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 […]
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. […]
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx has returned bits of the asteroid Bennu to Earth
Seven years is a long time to wait for your carrier service to deliver a package. That’s how long it’s been since NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft set off to gather rocks and dust from the asteroid Bennu. But the package has now been safely delivered. On September 24, the spacecraft flew near Earth and dropped off […]
New JWST images suggest our understanding of the cosmos is flawed
The greatest puzzle in cosmology just got even more puzzling. Images from the James Webb Space Telescope have confirmed that the universe appears to be expanding significantly faster than it should be, researchers report in a study accepted in the Astrophysical Journal. The observation is in conflict with an esteemed theory, the standard model of […]
Centuries on, Newton’s gravitational constant still can’t be pinned down
There was a secret inside the envelope in the hands of Stephan Schlamminger, one of the world’s leading experts in experimental tests of gravity. He appeared to be on the verge of opening the envelope during a presentation at the April 2022 meeting of the American Physical Society, to read a number that would reveal […]
Neutrinos offer a new view of the Milky Way
Scientists have made the first image of the Milky Way using neutrinos. The extremely low-mass subatomic particles have no electric charge, and pass easily through gas, dust and even stars on their way from the places where they originate to detectors here on Earth. High-energy neutrinos zip throughout the cosmos, but where they come from […]
Physicists split bits of sound using quantum mechanics
You can’t divide the indivisible, unless you use quantum mechanics. Physicists have now turned to quantum effects to split phonons, the smallest bits of sound, researchers report in the June 9 Science. It’s a breakthrough that mirrors the sort of quantum weirdness that’s typically demonstrated with light or tiny particles like electrons and atoms (SN: […]
The Parker Solar Probe may have spotted the origin of high-speed solar winds
A spacecraft plunging into the sun’s atmosphere has revealed the likely source of powerful blasts of plasma in fast solar winds. Far from the sun, the solar wind is a nebulous, turbulent plasma. But when NASA’s Parker Solar Probe dipped within about 8 million kilometers of the sun’s surface, it detected narrow plasma streams (SN: […]
Videos of gold nanoparticles snapping together show how some crystals grow
Mesmerizing videos offer a new look at the ways crystals form. The real-time clips, described March 30 in Nature Nanotechnology, show closeup views of microscopic gold particles tumbling, sliding and flitting about before clicking into place in crystalline structures. Before embarking on the study, physicist Erik Luijten of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., had expected […]
Static electricity helps parasitic nematodes land on victims
LAS VEGAS — Some species of parasitic roundworms can catapult themselves high into the air to latch onto fruit flies and other insects. Experiments now reveal that leaping Steinernema carpocapsae nematodes take advantage of a secret weapon that makes them particularly effective in their pursuit of victims: static electricity. Flying insects build up electric charge […]