Astronomy

Insights from human brains could inform how scientists search for awareness in all its possible forms

Apple TV+'s absorbing sci-fi series intensifies as our heroes enter the alien mothership starting Aug. 22.

NASA faces historic budget cuts that could shutter missions and stall vital research, prompting a bipartisan outcry from all of the agency’s living former science chiefs.

The caldera may have blasted out its cryomagma in a single explosive event, or it may have spread its eruptions over time.

In its latest postcard from Mars, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express returns to Acheron Fossae: a dramatic network of chasms carved into the surface of the Red Planet.

Our Sun frequently erupts in loops.

Just eight sessions of a bespoke form of psychotherapy seems to ease lower back pain even three years later

Just eight sessions of a bespoke form of psychotherapy seems to ease lower back pain even three years later

I don’t think space or lunar tourism is going to be the big draw that transforms the moon into something unrecognizable.

Scientists have achieved a groundbreaking milestone by creating the first detailed map of magnetic fields in one of the most chaotic regions of space, the turbulent center of our own Milky Way. Using innovative techniques to track microscopic dust grains, researchers have finally decoded the invisible forces that govern star formation in this extreme galactic environment. Their discoveries not only solve a 40 year mystery surrounding strange high speed electron streams racing through space, but also reveal how magnetic fields, stellar winds, and gas clouds perform an intricate dance that shape our Galaxy.

Science is driven by our desire to understand things. In some cases, where it requires significant effort and investment to develop systems that can understand new things, science benefits from a game plan that the community of researchers focused on a particular niche can rally around, even if they don’t necessarily agree on the details. In astronomy and space science, those game plans typically take the form of Decadal Surveys, produced by the National Academies to define the path forward in a specialization or sub-field. However, there are almost always follow-up reports that break down the suggestions from the Decadal Surveys into actionable plans that experts in the field then spend the next ten years executing on. One of those “tactical” plans was recently released on arXiv by the two lead scientists of NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program (ExEP), though it was listed as Rev H and released at least internally back in January 2025. In it, Drs. Karl Stapelfeldt and Eric Mamajek lay out 17 scientific goals that ExEP plans to work on over the next 3-5 years.

Life arose early in Earth's history. Was this an inevitable process, or an extremely unlikely event that happened early on, and what does this tell us about the likelihood of life on other worlds? In a new paper, a researcher calculated the variables that went into the formation of life and found that a spontaneous emergence is theoretically feasible, but extremely unlikely. Instead, he suggests that there could be protection mechanisms or unknown self-organising principles that got life going.

If you've ever dreamed of traveling through space as an explorer, you know there'll be some serious "downside dangers". One of them is cosmic rays. These high-speed particles slam through anything, including our bodies, damaging DNA and ripping molecules apart. As dangerous as they sound to unprotected spacefarers, they could actually help microscopic life survive hiding under the icy surfaces of places like Europa or Enceladus.

Unravelling Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history with rocks is tricky business.

Piles of dirt can cheaply store renewable energy as heat – and that stored energy can reactivate the machinery of retired coal power plants, letting them provide backup power for the electricity grid

Piles of dirt can cheaply store renewable energy as heat – and that stored energy can reactivate the machinery of retired coal power plants, letting them provide backup power for the electricity grid

NASA has awarded Firefly Aerospace a $176.7 million contract to deliver a pair of rovers and three scientific instruments to the moon's south pole.

NASA is accelerating its plans for a nuclear reactor on the moon, aiming to establish such a power outpost by 2030, according to Politico.

There are three types of cognitive reserve that can protect against decline as we age. Columnist Helen Thomson explores the lifestyle choices that can help you build a more resilient brain – and finds that midlife is a critical time to implement them