New studies suggest that Earth will be able to host life for another 1.75 billion years, barring a nuclear holocaust, a meteorite impact, or some other catastrophe. But even without these doomsday scenarios, cosmological forces will eventually render Earth uninhabitable. According to new research, between 1.75 and 3.25 billion years from now, Earth will […]
Scientists at the University of Leeds have solved the 300-year-old puzzle of the direction in which the Earth's core rotates. While the Earth's inner core, made of solid iron, rotates eastward at a very high speed—meaning it spins faster than the rest of the planet—the outer core, made of molten iron, rotates westward at a slower speed. At the same time, Edmund Halley, the famous discoverer of the comet, […]
Does the famous Big Bang theory need to be revised? A group of theoretical physicists believe that the universe was born after a four-dimensional star collapsed into a black hole, spewing out its debris. Before delving into this topic, it's important to note that no one really knows exactly what happened. Humans weren't around when the universe was born. The standard theory, however, suggests that the universe was a […]
Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? If so, you've probably never seen it dusty like this. The Pleiades, the most famous star cluster in the sky, can be seen from even a light-polluted city without binoculars. Even short exposures in a dark environment can make the cluster's dust cloud more visible. Also known as the Seven Sisters, the Pleiades star cluster […]
Ion thrusters used to be the stuff of science fiction writers' dreams. But after years of research and development, NASA is preparing to use ion thrusters that will accelerate the aircraft to 90,000 miles per hour on a crucial deep-space mission. And in this vast space, the engines will deliver continuous thrust for years.
Scientists have discovered a cosmic factory that produces life's building blocks, such as amino acids, in a study published today in Nature Geoscience. A team from Imperial College London, the University of Kent, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory discovered that amino acids can be produced when a comet strikes a planet. This production can also occur if a dry meteorite, made entirely of rock, strikes an icy planet.
