Astronomy

Countries are eager to use AI to automate some government processes, but this risks eroding citizens’ trust and feelings of democratic control – because AI mistakes can ruin their lives

The end of Prime Day is in sight — savings won't last for long on these top Canon and Sony cameras.

Prime Day is brilliant, but the best savings aren't always at Amazon. Walmart has beaten the online giant's price for this Sony A7R IV camera, by over $200, but it could be ending soon!

The Mule makes a murderous entrance in today's premiere episode, 'A Song For the End of Everything'.

The IceCube neutrino detector has allowed researchers to resolve a debate about what types of particles make up ultra-high-energy cosmic rays – but much remains unknown about these rare events

The IceCube neutrino detector has allowed researchers to resolve a debate about what types of particles make up ultra-high-energy cosmic rays – but much remains unknown about these rare events

The Expedition 73 and Axiom Mission 4 crews spent their second of two weeks together conducting science aboard the International Space Station.

Sometimes a mission can be too successful. When NASA's DART spacecraft slammed into Dimorphos in 2022 as part of an asteroid redirection test, it altered the asteroids orbit, proving that kinetic impactors can be used to defend Earth from hazardous objects. Unfortunately, the impact also created a shower of boulders that also gave Dimorphos an unpredicted kinetic kick.

China's Tianwen-3 is poised to be the first sample-return mission to Mars. The science team now includes a group of astrobiologists from Hong Kong University (HKU), led by Professor Yiliang Li. In a recent paper, the team advised the China National Space Agency (CNSA) on landing site selection and how the first samples from Mars should be analyzed and curated once they are brought back to Earth.

Alarmingly, a team of scientists propose that every flight you take could be alerting alien civilizations to our existence. I must apologise now as I pack for a flight out to Mexico in a few days! The new research reveals that airport radar systems from Heathrow to JFK are unintentionally broadcasting powerful signals up to 200 light years into space, that’s far enough to reach over 120,000 star systems that might harbor intelligent life! These "accidental technosignatures" would appear obviously artificial to any aliens with technology similar to ours, potentially making every takeoff and landing an announcement that we're here!

A team of researchers has cracked the code for building space telescopes with mirrors the size of a soccer field, not from perfectly figured glass, but from liquid floating in zero gravity! The new research reveals how a 50-metre liquid mirror telescope could maintain its optical quality for decades despite the constant slewing motions needed to observe different stars, with deformations taking years to propagate from the edges toward the centre. The idea could enable the next generation of space telescopes capable of directly imaging Earth-like planets around other stars, potentially answering the ultimate question: are we alone in the universe?

A team of scientists are preparing to use NASA's upcoming Habitable Worlds Observatory to answer one of the most profound questions of all time: How does life begin? Rather than searching for individual signs of life, the team plan to study patterns across dozens of exoplanets to test competing theories about the origins of life; from scenarios where life is so rare we might be alone within 33 light-years, to theories predicting that life emerges wherever basic conditions exist. This approach could transform perhaps our oldest question into testable science, potentially revealing whether our biosphere is an accident or part of a universe teeming with life.

Prime Day finished on July 11 and there are still some late savings on telescopes and binoculars, but they won't last forever.

Astrophotographer Philippe Tosi captured explosive Ellerman bombs on the sun's surface as an active sunspot turned toward Earth.

Elon Musk has launched xAI’s Grok 4—calling it the “world’s smartest AI” and claiming it can ace Ph.D.-level exams and outpace rivals such as Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s o3 on tough benchmarks

The Sony A7R V mirrorless camera plunges to just $3200 at Walmart, a staggering $1000 saving that eclipses Amazon's Prime Day price!

As the newest Superman film hits theaters, we cast our X-ray vision back on every live-action incarnation of the Fortress of Solitude, from its 1978 debut to its 2025 return.

"July Manhattanhenge is what I call the goodbye to the grid."

Researchers from NASA and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) recently tested a scale model of the X-59 experimental aircraft in a supersonic wind tunnel located in Chofu, Japan, to assess the noise audible underneath the aircraft. The test was an important milestone for NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59, which is designed to fly faster than the speed of sound without causing a loud sonic boom.