Astronomy

From race and IQ to sex and gender, Herman Pontzer's new book Adaptable is an ambitious and enjoyable exploration of how understanding ourselves better can help us bridge divides

In the past year, treatments such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have become household names. But there are many questions left to answer, not least what the future holds for weight-loss medications and society at large

In the past year, treatments such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound have become household names. But there are many questions left to answer, not least what the future holds for weight-loss medications and society at large

NASA's Perseverance rover has encountered another rock on Mars that has left scientists puzzled.

The size and shape of a giraffe’s spots seem to influence how well the animals survive when temperatures get hotter or colder than normal

The size and shape of a giraffe’s spots seem to influence how well the animals survive when temperatures get hotter or colder than normal

Scientists in China have transmitted encrypted images a record 12,900 kilometers, paving the way for quantum messaging anywhere on Earth

A group of stellar Sherlocks have solved the mystery of red transient objects that appear and fade in the sky, linking them to the total explosive death of stars.

Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured direct images of Neptune's elusive auroras for the first time.

Astronauts John Young and Gus Grissom are suited for the first flight of the Gemini program in March 1965. NASA loaned Norman Rockwell a Gemini spacesuit in order to make this painting as accurate as possible.

Masaki Kashiwara, this year’s Abel Prize winner, co-founded a new field of mathematics called algebraic analysis

Earth's Mightiest Heroes are assembling again, as Avengers: Doomsday is finally in production and has unveiled its complete roster.

A galaxy inside a bubble may be evidence that the universe was starting to become transparent 330 million years after the big bang

A galaxy inside a bubble may be evidence that the universe was starting to become transparent 330 million years after the big bang

Using the unique infrared sensitivity of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, researchers can examine ancient galaxies to probe secrets of the early Universe. Now, an international team of astronomers has identified bright hydrogen emission from a galaxy in an unexpectedly early time in the Universe’s history. The surprise finding is challenging researchers to explain how this light could have pierced the thick fog of neutral hydrogen that filled space at that time.

Gender-affirming care attacked by right-wing groups is being reaffirmed by medical reviews and in the courtroom

The moon will appear to take a "bite" out of the sun during a deep partial solar eclipse visible across eastern North America and Europe.

Robert Pattinson's Mickey is the latest in a long line of duplicates and doppelgangers.

“Qudits,” the multi-dimensional cousins of qubits, could make quantum computers more efficient and less prone to error

Video: 00:00:43

Aside from sunlight, the Sun sends out a gusty stream of particles called the solar wind. The ESA-led Solar Orbiter mission is the first to capture on camera this wind flying out from the Sun in a twisting, whirling motion. The solar wind particles spiral outwards as if caught in a cyclone that extends millions of kilometres from the Sun.

Solar wind rains down on Earth's atmosphere constantly, but the intensity of this rain depends on solar activity. More than just a space phenomenon, solar wind can disrupt our telecommunication and navigation systems.

Solar Orbiter is on a mission to uncover the origin of the solar wind. It uses six imaging instruments to watch the Sun from closer than any spacecraft before, complemented by in situ instruments to measure the solar wind that flows past the spacecraft.

This video was recorded by the spacecraft's Metis instrument between 12:18 and 20:17 CEST on 12 October 2022. Metis is a coronagraph: it blocks the direct light coming from the Sun's surface to be able to see the much fainter light scattering from charged gas in its outer atmosphere, the corona.

Metis is currently the only instrument able to see the solar wind's twisting dance. No other imaging instrument can see – with a high enough resolution in both space and time – the Sun's inner corona where this dance takes place. (Soon, however, the coronagraph of ESA's Proba-3 mission might be able to see it too!)

The research paper that features this data, ‘Metis observations of Alfvénic outflows driven by interchange reconnection in a pseudostreamer’ by Paolo Romano et al. was published today in The Astrophysical Journal.

Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA, operated by ESA.

[Technical details: The starting image of the video shows the full view of Solar Orbiter's Metis coronagraph in red, with an image from the spacecraft's Extreme Ultraviolet Imager in the centre (yellow). Zooming to the top left of this view, we see a video derived from Metis observations. The vertical edge of the video spans 1 274 000 km, or 1.83 solar radii. The contrast in the Metis video has been enhanced by using a ‘running difference’ technique: the brightness of each pixel is given by the average pixel brightness of three subsequent frames, minus the average pixel brightness of the three preceding frames. This processing makes background stars appear as horizontal half-dark, half-light lines. Diagonal bright streaks and flashes are caused by light scattering from dust particles close to the coronagraph.]