The Habitable Planet Finder is a new tool to locate Earth-like exoplanets
Astronomers have a new tool to help them find habitable planets in our galaxy: the Habitable Planet Finder (HPF), a high-precision spectrograph. The HPF can be used to detect worlds which have some key qualities, like being a rocky planet orbiting an red dwarf, also known as an M-dwarf.
It can be either death or glory when two galaxies collide
Images collected from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are shedding light on the conditions that arise when two galaxies collide. Sometimes collisions result in one or both of the galaxies being destroyed, while other collisions result in a peaceful merging of the two. New data suggests why this might be.
SpaceX teams with NASA on its first crewed spacecraft trip to the ISS
In a joint project between NASA and SpaceX, the Crew Dragon spacecraft was successfully launched before dawn today. The craft will be traveling to the International Space Station (ISS) with supplies for the ISS crew and a dummy passenger to test the safety of eventually ferrying real passengers.
Planet Nine could be five times the size of the Earth and closer than we thought
For three years, the astronomy community has debated the idea there could be a mysterious ninth planet in our solar system. Now a pair of astronomers have published a pair of papers discussing the data in support of the Planet Nine hypothesis, finding further evidence for the existence of the planet.
French space agency unveils reusable rocket modeled after Falcon 9
The French space agency CNES working with European aerospace company Ariane Group, has unveiled a plan to create an "acceleration platform" called ArianeWords, which will begin with a first-stage rocket that is reusable for multiple launches. The first-stage rocket should make launches cheaper to implement.
NASA lab re-creates the setting for the potential origin of life
New research from NASA has recreated the conditions thought to be where life originated on Earth - deep on the ocean floor 4 billion years ago. The study can provide insight not only into the development of life here, but also where else in the universe life could be found.
New Horizons captures highest-resolution image yet of Ultima Thule
NASA researchers have managed to capture the highest resolution image yet of Ultima Thule, the oldest object ever explored by spacecraft. The new image was taken when the spacecraft was 4,109 miles (6,628 kilometers) from Ultima Thule and a staggering 4.1 billion miles from Earth.
Citizen scientist finds old white dwarf with dust rings, puzzling astronomers
A citizen scientist, astronomy enthusiast Melina Thévenot, working with NASA's Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has made a remarkable discovery: the oldest known white dwarf star with multiple dust rings. This discovery calls into question conventional wisdom about how white dwarfs form.
NASA’s Juno craft captures beautiful swirling cloud formations on Jupiter
NASA's Juno spacecraft has captured a gorgeous image of Jupiter during its 18th flyby of the planet. It shows dramatic circling cloud formations which swirl around a jet stream known as Jet N6. The image was created by citizen scientist Kevin M. Gill who used data from the craft's JunoCam imager.
Newly synthesized eight-part DNA could be the stuff aliens are made of
As far as we know, all life on Earth is based on DNA made of four nucleotides - adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine. But a new study has made a dramatic breakthrough in understanding molecular systems by synthesizing an eight-part molecular system which could be an alternative to DNA.
Blockchain could ensure the integrity of scientific research trials
Scientific misconduct is more than just a problem within academia. The falsifying of results can have real-world consequences and undermine the credibility of science. Now a group of researchers has proposed making research data more trustworthy and less susceptible to manipulation using blockchain.
YouTube struggles with inappropriate content, demonetizes videos of minors
An issue has arisen on YouTube with reports of child exploitation happening in the comment sections of videos featuring children. In response, YouTube has demonetized even innocent videos featuring children, leading content creators to worry that their incomes are at risk because of commenters.
SpaceX just nailed its most challenging Falcon 9 rocket landing to date
If you've been following the SpaceX launch calendar, you know this week marks the first launch from Cape Canaveral in two months. The weather forecast for Thursday looks fine, with an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions. We have the details on where you can watch the launch live.
Israel will launch world’s first privately funded moon mission tomorrow
This week will see the world's first privately funded lunar mission launch. Israel's first mission to the moon will be launched aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, February 21. Israel aims to join the United States, Russia, and China in successfully landing a craft on the moon.
Bees can do arithmetic, setting the scientific community abuzz
A new study has found something remarkable: Bees can do basic arithmetic. Researchers showed that bees could use colors as representations for numbers and then use those colors for addition and subtraction. These findings have implications for the development of AI in the future.
China’s mind-controlled cyborg rats are proof we live in a cyberpunk dystopia
Neuroscience researchers from Zhejiang University have created a method that allows humans to control the movements of rats. They used an EEG cap on a human to detect instructions for movements and sent this information directly into the brain of the rat via microelectrodes.
Ant-inspired walking robot navigates without GPS by using polarized light
What do you get if you cross Boston Dynamics and Ant-Man? You get Antbot, a robot from the French National Center for Scientific Research which uses ant-like navigation to move around without the aid of GPS. Antbot uses an optical compass that detects polarized light to determine its heading.
Chandra X-ray telescope uncovers evidence of the universe’s missing matter
Where is all of the matter in the universe? Around a third of the regular matter in the universe is missing. Astronomers believed the missing matter could have formed into huge strands of hot gas, and now NASA's Chandra telescope has uncovered evidence of this gas in the vicinity of a quasar.
