Is the Y chromosome dying out?
The Y chromosome may be in trouble. The sex we’re assigned at birth depends largely on a genetic flip of the coin: X or Y? Two X chromosomes and you (almost always) develop ovaries. An X and a Y chromosome?…
Category Space and Ufo
How long is a galactic year?
In one galactic year, also known as a cosmic year, the sun orbits the Milky Way. Humans are used to keeping time by measuring Earth’s movement relative to the sun. But while Earth’s trips around its star are noteworthy to…
Black hole ‘hair’ could be detected using ripples in spacetime
The information locked inside black holes could be detected by feeling their ‘hair,’ new research suggests. Black holes are celestial objects with such massive gravity that not even light can escape their clutches once it crosses the event horizon, or…
How to build a universe after a big bounce
An illustration of the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe. Has the universe been around forever? If so, perhaps it’s been bouncing back and forth in a never-ending cycle of big bangs in which all matter bubbles out…
The end of the universe may be marked by ‘black dwarf supernova’ explosions
An image of the Kepler supernova remnant, captured with NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory. A different type of stellar explosion, called a black dwarf supernova, may light up the darkness at the end of the universe. At the end of the…
Clouds of star-forming gas are being shot ‘like bullets’ across the galaxy
The cold molecular cloud known as the “Finger of God” is a stellar nursery in the Milky Way, just like two clouds recently discovered near the galaxy’s center. There’s a flood of scorching nuclear wind pouring out of our galaxy’s…
How Earth’s gravity changed record-breaking asteroid’s path forever
The circled streak in the center of this image is asteroid 2020 QG, which came closer to Earth than any other non-impacting asteroid on record. It was detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility on Sunday (Aug. 16), six hours after…
Did alien tech visit our solar system? The natural explanation for ‘Oumuamua may have an important flaw
‘Oumuamua — a mysterious, interstellar object that crashed through our solar system two years ago — might in fact be alien technology. That’s because an alternative, non-alien explanation might be fatally flawed, as a new study argues. But most scientists…
What does the Pentagon’s new UFO task force mean? Experts weigh in.
U.S. Navy videos of alleged UFO sightings were previously available but had not been officially declassified. If you’re a fan of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and alien visitation, this is manna from heaven. Three videos showing U.S. Navy pilots encountering…
NASA powers up Ingenuity helicopter on Mars for the 1st time
An artist’s impression of NASA’s Mars helicopter Ingenuity flying on the Red Planet. NASA’s Mars helicopter, named Ingenuity, successfully powered up for the first time in space this month. Ingenuity is the first helicopter designed to fly on another planet.…
Astronomers bounced a laser off a spacecraft whirling around the moon
image This photograph shows the laser-ranging facility at the Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory in Greenbelt, Maryland trying to hit the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) with green laser light. For the first time, another facility in Grasse, France successfully bounced…
Why doesn’t the US use the metric system?
Would you rather use inches or centimeters? How people measure stuff might seem pretty bland as topics go, but behind America’s insistence to keep drinking coffee in ounces and pumping gas in gallons lies a story with a weighty dose…