Scientists have used the most detailed supercomputer simulations yet to reveal an alternative explanation for the moon’s origin. The study suggests a giant impact could have formed a moon-like body more rapidly, placing it into orbit around the Earth. In their search for scenarios that could explain the Earth-moon system we know today, researchers at […]
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Three scientists share Nobel Prize for Physics
Three scientists have jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize for Physics for their work on quantum information science that has significant applications, including in the field of encryption. Frenchman Alain Aspect, American John F Clauser and Austrian Anton Zeilinger were cited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for discovering the way that unseen particles, […]
Nasa spacecraft makes close approach to Jupiter moon Europa
Nasa’s Juno spacecraft has made the closest approach to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa in more than 20 years. Juno on Thursday zipped within 222 miles of Europa, thought to have an ocean flowing beneath its thick frozen crust, raising the possibility of underwater life. Scientists hope to get lucky and observe possible water plumes shooting […]
Scientists find further evidence of liquid water on Mars
Scientists have discovered new evidence suggesting there could be liquid water on Mars. The study, led by the University of Cambridge, provides the first independent line of evidence using data other than radar, that there is liquid water beneath Mars’ south polar ice cap. The research team, which included scientists from the University of Sheffield […]
Asteroid impacts on moon coincide with some on Earth, glass bead study shows
Asteroid impacts on the moon millions of years ago coincided with some of the largest meteorite impacts on Earth, such as the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, research suggests. The study also found that major impact events on Earth did not happen in isolation, but were accompanied by a series of smaller impacts. Researchers […]
Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day linked with longer lifespan – study
Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day could be linked to a longer lifespan, new research suggests. When compared with avoiding coffee, it was also associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, the study found. The findings applied to ground, instant and decaffeinated varieties of the drink, and researchers say they suggest […]
Nasa tests defence technology by crashing spacecraft into asteroid
Nasa has successfully crashed a spacecraft into a small asteroid as part of a planetary protection test mission. While this asteroid – named Dimorphos – posed no threat to Earth, the aim of the mission was to demonstrate that dangerous incoming rocks can be deflected by deliberately smashing into them. “IMPACT SUCCESS!” Nasa tweeted after […]
Astronomers detect hot gas bubble around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole
Astronomers have detected a hot gas bubble swirling around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole. They say the finding helps to us to better understand the mysterious environment of the black hole called Sagittarius A*. The observations suggest the gas bubble is on an orbit similar in size to that of Mercury, but making the […]
Extra-terrestrial water found for first time in meteorite that fell in UK
Extra-terrestrial water has been found for the first time in a meteorite that has fallen in the UK. The Winchcombe meteorite, which crashed into a driveway in the Gloucestershire town last February, is also thought to hold clues about where the water in the Earth’s vast oceans came from. Ashley King, a researcher in the […]
Neptune and rings shine in photos from new space telescope
Nasa has released new shots of Neptune, the solar system’s outermost planet, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. The pictures, taken in July, show not only Neptune’s thin rings, but its faint dust bands, never before observed in the infrared, as well as seven of its 14 known moons. Webb showed Jupiter at its […]