Statistician raises red flag about reliability of machine learning techniques
Machine learning is everywhere in science and technology. But how reliable are machine learning techniques really? A statistician says that the answer is not very reliable, arguing that questions of accuracy and reproducibility of machine learning have not been fully addressed.
How can digital art created on obsolete platforms be preserved?
As lines between art and technology continue to blur, digital art experiences become more common. But how should digital artworks be preserved? The Guggenheim Museum and New York University are working together to preserve digital artworks like Shu Lea Cheang’s Brandon and Mark Napier’s net.flag.
Probes exploring Earth’s hazardous radiation belts enter final phase of life
A pair of small robotic spacecraft called the Van Allen probes have been exploring the radiation belts around Earth. Now the probes are moving into the final phase of their exploration, coming closer to Earth to gather more data and to burn up safely in the atmosphere with creating space debris.
White spots on Ceres are evidence of ancient ice volcanoes erupting
Scientists are pouring over data collected by NASA's Dawn mission to learn about the dwarf planet Ceres and the bright white spots observed at the bottom of impact craters. They believe that these spots are evidence of ice volcanoes which erupted millions of years ago, pushing salt water to the surface.
A river of stars one billion years old flows across the southern sky
Astronomers have identified a river of stars flowing across our galaxy and covering most of the southern sky. The 4000 estimated stars that comprise the stream were born together and have been moving together for the last one billion years -- a rarity as most star clusters are quickly dispersed.
Finding the ‘blind spots’ in autonomous vehicle artificial intelligence
Researchers from MIT have been looking at the differences between how autonomous systems learn in training and the issues that arise in the real world. They have created a model of situations in which what an autonomous system has learned does not match actual events that occur on the road.
Caltech sees supernovae, black holes ‘Ned Stark’ and ‘Jon Snow’ shredding stars
A new astronomical project, the Zwicky Transient Facility, is surveying the sky from Caltech's Palomar Observatory and has released its first set of results. It has observed more than one billion stars and has made a wealth of discoveries, from 50 small near-Earth asteroids to more than 1,100 supernovae.
Get a glimpse of the ocean floor with remarkable images of deep sea creatures
A team from the Schmidt Ocean Institute in Palo Alto, California, have shared remarkable images from their expeditions to the depths. The vessel Falkor traveled off the coast of Costa Rica to collect information about deep sea ecosystems which host specialized biological communities.
Spotify could terminate accounts of listeners using ad blockers
Bad news for those who use an ad blocker to get rid of annoying ads on Spotify -- the company has updated its Terms of Service to explicitly ban ad blockers. There are potentially serious consequences in place for users found circumventing the rules, including suspending or terminating your account.
Epic storms rage across Neptune and Uranus in new Hubble images
Hubble has made a discovery about the planets in our Solar System during its routine yearly monitoring -- unexpected weather formations that give clues about the atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune. The images captured show a huge cloud cap over the north pole of Uranus and a dark storm vortex over Neptune.
Kepler planet-hunting telescope goes dark after sending last light image
After a ten year career of discovering exoplanets and gathering the most detailed ever view of a dying star, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has sent its final image back to Earth. This "last light" image draws its remarkable journey to a close and shows both the TRAPPIST-1 system and the GJ 9827 system.
Transport yourself back to the web of the 90s with the ‘Captain Marvel’ website
Set in the 1990s, Marvel's Captain Marvel movie is sure to feature some period-appropriate nostalgia. Now the official website has been unveiled, and it's a thing of retro beauty that looks like it came straight out of Geocities. It'll take you back to the early days of the web.
Chang’e 4 rover spotted on the moon’s surface by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
China's Chang'e 4 mission has been exploring the far side of the moon, taking images and recording temperature readings, and now the rover has come into view of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) which has captured images of the Chinese craft perched on the floor of the Von Kármán crater.
Autonomous vehicles could cause gridlock by trying to avoid parking fees
A new study raises a concerns that autonomous cars could cause severe traffic jams by cruising around to avoid parking fees. Autonomous vehicles don't have the same incentive to park as manually controlled vehicles do, and can keep cruising around once its passenger has disembarked to avoid parking costs.
Rocket java roasts on reentry for coffee that is literally out of this world
Coffee lovers have been known to go to some impressive extremes for a cup o' joe, but here's a concept that will raise eyebrows of even the most dedicated java enthusiast: coffee beans that are shot hundreds of miles into the air and are roasted by the heat of reentering Earth's atmosphere.
Astronomers make an accidental discovery: The tiny dwarf galaxy Bedin 1
Astronomers were using data from the Hubble Space Telescope to study white dwarf stars in the Milky Way, but in the process they found something unexpected: a very faint group of stars millions of light-years away which turned out to be a new galaxy named Bedin 1, a dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
Tesla Model 3 handles are stylish but can freeze shut in cold temperatures
The Tesla Model 3 is undoubtedly a high-tech vehicle, with futuristic features built in an elaborate and innovative construction process. But owners of the cars who are currently living through the polar vortex-induced cold are having a rather old-fashioned problem: the door handles are freezing in place.
Social media sites can predict your behavior even if you don’t use them
Bad news for people trying to preserve their privacy by staying off social media -- a new study has found that your privacy is at risk even if you are not personally using social media sites. The findings show "privacy on social media is like second-hand smoke. It's controlled by the people around you."
