A long-ago reshuffling of the giant planets in our solar system may have been instrumental in giving Earth its moon. For decades, planetary scientists have hypothesized that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were born much closer to the sun and that gravitational interactions among those planets jolted them into their contemporary trajectories (SN: 5/10/22). But […]
Here’s how citizen scientists can help during the 2024 solar eclipse
Last Saturday’s “ring of fire” eclipse, which blocked out 98 percent of the sun’s surface, was a rare and spectacular sight for those who got to view it. But the total solar eclipse in 2024 is going to be a particularly special event. On April 8, when the eclipse will cross the United States, the […]
Here’s another strike against Venus having copious lightning
Venus has long been depicted as having a hellish atmosphere. Despite that reputation, evidence increasingly suggests that our neighbor’s cloudy shroud isn’t riddled with lightning. Last month, planetary scientists proposed that most if not all of the bright flashes observed in Venus’ atmosphere could be explained by meteors (SN: 9/11/23). Now, a separate team suggests […]
Clara Sousa-Silva seeks molecular signatures of life in alien atmospheres
Ask Clara Sousa-Silva about her research and she’ll be absolutely clear: Yes, she is looking for aliens. But she is not hunting them. “The idea that I’m hunting anything, I find very distasteful,” she says. “I have spent my life … trying to let go of the notion that I have to go somewhere to […]
The black hole–powered jet in galaxy M87 is making stars explode
High-speed gas shooting from the galaxy M87 is causing stars to go nova, a study suggests, and no one knows how. A nova occurs after a dense star known as a white dwarf receives gas from an orbiting star (SN: 2/12/21). As the white dwarf’s intense gravity squeezes the gas, it heats up and explodes, […]
NASA’s first look at a sample from asteroid Bennu reveals life’s building blocks
NASA scientists are just beginning to reveal details about roughly 250 grams of dust and rocks brought back to Earth from the asteroid Bennu. The samples are the result of the first U.S. mission to return a sample from an asteroid, and the largest cache of material ever collected beyond the orbit of the moon. […]
In a first, astronomers spot the afterglow of an exoplanet collision
In a solar system about 1,800 light-years from Earth, two planets smacked into one another in an impact that vaporized them both. And astronomers caught them in the act. An incandescent blob of leftover planet, lingering after an impact, could explain a surge of infrared light from a remote star, researchers report October 11 in […]
Technique to see the ultrafast world of electrons wins 2023 physics Nobel
Glimpses of the ultrafast world of electrons are changing scientists’ vision of the inner workings of atoms and molecules. The 2023 Nobel Prize in physics goes to three physicists who illuminated this realm with ultrashort pulses of light, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced October 3. Physicists Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier […]
Vela’s exploded star is the highest-energy pulsar ever seen
The sweeping beams of cosmic lighthouses called pulsars are much more energetic than previously thought, calling into question the bulbs that power them. A new analysis, from the High Energy Stereoscopic System array in Namibia, reveals a pulsar that radiates at 20 trillion electron volts — making it the most energetic pulsar ever seen. The finding, […]
The development of quantum dots wins the 2023 Nobel prize in chemistry
Work on tiny dots that light up TV screens and help doctors see the blood vessels that feed tumors has earned three scientists the 2023 Nobel Prize in chemistry. Chemist Moungi Bawendi, chemist Louis Brus and physicist Alexei Ekimov split the prize for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots, the Royal Swedish Academy of […]