space

Scientists Built a Genius Device That Generates Electricity ‘Out of Thin Air’

They found it buried in the muddy shores of the Potomac River more than three decades ago: a strange "sediment organism" that could do things nobody had ever seen before in bacteria. This unusual microbe, belonging to the Geobacter genus, was first noted for its ability to produce magnetite in the absence of oxygen, but with time scientists found it could make other things too, like bacterial n

Powerful Radio Signal From Deep Space Appears to Be Repeating in a 16-Day Cycle

One of the defining characteristics of the mysterious deep-space signals we call fast radio bursts is that they are unpredictable. They belch out across the cosmos without rhyme or reason, with no discernible pattern, making them incredibly hard to study. Now, for the first time, astronomers have found a fast radio burst (FRB) that repeats on a regular cycle. Every 16.35 days, the signal nam

NASA Astronaut Christina Koch Just Officially Shattered a New Spaceflight Record

NASA's Christina Koch returned to Earth safely on Thursday after shattering the spaceflight record for female astronauts with a stay of almost 11 months aboard the International Space Station. Koch touched down at 09:12 GMT on the Kazakh steppe after 328 days in space, along with Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency. Koch was shown s

Geologists Finally Reveal The Forces That Forged Earth’s Sunken Continent Zealandia

Three years ago, the identification of Zealandia as a continent made global headlines. Now, newly published results from our scientific drilling expedition reveal the largely submerged Zealandia continent, which stretches across five million square kilometres beneath the southwest Pacific Ocean, was shaped by two tectonic events. First it was ripped away from Australia and Antarctica, and th

An Extremely Rare ‘Double Nucleus’ Has Been Imaged in a Nearby Galaxy

Wrapped up within the nearby Cocoon Galaxy, astronomers have detected a rare double heart. Recognised in the Northern Hemisphere for its distinct shape, this distorted spiral galaxy, otherwise known as NGC 4490, appears to be hiding a true rarity. Despite its relatively small size - its system is roughly a fifth of the Milky Way - this cocoon holds not one, but two central cores. "I saw the

Bumblebees Are in Trouble, as Rising Temperatures Drive Their Decline

For some species, small jumps in temperature make a big difference in survival. To predict which populations are at risk, ecologists developed a new way to map shifts in population in relation to temperature change, and tested it on bumblebees. The news for many of these fuzzy-buzzy pollination balls across the western hemisphere isn't great. Putting aside any damage we're causing through wanto

The World’s Only Venomous Primate Could Explain Why Humans Are Allergic to Cats

For those with a severe cat allergy, any location that harbours a pet feline can become a toxic no-go zone. Research on another tragically cute mammal now suggests this might be no accident of nature – cats really are trying to keep us away. A study on the world's only known example of a venomous primate has found a surprising similarity between a key protein in its armpit glands and the alle

Scientists Unlock a New Method That Can Actually Bend Diamonds

Diamond is one of the hardest materials on the planet, but scientists have found a new way of getting it to bend and deform – and the key to these processes is to work at the tiniest possible scales. By beaming an electric field at diamond nanoneedles just 20 nanometres in length (about 10,000 time smaller than a human hair), the researchers were able to get them to bend to 90 degrees without

Astronomers Find Ultramassive Galaxy From The Early Universe That Suddenly Died

Astronomers have found a monster galaxy causing trouble in the early Universe. When the Universe was just 1.8 billion years old, galaxy XMM-2599 was already a colossal chonker. It was also already dead as a doornail. Sometime between the Big Bang (13.8 billion years ago) and 12 billion years ago, it had ballooned out in a burst of star formation - and then completely stopped. "Even before

This Weekend We Might See a ‘Snow Supermoon’. Here’s What That Means

A full snow moon will be visible in the sky this weekend, but experts disagree about whether or not it's a supermoon. It will be one of the biggest full moons this year, since the Moon is nearing the closest point to Earth in its orbit. But there's no official definition for a supermoon. Astrologer Richard Nolle, who coined the term, and TimeandDate.com say that this is not a supermoon. Astr