Chemical synthesis is the process of creating complex chemical compounds from simpler precursors.Credit: Andrew Lambert Photography/SPL Searching for blockbuster drugs and wonder materials is an arduous task for chemists. To make their promising compounds, they must trawl through millions of known chemical reactions, with hundreds of thousands more added annually, and then test whether it
NASA is gearing up for the first crewed journey to the Moon in over half a century, a mission that could launch as soon as two weeks from now. And next year, the agency will finally attempt to return astronauts to the lunar surface itself as part of its Artemis 3 mission, which will dramatically
Dark, flat-topped hills in central Mauritania have captured the attention of satellite analysts and geologists tracking the evolution of desert landscapes. These formations appear as sharp contrasts against the pale sands of the Sahara, breaking the terrain’s uniformity with near-perfect symmetry and deep black surfaces. Astronaut photographs from orbit have revealed a consistent pattern: the
Space scientists have long warned of an apocalyptic scenario: the collision of two satellites in Earth’s orbit, creating space debris that triggers a domino effect of further collisions, potentially rendering low Earth orbit unusable. This model of a chain reaction of satellite collisions was proposed as far back as 1978 by NASA scientist Donald Kessler, and
Refresh NASA beginning wet dress rehearsal operations Thursday evening (Image credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak) Artemis 2 mission operators at NASA are preparing the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket for it’s last critical test before launch. The SLS wet dress rehearsal will simulate a mission countdown for ground teams to power on and fuel the rocket as
The most violent volcanic cataclysm ever seen in our solar system has been witnessed on Jupiter’s moon Io by NASA’s Juno spacecraft, with simultaneous eruptions covering an enormous 40,400 square miles (65,000 square kilometers). The synchronous eruptions point to a hitherto undetected network of interconnected magma reservoirs just beneath the volcanic moon’s lava-encrusted surface. The
Using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), astronomers have tracked a 3,000 light-years-long cosmic blowtorch back to its source, the supermassive black hole M87*, which bears the distinction of being the first black hole imaged by humanity. The breakthrough could help scientists better understand what creates these powerful jets of charged particles that travel at speeds
One theory is that life was more adapted to the extreme conditions of limited oxygen and little to no light, or that life persisted at hydrothermal vents where it could produce food from other chemicals. Another theory is that life survived in meltwater ponds on the ice, like the cyanobacteria and algae that currently live on the McMurdo Ice Shelf in Antarctica. “These surface settings
It’s been 54 years since the last Apollo mission, and since then, humans have not ventured beyond low-Earth orbit. But that’s all about to change with next week’s launch of the Artemis II mission from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This is the first crewed flight of NASA’s Artemis program and the first time
The discovery comes from an international team of researchers involved in GreenDrill, a project led by the University at Buffalo and Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The team drilled through more than 1,600 feet of ice to extract ancient rock and sediment buried beneath the Prudhoe Dome in northwest Greenland, and what they found has