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In the distant reaches of the solar system are many icy objects that resemble snowmen — pairs of conjoined spheres. Now, a new study reveals the simple way in which these mysterious objects might form. Beyond the orbit of Neptune lie icy building blocks from the dawn of the solar system known as planetesimals. Much
In northeastern Algeria, a significant fossil discovery is offering new insights into ancient marine life. For years, scientists have studied the Cretaceous period, a time when the oceans were filled with diverse marine reptiles. However, plesiosaurs, one of the most iconic groups of these creatures, have been notably absent from fossil records in North Africa.
Greenland’s eastern edge rarely causes a stir. Then, with no warning, seismic instruments across the world lit up at the same time with a slow, steady rhythm that lasted for nine full days. The pulse rose and fell every ninety-two seconds. The rumble was far too soft for people to feel, but strong enough to
The James Webb Space Telescope’s latest imagery is its most “cerebral” yet, capturing a dying star’s nebula that looks uncannily like a brain inside a transparent skull. Located about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Vela, the Sails, the nebula is officially called PMR 1. It is named after the astronomers who discovered it
A total lunar eclipse will be visible across North America in the early hours of March 3, 2026, turning the full Moon a deep red during its peak totality — popularly known as a “Blood Moon.” According to NASA, this will be the first total lunar eclipse visible in the Americas since March 2025. What
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Humans and Neanderthals cozied up from time to time when they lived in the same areas tens of thousands of years ago. But we don’t know much about who got with whom, or why. A new genetic analysis offers some ancient gossip: The pairings were more often female
Sign up to see the future, today Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech The United States Space Force has been testing its top-secret Boeing X-37B space plane for over a decade. Two versions of the unusual spacecraft have completed seven orbital missions over the last 15 years, spending a combined thousands
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket successfully delivered two national security satellites to orbit earlier this month but suffered an anomaly that caused one of the boosters to emit an unusual plume of debris. Now, the U.S. Space Force has paused all military launches aboard the rocket until the issue is resolved. The
A glacier on Antarctica’s Eastern Peninsula underwent the most rapid retreat seen in modern times. In only two months, nearly half of Hektoria Glacier broke apart and disappeared. New research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and published in Nature Geoscience explains what happened in 2023, when the glacier lost about eight kilometers of