To date, Earth is the only planet we know of that has continents. Exactly how they formed and evolved is unclear, but we do know – because the edges of continents thousands of miles apart match up – that, at one time long ago, Earth’s landmass was concentrated in one big supercontinent. Since that’s not … Read more
On Sunday, Earth’s magnetic field was pelted by a solar wind stream reaching velocities of more than 600 kilometers (372 miles) per second. While that’s nothing too alarming – solar storms often pummel our planet triggering spectacular auroras – what is weird is that this storm was totally unexpected. “This event was not in the … Read more
From the smallest bacterium to the greatest galaxy, death looms on the horizon; even if, in cosmic terms, the time scales are too large for us to truly comprehend. Eventually, even the Universe itself should come to an end – when the last light winks out, and the cold, dense lumps of dead stars are … Read more
From the smallest bacterium to the greatest galaxy, death looms on the horizon; even if, in cosmic terms, the time scales are too large for us to truly comprehend. Eventually, even the Universe itself should come to an end – when the last light winks out, and the cold, dense lumps of dead stars are … Read more
Ask astronomers about dark matter and one of the things they talk about is that this invisible, mysterious ‘stuff’ permeates the universe. In particular, it exists in halos surrounding most galaxies. The mass of the halo exerts a strong gravitational influence on the galaxy itself, as well as on others in the neighborhood. That’s pretty … Read more
Since being plunged into a global pandemic, we’re probably far more aware of being surrounded by microdroplets of water. In humid air or expelled by a cough, sneeze or talking, these droplets can carry tiny particles with them, from pollution to viruses like the flu. Back in 2019, the basic chemistry of these motes of … Read more
What little we know of dark matter comes from calculations based on the glow of surrounding galaxies. The further away we look, however, the dimmer that starlight gets, making it harder to see the subtle influence of this most mysterious of forces. Now a collaboration between astronomers from Japan and the US has found a … Read more
The aftermath of an epic collision involving at least one neutron star has been captured for the first time in the millimeter range of radio frequency wavelengths. The result is a recording of a short-duration gamma-ray burst – one of the most energetic ever observed, and one of the brightest lingering afterglows we’ve ever seen. … Read more
Physicists have just caught light acting the part of ‘glue’ between atoms, in a kind of loosely bonded molecule. “We have succeeded for the first time in polarizing several atoms together in a controlled way, creating a measurable attractive force between them,” says University of Innsbruck physicist Matthias Sonnleitner. Atoms connect to form molecules in … Read more
Scientists may have just tracked down the source of some mysterious infrared glows detected emanating from stars and clouds of interstellar dust and gas. These Unidentified Infrared Emission (UIE) bands have baffled scientists for decades; according to a theoretical new work, at least some of these bands can be produced by highly ionized buckminsterfullerene, more … Read more