pretending to be the NASA Curiosity rover has fooled people. A fake video showing the “night sky on Mars” allegedly filmed by NASA’s Curiosity Rover has fooled thousands on TikTok and even a couple of news websites. The TikTok account that the video has come from is called “nasa.curiosity” and its profile picture is even the NASA …

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: Researchers believe the earliest forms of life on Earth began in hydrothermal vents—cracks in the sea floor that release hot, mineral-rich water. A team of scientists just discovered a hydrothermal system that’s 100 times larger than the famously massive Lost City system in the Atlantic Ocean. The study suggests that the …