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Philae's extraordinary comet landing relived

On 12 November 2014, after a 10-year journey through the solar system and over 500 million kilometers from home, Rosetta's lander Philae made space exploration history by touching down on a comet for the first time. On the ...

New research challenges dark matter theory in galaxy formation

The standard model for how galaxies formed in the early universe predicted that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would see dim signals from small, primitive galaxies. But data are not confirming the popular hypothesis ...

Is an 'off-year' Leonid outburst in the cards for November?

It's still one of the coolest things I ever saw. I was in the U.S. Air Force in the 90s, and November 1998 saw me deployed to the dark skies of Kuwait. That trip provided an unexpected treat, as the Leonid meteors hit dramatic ...

A mission to Triton and Neptune could unlock their mysteries

A town in the Austrian Alps might not seem like the most conducive place to come up with daring space missions. But, for the last 40 years, students and professors have been gathering to do just that in Alpbach, just north ...

Happy New Year on Mars

12 November 2024 marks the start of a new year on Mars. At exactly 10:32 CET/09:32 UTC on Earth, the Red Planet begins a new orbit around our sun.

Ariane 6 upper stage visits ESA's temple of boom

The upper stage for Europe's newest rocket Ariane 6 passed its final tests at ESA's facilities in the Netherlands last week, qualifying the upper stage for a launch on the most powerful, four-booster, variant of the Ariane ...

Launching mass from the moon helped by lunar gravity anomalies

Placing a mass driver on the moon has long been a dream of space exploration enthusiasts. It would open up so many possibilities for the exploration of our solar system and the possibility of actually living in space.

AI-enhanced model could improve space weather forecasting

"Killer electrons" that travel at nearly light speed inside Earth's Van Allen belts—the zone that surrounds the planet and traps energetic charged particles—pose a major threat to equipment in space by causing malfunctions ...

Other news

General Physics
Hints of a 'neutrino fog' could complicate efforts to detect dark matter
Earth Sciences
First amber find on the Antarctic continent provides new insights into Cretaceous forests
General Physics
Lattice QCD method suggests a simpler spectrum of exotic XYZ hadrons
Archaeology
Declassified spy images help locate ancient battle site
General Physics
Computational method pinpoints how cause-and-effect relationships ebb and flow over time
Archaeology
Archaeologists excavate earliest known ancient Maya salt works
Bio & Medicine
Low-cost method removes micro- and nanoplastics from water
Environment
Researchers advocate for new framework to measure sustainable economic growth
Biochemistry
Bioluminescent proteins made from scratch enable non-invasive, multi-functional biological imaging
Bio & Medicine
Nanofiber patch for psoriasis treatment has dual release functionality
Biotechnology
Self-organization of living matter into complex structures: How light pattern impacts aggregation of active filaments
Plants & Animals
Virtual fruity fly model can simulate sensory navigation
Plants & Animals
Young coral use metabolic tricks to resist bleaching, research reveals
Evolution
Particle accelerator helps discover new fossil species of coelacanth
Environment
Study: It's still possible to limit climate change to 1.5°C if some countries go beyond their own targets
Condensed Matter
New design for photonic time crystals could change how we use and control light
Earth Sciences
World's largest active volcano Mauna Loa showed telltale warning signs before erupting in 2022
Plants & Animals
In greening Arctic, caribou and muskoxen play key role: Study links grazing with plant phenology and abundance
Evolution
How did the division of labor emerge in animals and humans? Little-known organisms hold clues
Cell & Microbiology
Synthetic cells successfully emulate natural cellular communication

Blasts from the past: New insights from old space storms

On 4 August 1972, a burst of solar plasma rocked Earth's magnetic field after hurtling through space for about 14.6 hours—the fastest sun-to-Earth plasma journey ever recorded. The resulting space storm, one of several ...