Dark matter doesn’t emit, absorb, or reflect light. It’s invisible but supposedly makes up 85% of the universe’s mass. Because it’s so abundant, astronomers believe it should explain many unsolved mysteries surrounding the cosmos, including an extraordinary dim galaxy “hiding” in plain sight. Last summer, astronomers vetted candidates for so-called dark galaxies, or a rare
Researchers have documented several new types of plankton called comb jellies in the Colombian Caribbean and Pacific, including six species never recorded in Colombian waters before. Ctenophores (comb jellies) are ancient creatures that were on the planet long before the dinosaurs. Despite their name, they aren’t related to jellyfish. Found in oceans all over the world, these gelatinous creatures
Researchers on the SWAIS2C project camped on the ice — the site is 700 kilometres from the nearest Antarctic station.Credit: Ana Tovey/SWAIS2C An international team of scientists has returned from the heart of West Antarctica with 228 metres of ancient rock and mud, the longest core ever retrieved from below an ice sheet. Preliminary dating,
If 1 million satellites were positioned at different points between Earth and the moon, less than 10% would survive long enough to be worth the hassle of sending them up in the first place, new supercomputer simulations suggest. This is not as disastrous as it initially sounds, but it does highlight the complex challenges of
Vosseberg, J. et al. The emerging view on the origin and early evolution of eukaryotic cells. Nature 633, 295–305 (2024). Article ADS CAS PubMed Google Scholar Eme, L. et al. Inference and reconstruction of the heimdallarchaeial ancestry of eukaryotes. Nature 618, 992–999 (2023). Article ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Spang, A. et al.
For thirty years, the sound of a dinosaur has been the sound of a baby elephant mixed with an alligator and a tiger. The roar that shook theaters in 1993 became the default setting for an entire prehistoric world, repeated across documentaries, theme parks and children’s toys until it settled into collective memory as fact.
Astronomers have discovered that an unusual optical flare is the result of a star being ripped apart and devoured by a black hole — and what really sets this so-called Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) apart is the fact that the black hole involved seems to be an example of an elusive “intermediate mass black hole,”
When you think of a shuttle or rocket launching into space, odds are the Kennedy Space Center comes to mind. After all, some of the most momentous expeditions, including the Apollo missions, took off from the center’s very own Launch Complex (LC) 39A. In 2014, the Kennedy Space Center signed a deal with SpaceX, making
Coreyford/Getty Images Scientists have found evidence that amino acids, the chemical building blocks of life (specifically proteins), formed on the asteroid Bennu when it was so far from the Sun as to be frozen. This directly contradicts the previous belief that amino acids required liquid water to
If all had gone according to plan, four astronauts might have been returning just this week from a history-making, 10-day slingshot trip around the moon. Instead, NASA’s engineers have been grappling with the rocket and fuel meant to propel the mission, called Artemis II, troubleshooting an all-too-familiar problem. Just a few hours into a pre-launch