The Andromeda Galaxy, located some 2.5 million light-years from Earth, burns brightly in ultraviolet light in this image taken by NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are the big fish in our corner of the universe, surrounded by dozens of smaller dwarf galaxies. Together, this cosmic community makes up what scientists call the "Local Group."
Astronomers believe that the largest galaxies grow by attracting and consuming the ...read more
A test of the first hydrogen bomb by the U.S. in 1952 as part of Operation Ivy. (Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office)
Skies darkened by smoke worldwide. Cities in ruins, leaving millions dead. Droughts and crop failures spreading famine for years. The realities of nuclear war are difficult to imagine. But, says a team of researchers, they deserve our attention.
New research in Science Advances spells out the potential ramifications of nuclear warf ...read more
The first in a planned series of 10 spacewalks will kick off on October 6. (Credit: NASA)
NASA announced a series of 10 spacewalks happening over the next three months. The complex spacewalks are part of a marathon effort which NASA scheduled to complete repairs and upgrades to the International Space Station. The events could ultimately set a new record for the most spacewalks in a time since 2011, when the ISS was completed.
The first spacewalk is scheduled for Sunday, October 6, at 7 ...read more
Rogue planets, like the one shown in this artist’s concept, drift through interstellar space alone and are thought to be prevalent throughout the Milky Way. Two upcoming space telescopes could help find many more of these faint objects. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Our Milky Way galaxy is home to billions of planets orbiting billions of stars in billions of planetary systems. But lurking in the spaces between, not bound to any star, are free-floating worlds. Astronomers refer to these as ...read more
An all-renewable grid will mean more electricity and more transmission lines. (Credit: Russ Allison Loar/flickr, CC BY-NC-ND)
The main solution to climate change is well known – stop burning fossil fuels. How to do this is more complicated, but as a scholar who does energy modeling, I and others see the outlines of a post-fossil-fuel future: We make electricity with renewable sources and electrify almost everything.
That means running vehicles and trains on electricity, heating build ...read more
The private rocket company laid out a handful of groundbreaking plans over the weekend. (Credit: SpaceX)
Elon Musk gave a barrage of updates on the
future of SpaceX as he stood in front of the company’s new Starship and original
Falcon rockets on Saturday in Boca Chica, Texas. During the presentation, Musk
touched on the details in Starship’s design, the possibilities for the craft,
and the timeline of what’s to come in the near future.
SpaceX thinks Starship could bring ...read more
Trevor McIntyre faces off against a male southern elephant seal. His job was to distract aggressive males with a broomstick while his colleagues checked on other seals or glued tracking devices to their heads. (Credit: Phathutshedzo M. Radzilani)
(Inside Science) -- The first time Paul Krausman jumped out of a helicopter and wrestled a deer to the ground was in 1978. Another researcher had shot a net over the deer moments before, but the animal was not sedated, and it fought hard until Kraus ...read more
The Hubble Space Telescope appears to float above Earth in this image taken by an Atlantis crewmember in 2009. (Credit: NASA)
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into orbit on the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. Thanks to its perch above most of Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, the telescope’s relatively modest 2.4-meter mirror has given us an unprecedented window on the universe for nearly 30 years. But just how much longer will Hubble last?
...read more
Shipping traffic accounts for a larger percentage of plastic trash in some parts of the oceans than scientists realized. (Credit: Stephane Bidouze)
Rafts of garbage, assembled by currents that swirl trash together, clog our oceans. But how did that material wind up far from shore in the first place? A new study takes a look at the refuse that washes up on a remote island in the South Atlantic and arrives at a perhaps unexpected answer: The trash is being dumped from ships.
The findings, p ...read more
Being in a relationship might make a man more attractive to women. (Credit: Roman Seliutin/Shutterstock)
Here’s an option for men struggling to find female partners: Hire a professional wing woman for a night on the town. A beautiful, charismatic lady companion will help ease you into conversations with prospective dates — at least that's the claim companies touting the service make.
But there may be another hidden advantage to your female companion, one rooted deep in our min ...read more
