Science

A new research shows that the lack of Antarctic sea ice in 2016 was in part due to a unique one-two punch from atmospheric conditions both in the tropical Pacific Ocean and around the South Pole. A dramatic drop in Antarctic sea ice almost a year ago, during the Southern Hemisphere spring, brought its maximum area down to its lowest …

Scientists have identified a pulsar spinning at more than 42,000 revolutions per minute, making it the second-fastest known. A pulsar is the core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova. In this stellar remnant, also called a neutron star, the equivalent mass of half a million Earths is crushed into a magnetized, spinning ball no larger than Washington, …

Look up tonight! A powerful solar storm is sending radiation towards Earth that could spark a stunning display of the Northern Lights. On Monday the sun blasted out a huge cloud of superheated plasma known as a coronal mass ejection (CME). This fast-moving CME is expected to slam into Earth overnight Wednesday, triggering strong geomagnetic storms. Such storms often supercharge …

Nicaragua is fighting to save its endangered tapirs from hunting and habitat destruction caused by climate change. Baird’s tapir is the largest indigenous mammal in Central America. It is a primitive animal that resembles the ancestor of rhinos and horses, and has changed very little in the last 35 million years. Characterised by a long, fleshy nose, like a shortened …

In 1977, NASA launched the twin Voyager spacecraft to traverse the far reaches of the solar system and beyond. Voyager 2 left on August 20, followed by Voyager 1 on September 5. The US spacecrafts Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched 16 days apart in August and September of 1977. Both the missions took advantage of a once-in-175-year alignment …

An Iowa astronaut who has spent nearly 9 and half months in space made her journey back to Earth on Saturday. Record-breaking US astronaut Peggy Whitson and two other members of the International Space Station crew have returned to Earth. Mrs Whitson has spent 665 days off the planet – 288 on this mission alone – exceeding the time spent …

Observed water loss from the newly-discovered TRAPPIST-1 exoplanets is helping scientists to focus their search for habitable conditions in space. Using the NASA/ESA Hubble telescope to estimate whether there might be water on the surface of the seven planets around TRAPPIST-1, the researchers found that although the innermost planets must have lost most – if not all – of their …

Researchers from a project co-founded by Stephen Hawking have detected mysterious radio signals coming from another galaxy around three billion light years away. Science boffins committed to finding alien civilisations have picked up 15 repeated fast radio bursts (FRBs) from a galaxy three billion light years away from Earth. It is unclear if the signals came from black holes or …

New research suggests that an extreme global warming event 56 million years ago was driven by massive CO2 emissions from volcanoes, during the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean. The research, published in Nature, used a combination of new geochemical measurements and novel global climate modelling to show that the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was associated with a geologically rapid …

MIT researchers have developed a robot with “socially aware navigation,” that can pace alongside pedestrians, follow the basic traffic rules, and smoothly navigate in crowds without bumping into anyone. Just as drivers observe the rules of the road, most pedestrians follow certain social codes when navigating a hallway or a crowded thoroughfare: Keep to the right, pass on the left, …

Researchers at Stanford have made a nature-inspired breakthrough that could cut the costs of solar energy technology. In a new study, the Stanford team used the insect-inspired design to protect a fragile photovoltaic material called perovskite from deteriorating when exposed to heat, moisture or mechanical stress. The results are published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science (E&ES). “Perovskites are …