Most star systems that we know of support gas giant planets with atmospheres full of hydrogen and some helium. Could aliens that breathe helium and hydrogen live on exoplanets throughout the cosmos? A new study of life on Earth suggests…
This Hubble Space Telescope image of comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) was taken on April 23, 2020. Last month, Comet ATLAS shattered skywatchers’ hopes of a brilliant display when it began crumbling — but scientists have spotted a new opportunity to…
A Boeing image shows the X-37B in its capsule before launch. Editor’s note: The U.S. Space Force’s next secret mission of a robotic X-37B space plane was delayed by bad weather. Another launch attempt will be made Sunday morning (May 17). A…
Private industries have helped drop the cost of launching rockets, satellites and other equipment into space to historic lows. That has boosted interest in developing space – both for mining raw materials such as silicon for solar panels and oxygen for rocket fuel, as well…
An artist’s depiction of a super-Earth exoplanet. Scientists suspect they have identified an intriguing new alien planet in a particularly roundabout way. The planet is eye-catching because it bears some eerie similarities to Earth, but also some stark differences. In…
Curiosity can handle the harsh radiation on the Martian surface. But people can’t. There’s no safe place to camp out on Mars. But a team of researchers has identified what could be future Martian explorers’ best possible hideout: a string…
An artist’s depiction of a lunar lander in Russia’s second-generation Luna program. Russia hasn’t been to the moon since 1976, but the country hopes to soon pick up where it left off. The nation has a suite of three moon…
The SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. Appropriately enough, the name of Elon Musk’s newborn son contains a tribute to pioneering aerospace tech. The decidedly unusual (and apparently illegal, at least in California) name, X Æ A-12, was devised primarily by the…
Remains of the entrance gate to the ancient city of Megiddo, otherwise known as Armageddon. Megiddo is an archaeological site that was inhabited between roughly 7000 B.C. and 300 B.C. Numerous battles were fought near Megiddo during that time, and…
Even if you’re stuck indoors during the pandemic, you can still catch May’s full moon, the last supermoon of 2020, which will appear full from Tuesday evening through Friday morning (May 5-8). Technically, the full moon, which will be in…
Training dogs to smell COVID-19 could help with early detection of the disease. Scientists are training dogs to identify COVID-19 by following their noses. A new program at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) is putting noses…
A photo shows two researchers in a rowboat inside the Super Kamiokande detector, which detects neutrinos as they slam into water molecules. Inside a cavern, buried beneath a mountain in Japan, there’s a giant tank of water that has been…