Joe Raedle/Getty Images Although it seems to have flown slightly under the radar when it comes to the broader public interest and rapid-fire news cycles of today, NASA is currently preparing for one of the most ambitious manned space missions of the last few decades. The space
Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images The traditional understanding is that the center of our galaxy is dominated by a supermassive black hole. The “supermassive” part isn’t a mere superlative; your typical black hole that forms from the explosive death of a star weighs up to dozens of times than the Sun,
NASA launched two rockets from Alaska this week to learn more about the electrical “circuitry” within auroras, the colorful light shows that occur when solar wind collides with Earth’s atmosphere. The missions saw two suborbital sounding rockets launch from the Poker Flat Research Range near Fairbanks, Alaska loaded with scientific equipment that will fly into
Antarctica looks like a clean white ice sheet from far away, but the important action happens deep down under the surface. There, the ice meets rock, water, and sediments. That contact zone controls how fast a glacier moves and how easily it can change speed. Recently, scientists uncovered a big secret that Antarctica has been
Pangea, the ancient supercontinent that once united all seven continents, began breaking apart roughly 200 million years ago. That breakup shaped the modern world map. Now, researchers say the tectonic forces that split Pangea apart may eventually reverse course. According to a 2018 study published in Geological Magazine, there are four prevailing scenarios for how
According to the paper, “NASA has identified five hazards of space travel: space radiation; isolation and confinement; distance from Earth; gravity (or lack of gravity); and hostile environments.” And while we already know the human body can adapt to space travel in some ways, “including cardiovascular, fluid balance, and vestibular systems,” we also know “bone density,
Southern Californians out on Saturday night for Valentine’s Day took a break from staring longingly into each other’s eyes to gaze at something else: a SpaceX rocket blazing across the early evening Southland sky. SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Saturday night from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket carried 24 Starlink
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station returned to full strength with Saturday’s arrival of four new astronauts to replace colleagues who bailed early because of health concerns. SpaceX delivered the U.S., French and Russian astronauts a day after launching them from Cape Canaveral. Last month’s medical evacuation was NASA’s first in 65
From roots to canopy, many trees can indeed tell if they are being eaten – and by whom. They have evolved extraordinary abilities to discern chewing by beetles and caterpillars, piercing and sucking by bugs, acoustic vibrations from grasshoppers, deer saliva, microbes left by various animals, even the stress signals released by nearby trees being
Cannibalism might seem like a rare and unnatural occurrence, but the behavior has arisen in several snake lineages throughout evolutionary history, often triggered by environmental stressors, scientists theorize. When researchers reviewed 500 reports of cannibalistic behavior across snake species, they found that cannibalism has evolved independently at least 11 times, according to a study published