A US-French satellite that will map almost all of the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers has rocketed into orbit. The pre-dawn launch aboard a SpaceX rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California capped a highly successful year for Nasa. Nicknamed SWOT — short for Surface Water and Ocean Topography — the satellite is needed […]
A Nasa rover has recorded the sound of a red dust devil whizzing past on Mars. The 10-second first-of-its-kind audio was released on Tuesday and captures not only rumbling gusts of up to 25mph but also the pinging of hundreds of dust particles against the rover Perseverance. It sounds similar to dust devils on Earth […]
A “major scientific breakthrough” in the decades-long quest to harness fusion, the energy that powers the sun and stars, has been announced by US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California for the first time produced more energy in a fusion reaction than was used to ignite it, something […]
A London photographer has beaten more than a million rivals to clinch a place on the first civilian trip to the moon. Rhiannon Adam, 37, who was born in Cork and is based in Hackney, is among eight artists and creatives picked by Japanese billionaire entrepreneur and art collector Yusaku Maezawa to be part of […]
Dinosaurs were struck down in their prime and were not in decline at the time the asteroid hit, according to a new study. The landmark findings provide the strongest evidence yet that the animals dominated the world right up until a deadly asteroid hit the earth, leading to their mass extinction some 66 million years […]
Playing the piano improves the brain’s ability to process sights and sounds, as well as reducing depression, anxiety and stress, according to a study. Researchers at the University of Bath followed beginners who took lessons for an hour a week over an 11-week period. The one-to-one lessons consisted of 20 minutes of finger exercises, followed […]
An “extraordinary flash” seen in the sky earlier this year was caused by a distant star being “squeezed like a toothpaste tube” by a supermassive black hole, astronomers have said. In what experts describe as one of the most violent events in the universe, the unlucky star met its fate after wandering too close to […]
Scientists working in the Antarctic region have discovered a type of seaweed living at depths some 100 metres below the surface. Researchers hailed the discovery of red alga Palmaria decipiens deep underwater as being “important for furthering our knowledge of Antarctica”. The seaweed was discovered by a team working at the Rothera Research Station on Adelaide Island, […]
Nasa’s Orion capsule has passed within 80 miles of the moon in the final big stage ahead of its record-breaking lunar orbit. The close approach occurred as the crew capsule and its three test dummies passed on the far side of the moon during a slingshot manoeuvre. Because of a half-hour communication blackout, flight controllers […]
Fresh evidence on the types of food people ate in the world’s first urban settlements has been revealed in a new study. Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq, saw the beginnings of cities which developed some 5,500 years ago. No other artefact type is more symbolic of this development than the so-called Beveled rim bowl (BRB), […]
