Scientific discoveries, space, environment and research news.
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NASA on Friday announced an abrupt change to its pathway to getting astronauts back on the lunar surface, opting to add in an additional crewed test flight before attempting to land.
"At first, I kind of laughed … But they were serious. I could just see the seriousness in their faces." In this book excerpt, Lise Barnéoud explores the limitations of DNA testing.
While the total lunar eclipse on March 3 is the main event of the month, there's plenty more to see throughout the month of March — here's everything you need to marvel at the night sky this month.
Six planets are set to align on Saturday, creating a planetary parade that will be visible to sky-gazers across the globe.
A blood-red moon will soon grace the skies for a total lunar eclipse. There won’t be another until late 2028.
First glimpse of comet 3I/ATLAS from Juice science camera
Martin Kamen and Samuel Ruben's discovery of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 in 1940 helped usher in a new era of dating artifacts from past civilizations.
Nearly 50 years ago, the first Landsat satellite captured the rare sight of Mid-Atlantic waterways frozen over.
Posted: February 26, 2026 10:49 pm ET | Last Updated: February 26, 2026 11:04 pm ET | NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, ASAP, is warning that the Artemis III mission to land astronauts on the Moon is too risky and NASA needs to reconsider the timeline and feasbility of mission goals.
The human genome is a rich, complex record of migration, encounters, and inheritance written over thousands of millennia. Genomic research by members of Sarah Tishkoff's lab at the University of Pennsylvania are revisiting a particularly intimate chapter, sug…
The world is never really at rest. Even in a vacuum near ultracold temperatures where all classical motion should come to a halt, you'll find quantum fluctuations. In thin, two-dimensional materials, these include random vibrations that can alter electromagne…
Some computers are easy to spot. Artificial, human-built computers like those found in smartphones and laptops are abstract dynamic systems with observable computational elements like input, output, energy cost, and logical processes. Other computers aren't s…
Ancient linkups may have happened more frequently between female humans and male Neanderthals, according to an new genetic analysis
A recent study has uncovered alarming new insights into the rapid acceleration of global sea level rise, with space laser technology playing a crucial role in tracking changes in ocean mass.
Most people alive today carry fragments of Neanderthal DNA in their genome. Now scientists are gaining a more intimate understanding of the ancient encounters that put it there.
Some of the universe's most extreme explosions leave behind almost no trace. The original explosion is unseen, but our observations can capture the long-lived echo it leaves behind as the shock front plows into its surrounding environment. In new research acc…
"The future evolution of WOH G64 remains uncertain."
NASA’s recent study suggests that Martian ice could preserve life forms, or their traces, for over 50 million years, making it a prime target for future exploration missions.
Some single-celled organisms are known to transition to multicellularity during their lifetimes, usually either by cloning themselves or when many similar cells come together to form a larger multicellular organism. A new study published in Nature suggests th…
The answer is a “perfect red,” and its discovery might be worth billions of dollars.
The first batch of alerts from the Vera Rubin Observatory drew attention to new asteroids, supernovae, and active galactic nuclei.
There are some things in life that many people just don't think to question.
A NASA astronaut has voluntarily stepped forward, announcing in a NASA statement that it was he who had "experienced a medical event."
Description With a simple motion, a jack-in-the-box-like spring designed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showed the potential of additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, to cut costs and complexity for futuristic space antennas. Called JPL Additive Compliant Canister (JACC), the spring