A chunky, squat creature that roamed Earth 307 million years ago is helping scientists understand how plant-eating animals first appeared on land. The newly described species is one of the earliest known tetrapods — or four-limbed animals — to show evidence of having a plant-based diet. The discovery, detailed in a study that was published
Starliner’s first crewed test flight didn’t exactly go as planned. NASA and Boeing are still troubleshooting the technical issues that left astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore stuck on the International Space Station for nine months, and yet there’s a chance the infamous spacecraft might fly another ISS crew later this year. Because Starliner failed
The more informed we are, the more successful we’ll be in our decision-making endeavors. That’s only true up to a point: it’s only true if the information we’ve acquired is accurate and truthful. Making good decisions doesn’t merely rely on how much information we take in, it also depends on the quality of that information.
Astronomers may have just pushed the upper size limit of what counts as a planet, thanks to new insights into how giant worlds form. New observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggest that even extremely massive gas giants — once thought too large to form like ordinary planets — may grow through the
Dark matter is the invisible stuff making up around 85% of the universe’s mass. Like its name, dark matter is “dark” and doesn’t absorb, emit, or reflect light. And crucially, dark matter has yet to be directly detected, or “seen.” But astronomers have consistently seen the gravitational influence of something on countless cosmic entities—a discrepancy
The broadest planned survey by NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will reveal hundreds of millions of galaxies scattered across the cosmos. After Roman launches as soon as this fall, scientists will use these sparkly beacons to study the universe’s shadowy underpinnings: dark matter and dark energy. “We set out to build the ultimate
Scientists discovered human footprints preserved in ancient mud at White Sands, New Mexico. These footprints appear to date back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) – a period during the last Ice Age roughly 23,000 years ago when glaciers were at their largest. This finding sparked a lot of interest because it suggested that humans
For decades, paleontologists debated whether Late Jurassic East Asia was ecologically isolated from the rest of the supercontinent. A recent discovery in southwestern China may have brought that theory one step closer to extinction. In late 2025, a construction crew working in the Tongnan District of Chongqing, China unearthed the remains of a giant sauropod.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan rocket rolls from the Government Vertical Integration Facility (VIF-G) to the launch pad at Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Vulcan will launch the USSF-87 mission for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Systems Command (SSC). Image: United Launch Alliance On the cusp of launching its
On March 3, 2026, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across the night side of Earth, with the best views from Australia, the Pacific, and the western half of North America. A total lunar eclipse occurs when the moon drifts into Earth’s shadow, with the only light reaching its surface filtered through Earth’s atmosphere,