Astronomers have long believed that the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are rich in frozen water. However, a new study suggests they may also have tons of methane ice. The findings could help solve a puzzle about how these icy worlds formed. Much about Uranus and Neptune remains unknown. These ice giant worlds have had … Read more
NASA test drove the mini autonomous rovers that will soon fly to the moon and collectively map the lunar surface. The rovers are part of a technology demonstration called Cooperative Autonomous Distributed Robotic Exploration (CADRE), which is designed to show that a group of robotic spacecraft can work together without direct human control. NASA took … Read more
The solar system is an enormous place. Our cosmic neighborhood includes eight planets, around half a dozen dwarf planets, several hundred moons and millions of asteroids and comets, all spinning around the sun — and in many cases each other —at speeds of thousands of miles per hour, like a giant top. But where does … Read more
Proteins found in tiny, indestructible tardigrades could potentially be a key ingredient in slowing the aging process in humans, scientists claim. However, it will take more work to show these proteins are a veritable fountain of youth — for now, the researchers have only early hints from lab-dish experiments.. Also known as water bears, tardigrades … Read more
Mesmerizing new images of the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Milky Way reveal a first look at the matter-gobbling behemoth’s magnetic field. The stunning snaps suggest that the cosmic void, named Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), may be harboring hidden jets that are shooting superheated matter into our galaxy. The new images were … Read more
Scientists reversed some signs of immune aging in mice with a new treatment that could one day potentially be used in humans. The new immunotherapy works by disrupting a natural process by which the immune system becomes biased towards making one type of cell as it ages. The mouse study is an “important” proof-of-concept, but … Read more
It’s a scene plucked from science fiction: On their deathbed, a person is completely frozen and then stashed away, so that they might be revived in the future. But could it be possible? In this excerpt from “Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality,” (Harper Collins, 2024) Nobel Prize-winning … Read more
The next evolution in artificial intelligence (AI) could lie in agents that can communicate directly and teach each other to perform tasks, research shows. Scientists have modeled an AI network capable of learning and carrying out tasks solely on the basis of written instructions. This AI then described what it learned to a “sister” AI, … Read more
About one in every 12 stars may have swallowed a planet, a new study finds. Previous research had discovered that some distant stars possess unusual levels of elements, such as iron, which one would expect to make up rocky worlds such as Earth. This and other evidence suggested that stars may sometimes ingest planets, but much remained uncertain … Read more
The moon is much more seismically active than we realized, a new study shows. A reanalysis of abandoned data from NASA’s Apollo missions has uncovered more than 22,000 previously unknown moonquakes — nearly tripling the total number of known seismic events on the moon. Moonquakes are the lunar equivalent of earthquakes, caused by movement in … Read more
