panda

Russia’s War in Ukraine Threatens Joint Missions to Mars, Venus and the Moon

by

In the weeks since Vladimir Putin sent Russian troops storming into neighboring Ukraine, blowback from that invasion has erupted around the world—and off-world, too. As the crisis deepens, it is increasingly disrupting international cooperation on present and planned projects for space science and exploration, potentially jeopardizing their future. Much like nesting matryoshka dolls of diminishing … Read more

Radioactive Material Is Basically Everywhere and That’s a Problem

by

Our planet is home to many radioactive substances—not just in its geologic innards or its weapons caches but also in its hospitals, at its industrial sites and in its food processing plants. In Colorado, for instance, 27 buildings house scary-sounding elements such as cesium 137, cobalt 60, americium 241 and iridium 192. These materials are … Read more

Canadian radar satellites to help Ukraine fight off Russian invasion

by

A Canadian aerospace company is doing its part to help Ukraine fight off the Russian invasion. The Canadian government has granted MDA permission to collect satellite imagery of restricted areas of Ukraine using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the Ontario-based company announced on Tuesday (March 8). “Images captured by MDA’s SAR technology, which is unique for … Read more

NASA says it supports employees’ use of preferred pronouns amid online criticism

by

NASA is voicing support for its employees’ right to be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns as criticisms flare online.  Claims recently surfaced online that NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland removed employees’ preferred pronouns from ID badges. Now, the space agency has made a public statement about its stance on employee preferred … Read more

Scientists hail ‘the decade of Venus’ with 3 new missions on the way

by

As planetary scientists resumed meeting in person, Venus experts had something special to celebrate. For decades, the Venus community has been crying out for missions: Only one dedicated spacecraft is currently studying our next-door neighbor, and NASA’s last robotic Venus visitor ended its mission in 1994. Within just a couple weeks in 2021, however, Venus … Read more

Here’s How The Human Brain Reboots Itself After The Deep Sleep of Anesthesia

by

You may well have spent hours wondering what your laptop is up to as it takes its time to boot up. Scientists have asked the same question of the human brain: How exactly does it restart after being anesthetized, in a coma, or in a deep sleep?   Using a group of 30 healthy adults … Read more

Geologists Have Closely Analyzed Two Bizarre ‘Blobs’ Detected Deep Inside Earth

by

Earth’s interior is not a uniform stack of layers. Deep in its thick middle layer lie two colossal blobs of thermo-chemical material. To this day, scientists still don’t know where both of these colossal structures came from or why they have such different heights, but a new set of geodynamic models has landed on a possible answer … Read more

What if There’s an Earth-Like Planet at One of Our Closest Stars?

by

Just over four light-years away, our Solar System’s closest neighboring stars can be found. There’s red dwarf Proxima Centauri, at a distance of 4.2 light-years; and, just a little farther, at 4.37 light-years, a binary system of Sun-like stars – Alpha Centauri AB.   We don’t yet know if there are any Earth-like worlds orbiting … Read more

Wild New Paper Says ‘Quantum Gravity’ Could Emerge From a Holographic Universe

by

In the last decades of his life, Albert Einstein hoped to unite his description of gravity with existing models of electromagnetism under a single master theory. It’s a quest that continues to vex theoretical physicists to this day. Two of our best models of reality – Einstein’s general theory of relativity and the laws of … Read more