In November 2025, Earth was shaken by several massive eruptions of solar material that slammed into the magnetosphere. For many, the result was surprising. Much of the world watched in amazement as a solar superstorm lit up Earth’s skies with dazzling auroras down to rare low latitudes. However, the sword was double-edged. The same storm … Read more
Following the successful launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman space telescope on Sunday, the agency held a press conference to discuss the observatory’s upcoming science operations. However, the standard post-launch briefing took a strange turn when the president of the United States unexpectedly intervened to congratulate NASA on the mission it repeatedly tried to scrap. … Read more
New research into the interior of Mars further emphasizes that the Red Planet is a world of two very different halves. Deep in Mars’ southern hemisphere, the temperature is up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius) warmer than beneath the northern hemisphere, deepening the mystery of the strange dichotomy between the Red Planet’s flattened … Read more
The scientists used a new error correction strategy to encode 70 logical qubits and tackle a problem considered classically intractable. Quantum computing was completed in about 15 minutes, while mainstream classical computing methods would require an impractical amount of time to perform the same task. IBM and researchers at the University of Chicago have announced … Read more
Antarctica did not wait for the Earth to cool as much as it does today. In the Eocene-Oligocene transition, about 34 million years ago, ice expanded across East Antarctica while global temperatures were still about five degrees Celsius above the modern level. The Arctic remained virtually ice-free for almost another 30 million years. The fall … Read more
ToplineThe northern lights could be visible from some northern US states on Sunday night, according to a forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, although forecasters are not currently expecting any space weather that would normally make the lights visible further south. The aurora has a slim chance of being visible from some states … Read more
Twenty years ago, Pluto was demoted. Following a vote by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in August 2006, Pluto was relegated from major planet status to dwarf planet status. Our solar system went from nine planets to eight. At the time, many scientists were not happy with the decision. Two decades later, the debate is, … Read more
NASA’s $4.3 billion Roman Space Telescope launched Sunday atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, beginning a three-month journey to a point in space a million miles from Earth where it will map the large-scale structure of the cosmos with a 300-megapixel wide-field camera. Using a Hubble-class mirror originally built for a spy satellite, Roman will … Read more
The space shuttle Endeavor had crossed the United States aboard a modified Boeing 747. The last 20 kilometers were slower. From October 12 to 14, 2012, the retired orbiter glided from Los Angeles International Airport through Inglewood and Los Angeles to the California Science Center. The trip lasted about 68 hours. The Endeavor moved no … Read more
Durante 21 años, una red global de computadoras ordinarias realizó una extraordinaria cantidad de radioastronomía. Desde 1999 hasta que SETI@home dejó de distribuir nuevos trabajos en 2020, millones de voluntarios permitieron que UC Berkeley usara el tiempo inactivo del procesador para examinar grabaciones de radiotelescopios en busca de signos de tecnología más allá de la … Read more