New Scientist Space - Space Headlines
Fire at world’s largest battery facility is a clean energy setback
A fire at Vistra Energy's Moss Landing battery storage facility in California destroyed thousands of lithium batteries – and a significant amount of the state's clean energy storage capacity
Categories: Astronomy
Tiny insect-like robot can flip, loop and hover for up to 15 minutes
A flying robot the size of a postage stamp can hover for up to 15 minutes without breaking, and it can perform acrobatic manoeuvres
Categories: Astronomy
2024 may have been the rainiest – as well as hottest – year on record
Global average precipitation in 2024 may have broken the previous record set in 1998, as rising temperatures boosted the amount of moisture in the atmosphere
Categories: Astronomy
US Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban – but the fight isn't over yet
Now that the US Supreme Court has decided that a law banning TikTok is constitutional, the platform is set to shut down in the US on 19 January – but Trump could still save it
Categories: Astronomy
World's first AI chatbot has finally been resurrected after decades
ELIZA is famous as a rudimentary artificial intelligence and the first ever chatbot, but versions found online today are actually knock-offs because the original computer code was lost – until now
Categories: Astronomy
Blue Origin vs SpaceX: Who is winning the battle of the rockets?
Blue Origin and SpaceX both launched rockets on 16 January, but while Jeff Bezos' company saw a launch success with New Glenn, Elon Musk's Starship exploded. What does this mean for the future of the space industry?
Categories: Astronomy
Rabbits may eat their own teeth to boost their calcium intake
The animals' teeth are constantly being worn down due to their tough diet. But rather than losing calcium this way, they could be recycling it to help grow their teeth back up to size
Categories: Astronomy
Robotic exoskeleton can train expert pianists to play faster
Trained pianists who hit a plateau improved their finger speed after a half-hour training session with a device that moves their fingers for them
Categories: Astronomy
Elusive phase change finally spotted in a quantum simulator
Researchers saw a chain of atoms in a quantum simulator go from being magnetic to not magnetic at all, the first time such a change has ever been seen in one spatial dimension
Categories: Astronomy
Read an extract from Adrian Tchaikovsky's Alien Clay
In the opening to Adrian Tchaikovsky's science fiction novel Alien Clay, the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club, our hero wakes from years of space travel to a terrifying new reality
Categories: Astronomy
Adrian Tchaikovsky: "Could life have gone any other way?"
The author of the latest read for the New Scientist Book Club on the science that lies behind his novel Alien Clay, set on a prison planet where the biology is very different to that on Earth
Categories: Astronomy
Air monitoring station records biggest ever jump in atmospheric CO2
Wildfires and fossil fuel burning in 2024 contributed to the biggest annual rise in atmospheric CO2 levels ever recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii
Categories: Astronomy
NATO tests satellite internet as backup to sabotaged undersea cables
As apparent acts of sabotage cut undersea data cables around the world, NATO held its first demonstration of a project to quickly reroute crucial communications to satellite internet
Categories: Astronomy
Mind-controlled robotic arm lets people with paralysis touch and feel
By using MRI brain scans to identify regions linked to hand movements and sensations, researchers were able to restore a sense of touch to two people with paralysis – and one was able to control and feel a robot arm using his thoughts
Categories: Astronomy
Severe droughts are getting bigger, hotter, drier and longer
Droughts lasting multiple years are becoming more common and extreme around the globe, expanding by about 50,000 square kilometres annually
Categories: Astronomy
Fossil claimed to be new species of mosasaur is suspected forgery
A jawbone found in a Moroccan mine was thought to be a novel species of marine reptile from the Cretaceous period, but other researchers believe it is probably a fake
Categories: Astronomy
The evidence that suggests you don’t need alcohol as a social crutch
A reader is worried about socialising without the confidence boost she gets from alcohol. But studies show that the chemical isn’t necessary for easing our social inhibitions, our columnist David Robson advises
Categories: Astronomy
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket reaches orbit on first launch
After delays and false starts, Jeff Bezos's firm Blue Origin has reached orbit with its first launch of the New Glenn rocket, though attempts to land the first stage at sea were unsuccessful
Categories: Astronomy
Humanoid robot learns to waltz by mirroring people's movements
An AI trained on motion capture recordings can help robots smoothly imitate human actions, such as dancing, walking and throwing punches
Categories: Astronomy
What can we learn from a debunked theory of depression?
Rebutting the serotonin theory of depression exposed an important gap in our knowledge. But Joanna Moncrieff's new book Chemically Imbalanced takes too narrow a view of how we should react
Categories: Astronomy