The surface of Mars, photographed by NASA’s Perseverance rover NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU Pure quartz crystals have been spotted on Mars for the first time, as well as other gems like opal. Researchers say these crystals, as well as being evidence of past hydrothermal activity, could contain well-preserved signs of ancient Martian life. Since it arrived on Mars…
Some spider species eat their siblings, especially when food is scarce David VILLA/SCIENCEIMAGE CBI CNRS A species of spider avoids cannibalising its siblings while they are alive, but does not seem to have qualms about eating its brethren as soon as they die. This suggests some spiders come to tolerate one another by learning to…
SPL Artwork: Uranus and its five largest moons had been thought to be inactive and sterile. The planet Uranus and its five biggest moons may not be the dead sterile worlds that scientists have long thought. Instead, they may have oceans, and the moons may even be capable of supporting life, scientists say. Much of…
Water was born as the result of exploding stars pixelparticle/Getty Images The first water molecules may have formed just 100 million to 200 million years after the big bang – before even the first galaxies – kicking off a process that led to life on Earth… and possibly elsewhere. Shortly after the big bang, most…
BBC On Christmas Eve, an autonomous spacecraft flew past the Sun, closer than any human-made object before it. Swooping through the atmosphere, Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe was on a mission to discover more about the Sun, including how it affects space weather on Earth. This was a landmark moment for humanity – but one without…
Mars appears light blue in this near-infrared image taken by the Hera spacecraft. Its moon Deimos is the dark mark towards the centre of the image ESA A space exploration mission to study an asteroid that NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into three years ago has taken stunning bonus images of Mars and its moon…
NASA’s headquarters in Washington DC John M. Chase/Getty Images NASA is preparing for substantial budget cuts that may force the cancellation of ongoing and upcoming missions across the solar system, leaving it facing a “brutal” future, experts have warned. The space agency has already begun some layoffs as part of the extensive restructuring of US…
An artist’s impression of a Starlink satellite in orbit Michal Bednarek/Shutterstock A fragment of an out-of-control SpaceX Starlink satellite smashed into a farm in Canada last year, New Scientist can reveal – raising questions about the risks of de-orbiting space junk. “That’ll punch a hole in whatever it lands on, including your head,” says Samantha…
Georgina Rannard Climate and science reporter Watch: Lift-off for Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin as rocket New Glenn launches into orbit Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s space company has blasted its first rocket into orbit in a bid to challenge the dominance of Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The New Glenn rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station…
The Big Wheel galaxy formed 2 billion years after the big bang Weichen Wang A newly-discovered spiral galaxy, dubbed the Big Wheel, formed just 2 billion years after the big bang – far earlier, considering its size, than astronomers thought possible. Themiya Nanayakkara, at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, says the discovery was…
