The planet-hunting TESS telescope has big shoes to fill — shoes that once belonged to Kepler. Before its retirement last October, the pioneering Kepler Space Telescope spent 10 years paving the way for the search for planets (and possibly life) outside the solar system. Of the nearly 4,000 exoplanets found around other stars to date, Kepler found more than half. But now, TESS is up to bat. And it's already off to a great start.
Over the next two years, TESS is expected ...read more
The Parker Solar Probe is zipping through the sun's outermost layers today at 213,000 miles per hour, enduring sizzling temperatures that would fry most other spacecraft. The probe will come within 15 million miles of the sun, reaching perihelion, its closest point, at 6:40pm EDT. But it’s so close even now that it hasn’t been able to send back data to Earth since March 30. The probe must keep its protective gear pointed straight toward the sun, leaving no wiggle ...read more
Cats are tough cookies to crack. Unlike most dogs, who excitedly run over when you call their names, cats can be pretty dismissive. After being snubbed by my cat for the hundredth time, I start to wonder if she listens to me or even knows her name. Well, new science says that the answer is yes.
Research published today in the journal Nature suggests that domesticated cats do, in fact, know and recognize their names. A team of researchers studied how 78 different cats responded to ...read more
To protect Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang in the afterlife, thousands of clay soldiers joined him underground some 2200 years ago. The discovery of this Terracotta Army in the 1970s was a great gift to archaeologists — and fans of "ancient lost technology" stories. The trope, which has some basis in fact, suggests that our ancestors were privy to some knowledge or technology that would still be useful, but has since been lost to the ages.
When researchers discovered that this buried, a ...read more
Humanity may soon get its first-ever picture of a black hole. Scientists with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) announced this week that they'll be holding a press conference Wednesday, April 10, and they're expected to reveal the results of their years-long quest to catch a black hole on camera.
What that picture will look like is still unknown. But scientists think they have a pretty good idea of what a black hole should look like. For years, astronomers have been running simul ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine