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(Credit: NASA) In one Chinese city, costly streetlights could soon be a thing of the past. By 2020, the Tian Fu New Area Science Society plans to launch an artificial moon to light up the night sky. If the plan goes through, the so-called “illumination satellite” would orbit above the Chinese city of Chengdu and glow in conjunction with the actual moon, but shine eight times brighter. The organization says it will launch three more satellites in 2022 — potentially replacing s ...read more

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I just came across a strange but quite charming scientific study claiming that human thought alone can make wine taste better. This miracle of vinomancy is reported in a paper in Explore, a unique if often credulity-stretching Elsevier academic journal dedicated to “healing arts, consciousness, spirituality, eco-environmental issues, and basic science as all these fields relate to health.” In the article in question, author Stephan A. Schwartz describes how he carried out an experi ...read more

This composite image of Kes 75, the youngest known pulsar in the Milky Way, includes data from Chandra and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The blue region represents the high-energy X-rays surrounding the pulsar, showing an area called the pulsar wind nebula, and the purple region shows lower-energy X-rays, emitted by debris left over from the original supernova explosion. (Credit: NASA/CXC/NCSU/S. Reynolds; Optical: PanSTARRS) Thanks to data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, a team o ...read more

A rock was inserted into the mouth of a 10-year-old to keep the deceased child from rising from the grave and spreading malaria, researchers believe. (Credit: David Pickel/Stanford University) Have you heard of the ‘Vampire of Lugano”? Apparently that’s what residents of the Italian commune of Lugano in Teverina are calling this strange archaeological find — the remains of a 10 year old child found in a 5th century cemetery originally thought to be reserved for tod ...read more

The Godzilla constellation in the gamma-ray sky — a new set of constellations based off of gamma-ray emissions observed with NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. (Credit: NASA) Gamma-Ray Sky For countless years, humans have gazed up at the sky and made sense of the stars by finding shapes in them — constellations of heroes, animals, and well-worn tales. Now, to celebrate the 10th mission year of NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, scientists have used the telesco ...read more

A visualization of the blazar being observed while emitting gamma rays. (Credit: Stefano Ciprini) Blazar Brightness After 10 years of observations, scientists have confirmed a two-year cycle in the gamma-ray brightness of a blazar, or a galaxy with supermassive black holes that consume mass and produce high-energy jets as a result. Blazars are the most energetic and luminous objects that we have identified so far in the known universe. “This is the first time that a gamma-ray period has ...read more

Humans are even now looking for signs of aliens with projects like SETI. Credit: Seth Shostak/SETI Institute The Drake equation is one of astronomy’s most famous attempts to answer the question: Are we alone? It asks not just about any life, but the top shelf stuff: intelligent life with the ability to communicate with beings outside their planet. Microbes or floating sentient clouds don’t make the cut. We want aliens that will talk to us. To be clear, this means there could b ...read more

“It’s like being electrocuted,” said Alana, her body quivering. “It keeps happening. Doctors can’t tell me why.” The 25-year-old had been walking with a friend on a sidewalk when everything started spinning and her body shook. Her chest tightened and she couldn’t breathe. Her friend called an ambulance, which brought her to the emergency room. Dizzying, heart-thumping experiences like this one had been happening to her every few weeks for eight months. B ...read more