A small subset of the supernovas that Subaru discovered. Each set of three images shows (left to right) the sky before the supernova exploded, after, and the difference between the two images. (Credit: N. Yasuda et al.)
Before our solar system formed or our sun even began to shine, stars halfway across the cosmos were exploding in brilliant flashes of light called supernovas. The light from their death throes traveled for 8 billion light-years and arrived at Earth sometime in the past few ye ...read more
Two galaxies in the Fornax Cluster, NGC 1399 and NGC 1404, glow with X-rays when viewed with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The bright points of light beyond the galaxies' outskirts may be binary stars that have been kicked out of their homes. (Credit: NASA/CXC/McGill University/X. Jin et al)
Astronomers have discovered evidence that some stars can be “kicked out” of their host galaxy, based on data collected by NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory.
The stars in questio ...read more
(Credit: Kletr/Shutterstock)
Tens of thousands of African elephants die each year from poaching. While astounding, researchers now estimate that number has plummeted since illegal hunting was at its peak in 2011. Just eight years ago, hunters took out more than 10 percent of the African elephant population — some 40,000. Now poaching kills less than four percent of the pachyderms, according to a new report out Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications. Despite the good news ...read more
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft saw material and gases – including oxygen – erupt off the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)
Space is an inhospitable place. For now, when humans go out in space capsules and stations, they need to bring their own air and water — and do without gravity — during their stay. In the future, if humans want to stay in space long-term (and t ...read more
Jiankui He talks to Matthew Porteus of Stanford during a panel talk in Hong Kong following his presentation about his gene editing experiment on two twins. (Credit: Ernie Mastroianni/Discover)
This past November, Jiankui He, a Chinese scientist, claimed to have edited the genomes of twin girls when they were embryos. Genome editing on human embryos is against the law in the U.S., but not specifically outlawed in China. It is however wrought with ethical concerns because any changes to DNA ca ...read more
Explore one of the least scientifically studied places on the planet: your home!
Our editors picked these five projects to help you and scientists learn more about indoor air quality, microbes, tap water pipes, and living things lurking in your home!
Find more projects you can do at home here.
Cheers,The SciStarter Team
Never Home Alone: The Wild Life of Our Homes
Document the arthropods in and around your home and help make discoveries about the biodiversity indo ...read more
As of the morning of May 31, 2019, smoke from Canadian wildfires covered millions of square miles of North America.
Yesterday, I published a story featuring satellite views of wildfires burning in northern Alberta: Striking satellite imagery reveals multiple wildfires blazing across northern Alberta
Since then, things have gotten worse, with one blaze — the Chuckegg Creek fire — exploding to nearly 1,000 square miles by this morning, up from 580. That means the fire has now sc ...read more
