Our home star, the sun, is a middle-aged main sequence star. That is to say, it is roughly halfway through its lifecycle and is an average-sized star compared to the spectrum of stellar types that can be found elsewhere in our galaxy and beyond. Life, in its 4.5 billion-year journey on Earth, has had an intimate relationship with the sun. It provides life with its main source of energy via photosynthesis, it keeps temperatures within a balmy range, and its energy drives many of Earth's cycles o ...read more

Hurricane Milton became one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record as it went from barely hurricane strength to a dangerous Category 5 storm in less than a day on a path across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.With sustained winds that reached 180 mph on Oct. 7, 2024, and very low pressure, it also became one of the strongest Atlantic storms.Milton’s winds dipped to Category 4 strength early on Oct. 8, but forecasters warned that it would still be an extremely dangerous hurricane a ...read more

NASA plans to send humans on a scientific round trip to Mars potentially as early as 2035. The trip will take about six to seven months each way and will cover up to 250 million miles (402 million kilometers) each way. The astronauts may spend as many as 500 days on the planet’s surface before returning to Earth.NASA’s Artemis program plans to return humans to the Moon this decade to practice and prepare for a Mars mission as early as the 2030s. While NASA has several reasons for pursuing su ...read more

Hurricane Helene caused deadly and destructive flooding when it swept through the Southeast on Sept. 26-29, 2024. Across a broad swath of western North Carolina, where the worst flooding occurred, the amount of rainfall exceeded levels that would be expected on average only once every 1,000 years.But this wasn’t the first 1,000-year rainstorm in North Carolina this year. In mid-September, an unnamed slow-moving storm produced more than a foot of rainfall closer to the Atlantic coast. This stor ...read more

On the arid and seemingly sterile surface of the Atacama Desert lies an invaluable treasure of history and culture: thousands of ancient geoglyphs etched on the slopes of the hills, silent witnesses to the caravan routes of pre-Hispanic peoples.Gonzalo Pimentel, archaeologist and president of the Atacama Foundation, describes them as accurate maps leading to the Pacific Ocean and records of memories, habits, and customs. Colossal human figures, llamas, birds, and enigmatic geometric shapes have ...read more

Of the thousands of insect species crawling and flying around the world, ladybugs probably rank among some of the cutest. These tiny, rotund creatures scuttle about on plant leaves, easily distinguishable thanks to their sports car red and small black spots. Sometimes, they might even land on you – if you’re lucky. There are some 5,000 species of ladybugs on Earth, though the most common type in North America is the convergent ladybug. Contrary to the name, they’re not actually “bugs” ...read more

Summer may be over in the Western Hemisphere by now, but that doesn’t mean that sunburn stops for the season. Many of us might be familiar with the heated skin and gnarly new tanlines that follow us home after a day spent under the sun – but what happens when sunburn becomes serious?While “sun poisoning” is not an official medical diagnosis, it’s a term many doctors use to refer to this kind of intense sunburn. If you haven’t heard of it before, it might be even more difficult to gau ...read more

The past few years have seen a hot new trend in Halloween decorations — giant skeletons. Some soar several feet tall. Others climb from a coffin, creep in a graveyard, or sit on a porch swing.But Americans’ fascination with giant skeletons isn’t new.“In the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, there were a lot of newspaper reports on giant bones being discovered, especially out West,” says Scott Tribble, author of A Colossal Hoax: The Giant from Cardiff that Fooled America.Tribble says ...read more

NASA plans to send crewed missions to Mars over the next decade – but the 140 million-mile (225 million-kilometer) journey to the red planet could take several months to years round trip.This relatively long transit time is a result of the use of traditional chemical rocket fuel. An alternative technology to the chemically propelled rockets the agency develops now is called nuclear thermal propulsion, which uses nuclear fission and could one day power a rocket that makes the trip in just half ...read more

Music surrounds us. It can be a companion throughout the day – listening on the way to school or work, checking out a favorite artist with friends, hearing it live at concerts and sporting events, enjoying or enduring it in stores and restaurants, and then listening again in the evening to unwind.As meaningful and uplifting as music can be, it might also help you while studying, working on school projects, and doing homework. As a clinical assistant professor of audiology, I can tell you the r ...read more