All About Everything

Could carbon-foam probes bring interstellar flight within reach?

Spacecraft made of carbon-foam bubbles could zoom from Earth to Alpha Centauri in 185 years, driven solely by the power of the sun, a new study finds. A swarm of these probes might help discover and study our solar system's mysterious Planet Nine, if this ...

Did a supernova cause Earth's mass extinction 360 million years ago?

One of the worst extinction events in Earth's history may have been triggered by a supernova, the violent death of a distant star. About 75% of all species on Earth died out at the end of the Devonian Period, nearly 360 million years ago. Rocks from this era ...

Rocket Lab's return-to-flight mission for its Electron booster launches this week

Rocket Lab's comeback mission will lift off on Wednesday night (Aug. 26), if all goes according to plan. The California-based company hasn't flown since July 4, when its two-stage Electron rocket suffered an anomaly shortly after launch, ending a string of 11 ...

Invisible rogue planets without stars? NASA's new space telescope could find hundreds of them

CNN

CNN

(CNN) NASA is on the hunt for rogue planets. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, NASA's upcoming observatory expected to launch in the mid-2020s, could reveal a multitude of rogue planets that don't orbit stars in our Milky Way galaxy, according to ...

Biologists discover a gene critical to the development of columbines' iconic spurs

Once in a while, over the history of life, a new trait evolves that leads to an explosion of diversity in a group of organisms. Take wings, for instance. Every group of animals that evolved them has spun off into a host of different species—birds, bats, insects and ...

Asteroid 2018 VP₁ may be heading for Earth. But there's no need to worry

Asteroid 2018 VP1 itself is too small and far away to see clearly, so here's an artist's impression of a near-Earth object. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech. Social media around the world lit up over the weekend, discussing the possibility that an asteroid (known as ...

Ground segment testing a success for James Webb Space Telescope

Now that the observatory has been completely assembled, Webb teams are running full observatory level tests to ensure it is prepared for the rigors of liftoff. Credit: Northrop Grumman. Testing teams have successfully completed a critical milestone focused on ...

Study enables predicting computational power of early quantum computers

Quantum physicists at the University of Sussex have created an algorithm that speeds up the rate of calculations in the early quantum computers which are currently being developed. They have created a new way to route the ions—or charged atoms—around ...

Re-engineered enzyme could help reverse damage from spinal cord injury and stroke

A team of researchers from University of Toronto Engineering and the University of Michigan has redesigned and enhanced a natural enzyme that shows promise in promoting the regrowth of nerve tissue following injury. Their new version is more stable than ...

Scientists develop air quality sensor that could save the lives of babies and asthma sufferers

Scientists at the University of Sussex have collaborated with an Oxford company, M-SOLV, and a team of scientists from across Europe to develop a highly sensitive and accurate nitrogen dioxide (NO2) sensor with life-saving potential in domestic, public and ...