In August 2006, astronomers at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) democratically voted to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet, but 20 years later, with our increased knowledge and understanding of planetary systems, is it time to reconsider this controversial decision? Should Pluto be called a planet again? For several years before the IAU vote, there … Read more
2026-08-24T12:45:01.991Z What will happen during each stage of the partial lunar eclipse? A partial lunar eclipse turns the moon red in the sky of Sri Lanka. (Image credit: Photo by Thilina Kaluthotage/NurPhoto via Getty Images) A partial lunar eclipse has five distinct phases that occur simultaneously for everyone on the night side of the Earth … Read more
Cookies produced from recycled plastic may seem like something straight out of a dystopian sci-fi plot. But researchers say they have managed to create such a product as part of a NASA-funded project aimed at feeding astronauts on future space missions. The technology uses specially designed yeasts to transform plastics and agricultural waste into proteins, … Read more
For 28 days in early 2025, WASP-127b held one of planetary science’s most striking records. Atmospheric material around the equator of this distant gas giant was inferred to be moving at close to 9 kilometres per second, or approximately 33,000 kilometres per hour. That is around 16 times the strongest winds commonly quoted for Neptune, … Read more
On 3 June 2021, a clean white Falcon 9 lifted NASA’s CRS-22 cargo mission from Kennedy Space Center. The first stage was new. NASA’s live account made a point of saying so, then showed the booster landing on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You about eight minutes after launch. That stage was … Read more
Healthy growth and development depend on tens of thousands of genes being activated at the right time and place. Specific regions of DNA help coordinate this process, guiding the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins, and other molecules that cells need to function properly. When gene activation fails, cells can malfunction and contribute to diseases, including … Read more
The fossil record preserves this same fragmented leaf litter. Comparing the shapes of thousands of epidermal cells with the leaf area index we measured revealed a remarkably strong relationship: the more elongated the cells, the denser the forest cover above them. That relationship allowed us to reconstruct the structure of Wyoming’s forests millions of years … Read more
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A misbehaving coronal mass ejection (CME) that ejected a hidden cloud of charged particles headed toward Earth has been tracked by a record 17 spacecraft spread across the solar system, revealing that the CME is surprisingly imbalanced. CMEs are “burps” from the sun: huge clouds of magnetized plasma belched from the sun’s warm outer atmosphere, … Read more
The anticipated launch of China’s Chang’e-7 robotic mission, designed to explore the Moon’s south pole in search of water ice (a highly valuable resource that the United States also hopes to use) “cannot take place during this year’s planned window,” according to a statement from China’s Manned Space Engineering Office shared by Chinese state media. … Read more