Science & Technology News

They beat birds at powered flight. Were they also a step ahead with feathers?

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New observations of a stellar explosion have revealed a surprise that could point to the trigger behind these violent, yet mysterious, eruptions

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Astronomers have captured one of the most detailed views of a young star taken to date, and revealed an unexpected companion in orbit around it.

Viruses use bacteria’s chemical language to time their destruction; this might lead to new ways to fight infections 

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On Nov. 26, NASA's InSight mission knew the spacecraft touched down within an 81-mile-long (130-kilometer-long) landing ellipse on Mars. Now, the team has pinpointed InSight's exact location using images from HiRISE, a powerful camera onboard another NASA spacecraft, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

A protein associated with the degenerative disease was passed to eight patients decades ago in contaminated growth hormones

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Magnetic field lines tangled like spaghetti in a bowl might be behind the most powerful particle accelerators in the universe. That's the result of a new computational study that simulated particle emissions from distant active galaxies.

'Where did the hot Neptunes go?' This is the question astronomers have been asking for a long time, faced with the mysterious absence of planets the size of Neptune. Researchers have just discovered that one of these planets is losing its atmosphere at a frantic pace. This observation strengthens the theory that hot Neptunes have lost much of their atmosphere and turned into smaller planets called super-Earths.

A Neruda masterpiece—and a bi-exponential curve—define the dynamics of the fast then slow fade of our greatest collective sorrows and joys

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Energy economists say the new home requirement is inefficient and benefits wealthier people; supporters say it’s just one piece of the puzzle

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Astronomers used the powerful ALMA telescope to discover that in other parts of the Milky Way Galaxy (seen here) there is potentially a large population of young planets -- similar in mass to Neptune or Jupiter -- at wide-orbit that are not detectable by other current planet searching techniques.

On Dec. 21, NASA's Juno spacecraft will be 3,140 miles (5,053 kilometers) above Jupiter's cloud tops and hurtling by at a healthy clip of 128,802 mph (207,287 kilometers per hour). This will mark the solar-powered spacecraft's halfway point in data collection during its prime mission.

NASA's InSight lander used a camera on its robotic arm to take its first selfie -- a mosaic made up of 11 images. This is the same imaging process used by NASA's Curiosity rover mission, in which many overlapping pictures are taken and later stitched together.

Influential astrophysicists, roboticists and astronauts say that orbital construction could spark a renaissance in space science and exploration

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The effects of a supernova -- and possibly more than one -- on large ocean life like school-bus-sized Megalodon 2.6 million years ago are detailed in a new article.

New work provides the best-yet calibrations for using type Ia supernovae to measure cosmic distances, which has implications for our understanding of how fast the universe is expanding and the role dark energy may play in driving this process.

Researchers across New England and Canada scramble to protect the iconic species from growing parasite populations

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After a journey of more than four decades, Voyager 2 has passed beyond the sun’s influence

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Scientists have developed a new technique for looking at historic solar data to distinguish trustworthy observations from those that should be used with care. This work is critical to understanding the sun's past and future as well as whether solar activity plays a role in climate change.

Astronomers have concluded that the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is rich in organic matter. Data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft indicate that Ceres's surface may contain several times the concentration of carbon than is present in the most carbon-rich, primitive meteorites found on Earth.