A new visitor from beyond our solar system is hurtling towards us. Larger and older than ‘Oumuamua, it’s unlike anything we’ve… What 3I/ATLAS Is and Why Astronomers Are Excited Only two interstellar visitors have ever been confirmed, and now a third candidate, 3I/ATLAS, has jumped onto the scene with the kind of drama that makes ...
Astronomers were confused when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) first saw strange, free-floating pairs of Jupiter-sized objects in 2023. These strange cosmic objects, called “JuMBOs” (Jupiter-mass binary objects), seemed to go against the usual ideas about how planets form because they didn’t have a parent star and were drifting through space in tight gravitational ...
There is a weather drama going on all over the United States right now. A “heat dome” is making thunderstorms grow around it, and the Atlantic is waking up to its first named storm of the year. The fact that there is both high heat and unexpected tropical activity indicates how unpredictable modern weather patterns ...
French scientists have discovered a blood type so rare that just one living person on Earth is known to have it. This is a medical discovery that seems like something out of science fiction. This 48th recognized blood group system, called “Gwada negative,” was found in a 68-year-old lady from Guadeloupe, a French Caribbean island, ...
People thought for a long time that cancer was a disease that only older people got, mostly in their later years. But something troubling is happening: more adults under 50 are being diagnosed with cancer than ever before. Researchers are scrambling for answers as the number of early-onset cases of breast, colorectal, kidney, and uterine ...
A young star is surrounded by a swirling disk of gas and dust in the depths of the cosmos. This disk is full of alcohol. Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found methanol, an important organic molecule, in the protoplanetary disk of a star called HD 100453. This star is 330 light-years ...
Picture a time when you can figure out what’s wrong with you just by breathing into a small device. You could find out about your health in minutes without having to draw blood or take invasive tests. All you had to do was exhale. The Airborne Biomarker Localization Engine (ABLE) is a new device that ...
NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) took the first pictures of Japan’s doomed Resilience moon lander. The pictures show a grim scene: broken pieces of the lander spread out across the moon’s surface. The spacecraft, made by the Tokyo-based company ispace, was supposed to make a historic soft landing on June 5, but it didn’t and ...
The dinosaurs died when a huge asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago. It caused firestorms, tsunamis, and a devastating “nuclear winter.” But, despite all chances, a population of little lizards barely bigger than a human finger lived near ground zero. These tough animals, called night lizards (family Xantusiidae), not only survived the disaster but ...
Historians have thought for hundreds of years that ancient societies were mostly patriarchal, with men holding power and passing it down through their families. But a groundbreaking DNA study has turned that idea on its head. It shows that women ruled a Neolithic community in eastern China 4,500 years ago. Genetic testing on skeletons found ...
