NASA’s first nuclear-powered spacecraft is heading to Mars, and its bringing helicopters
For years, nuclear propulsion sat in the same category as so many ambitious space ideas, impressive on paper,…
Ancient impact with Theia may have brought water and life to Earth
Earth’s story may have hardened into place almost as soon as the Solar System began. That is the…
Mars has air, but almost none of it can keep you alive
For all the drama around getting to Mars, the harder question starts after landing. A person can step…
Black hole GW190521 may be a wormhole from another universe
For just one-tenth of a second in May 2019, the universe delivered a signal that did not fit…
For the first time ever, scientists create particles out of empty space
The universe looks like it is mostly empty space. Remove the stars, planets, dust, and gas, and what…
Mississippi State physicist creates neutron star reaction in the lab
For years, physicists have wondered whether one unstable form of copper might act like a traffic jam inside…
Undergraduate students built a cavity detector to search for axion dark matter
Dark matter is supposed to be everywhere, threaded through the Milky Way and outnumbering ordinary matter by a…
Scientists reveal the hidden forces shaping how gravity works across the Universe
Gravity behaves predictably in your daily life. Drop a ball, and it falls. Planets loop around stars. On…
Astronomers find compelling new evidence of the first stars formed after the Big Bang
A faint glow of helium, hanging near one of the earliest known galaxies, may be the clearest sign…
Scientists develop laser-powered graphene propulsion for next-generation space travel
A laser hit the tiny black cube, and it lurched forward almost at once. That split-second jump, caught…
The coldest ever hunt for dark matter has begun deep underground
Two kilometres underground near Sudbury, Ont., a machine has reached a temperature so low it barely seems real.…
Gravitational waves may be responsible for dark matter in the universe
Dark matter is thought to exist everywhere, wrapping around galaxies and helping to shape the largest things in…