Category: Science

Figure 1: Example of an image acquired with HSC-SSP. Credit: HSC-SSP & NAOJ Project The astrophysicists found the dark matter “roughness” of the universe to be 0.76, a number that contradicts the cosmic microwave background value of 0.83, indicating possible errors or an incomplete cosmological model. The study uses data from Subaru’s strategic Hyper Suprime-Cam...

Researchers had hoped to learn how neurons control consciousness by this year.Credit: Dr. Torsten Wittmann/Science Photo Library A 25-year scientific bet is over. In 1998, neuroscientist Christoph Koch made a bet with philosopher David Chalmers that the mechanism by which brain neurons produce consciousness would be discovered by 2023. Both scientists agreed publicly on June...

It’s getting hotter. The days keep getting longer. The sun is blazing from its highest point, heralding the long hot afternoons of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Our star will rise at its northernmost point in the sky on the 21st and appear to ‘stand still’ before moving back south over the coming days and...

Astronomers detect an eerie echo in the galactic center of the Milky Way Scientists believe that galactic musical sounds were emitted from the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole in the early 19th century. The Milky Way has a supermassive black hole at its galactic center, about 26,000 light-years from Earth. Its name is Sagittarius A*,...

It feels like there are mind-blowing science stories popping up every other day lately, all of which have blown our tiny minds. First, a terrifying black hole was discovered pointing straight at us, then there was the discovery of a huge hole in the sun and a missing continent discovered after disappearing for 375 years....

The summer solstice is one of the biggest celestial events of the year and a major turning point in the calendar, but there’s usually nothing to see in the sky. This year is different. Earth, Mars and Venus happen to be on the same side of the Sun for this year’s solstice, and you can...

A NASA simulation shows source-tagged carbon emissions gobbling up our planet. A new video from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio YouTube channel shows the frightening reality of our current climate crisis. The video shows a model of Earth as seen from space, with a swirling cloud of orange-brown haze on top. The haze, representing the Earth’s...

NASA’s Juno spacecraft recently caught this ghostly green flash in a massive storm swirling near Jupiter’s north pole. The huge flash of lightning shines brightly against the dark gray swirl of the storm, even from Juno’s vantage point 19,900 miles above Jupiter’s cloud tops. Lightning often flashes between the clouds at the higher latitudes of...

The TRAPPIST-1 system is the most exciting collection of exoplanets ever discovered by astronomers. The system contains seven rocky planets orbiting an ultracool red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. Several of the planets are in the star’s habitable zone. With the James Webb Space Telescope’s ability to detect and study the atmospheres of distant...

GPS is a handy modern gadget – until you go inside, underground or underwater. Japanese researchers want to build a GPS-like system with a twist. It uses cosmic ray muons, which can easily penetrate buildings, to create highly accurate navigation systems. You can read about it in their recent article. The technology comes from MUWNS...