Mercury Completes the Planetary Parade at Dusk

Planets

One planet was missing from the sunset lineup… until now. Perhaps you’ve seen the news headlines admonishing sky watchers to ‘See All Naked Eye Planets…at Once!’ in January. While this was basically true, it was also missing one key player: Mercury. This week, the swift inner planet joins the scene at dusk. It’s certainly rare … Read more

How Earth got its ice caps and helped life to prosper

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A new 3D computer model of the planet through time has helped answer a contentious question: How did the Earth’s ice caps form? “The study looked at the Earth’s long-term stable climate,” explains the University of Adelaide’s Andrew Merdith, lead author on the new study in Science Advances. “Over tens to hundreds of millions of … Read more

Cosmic voids may explain the universe’s acceleration without dark energy

Dark energy, the mysterious force that’s driving the accelerating expansion of the universe, may not actually exist, scientists say. Their research has brought into question one of the cornerstones of modern cosmology. In a new study, published Dec. 19, 2024 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers analyzed data from … Read more

James Webb Space Telescope learns how a cosmic phoenix cools off to birth stars

A purple blob (the same image as header) that shows were the cooling gas is located, as seen by the JWST, and where the jet inflated bubbles are inflated, as seen by other telescopes. Both are in the middle of the purple blob, but the bubbles region is slightly lower.

How do you cool down a phoenix? I don’t mean the mythological birds of flame and rebirth, but rather a cosmic namesake with a fittingly fiery nature. Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers may finally have the answer. They used the powerful instrument to investigate the extreme cooling of gas in the Phoenix … Read more

Lowell Observatory holds I Heart Pluto Festival

Speakers at the 2025 I Heart Pluto Festival

Adam Nimoy, David Levy, Alan Stern, and Dave Eicher conducted a 90-minute discussion on Pluto, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, various astronomical topics, and Star Trek in the Orpheum Theater on Saturday night. Credit: Dean Regas An annual event over recent years, the I Heart Pluto Festival in Flagstaff, Arizona, celebrates the history, heritage, and cutting-edge astronomy … Read more

An Unfinished Detector has Already Spotted the Highest-Energy Neutrino Ever Seen

This is an artist's impression of a KM3NeT installation in the Mediterranean. Underwater neutrino detectors take advantage of location to track these fast particles. Image Courtesy Edward Berbee/Nikhef.

When it comes to particles, only photons are more abundant than neutrinos, yet detecting neutrinos is extremely difficult. Scientists have gone to extreme lengths to detect them, including building neutrino observatories in deep, underground mines and in the deep, clear ice of Antarctica. One of their latest efforts to detect neutrinos is KM3NeT, which is … Read more

DOGE personnel conducting spending review at NASA

Personnel from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are on-site at NASA to review the agency’s payments. Credit: NASA/Keegan Barber The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), working under a mandate from President Donald Trump to reduce government spending, has its next target: NASA. The space agency told FLYING on Friday that DOGE personnel are already on-site to … Read more

Cookies, Cream, and Crumbling Cores

A color photograph shows a close-up of a rock on Mars, with surface that appears a very pale mint green, flecked with innumerable black specks, looking like the top of a freshly opened tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Explore This Section Mars Home Science Overview Objectives Instruments Highlights Exploration Goals News and Features Multimedia Perseverance Raw Images Images Videos Audio More Resources Mars Missions Mars Sample Return Mars Perseverance Rover Mars Curiosity Rover MAVEN Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mars Odyssey More Mars Missions Perseverance Home Mission Overview Rover Components Mars Rock Samples Where is … Read more

‘Star Trek: Section 31’ got us thinking… Should you have to do your homework before you watch a movie?

Empress Philippa Georgiou in Star Trek Discovery

Let’s start with a small thought experiment. It’s Saturday night and you spot a new “Star Trek” movie on your Paramount+ homepage. You’re not a hardcore fan but you enjoyed “The Next Generation“, “The Wrath of Khan” and the JJ Abrams reboot. You’re also drawn in by the fact this interstellar version of “Mission: Impossible” … Read more

How generative AI touches journalism

An image of a field with towers in the distance and computer-generated labels superimposed that try to identify certain objects in the image.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has taken off at lightning speed in the past couple of years, creating disruption in many industries. Newsrooms are no exception. A new report published today finds that news audiences and journalists alike are concerned about how news organisations are – and could be – using generative AI such as chatbots, … Read more