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
Nadezda Murmakova/Shutterstock 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,
Studying preserved footprints in New Mexico continues to provide insight into the first human movements in North America. A research team believes the footprints are more than 23,000 years old, confirming an earlier study that dates the prints to 10,000 years older than previously believed. Tracking the footsteps provides modern scientists a view into ancient
Paleontologists have unearthed fossilized bones of one of the smallest sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil, offering fresh insights into early dinosaur development and physiology. Massospondylus carinatus, a species of small sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com / Patty Jansen / Sci.News. Dr. Luciano
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) – NASA began another practice launch countdown Tuesday for its first moonshot with astronauts in decades, after making repairs to fix dangerous fuel leaks that already have bumped the flight into March. The first fueling test was halted two weeks ago by the same kind of liquid hydrogen leaks that disrupted
At just 500 kilometers across, Saturn‘s sixth-largest moon would fit comfortably inside the United Kingdom, with room to spare. Yet new research reveals this tiny ice world wields electromagnetic influence over distances exceeding half a million kilometers, more than the distance between Earth and the Moon. The discovery comes from a comprehensive analysis of data
Mars may have been much warmer and wetter billions of years ago than previously thought, according to new findings from NASA’s Perseverance Rover. The discovery challenges earlier theories that the Red Planet was predominantly cold and icy during a time when it may have been habitable. Mars’ history has long been a subject of intense
The Milky Way shines over the Very Large Telescope in Chile. (Image credit: A. Trigo/ESO) The European Southern Observatory has released a breathtaking photo of the Milky Way shining over the Paranal Observatory in Chile, as lasers create artificial “guide stars” in the pristinely dark sky above. What is it? Stars, satellite streaks, galaxies and
A rare Stone Age cemetery on a Swedish island reveals that some of Europe’s last hunter-gatherers were buried not with their extremely close relations but with more distantly related people, according to a new DNA analysis. However, some burials had close biological family members, including that of a teenage girl whose father’s jumbled bones had