A newly discovered dwarf planet candidate has a trail stretching back more than a decade in telescope images, giving astronomers a head start in understanding its orbit. 2026 ED138 could become the solar system’s sixth officially recognized dwarf planet. The newly discovered icy body orbits beyond Pluto, and early measurements suggest it is among the […]
Author: Michael
Geologists have uncovered new evidence that dramatic sea-level changes carved giant underwater canyons in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges hundreds of millions of years ago, helping to create conditions that preserved some of the earliest complex life on Earth. The findings, led by Adelaide University, shed new light on the environmental changes that accompanied the rise of the mysterious Ediacaran biota.
Crop residues—the stems, leaves and husks left behind after harvesting cereals—could provide an important source of renewable energy for Europe, but research led by the University of Surrey suggests that removing too much from fields could come at a cost to biodiversity.
Voyager 1, the NASA space probe that has traveled farther from Earth than any other human-made object, is closing in on a remarkable milestone. Actually, let’s call it a 16.09-billion-milestone. That’s the distance a photon can travel in a single day, which is to say the Voyager 1 spacecraft will be exactly one light-day away from our planet on November 18 at 5:18 a.m. EST. At that moment, a radio signal sent from Earth would take 24 hours to reach Voyager 1, and then it would take another 24 hours for the probe’s response to come back. Imagine on a…
Scientists at the University of Washington have created a virtual version of Earth with one big difference: there’s no life on it. The simulation follows 5 billion years of planetary evolution, helping researchers figure out which atmospheric signals might point to living organisms on distant worlds. Astronomers have already discovered more than 6,000 exoplanets outside our solar system. Some are rocky worlds that could have the right conditions for liquid water, one of the main ingredients scientists look for when searching for life. But finding a planet where life could survive is very different from finding one where life actually…
Growing two crops in succession on the same land requires a tight schedule. In parts of central and eastern China, farmers sow barley in autumn and harvest it in late spring. It is then followed by a summer crop, such as rice. For this cropping sequence to succeed, the barley must mature in time. An early harvest also helps the crop avoid heat and rain toward the end of the growing season.
The Nvidia CEO began working with consultants from Heller as early as October 2025, around the same time he was first linked to a suspected Chinese spy.
Archaeologists believe they have found the remains of Nossa Senhora do Cabo, a Portuguese ship seized by pirates in 1721 near Madagascar. After 16 years of investigation, the team behind the find says the evidence points to one of the most notorious raids of the Golden Age of Piracy. The researchers, from the American-based Center for Historic Shipwreck Preservation, have been working in a small harbor on Nosy Boraha, an island off Madagascar’s northeast coast. In the early 18th century it was known as Île Sainte-Marie, a hangout for European pirates. New details of the work appear in the latest…
It’s not easy to extract iron from its ore. But the peoples of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe—the capital of a thriving kingdom in southern Africa between A.D. 1000 and 1700—were masters.
The Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge near Hawaii has welcomed a special couple: George and Geraldine, two short-tailed albatrosses (Phoebastria albatrus). The birds have officially found each other for nesting season on the Midway Atoll for the 10th straight year in a row. George was first spotted on October 18, and the pair was reunited by October 22. Every fall, the remote group of islands becomes a temporary home to the world’s largest albatross colony. Albatrosses are a group of large migratory seabird species, including the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans), which has the largest wingspan of any current bird species.…