The Kitt Peak National Observatory, near Tucson, Arizona, is home to DESI KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld Is dark energy changing, or is it just more of the same? Last month, astronomers announced the startling finding that dark energy – which is thought to cause the accelerating expansion of the universe – might weaken over time. This has…
An artist’s impression of a Starlink satellite in orbit La Nacion/ZUMA Press/Alamy Eruptions from the sun are shortening the lives of satellites in Earth orbit, particularly large constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink – which could be both beneficial and a cause for concern. The sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity, peaking with a period…
An artist’s illustration of a potential Planet Nine Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Alamy If the solar system does have a Planet Nine, it is a world that was bullied by its larger siblings, exiled to the far reaches of space and only rescued from oblivion thanks to the intervention of passing stars. Planet Nine is a…
Astronomers have revealed new processes taking place in our sun’s atmosphere, thanks to exquisite new images of the star. Dirk Schmidt at the US National Solar Observatory and his colleagues used the Goode Solar Telescope in California to produce the images. They used a technique known as adaptive optics to remove the blur of Earth’s atmosphere…
Starship’s ninth test flight took place on 27 May Joe Marino/UPI/Shutterstock Another launch, another failure? With the ninth flight of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket ending in the vehicle’s loss, questions are being asked about whether Elon Musk’s company can ever deliver on its promises to return people to the moon, launch new space stations and…
The bioarchaeological investigation of the Bronze Age cemetery of Tiszafüred-Majoroshalom has shed new light on an important period in Central European history. An international research team – led by Tamás Hajdu, associate professor at the Department of Anthropology at ELTE and Claudio Cavazzuti, senior assistant professor at the University of Bologna, has shown that around…
Giant viruses play a role in the survival of single-celled marine organisms called protists. These include algae, amoeba, and flagellates, that form the base of ocean food webs. And since these protists form an important part of the food chain, these large DNA viruses are often responsible for various public health hazards, including harmful algal…
Everything in the forest is the forest Clare Hewitt An average mature oak tree grows hundreds of thousands of leaves each year. When those leaves fall, their nutrients return to the soil to nourish the tree that grew them, as well as other living things in the forest. “They essentially eat themselves every year,” says…
Within the animal kingdom, a naturally produced molecule known as itaconate serves a prominent role in the immune system as a defensive agent against viruses and inflammation. Itaconate is classified as a metabolite, a natural compound that arises when organisms convert food into energy. While itaconate is well known in animals, its presence and functions…
Lunar craters could be a rich source of platinum NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio Craters on the moon could hold over a trillion dollars’ worth of platinum and other precious metals deposited there by asteroids. That means lunar prospecting may be more economically viable than travelling to asteroids individually to mine them – but the legality…
