Science & Technology News

Its caldera’s dramatic, surprisingly slow collapse could point to other risks worldwide

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A change in chewing led to the emergence of the mammalian middle ear

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Scientists uncover patterns that predict which insects will harm North America’s conifers

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Maternal stress arising from perceived racial discrimination could cause premature births and lower birth weights

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A senior has come up with a way to discern life on exoplanets loitering in other cosmic neighborhoods: a spectral field guide.

The Parker Solar Probe spacecraft, which has flown closer to the sun than any mission before, has found new evidence of the origins of the solar wind.

A genetic condition helps uncover how modern human mugs came to differ from those of Neandertals

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Outbursts of energetic particles that hurtle out from the sun and can disrupt space communications may be even more varied and numerous than previously thought, according to results from the closest-ever flyby of the sun.

The first evidence of a giant planet orbiting a dead white dwarf star has been found in the form of a disc of gas formed from its evaporating atmosphere.

New data from the Parker Solar Probe, which got closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, allowed physicists to map the source of a major component of the solar wind that continually peppers Earth. The slow solar wind seems to emerge from coronal holes along the sun's equator. Data also reveal strange magnetic field reversals that could be accelerating solar wind particles, and an unexpectedly dense shroud of comet dust around the sun.

Since its 2018 launch, NASA's Parker Solar Probe (record-holder for closest-ever spacecraft to the Sun) has finished three of 24 planned passes through never-before-explored parts of the Sun's atmosphere. Four new articles describe what scientists have learned from its unprecedented exploration, and what they look forward to learning next.

Gravitational-wave astronomers are probing the origins of abnormally massive black holes—and with them, the inner workings of their colossal galactic homes

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Astronomers have captured a clear start-to-finish image sequence of an explosive emission of dust, ice and gases during the close approach of comet 46P/Wirtanen in late 2018.

Computers can learn to find flares and other events in vast streams of solar images to help forecasters issue timely alerts, according to a new study. The machine-learning technique searches satellite data for features significant for space weather. Changing conditions on the Sun can affect various technologies on Earth, blocking radio communications, damaging power grids, and diminishing navigation system accuracy.

A surprising analysis of the composition of gas giant exoplanets and their host stars shows that there isn't a strong correlation between their compositions when it comes to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This finding has important implications for our understanding of the planetary formation process.

Scientists studying the weather and climate of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, have reported a significant seasonal variation in its energy budget, a finding which could yield new insights into climate on Earth.

The housing governing groups can play a powerful role in encouraging environmentally friendly lawns

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Scientists have discovered why the Sun's magnetic waves strengthen and grow as they emerge from its surface, which could help to solve the mystery of how the corona of the Sun maintains its multi-million degree temperatures.

Measurements taken by the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument aboard NASA's New Horizons spacecraft are providing important new insights from some of the farthest reaches of space ever explored. Astronomers now show how the solar wind -- the supersonic stream of charged particles blown out by the Sun -- evolves at increasing distances from the Sun.

Although not practical in many areas, the approach reveals clues to how the immune system battles the infection

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