Science

Science • Jun 21

An unusual strategy helps some tropical butterflies live 25 times longer than their relatives

Since most butterflies live a short time, a few rare exceptions have stumped scientists. Now, some long-lived tropical butterfly species are shedding light...

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Science • Jun 21

Scientists Discover a Gene That Boosts Youth – but It Comes With a Cost

Researchers have identified a gene that appears to balance a powerful evolutionary trade-off, boosting growth and reproductive success early in life while...

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Science • Jun 21

Thanks to AI, a Chinese startup has figured out the priciest fusion energy bottleneck

For decades, fusion energy has been the ultimate promise of clean energy. It's the process that powers the sun, capable of producing enormous amounts of...

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Science • Jun 21

Nanoscale CoAl design delivers 6 GPa strength with 15% plastic strain at room temperature

Materials engineers have developed the ability to manipulate structure and matter at the nanoscale for solid-state alloys called intermetallics,...

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Science • Jun 21

After 50 Years, Astronomers Finally Found What the Milky Way’s Black Hole Was Hiding

A decades-long search has revealed signs of a subtle outflow from the Milky Way's central black hole. Something has been missing from the Milky Way's...

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Science • Jun 21

In September 2017, after 20 years in space, NASA deliberately flew the Cassini spacecraft into Saturn and let it burn up like a meteor — not because it had failed, but because it had found a possibly habitable ocean on the moon Enceladus that a dead spacecr

In September 2017 NASA deliberately flew the Cassini spacecraft into Saturn, ending a 20-year mission — not because it failed, but because it found a...

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Science • Jun 21

Apollo 12 was struck by lightning twice in the first 52 seconds of flight, filling the spacecraft with warning lights and turning Mission Control’s data into nonsense — until a young controller named John Aaron recognised an obscure failure pattern and calmly sai

Apollo 12 had been flying for barely half a minute when it was struck by lightning, and then struck again. In the first 52 seconds of the mission,...

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Science • Jun 21

New analysis finds signs of life on Mars actually came from Earth

A pair of stubborn molecules, prized because they can survive deep time, just passed an important Mars test by failing a very different one on Earth.

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Science • Jun 21

NASA spent 14 years keeping the Galileo spacecraft alive through a jammed antenna and brutal radiation, then in 2003 deliberately flew it into Jupiter to be destroyed — not because it had failed, but because it had found a probable ocean on Europa it could n

In September 2003, after fourteen years in space, NASA aimed the Galileo spacecraft straight into Jupiter and let the giant planet tear it apart.

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Science • Jun 21

There's an Astounding Amount of Fungi Beneath Our Feet

Beneath your feet lies a hidden "infrastructure" that makes highways look tiny, and scientists just drew its first global map. NPR's Adrian Florido talks...

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Science • Jun 21

NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft happened to be sitting in the path of the July 2012 Carrington-class storm and took the full hit instead of Earth — the only reason we have detailed measurements of a blow we never felt

On July 23, 2012, NASA's STEREO-A spacecraft was drifting ahead of Earth in its solar orbit when a coronal mass ejection tore off the Sun and slammed...

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Science • Jun 21

Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission and is still flying 49 years later, now so far away that in November 2026 a radio signal will take a full 24 hours to reach it — so when engineers say "good morning" on a Monday, the answer won't arrive until

Voyager 1 launched in 1977 on a four-year mission. In November 2026 it becomes the first machine a full light-day from Earth — a 24-hour signal each way...

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Science • Jun 21

A mysterious gamma-ray stream comes from the Milky Way's center. Could dark matter have something to do with it?

New research has failed to rule out self-annihilating dark matter as the source of a hotly debated gamma-ray emission known as the Galactic Center Excess...

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Science • Jun 21

A mysterious gamma-ray stream comes from the Milky Way's center. Could dark matter have something to do wit...

New research has failed to rule out self-annihilating dark matter as the source of a hotly debated gamma-ray emission known as the Galactic Center Excess...

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Science • Jun 21

Our galaxy and its neighbours are racing through space at more than two million kilometres an hour, caught in a tug-of-war between the gravity of distant superclusters ahead and a vast, near-empty void shoving us from behind

You are sitting still, more or less, but the galaxy beneath you is not. The Milky Way and its neighbours are tearing through space at more than two million...

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Science • Jun 21

World’s most sensitive radio telescope array set to be built in Nevada desert

A radio telescope project known as the Deep Synoptic Array is moving forward. It aims to detect radio waves emitted by stars, planets, galaxies and other...

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Science • Jun 21

James Webb telescope finds a cosmic cloud of creation buried in the Sword of Orion — Space photo of the week

A new James Webb telescope snap shows off the glowing gas, sculpted jets and newborn stars lurking within the giant cosmic cloud OMC-2, located in the Sword...

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Science • Jun 21

NASA’s Soon-to-Launch Telescope Is Expected to Unveil Distant Worlds, ‘Millions’ of Stars’ and ‘Billions of Galaxies’

Scientists and engineers at NASA will soon bid farewell to a telescope 20 years in the making as the groundbreaking Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is...

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Science • Jun 21

In the weightlessness of orbit, an astronaut’s heart can become more spherical as it no longer works against gravity in the usual way, while their spine stretches enough to make them measurably taller before they return to Earth.

Spend long enough in orbit and your own body starts to change shape. With gravity no longer pulling on it in the usual way, an astronaut's heart can grow...

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Science • Jun 21

The Sky Today on Sunday, June 21: A summertime lineup

Astronomical summer begins with a gorgeous lineup of lights in the evening sky, including three planets, two stars and the Moon.

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