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

The Winter Triangle meets the ‘Mars Triangle’ in the night sky this month

an illustration of the night sky showing a triangle formed from the two stars castor and pollux and mars

We’re now just past the midpoint of astronomical winter — that moment marking the midway point between December’s winter solstice and March’s vernal equinox. That moment took place at 4:11 p.m. Eastern Time on Feb. 3. And as darkness falls this week, we have what many refer to as the “Winter Triangle” dominating the southeast … Read more

New fish species named for Princess Mononoke

New fish species: Fish with red vertical stripe on cheek from eye to jaw and animated character with similarly striped cheeks.

Scientists have named a new fish species for the character San (also called Princess Mononoke) in the animated movie Princess Mononoke, thanks to their similarly painted cheeks. Image via Pensoft/ Fish: Branchiostegus sanae. Huang et al (CC-BY 4.0). San: “Princess Mononoke” (1997)/ Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli. New fish species named for animated character On February … Read more

Some planet-forming stars never ‘grow up’ and lose their ‘Peter Pan’ disks

a bright white orb surrounded by dusty brown clouds

Planet formation around low-mass stars may be suffering from Peter Pan syndrome. While previous observations and models have suggested that a disk of planetary building blocks should be ‘fully grown’ – having burned through its world-making material – in about 10 million years, a new kid on the block is proving them wrong, weighing in … Read more

Speediest exoplanet found near Milky Way center?

Hundreds of stars in space, many of them with short trails behind them. A bright one has a long red trail.

View larger. | Artist’s visualization of stars near the center of the Milky Way. The longer the trail of each star, the faster it is moving. Scientists have discovered what might be the speediest exoplanet system yet. It’s depicted with a long bright trail at center. Image via NASA/ JPL-Caltech/ R. Hurt (Caltech-IPAC). Stars move … Read more

Lightning strikes on Earth can trigger electron showers

Lightning streaks from clouds to the Manhattan skyline, all reflected in a foreground body of water.

View at EarthSky Community Photos. | Alexander Krivenyshev from Manhattan, New York, captured these spectacular lightning strikes on June 26, 2024. Thank you, Alexander! A new study says lightning strikes on Earth can trigger electron showers from beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The Van Allen radiation belts are donut shaped regions of high-energy particles that circle Earth. … Read more

Why won’t the Blaze Star explode? (and how YOU can see it when it does)

Animation of Blaze Star, showing an expanding white dwarf and red giant.

The Blaze Star isn’t one star but 2. It’s a binary system with a white dwarf and red giant. The Blaze Star’s white dwarf has built up material on its surface, siphoned off from the red giant star. Periodically, it “can’t take no more” and explodes, about every 80 years. Despite the powerful explosion, the … Read more

‘Sailing’ satellites of the future could provide early warning of dangerous space weather

A line of NASA engineers posing with a silver solar sail.

NEW ORLEANS — Solar sails that allow satellites to glide on the light from the sun could soon become a reality. The technology would allow scientists to provide earlier warnings of space weather events such as geomagnetic storms, which have the potential to disrupt technological systems on Earth. “A lot of us have experienced sailing; … Read more