Science

A yellow orb is seen with a disk of gas around it. A dim star in the night sky 3,000 light-years from our solar system could soon become visible to the naked eye for the first time since 1946 — and you can easily find it in the night sky. The “Blaze Star” — officially called T Coronae Borealis (T CrB) — is expected …

Two NASA astronauts have filmed a tour of Boeing’s Starliner, taking the public around the spacecraft that delivered them to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday (June 6). Starliner docked with the ISS Friday at 1:34 p.m. EDT (1734 GMT), 26 hours after the capsule launched on its first-ever crewed flight. The crew are commander Butch Wilmore and pilot …

It’s the sunspot region that just does not want to quit! Beastly sunspot AR3697 has made headlines again just before it makes another exit. The sunspot region, formerly known as AR3664, produced the historic geomagnetic storm that led to May’s global auroras. On Saturday (June 8), the sunspot fired off a M9.7-class solar flare, the second strongest type on the …

Doubt has been cast on the possibility of a lake of liquid water buried beneath Mars’ southern ice cap by new computer simulations, which suggest that closely compacted layers of ice could produce the same radar reflections that liquid water would. In 2018, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter used its MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere …

The first astronaut mission of Boeing’s Starliner capsule will last a bit longer than we’d thought. Starliner launched on June 5, carrying NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station (ISS) on a shakeout cruise called Crew Flight Test (CFT). Wilmore and Williams arrived at the orbiting lab on June 6 for a roughly week-long stay …

Miguel Claro is a professional photographer, author and science communicator based in Lisbon, Portugal, who creates spectacular images of the night sky. As a European Southern Observatory Photo Ambassador and member of The World At Night and the official astrophotographer of the Dark Sky Alqueva Reserve, he specializes in astronomical “Skyscapes” that connect both Earth and the night sky.  The image reveals the solar chromosphere captured on …

WASHINGTON (AP) — African elephants distinguish and react to each other using distinct nomenclature — a trait seldom observed in wild fauna, as delineated by fresh findings unveiled on Monday. The appellations form part of the elephants’ subdued reverberations that reverberate over extensive tracts of the savanna. It is posited that creatures with intricate societal organizations and kinship collectives that …

Untamed African elephants may communicate with each other using distinctive calls that mirror humans’ use of personal names, recent research indicates. While it’s common knowledge that dolphins can address their kin by mimicking a characteristic whistle, and similar behavior has been observed in parrots, it appears that African elephants in Kenya may take personal identification a step further. These large …

Some Americans are questioning the cognitive abilities of seniors like Joe Biden and Donald Trump to hold the presidency amid reports of the politicians swapping names in conversation and experiencing difficulties retrieving past intimate event details. I hold the stance that these accounts are quite troubling. Nonetheless, judging the mental capabilities of these candidates solely based on critiques that are …

RHODES, Greece (AP) — Dr. Michael Mosley became his own experimental subject. To advance scientific understanding, the UK TV presenter subjected himself to extreme tests, including consuming tape worms, injecting himself with serpent toxin, and enduring the bloodsucking of leeches. Experiments that did not lead to his demise greatly amplified his renown, and he garnered an audience of millions via …