Astronomy

Studying how extraterrestrials might communicate could help prepare for first contact and also hint at the point of language itself

An innovative proposal would be a first for planetary exploration. Turns out, it’s as tough to drop inward into the inner solar system, as it is to head outward. The problem stems from losing momentum from a launch starting point on Earth. It can take missions several years and planetary flybys before capture and arrival in orbit around Mercury or Venus. Now, a new proposal would see a mission make the trip, using innovative and fuel efficient means.

Researchers used a synthetic version of moon dust to build working solar panels, which could eventually be created within – and used to power – a moon base of the future

Researchers used a synthetic version of moon dust to build working solar panels, which could eventually be created within – and used to power – a moon base of the future

Layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services have dealt a critical blow to the agency's efforts to manage rising temperatures made worse by climate change

The critically endangered Mexican wolf was mounting a comeback, thanks to a conservation program that dropped fostered wolf pups into wild dens. Then politics happened.

Constructing solar arrays out of moon dust would reduce launch costs and make lunar bases more plausible, according to a new study.

A fall of rare meteorites in Costa Rica has revealed new details about a similar space rock that fell in Australia 50 years earlier.

The next year of science on the James Webb Space Telescope has been announced amid mounting budgetary uncertainty that could affect the unparalleled observatory

Beginning in the 1930s, the work—and eventually the life—of Andrea Evangelina Rodríguez Perozo, the Dominican Republic’s first female doctor, became threatened by the country’s then new dictator

A massive solar windstorm in 2017 compressed Jupiter's magnetosphere "like a giant squash ball," a new study reports.

To protect democracy and counteract the allure of authoritarianism, reduce people's sense of fear and insecurity, psychology research says

New NASA shielding technology that protects against damaging lunar dust just passed a trial run on the moon, marking an important milestone in the agency's lunar aspirations.

The Torino scale assess’ the risk of a near-Earth object impacting Earth. The list has just had a new addition, asteroid 2024 YR4 which poses a risk to Earth in 2032. The risk has been downgraded to 0% but there’s still value in studying asteroids that are going to come close to Earth. The James Webb Space Telescope just joined in the study by observing the asteroid to provide a new estimate of its size and showed that it’s spinning rapidly.

A long-awaiting report from CERN explores the feasibility of building a supersized successor to the Large Hadron Collider

The news is always full of images from the Hubble Space Telescope and more recently the James Webb Space telescope but there is a new kid on the block. NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope was launched back in early March and we can already see its first image. The telescope has six detectors and together they can capture a region of sky 20 times wider than the Moon. The first images are uncalibrated but they give a hint as to the capabilities of the instrument.

People seem to be less impressed when others lose weight with the drug Ozempic than when they achieve it via lifestyle changes

People seem to be less impressed when others lose weight with the drug Ozempic than when they achieve it via lifestyle changes

As China’s vast electrical grid relies more on wind, solar and hydropower, it faces a growing risk of power shortages due to bad weather – and that could encourage the use of coal plants