ScIence

Mission Success Declared as Solar Sail Propels Itself From Earth Using Only Sunbeams

Back in 1976, the late Carl Sagan sat down on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson to talk about a new form of space propulsion called solar sailing. Four decades later, and The Planetary Society has officially demonstrated this "tremendously exciting prospect" in practice. Drawing on ten years of hard work and 7 million dollars in crowdfunding, the nonprofit Society's LightSail 2 has become t

Scientists Get the Green Light to Create Human-Animal Hybrids in Japan

Human-animal hybrids are set to be developed at the University of Tokyo after the Japanese government recently lifted a ban on the controversial stem-cell research. Hiromitsu Nakauchi—director for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Tokyo and team leader at Stanford’s Nakauchi Lab—is the first to receive approval for the questionable experiments which will att

Incredible Photo Shows The ISS in Front of a Strangely Spotless Sun

The International Space Station (ISS) is the single biggest spacecraft ever built, and one of the most sophisticated machines put in orbit by human kind. Against the fiery backdrop of our Sun, however, the achievement - roughly the size of a football field - looks decidedly puny. A dazzling picture, taken in broad daylight by photographer Rainee Colacurcio, shows just how insignificant the

Mercury Is About To Go Retrograde and You Need To Brace Yourself

Energies are really growing right now and as time passes things are going to become more and more intense. The Mercury retrograde before us is going to last quite some time and bring us so much confusion that we are all going to be knocked off our socks at one point or another. This specific retrograde begins on July 7th and will be in Leo. It will remain in this sequence until July 31st and wi

NASA Is Chasing A Massive Golden Asteroid That Could Make Us All Billionaires

According to various sources, NASA has their eyes on a huge golden asteroid, and this particular space body could make us all billionaires. Referred to a Psyche 16, this ‘golden egg’ is located between Mars and Jupiter, and is supposedly solid metal. While it contains gold, it also is said to contain other precious metals such as platinum, iron and even nickel. The Sun reports that it’s e

It’s Official: NASA’s Sending a Mission to Titan, a Top Candidate For Alien Life

For its newest planetary science mission, NASA aims to land a flying robot on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan, a top target in the search for alien life. Dragonfly will be the first endeavor of its kind. NASA's car-sized quadcopter, equipped with instruments capable of identifying large organic molecules, is slated to launch in 2026, arrive at its destination in 2034 and then fly to multiple

Antarctica is melting faster than anyone thought, and we’re not ready for the sea level rise that’s coming

Ice melting rates in Antarctica tripled between 2012 and 2017, according to a study published in the journal Nature. The biggest increase has been ice melt in West Antarctica, where glaciers and ice sheets are vulnerable to warmer ocean temperatures. Experts think that if we don't get climate change under control quickly, ice sheets in West Antarctica could collapse, leading to rapid sea lev

Temperatures leap 40 degrees above normal as the Arctic Ocean and Greenland ice sheet see record June melting

Ice is melting in unprecedented ways as summer approaches in the Arctic. In recent days, observations have revealed a record-challenging melt event over the Greenland ice sheet, while the extent of ice over the Arctic Ocean has never been this low in mid-June during the age of weather satellites. Greenland saw temperatures soar up to 40 degrees Fahrenheit above normal Wednesday, while open wa

Greenland Lost More Than 2 Billion Tons Of Ice In Just ONE DAY Last Week

Greenland is experiencing extreme melting, with experts predicting another record year as far as ice loss is concerned. The country lost more than 2 gigatons – or 2 billion tons – of ice in a single day last week. To put that into some kind of perspective, it is the weight equivalent to 340 Giza pyramids, 80,000 Statues of Liberty or 12 million blue whales. The Arctic's melt season is a

For the first time, you can see what a black hole looks like

This image reveals the black hole at the center of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the nearby Virgo galaxy cluster. The black hole resides 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun. Event Horizon Telescope collaboration et al. At last, we can see it: a black hole in the flesh. Astronomers today revealed that they have taken a picture of a gargantuan b