Comet 67P was thoroughly explored over two years. Now, astronomers are hunting an even fresher catch. (Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam)
The European Space Agency has selected a new mission that aims to investigate a wholly pristine comet, or one that has never visited the sun.
Because these objects are hard to spot until they’re already close to the sun, the idea is that the mission would launch without a specific target. Called Comet Interceptor, the mission would launch to a stable poi ...read more
People are more likely to track down a the owner of a wallet if it contains a large sum of money. (Credit: Shutterstock)
What would you do if you found a wallet with $100 in it? Would you return it? Keep it? Well, if you’re like the majority of people in this world, you’d probably contact its owner and return the wallet without a cent missing. But, if the wallet contained only a few bucks, you maybe would call it lunch money.
At least that’s according to a new study publi ...read more
The first "narluga" skull ever to be discovered. The hybrid mixes traits of its beluga and narwhal parents. (Credit: Mikkel Høegh Post, Natural History Museum of Denmark.)
While visiting West Greenland in the 1980s, an Inuit hunter killed an odd-looking whale. He realized there was something unique about the animal, so he kept its skull. Years later in 1990, a researcher from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources spotted the specimen mounted on the hunter’s toolshed.
In ...read more
The location of the pancreas in the human body. (Credit: Magic mine/Shutterstock)
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer — a virtually incurable condition. But now, a serendipitous discovery is providing new hope: A sugar molecule associated with the disease, but long thought harmless, known as CA19-9, actually plays an active role in the genesis of pancreatic cancer, researchers say, and could become a new target for therapy. The discovery uncovers new possible ways ...read more
A blazar is an active black hole hurling jets of material directly at Earth. (Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab)
The Event Horizon Telescope made history on April 10 when it captured the first image of a supermassive black hole’s event horizon at the heart of galaxy M87. While there’s only one other target close enough to image that way – the black hole at the center of our own Milky Way – there are plenty of other targets where EHT’s sharp gaze can ...read more
Falcon Heavy made its second launch on April 11 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. (Credit: SpaceX)
The third launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to blast off from Kennedy Space Center late at night on June 24. Along for the ride will be 24 satellites and a slate of experiments, including new technology developed by NASA that will help guide our way to Mars.
The Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) is a step forward for NASA’s spacecraft guidance systems. Right n ...read more
An artist depicts the powerful quasar blowing away material immediately around it, but with the outer reaches of the galaxy still containing red dust and gas. (Credit: Michelle Vigeant)
Quasars are supermassive black holes actively gobbling material from the galaxy around them. While black holes are known for pulling material in, the turbulent swirl of that whirlpool often also flings material and radiation out at high energies, enabling quasars to be seen from across the universe. They are ...read more
This animated spiral portrays the simulated changes in the global average monthly air temperature from 1850 through the present relative to 1850-1900, and then where they are projected to head if we do nothing to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide. (Source: Jay Alder, USGS)
The Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era climate change rules in an effort to save coal-fired electric power plants in the United States.
The action comes in the form of the "Affordable Clean Energy rule," wh ...read more
The lines scribbled over this famous Georges Seurat painting come from an experiment that tracked how the human eye jerks around as it takes in the details of the scene. (Credit: R. Wurtz / Daedalus 2015 / Public Domain)
The image above, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” was painted in 1884 by French artist Georges Seurat. The black lines crisscrossing it are not the work of a toddler wreaking havoc with a permanent marker, but that of neuroscientist Robert Wu ...read more
Climate change could mean trouble for Himalayan glaciers. New research reports that they're melting twice as fast today as they were at the turn of the century. (Credit: Nik Bruining/Shutterstock)
Home to Mount Everest and many more of the world’s tallest peaks, the Himalayas rise up from the Ganges River north to the Tibetan Plateau. This iconic mountain range is also home to thousands of glaciers.
These rivers of ice provide valuable fresh water to surrounding regions. But th ...read more
