Science

If the modern age of astronomy could be summarized in a few words, it would probably be “the age of shifting paradigms.” Thanks to next-generation telescopes, instruments, and machine learning, astronomers are conducting deeper investigations into cosmological mysteries, making discoveries, and shattering preconceived notions. This includes how systems of planets form around new stars, which scientists have traditionally explained using the Nebular Hypothesis . This theory states that star systems form from clouds of gas and dust (nebulae) that experience gravitational collapse, creating a new star. The remaining gas and dust then settle into a protoplanetary disk around the new star, which gradually coalesces to create planets. Naturally, astronomers theorize that the composition of the planets would match that of the disk itself. However, when examining a still-developing exoplanet in a distant star system, a team of astronomers uncovered a mismatch between the gases in the planet’...

The season of sniffles and coughs has come again. But while influenza and RSV activity is “moderate and increasing” around California , COVID activity is unusually low for the holiday season. The most recent weekly update from the California’s Department of Public Health shows the test positivity rate for flu has risen by nearly 4 percentage points in a week to 13.2%​ as of Dec. 14, the most recent available data. The COVID positivity rate is at 2.3%, rising 0.2 percentage points from the previous week. The health department’s weekly updates are posted most Fridays , but the respiratory virus reports for the last two weeks of the year are not reported until January. “COVID is rising, but influenza is leading the pack right now,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Since COVID emerged at the end of the 2019-2020 respiratory virus season, it has been by far the most deadly of the respiratory viruses for which the state tr...

Saturn’s rings are among the most glorious, stunning, and well-studied features in the Solar System. However, their age has been difficult to ascertain. Did they form billions of years ago when the planet and the Solar System were young? Or did they form in the last few hundred millions of years? The latest new research shows that the iconic rings are, in fact, very old. We first became aware of Saturn’s opulent rings hundreds of years ago. Galileo was the first to see them, though he couldn’t tell they were rings in his early telescope. Nobody had ever seen anything like them before, obviously, and he thought they were moons. When he observed the planet two years later, the ‘moons’ had disappeared, leaving him confused. Another two years passed, and when he observed Saturn again, they had returned. However, the viewing angle had changed, and what he once thought were moons he concluded were ‘arms’ of some sort. Top: Galileo’s sketch of Saturn from 1610. Bottom: Galileo’s sketch o...

Ingenuity became the first aircraft to fly on another world in the first half of 2021. It explored the Martian terrain from above proving that powered air flight was a very efficient way to move around alien worlds. Now NASA have released a computer rendering of their next design, the Mars Chopper!  Ingenuity was a small helicopter, or rather more a drone, that was carried to Mars on board the Perseverance rover mission in 2020. It was designed as a technology demonstration to prove that powered flight was possible in the thin atmosphere of Mars. It made its first flight on 19 April 2021 and hovered just 10 feet above the ground before safely landing again. Since then, Ingenuity has completed 60 flights on Mars helping to survey and scout for areas of interest for further study.  This view of NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was generated using data collected by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard the agency’s Perseverance Mars rover on Aug. 2, 2023, the 871st Martian day, or ...

In August 2018, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe (PSP) began its long journey to study the Sun’s outer corona. After several gravity-assist maneuvers with Venus, the probe broke Helios 2 ‘s distance record and became the closest object to the Sun on October 29th, 2018 . Since then, the Parker probe’s highly elliptical orbit has allowed it to pass through the Sun’s corona several times (“touch the Sun”). On December 24th, 2024 , NASA confirmed that their probe made its closest approach to the Sun, passing just 6 million km (3.8 million mi) above the surface – roughly 0.04 times the distance between the Sun and Earth (0.04 AU). In addition to breaking its previous distance record , the PSP passed through the solar atmosphere at a velocity of about 692,000 km/h (430,000 mph). This is equivalent to about 0.064% the speed of light, making the Parker Solar Probe the fastest human-made object ever. After the spacecraft made its latest pass, it sent a beacon tone to confirm that it made it throu...

In the coming years, NASA and other space agencies will send humans back to the Moon for the first time since the Apollo Era—this time to stay! To maximize line-of-sight communication with Earth, solar visibility, and access to water ice, NASA, the ESA, and China have selected the Lunar South Pole (LSP) as the location for their future lunar bases. This will necessitate the creation of permanent infrastructure on the Moon and require that astronauts have the right equipment and training to deal with conditions around the lunar south pole. This includes lighting conditions, which present a major challenge for science operations and extravehicular activity (EVA). Around the LSP, day and night last for two weeks at a time, and the Sun never rises more than a few degrees above the horizon. This creates harsh lighting conditions very different from what the Apollo astronauts or any previous mission have experienced. To address this, the NASA Engineering and Safety Council (NESC) has reco...

By ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press People around the world suffered an average of 41 extra days of dangerous heat this year because of human-caused climate change, according to a group of scientists who also said that climate change worsened much of the world’s damaging weather throughout 2024. The analysis from World Weather Attribution and Climate Central researchers comes at the end of a year that shattered climate record after climate record as heat across the globe made 2024 likely to be its hottest ever measured and a slew of other fatal weather events spared few. “The finding is devastating but utterly unsurprising: Climate change did play a role, and often a major role in most of the events we studied, making heat, droughts, tropical cyclones and heavy rainfall more likely and more intense across the world, destroying lives and livelihoods of millions and often uncounted numbers of people,” Friederike Otto, the lead of World Weather Attribution and an Imperial College cli...

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN, AP Science Writer NEW YORK (AP) — NASA’s Parker Solar Probe has successfully made the closest approach to the sun, the space agency confirmed Friday. Earlier this week , the spacecraft passed within a record-breaking 3.8 million miles of the scorching star . NASA received an all-clear message from Parker on Thursday night confirming it survived the journey. Launched in 2018 to get a close-up look at the sun, Parker has since flown straight through its crownlike outer atmosphere, or corona. With its close brush complete, the craft is expected to circle the sun at this distance through at least September. It’s the fastest spacecraft built by humans, and hit 430,000 mph at closest approach. It is outfitted with a heat shield that can withstand scorching temperatures up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Scientists hope the data from Parker will help them better understand why the sun’s outer atmosphere is hundreds of times hotter than its surface and what drives t...

Amy Maxmen | (TNS) KFF Health News Keith Poulsen’s jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack. But the scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They showed videos of systems they built to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In 14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus. “It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating hundreds of wounded soldiers,” he said. Related Articles Health | Oregon house cat died after eating pet food that tested positive for bird flu Health | First human case of bird flu in Los Angeles County detected Health | Is my Christmas dinner safe during California bird flu state of emergency? We asked experts He...