Watch Chinese satellite burn up over US in spectacular 'fireball'
The GaoJing 1-02 imaging satellite burned up over the U.S. in a mesmerizing 'fireball' that some skywatchers mistook for a meteor shower.
Oldest sinew bowstrings ever found in Europe have been hiding in Spain's 'Bat Cave' for 7,000 years
The bowstrings were found with wood-and-reed arrows and were used by the first European farmers.
10 supercharged solar storms that blew us away in 2024
The sun's most active phase, solar maximum, officially arrived in 2024, triggering some explosive solar storms and colorful auroras. Here are 10 of our favorite solar outbursts this year.
Lasers powered by sunlight could beam energy through space to support interplanetary missions
New research has found a way to power spacecraft with lasers generated using solar energy alone.
'Mathematically perfect' star system discovered 105 light-years from Earth may still be in its infancy. Could that change its prospects for life?
Once thought to be 8 billion years old, the star HD 110067 — famous for its six synchronized exoplanets — may be only 2.5 billion years old, new research suggests.
Queen Puabi's lyre: A bull-headed music maker played for Mesopotamian royalty 4,500 years ago
A lyre in a treasure-laden royal tomb discovered in Mesopotamia is the earliest stringed instrument ever found.
How does E. coli get into food?
Dangerous strains of E. coli bacteria can infiltrate the food supply through many different routes, experts explain.
NASA's Parker Solar Probe will reach its closest-ever point to the sun on Christmas Eve
NASA's record-breaking Parker Solar Probe will smash its own personal bests for proximity to the sun and fastest speed by a human-made object when it whizzes past our star on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24). It is unlikely to get significantly closer to the sun before the end of its mission.
MIT's massive database of 8,000 new AI-generated EV designs could shape how the future of cars look
An open-source database made by MIT engineers houses over 8,000 aerodynamic car designs and could train future AI models to design EVs in the future.
'Rising temperatures melted corpses out of the Antarctic permafrost': The rise of one of Earth's most iconic trees in an uncertain world
As the Atlantic grew wider, the ancestral population of all of today's oaks may have been straddling the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. If so, the ancestor of the oaks we know today was a widespread population that was cleaved in half as North America inched westward.
Leaf sheep: The adorable solar-powered sea slug that looks like Shaun the Sheep
Known for its uncanny resemblance to the TV character Shaun the Sheep, this adorable sea slug munches on algae to steal its ability to photosynthesize and become solar-powered.
Future robots could one day tell how you're feeling by measuring your sweat, scientists say
Scientists say a phenomenon called "skin conductance," which changes when you sweat, is a surprisingly accurate method for detecting emotions — with future robots that detect this able to tell your emotions.
Why do iguanas fall from trees in Florida?
Florida's non-native green iguanas become paralyzed and drop from trees when temperatures dip. Climate change could bring this problem to new areas.
What if the Persians had defeated Alexander the Great?
The world we live in might be unrecognizable if Alexander the Great had been defeated by the Persians.
Watch Greenland lose 563 cubic miles of ice in under 30 seconds in disturbing new time-lapse video
Satellite imagery from NASA and the European Space Agency reveal 13 years of melt on the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Science news this week: Killer squirrels and an unexpected amulet
Dec. 20, 2024: Our weekly roundup of the latest science in the news, as well as a few fascinating articles to keep you entertained over the weekend.
'Mirror life forms' may sound like science fiction, but scientists warn they could be deadly to humans and destroy the environment
Bacteria that are mirror images of existing ones could evade our immune systems, causing serious illness.
Syphilis originated in the Americas, ancient DNA shows, but European colonialism spread it widely
Paleogenomics has finally solved a question that has puzzled researchers for decades: Where did syphilis come from?
'Mystery disease' in Congo turned out to be malaria — and potentially, another disease
An initially "unknown" illness affecting hundreds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may be attributable to malaria, malnutrition and a viral infection. But investigations are ongoing.
1,800-year-old silver amulet could rewrite history of Christianity in the early Roman Empire
A silver amulet found next to a skeleton in a 1,800-year-old grave in Germany speaks to the importance — and the risk — of being Christian in Roman times.