Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Metal pollution from a rocket reentry detected for the first time
Direct detection of lithium from a SpaceX rocket reentry offers new evidence that metal pollution from space debris could threaten the ozone layer.
- Planetary Science
Venus has a massive lava tube
A collapsed lava tube detected in 30-year-old radar data from Venus may be part of a much wider network of underground caves.
- Science & Society
Project Hail Mary made us wonder how to survive a trip to interstellar space
We can take some clues from hibernation and cryogenics, but humans aren't yet built for that kind of deep sleep.
- Astronomy
This inside-out planetary system has astronomers scratching their heads
A rocky exoplanet in the LHS 1903 system defies planet formation models, hinting that gravitational upheaval reshaped the red dwarf’s four worlds.
- Space
Artemis II is returning humans to the moon with science riding shotgun
NASA’s Artemis II could be the first time human eyes set sight on the farside of the moon — and there are things human eyes can see that cameras can’t.
- Physics
A Greek star catalog from the dawn of astronomy, revealed
Researchers are using X-rays to discover invisible markings left on ancient parchment containing information from the Greek astronomer Hipparchus.
- Physics
A massive clump of dark matter may lurk in the Milky Way
Pulsating remnants of stars hint at a clump of invisible matter thought to be about 10 million times the sun’s mass.
- Physics
Physics theories about the multiverse are stranger than fiction
Cosmology and quantum physics both offer tantalizing possibilities that we inhabit just one reality among many. But testing that idea is challenging.
- Space
Seismometers can track falling space junk
As the threat of falling spacecraft increases, using earthquake sensors to detect the effects of their sonic booms could better map trajectories.
- Cosmology
A massive cosmic ring may challenge a key assumption about the universe
At 3.3 billion light-years across, the ring may challenge the “cosmological principle” that the universe looks uniform at sufficiently large scales.
- Planetary Science
A newly spotted asteroid spins faster than any of its size ever seen
Among the first finds from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the discovery hints at a population of exceptionally strong asteroids.
- Astronomy
A double cosmic explosion could be the first known ‘superkilonova’
The blast may have been a kilonova — a type of neutron star merger — in the wake of a more traditional supernova.
