Twice as big as Earth, the super-Earth 55 Cancri e was thought to have lava flows on its surface. The planet is so close to its star, the same side of the planet always faces the star, such that the planet has permanent day and night sides. Based on a 2016 study using data from […]
Read More Exoplanet 55 Cancri e Likely to Have Earthlike AtmosphereThis new Picture of the Week, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the dwarf galaxy NGC 4625, located about 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). The image, acquired with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), reveals the single spiral arm of the galaxy, which gives it an asymmetric appearance. But why is there only […]
Read More Cosmic Search for a Missing LimbBy Calla Cofield Jupiter’s southern hemisphere is a swirling, curling sea of colorful clouds in a new image from NASA’s Juno spacecraft and two citizen scientists. The new image comes from data collected by the JunoCam instrument on Oct. 24, 2017, as Juno performed its ninth close flyby of Jupiter (its eighth science flyby), according to a statement […]
Read More Jupiter’s Colourful CloudsI thought I would share that for me, this was one of those happy moments in the life of a sci-fi writer where I said, “I thought about that!” Of course, I am by no means the first sci-fi writer to think of the use of nuclear rockets, especially when the tech was new. But […]
Read More How Vintage Rocket Tech Could Be NASA’s Ticket to MarsBy Jordana Cepelewicz RESEARCHERS HAVE CAUGHT their best glimpse yet into the origins of photosynthesis, one of nature’s most momentous innovations. By taking near-atomic, high-resolution X-ray images of proteins from primitive bacteria, investigators at Arizona State University and Pennsylvania State University have extrapolated what the earliest version of photosynthesis might have looked like nearly 3.5 billion […]
Read More Scientists Are Rewriting the History of PhotosynthesisBy Kate Kershner In July 2012, the whole world came face to face with the Higgs boson: a sparkly, little light that danced across our screens like Tinker Bell. Wait, that’s not right. While physicists jumped for joy to “see” the Higgs boson — that elusive particle that composes the Higgs field, which allows particles […]
Read More What Does the Higgs-Boson Look Like?Cassiopeia A is a famous supernova remnant, the product of a gigantic explosion of a massive star about 350 years ago. Although discovered in radio observations 50 years ago, we now know that its emitted radiation spans from radio through high-energy gamma rays. It is also one of the few remnants for which the birth […]
Read More Cosmic RadiationBy Pope Brock was slung in my favorite deck chair, drink in hand, having a gawk at the night sky. Andromeda, Pisces … I trawled the constellations, mind abandoned, still aware in some curve at the back of my brain that the world is coming apart at the seams and we’re all fucked, and enjoying […]
Read More The Moon is Full of MoneyThis article is part of the Science in Sci-fi, Fact in Fantasy blog series. Each week, we tackle one of the scientific or technological concepts pervasive in sci-fi (space travel, genetic engineering, artificial intelligence, etc.) with input from an expert. Read the full article at Dan Koboldt.
Read More Poisons in SFF
