China opened a “lunar palace” training center Wednesday in preparation for sending astronauts to the moon sometime in the 2030s. Four postgraduate astronautics research students from Beihang University are living in the 1,720-square-foot cabin, according the state-run Xinhua news agency. The students are testing if China’s Bioregenerative Life Support System (BLSS) can support future astronauts on the […]
Someone call the Ghostbusters: Scientists have discovered a new species of horned, club-tailed dinosaur with a spooky resemblance to the monstrous demigod Zuul, one of the villains of the 1984 movie. The ankylosaur, described in Royal Society Open Science, could shed light on the surprising diversity of these creatures near the end of the age […]
The Falcon Heavy has been on Elon Musk’s mind for years: A rocket bigger than anything else currently in operation, only outstripped by the moon rockets of the Apollo program. Too many years, in the minds of his critics. He’s been plotting the rocket since 2005, when he first mused about strapping three nine-engine booster […]
On March 8, 2015, Europa passed in front of Io from the perspective of Earth, gradually blocking out light from the volcanic moon. In stark contrast to Io, Europa is covered in ice, which reflects very little sunlight when viewed through infrared wavelengths. This rare event was not lost on the researchers, who were hoping […]
Currently, there are two competing hypothesis for the origin of life. Either it evolved in deep sea hydrothermal vents or, as Charles Darwin theorized in his “warm little pond scenario,” it was sparked by the mixing of chemicals on land. Scientists published details last year of what is thought to be the oldest evidence of […]
Paleontologists are revealing early humans actually co-existed with a human-like species some 300,00 years ago. The cousin of homo sapiens, called homo naledi, was discovered in 2013 in a cave called Rising Star, outside of Johannesburg, South Africa. The scientists thought that the new species roamed the earth over 2 million years ago, but now […]
An illustration of the dinosaur Beibeilong on its nest. (Zhao Chuang) In 1996, National Geographic made Baby Louie into a 66-million-year-old child star. The magazine’s May cover featured a model dinosaur embryo tucked within a replica egg — which, at 18 inches long, looked less like a supermarket egg than a squashed baguette. The sculptor based the model on Baby Louie, […]
Africa’s richest fossil hominin site has revealed more of its treasure. It’s been a year and a half since scientists announced that a new hominin species, which they called Homo naledi, had been discovered in the Rising Star Cave outside Johannesburg. Now they say they have established and published the age of the original naledi […]
Three Things Not to Miss Audio, video and downloads How long do we have left on Earth? – BBC News
Ancient rocks found in a remote stretch of Western Australia may contain the world’s oldest known evidence of life on land, a new study finds. The 3.48-billion-year-old rocks are part of an area known as the Dresser Formation, located in Pilbara, Australia. During Earth’s early years, the region might have been a […]
