https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. As humans, we live out our lives on a planet that is constantly sweeping through a cosmic ocean littered with ancient debris from the formation of the solar system. For the most part, our world glides silently through space, shielded by Earth's thin atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-sonic-booms-meteors-energy-hundreds.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 20 Jun 2026 17:30:01 EDT news700747537 The first few billion years of Earth's history saw the rise of life, the atmosphere and the oceans. Still, that time is shrouded in mystery: Not many rocks remain that preserve a record of those early iterations of our modern world. Dynamic geologic processes like erosion, subduction and burial mean the surface is constantly being reshaped, and older rocks aren't very common. But that time period is critical to understanding our own origins and how catastrophic events like asteroid impacts might have affected early life on the planet. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-scientists-billion-year-asteroid-impact.html Earth Sciences Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:00:06 EDT news700233527 If you've ever taken an introductory astronomy class, you've probably seen the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. This graph maps out the life cycle of stars by plotting their temperature against their luminosity, and has been a "cheat sheet" for stellar astrophysics for over a century. But the universe is full of more than just stars, and a new paper in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific by Gabriel Steward and Matthew Hedman of the University of Idaho, attempts to do for the density and mass of all objects what the HR diagram did for the lifecycle of stars—provide a coherent, visual map to represent them. https://phys.org/news/2026-05-graph-universe.html Astronomy Tue, 12 May 2026 18:20:03 EDT news697810264 Planetary scientists have long debated where the material that formed Earth comes from. Despite its location in the inner solar system, they consider it likely that 6–40% of this material must have come from the outer solar system, i.e., beyond Jupiter. For a long time, material from the outer solar system was considered necessary to bring volatile components such as water to Earth. Accordingly, there must also have been an exchange of material between the outer and inner solar systems during the formation of Earth. But is that really true? https://phys.org/news/2026-03-earth-material-exclusively-solar-planetary.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:00:03 EDT news694087382 With the current U.S. federal administration abandoning its leadership role in the fight against climate change, international efforts by governments to mitigate global warming appear to have stalled, at least for now. But according to Adelina Barbalau, an expert on climate finance in the Alberta School of Business, hope may lie elsewhere—in the global marketplace and the opportunities for multinational companies to pick up the slack. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-multinational-companies-climate-action.html Environment Mon, 23 Feb 2026 17:50:01 EST news691071984 The asteroid belt is found orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and is a vast collection of rocks that is thought to be a planet that never formed. When our solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago, the material in this region should have coalesced into a planet; however, Jupiter's gravitational influence prevented this from happening, stirring up the region so that collisions became destructive rather than constructive. What remains today contains only about 3% of the moon's mass scattered across millions of kilometers. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-asteroid-belt.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:56:04 EDT news678369362 The Northwest can expect a widespread increase in days with cloud-to-ground lightning in the years to come, along with heightened wildfire risk, according to projections made with a unique machine-learning approach developed at Washington State University. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-lightning-wildfire-northwest.html Earth Sciences Tue, 26 Aug 2025 16:22:04 EDT news675444121 Headed for a metal-rich asteroid of the same name, the Psyche spacecraft successfully calibrated its cameras by looking homeward. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-nasa-psyche-captures-images-earth.html Astronomy Tue, 19 Aug 2025 12:12:03 EDT news674824321 Elephants are known for their intelligence, strong social bonds, and good memories. But do they communicate to show real intention? A new study suggests they do. The research showed that elephants gestured to ask for food when a person was around and that they kept gesturing when they didn't receive all the food. These are signs that the elephants are trying to communicate with intention. https://phys.org/news/2025-08-elephants-deliberate-gestures.html Plants & Animals Tue, 05 Aug 2025 13:02:04 EDT news673617721 Humans have long mastered the art of expressing their goals and needs through both language and gestures. A similar behavior is also observed in non-human primates, who use complex gestures to convey what they want, but does the use of deliberate gestures extend beyond primates to other members of the animal kingdom? https://phys.org/news/2025-07-elephants-gesture-intention-communicate-desires.html Plants & Animals Sat, 12 Jul 2025 09:30:10 EDT news671426672 Analyzing gravity data collected by spacecraft orbiting other worlds reveals groundbreaking insights about planetary structures without having to land on the surface. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-reveal-hidden-secrets-interiors-moon.html Astronomy Wed, 14 May 2025 13:20:01 EDT news666447010 New research from a team of cognitive scientists and evolutionary biologists finds that chimpanzees drum rhythmically, using regular spacing between drum hits. Their results, published in Current Biology, show that eastern and western chimpanzees—two distinct subspecies—drum with distinguishable rhythms. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-chimpanzee-groups-distinct-rhythms.html Plants & Animals Fri, 09 May 2025 11:00:01 EDT news665998501 For decades, scientists believed Vesta, one of the largest objects in our solar system's asteroid belt, wasn't just an asteroid and eventually concluded it was more like a planet with a crust, mantle and core. Now, Michigan State University has contributed to research that flips this notion on its head. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-vesta-core-shatters-held-beliefs.html Astronomy Mon, 28 Apr 2025 14:19:05 EDT news665068742 In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. Several months later, the U.S. sent Explorer I into space. With two small objects, the space race began. https://phys.org/news/2025-04-space-traffic-trash-policy-experts.html Space Exploration Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:28:04 EDT news664198081 From the grounds of a gas-fired power plant on the eastern shores of Canada, a little-known company is pumping a slurry of minerals into the ocean in the name of stopping climate change. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-ocean-dumping-climate-solution-industry.html Environment Fri, 21 Mar 2025 07:30:03 EDT news661760990 Despite their overall similarities, asteroids are usually pretty distinct from one another. Vesta has a very different spectroscopic profile than Psyche, for example. So it might come as no surprise that another of the main asteroids—Pallas—is in a class all its own except for the 300 or so members of its "family" with similar orbital profiles and spectroscopic lines. https://phys.org/news/2025-03-pallas-family-asteroids-reveal-unique.html Astronomy Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:01:03 EDT news661442461 The organic material found in a few areas on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is probably of exogenic origin. Impacting asteroids from the outer asteroid belt may have brought it with them. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-dwarf-planet-ceres-material-space.html Astrobiology Mon, 27 Jan 2025 16:44:05 EST news657218642 Pocked with craters, the surfaces of many celestial bodies in our solar system provide clear evidence of a 4.6-billion-year battering by meteoroids and other space debris. But on some worlds, including the giant asteroid Vesta that NASA's Dawn mission explored, the surfaces also contain deep channels, or gullies, whose origins are not fully understood. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-lab-gullies-giant-asteroid-vesta.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 21 Dec 2024 05:30:01 EST news653927000 Six years ago, NASA's Dawn mission communicated with Earth for the last time, ending its exploration of Ceres and Vesta, the two largest bodies in the asteroid belt. Since then, Ceres —a water-rich dwarf planet showing signs of geological activity— has been at the center of intense debates about its origin and evolution. https://phys.org/news/2024-12-evidence-material-ceres-solar-rich.html Astrobiology Wed, 04 Dec 2024 10:26:32 EST news652530377 A Southwest Research Institute researcher collaborated with a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to attempt to explain the presence of mysterious flow features that exist on the surfaces of airless celestial bodies, such as the asteroids Vesta and Ceres, explored recently by the NASA Dawn mission, or Jupiter's moon Europa, which will soon be explored in detail by the NASA Europa Clipper mission that includes SwRI's involvement. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-experimental-insights-mysterious-features-airless.html Planetary Sciences Mon, 21 Oct 2024 11:47:03 EDT news648730021 An international team led by three researchers from the CNRS, the European Southern Observatory (ESO, Europe), and Charles University (Czech Republic) has successfully demonstrated that 70% of all known meteorite falls originate from just three young asteroid families. These families were produced by three recent collisions that occurred in the main asteroid belt 5.8, 7.5, and about 40 million years ago. https://phys.org/news/2024-10-cosmic-meteorites-asteroid-families.html Planetary Sciences Wed, 16 Oct 2024 11:00:02 EDT news648291613 Since the first sighting of the first-discovered and largest asteroid in our solar system was made in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi, astronomers and planetary scientists have pondered the make-up of this asteroid/dwarf planet. Its heavily battered and dimpled surface is covered in impact craters. Scientists have long argued that visible craters on the surface meant that Ceres could not be very icy. https://phys.org/news/2024-09-asteroid-ceres-ocean-world-slowly.html Planetary Sciences Sat, 28 Sep 2024 05:17:14 EDT news646719427 A team of animal behaviorists from the University of Vienna, the University of Portsmouth, Elephant CREW, Jafuta Reserve and the University of St Andrews has found that elephants use gestures and vocal cues when they greet one another. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-elephants-gestures-vocal-cues.html Plants & Animals Fri, 10 May 2024 08:35:16 EDT news634548909 In the effort to combat the catastrophic impacts of global warming, we must accelerate carbon emissions reduction efforts and rapidly scale strategies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and the oceans. The technologies for reducing our carbon emissions are mature; those for removing carbon from the environment are not, and need robust support from governments and the private sector. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-electrochemical-approach-ocean-acidity-carbon.html Environment Tue, 23 Apr 2024 13:40:01 EDT news633094288 The storied career of the Delta family of rockets had to wait a little longer than planned to turn the page on its final chapter, but the last of its kind lifted off on the Space Coast on April 9. https://phys.org/news/2024-04-delay-delta-iv-heavy.html Space Exploration Wed, 10 Apr 2024 12:40:01 EDT news631971042 In the effort to combat the catastrophic impacts of global warming, we must accelerate carbon emissions reduction efforts and rapidly scale strategies to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and the oceans. The technologies for reducing our carbon emissions are mature; those for removing carbon from the environment are not, and need robust support from governments and the private sector. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-electrochemical-technology-de-acidify-oceans.html Earth Sciences Sat, 30 Mar 2024 16:10:01 EDT news630932878 Universe Today has had some fantastic discussions with researchers on the importance of studying impact craters, planetary surfaces, exoplanets, astrobiology, solar physics, comets, planetary atmospheres, and planetary geophysics, and how these diverse scientific fields can help researchers and the public better understand the search for life beyond Earth. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-cosmochemistry-life-earth.html Astrobiology Thu, 28 Mar 2024 14:37:04 EDT news630855421 When a star like our sun reaches the end of its life, it can ingest the surrounding planets and asteroids that were born with it. Now, using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO's VLT) in Chile, researchers have found a unique signature of this process for the first time—a scar imprinted on the surface of a white dwarf star. The results are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-metal-scar-cannibal-star.html Astronomy Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:00:01 EST news628158565 Locals watched in awe as a fireball exploded and hundreds of meteorite fragments rained down on the city of Tatahouine, Tunisia, on June 27, 1931. Fittingly, the city later became a major filming location for the Star Wars movie series. The desert climate and traditional villages became a huge inspiration to the director, George Lucas, who proceeded to name the fictional home planet of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, "Tatooine." https://phys.org/news/2023-12-tatahouine-star-wars-meteorite-early.html Astronomy Wed, 27 Dec 2023 10:06:12 EST news622893969 In May 2020, some unusual rocks containing distinctive greenish crystals were found in the Erg Chech sand sea, a dune-filled region of the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-sahara-space-billion-years-upends.html Space Exploration Wed, 30 Aug 2023 11:20:40 EDT news612613233