Your Daily Science News Source from Around the Globe
At the center of our galaxy resides a Supermassive Black Hole (SMBH) known as Sagittarius A. Based on ongoing observations, astronomers have determined that this SMBH measures 44 million km…
By Earth’s standards, you could hardly imagine a stranger world than frigid, tiny Pluto. It resides in the far corner of the Solar System at an average of about 4…
Last year, ‘declassified’ videos of numerous UFO encounters and reports of a top secret Pentagon program to investigate them made headlines around the world. Now, fresh details about the bizarre…
Off the coast of Hawaii, nearly a kilometre beneath the waves, an active volcano bubbles, spewing heat from beneath the seabed. This is the Lō’ihi Seamount, and NASA is studying…
Dark matter, or at least a portion of it, could be carrying an incredibly weak electrical force – equal to about a millionth of an electron’s charge. That’s according to…
The Universe is big, and strange, and there’s a lot of stuff out there that works in mysterious ways. Astronomers spend their time trying to understand these workings so they…
As an astrophysicist, I am always struck by the fact that even the wildest science-fiction stories tend to be distinctly human in character. No matter how exotic the locale or…
The Universe is so unimaginably big, and it’s positively teeming with an almost infinite supply of potentially life-giving worlds. So where the heck is everybody? At its heart, this is…
Scientists say they have determined the most likely place to find traces of ancient microbial life on Mars in future missions to the Red Planet. In a new ‘field guide’…
When you think of galaxies, you first think of glorious pinwheels filled with stars. But now astrophysicists have found something deeply peculiar: what seem to be galaxies in the early…
NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson sometimes has tears in her eyes when she says she won’t be going in to space again. The former International Space Station boss has logged a…
There’s something very special about all the awesome research funded by NASA – it’s accessible, for free, to everyone. It was a particularly special moment when NASA announced this shift…
Telescopes around the world have joined forces to try to provide us with our first photograph of a black hole. That’s still a few months off, at least, but all…
Ever dreamt of stepping onto a faraway planet? Well, NASA has you covered with this incredible virtual planet simulator. The Exoplanet Travel Bureau drops you into vastly different star systems…
Sometime after August 2008, the US Department of Defence contracted dozens of researchers to look into some very, very out-there aerospace technologies, including never-before-seen methods of propulsion, lift, and stealth.…
Pluto may not be categorised as a planet any more, but it still holds plenty of fascination. For instance, how did the dwarf planet form, and why is it so…
The famed EM Drive is a bust – that’s the take-home message from a team of physicists who have tested the controversial fuel-less propulsion system that appears to produce thrust…
Picture a flea on Pluto’s surface as seen through a telescope. This gives you some idea of the feat pulled off by astronomers, who managed to distinguish between spots of…
Calling all citizen scientists! A project looking for those dying, exploding stars called supernovae out in deep space is also searching for volunteers to help in the work, and you…
Nobody has ever put a lander on the far side of the Moon before, but China is well on its way to being the first. Over the weekend, the country…
Nothing lasts forever. If you look for it, mounting evidence of an impending mass extinction event is all around us, and the forces behind these epic die-offs could be greater…
Interstellar asteroid ‘Oumuamua raised an interesting possibility: if objects could enter our Solar System from somewhere out beyond its reaches, maybe it’s happened before. New research has found that that…
Ever been foiled by technology while trying to take pictures of something awesome? Don’t fret, it can literally happen to the most amazing of humans. On last week’s spacewalk outside…
Fast Radio Bursts (FBRs) have fascinated astronomers ever since the first one was detected in 2007. This event was named the “Lorimer Burst” after it discoverer, Duncan Lorimer from West…
Is there a ninth planet out there in our solar system, lurking out of sight of astronomers, far past the orbit of Pluto (the ex-ninth planet)? According to new observations…
There’s a mystery in the dusty heart of the Ant Nebula. Its two symmetrical lobes are the result of a star shedding its material as it dies – and that’s…
Astronomers using some of the most powerful telescopes on Earth have found evidence that stars were forming incredibly early on in the life of the Universe – just 250 million…
A summary of decades of research on a rather ‘out-there’ idea involving viruses from space has recently been published, and it’s raising questions on just how scientific we can be…
An asteroid the size of the Statue of Liberty is set to narrowly miss Earth on Tuesday evening. The asteroid, dubbed 2010 WC9, has come closer to our planet than…
Astronomers just spotted what they think is the fastest-growing black hole ever discovered in the Universe, and it’s got a voracious appetite, sucking in the equivalent of the mass of…
Europa, a moon of Jupiter thought to harbor a warm, saltwater ocean sloshing beneath a thick, icy crust, has long been considered one of the best spots in the Solar…
According to the current dominant theory, if there are other universes out there, they’re not likely to have life. But now an international team of researchers has demonstrated that the…
SpaceX successfully launched Bangladesh’s first-ever geostationary communications satellite, called Bangabandhu-1, into space on Friday. But the real star of the mission was a newly designed rocket called Falcon 9 Block…
NASA announced this afternoon that it plans to launch a tiny, four-pound, autonomous helicopter along with its 2020 rover mission. And if you think this sounds relatively cool, well: you’re…
We know that the birthplaces of stars are large molecular clouds of gas and dust found in space. But what exactly determines the number and kind of stars and planets…
Astronomers have discovered a record-breaking star system. It’s called IGR J17062-6143, and it’s a very compact binary, where one of the stars is a rapidly spinning, superdense neutron star called…
Juno has been sending home some incredible postcards of Jupiter, with one slightly frustrating caveat: because of the data transfer limitations, they are, by necessity, still pictures. Now an amateur…
According to new calculations, we may have a little less time to prepare for a star on course to kiss the edges of our Solar System. Yep. Dwarf star Gliese…
According to new calculations, we may have a little less time to prepare for a star on course to kiss the edges of our Solar System. Yep. Dwarf star Gliese…
NASA’s Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) space weather mission has helped solve one of astrophysics’ biggest questions – when a solar storm strikes our planet, where does its intense rain of energy…
Sometimes the most amazing discoveries can happen just by chance. Case in point: an international team of astronomers accidentally photographed what they think is a planet in the process of…
Two years after the Starshot Breakthrough Initiative was launched with the aim of sending an object towards our nearest stellar neighbour, we’re still left staring at the heavens dreaming of…
If you ever get the feeling that we’re going around in circles, you’re right, but the cosmic holding pattern we’re stuck in is probably a little bigger than what you…
Astronomers have speculated for decades that the giant waves that meander through the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, driving the weather, might also exist on the Sun. Now those waves have…
Three years ago, NASA’s New Horizons, the fastest spaceship ever launched, raced past Pluto, spectacularly revealing the wonders of that newly seen world. This coming New Year’s Eve – if…
What will our Sun look like after it dies? Scientists have made new predictions about what the end will look like for our Solar System, and when that will happen.…
What will our Sun look like after it dies? Scientists have made new predictions about what the end will look like for our Solar System, and when that will happen.…
In February of 2017, a team of European astronomers announced the discovery of a seven-planet system orbiting the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. Aside from the fact that all seven planets were…