“My compass was about trying to please the eight-year-old version of myself who discovered He-Man for the first time.” Continue Reading‘The movie has tremendous heart’: We sat down with the director of ‘Masters of the Universe’ to learn how he found ‘the power’ for the new He-Man
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is assessing damage to its launch pad after a rocket exploded during a test firing, creating a giant orange fireball seen and felt for miles around.
Accurate measurements are the foundation of effective environmental management and decision-making. Through advanced monitoring networks and computer models, Ken Davis, professor of meteorology and atmospheric science in Penn State’s College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and his research group are helping scientists, communities, and policymakers better understand urban heat, greenhouse gas emissions, and air quality.
The origin of enigmatic long-period radio bursts has been shown to be from the clash of magnetic fields as a white dwarf steals matter from a close red dwarf star. Continue ReadingScientists locate source of mysterious radio signals after 20 year search: A vampire star and its victim
Four-and-a-half billion years ago, a massive world—possibly as big as the moon or even Mars—orbited our sun before crashing into another celestial body and shattering into rubble. Now, in a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists report the first definitive evidence that this lost planetary embryo (protoplanet) existed. Its unique geological makeup challenges long-held assumptions about how planets evolve.
China launched its partially reusable Long March 12B rocket for the first time ever on Monday (June 1), sending it up without issuing airspace closure notices ahead of time. Continue ReadingChina launches debut mission of Falcon 9-like rocket with no advance notice (video)
The prototype ngVLA antenna tested its systems by observing and tracking the Crab Nebula, also known as Taurus A (3C144), the remnant of an exploded star.
Galactic collisions are events of breathtaking proportions. The Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) at their centers plunge into a chaotic orbital dance that eventually coalesce into a single remnant. On their way to that point, they could eventually get “kicked” out of the center of their galaxy – and finding these “recoiling” black holes has been a challenge of cosmology for decades. A new paper, available on arXiv by an international team, used a novel idea to track down these fast-moving behemoths.
China’s Tianwen-2 sample-return mission is well on its way to its target, an asteroid called Kamo’oalewa. The spacecraft left Earth in May 2025 and should return in late 2027 with samples of a space rock that scientists had assumed originated from the moon. However, a new study published in Nature Communications suggests that we may be mistaken about the asteroid’s origin.
Casio G-Shock takes timely inspiration from the galaxy far, far away Continue ReadingCasio’s ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ watches will show you the time, as well as the way
The race to field China’s first reusable launch vehicle is far less predictable than a similar competition that played out in the United States a decade ago. There was never any real question of which company would develop and demonstrate the first reusable orbital-class rocket in the United States. SpaceX landed a Falcon 9 booster for the first time in 2015, and a little more than a year later, it launched it back into space. It took nearly 10 years for anyone else to do the same. Blue Origin celebrated its first orbital-class booster landing last November with the successful Continue ReadingIn a surprise launch, China debuts another big rocket designed for reusability
It might not seem like it, but the Moon is constantly being both sandblasted and baked. Its lack of a thick atmosphere allows micrometeorites to impact the surface at speed, and the solar wind isn’t held back either, baking the regolith with a constant flow of high-energy particles. These processes drive what is called “space weathering”, and it can drastically alter the physical and chemical properties of the lunar dirt over the course of billions of years. And we’re finally getting a better sense of what that means in practice thanks to two new papers from researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University, which used advanced electron tomography and spectroscopic techniques to analyze samples returned from the Chang’e-5 mission to the near side of the Moon.
The U.S Space Force has awarded SpaceX $4.16 billion to help the military track airborne targets using satellites. Continue ReadingSpaceX wins $4 billion Space Force contract for satellites that target ‘airborne threats’ anywhere on Earth
The search for any sign of life on Mars continues. In the latest update, a new data release from Curiosity’s Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) – essentially the rover’s portable X-ray diffraction lab – and published in a paper in Science, analyzes 20 different rock samples from various elevations of Mount Sharp, the mountain in the center of Gale Crater that Curiosity has been slowly climbing. In the paper, the researchers describe how the size of the crystals in those samples could help scientists determine where to look for evidence that life might have evolved on the Red Planet.
Though it’s a toxic chemical, hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is also important for the development of life. It’s a precursor to things like amino acids and nucleic acids and plays a central role in theories of the origin of life on Earth. Recently, difficult questions have been asked about how it could have formed on the early Earth. But the authors of new research in PNAS seemed to have figured it out.
After the fantastic Total War: Warhammer trilogy, Creative Assembly is marching into the grim darkness of Warhammer 40K’s far future. Continue Reading‘Total War: Warhammer 40,000’: Release window, gameplay, factions & everything else we know about this upcoming grimdark sci-fi strategy game
The astronauts circling Earth on the Artemis mission sent back beautiful clear photos of the continents, clouds, and oceans. But we might be the exception. Many planets in the universe may be hazed in clouds of soot, according to a new study by University of Chicago scientists. Their analysis explains a curious trend seen by astronomers training telescopes on distant planets beyond our own solar system. Many of these worlds had atmospheres that returned strangely featureless readings.
Astronomers have discovered the first evidence of magnetic worlds beyond the solar system thanks to their high-speed, violent winds, representing a major step forward in exoplanet research. Continue Reading‘Hot Jupiter’ winds blasting at over 15,000 mph reveal 1st evidence of exoplanets with magnetic fields
3I/ATLAS has caused quite a stir over the last year, inviting astronomers to update what they know about other solar systems as well as our own. However, this third interstellar visitor may have an unexpected impact on our understanding of dark matter. A new paper, available in pre-print on arXiv from researchers at the University of Hamburg, attempts to calculate the impact that the presence of large amounts of interstellar objects (ISOs) would have on our calculation of dark matter in our galaxy.
There is an 80% chance of the warming El Niño phenomenon developing between June and August, increasing the risk of extreme weather events, the World Meteorological Organization said Tuesday.
