Science

Science • May 19

Vega C rocket launches European-Chinese space weather satellite to orbit

A Vega C rocket will launch the European-Chinese SMILE space weather mission to orbit tonight (May 18), and you can watch the action live.

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Science • May 19

A strange ripple in spacetime could be the first fingerprint of dark matter

Black holes crashing together may be revealing clues about dark matter hidden across the universe. Physicists created a new model predicting how dark matter...

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Science • May 19

Farming in Ancient Lake Agassiz

The glacial lake left a layer of silt and clay in southeastern Manitoba, creating fertile farmland that was divided during 19th-century land surveys and is...

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Science • May 19

Video: Preparing Smile for space

Before Smile can begin studying how Earth responds to the streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the sun, the spacecraft had to complete an...

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Science • May 19

The James Webb Space Telescope has found galaxies that appear to have formed within 280 million years of the Big Bang, some containing heavy elements that shouldn't have had time to form — and at least one peer-reviewed paper has now proposed that t

The James Webb Space Telescope wasn't supposed to find any of this. When it launched in late 2021, astronomers expected it would peer further back in time...

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Science • May 19

Look up for a "space jellyfish" Thursday morning

When the launch time is just right, about 30 minutes before sunrise or after sunset, sunlight illuminating a rocket's exhaust gives it a jellyfish...

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Science • May 19

WATCH: A Spacecraft Is Launching to Study How Earth Survives Solar Storms

A joint European-Chinese spacecraft is set to blast off Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from...

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Science • May 19

China to study human embryo models in space

The successful launch of the Tianzhou 10 cargo spacecraft on May 11 carried human embryo models into space. This marks the world's first in situ experiment...

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Science • May 19

The Opportunity rover survived on Mars for 14 years — roughly 55 times longer than its 90-day design mission — before a 2018 global dust storm so vast it turned "day into night" across the entire planet buried its solar panels, and despite NASA sending more t

In January 2004, a golf-cart-sized robot bounced down through the atmosphere of Mars on a cluster of airbags, rolled to a stop, and started doing what it...

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Science • May 18

Bioengineers condense protein engineering and testing to a single day

Proteins are critical to life—and to industry. There are countless proteins that could be engineered to treat and even cure serious diseases and cellular...

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Science • May 18

European Space Agency's 'Smile' mission set to start

The European Space Agency (ESA) is to launch a new mission on Tuesday to study how the Earth's magnetic shield responds to space weather.

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Science • May 18

SMILE to give Earth’s magnetosphere its first X-ray

Here's what's launching May 18–24: ESA and China's SMILE mission heads to space, and SpaceX flies the debut of Starship V3.

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Science • May 18

The structure of water: Entropy determines whether ions stick

Water molecules do not simply swirl around in complete disorder; they can form certain preferred structures. This scientific fact is often presented in...

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Science • May 18

A physicist's fresh look at the 'prisoner's dilemma' reveals hope for cooperation

The "prisoner's dilemma" is one of the most famous ideas in game theory. For decades, this game has been used to explain why selfishness often beats...

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Science • May 18

Newly discovered asteroid to pass closer to Earth than the moon Monday

A newly discovered asteroid estimated to be about 62 feet wide will zoom near Earth on Monday, though it isn't expected to pose a threat to the planet.

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Science • May 18

SpaceX Starship Flight 12 launch updates: 1st-ever Starship V3 test gets new launch date

SpaceX is targeting a Wednesday, May 20, launch for its newest Starship design, the Starship V3 megarocket. See our latest updates here.

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Science • May 18

Findings reconsider the existence of Europa's vapor plumes

Looking back at 14 years of Hubble telescope data for Jupiter's moon Europa has given Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists a better understanding...

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Science • May 18

How Did We Miss the Asteroid That Will Narrowly Miss Us?

An asteroid the size of a blue whale will pass within about 56,500 miles of Earth sometime this evening. That, by itself, is not terribly remarkable.

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Science • May 18

Scientists found stardust trapped in Antarctic ice. What could it tell us about our solar system?

A new study has found what scientists think are the remnants of a stellar explosion trapped in Antarctic ice.

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Science • May 18

The Satellite Industry Boom Is Driving an ‘Untested Geoengineering Experiment,’ Scientists Warn

Companies are launching satellites en masse and polluting the atmosphere in the process.

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