Extreme cold is impacting more than 1,000 miles of US

Extreme cold.

Extreme cold is hitting the U.S. Here’s a person bundled up against the cold. Image via Demeter Attila/ Pexels. Dangerous cold in mid-US on Wednesday As of late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, Extreme Cold Warnings stretched over 1,300 miles (2,100 km) of the continental United States, from North Dakota, down through south Central … Read more

The stars Shaula and Lesath herald the coming spring

Star chart showing stars Shaula and Lesath in the Tail of constellation Scorpius.

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, Shaula and Lesath will come over your southeastern horizon before dawn sometime this month. They’re a hopeful sign that spring is coming. How do you recognize the coming of spring? Maybe you spot a first returning robin. Or tune into news about a groundhog looking for its shadow. For … Read more

7 planets are aligned in the night sky right now. But what’s that mean for science?

eight planets of different sizes orbit around a yellow star in concentric circles

For the last month and change, you might’ve seen the headlines about the planetary alignment, or a planetary parade, going on in our solar system. And that’s true. In January 2025, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were all visible in the night sky. And in February, 2025, Mercury will join the fun, with … Read more

How to train your fish

A small fish swims next to a man's head, covered in scuba diving goggles

Study author, Maëlan Tomasek, with a “volunteer” in the experiment conducted in the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: Maëlan Tomasek European researchers have made the startling claim that fish can recognise individual divers. In a peer reviewed paper published today in Biology Letters, the research team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) in Germany … Read more

What Would Actual Scientific Study of UAPs Look Like?

Many UAP have good explanations, like this image from the Apollo 16 mission to the moon that shows what may look like a flying saucer. In 2004, NASA said it was the spacewalk floodlight/boom that was attached to the Apollo spacecraft. Image Credit: NASA

For those who missed the memo, UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) are now called UAPs (Unidentified Aerospace-Undersea Phenomena). The term UFO became so closely tied to alien spacecraft and fantastical abduction stories that people dismissed the idea, making any serious discussion difficult. The term UAP is a broader term that encompasses more unexplained objects or events … Read more

‘Captain America: Brave New World’ introduces adamantium into the MCU, but did it come from space in the comics?

Harrison Ford in Captain America: Brave New World

The fourth Captain America movie, Captain America: Brave New World, is finally out and has been met with middling critical reviews. Despite that, fans are already dissecting every new character and plot development that’s transpired as they eagerly await The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Thunderbolts. Most intriguing is the introduction of adamantium in this … Read more

Is Pluto a planet or not? Who cares! Our love for the King of the Kuiper Belt is stronger than ever 95 years later

A black and white image of a dome in the forest.

Clyde Tombaugh didn’t set out to discover Pluto when he sent his sketches of the night sky to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1929. More than anything, he just wanted to get off the farm in Kansas where he spent his days working the earth. At just 23 years old, Tombaugh sent his drawings, … Read more

Talks turn to rescue as climate changed fire threatens flora

Banksia cunninghamii c kim tarpey some rights reserved cc by

Banksia cunninghamii. Credit: (c) Kim Tarpey, some rights reserved (CC BY) Australian plants adapted to resist and recover from fire are becoming threatened by it, as climate change worsens fire weather and drives more frequent and severe wildfires. A recent study of the striking hairpin banksia (Banksia cunninghamii), in areas of Victoria affected by the … Read more

This Ancient Galaxy Cluster is Still Forming Stars When it Should be ‘Red and Dead’

This older image of the Phoenix Cluster (SPT-CLJ2344-4243) combines Chandra and Hubble's X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavelengths. In this new research, the team of scientists used the JWST's infrared capabilities to try to understand Phoenix better. Image Credit: By X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/M.McDonald et al; Optical: NASA/STScI - https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/phoenix/ (image link), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45952066

The Phoenix Cluster is one of the most massive galaxy clusters known. Astronomers have identified 42 member galaxies so far, yet there could be as many as 1,000 in the cluster. Because of its size and its age, it should be finished with the vigorous star formation characteristic of young galaxies. But it’s not. Star … Read more

The Milky Way’s black hole flickers and flares

Milky Way's black hole: Illustration of a black hole with flares of light around the disk.

This artist’s concept portrays the Milky Way‘s black hole. This supermassive black hole sits at the core of our galaxy and goes by the name of Sagittarius A* (A-star). It’s surrounded by a swirling accretion disk of hot gas. The black hole’s gravity bends light from the far side of the disk, making it appear … Read more