Science

[ad_1] The European Space Agency said Thursday that it is moving forward with an ambitious mission to study exoplanets and plans to begin by the end of the decade. ESA said it will select a contractor to build a state-of-the-art spacecraft capable of studying various exoplanets for their composition and …

[ad_1] Liquids don’t perform as well in space as they do on Earth. Inside a spacecraft, microgravity allows liquids to glide and float freely. This behavior has made the amount of fuel in the satellites difficult to define, but a new fuel gauge prototype designed at the National Institute of …

[ad_1] JILA researchers used a state-of-the-art atomic clock to narrow the search for elusive dark matter, an example of how continual improvements in watches have value beyond timekeeping. Older atomic clocks operating at microwave frequencies have already searched for dark matter, but this is the first time that a newer …

[ad_1] The artistic conception of the dust and gas surrounding a newly formed planetary system. Image courtesy of NASA. A long time ago – about 4.5 billion years – our sun and our solar system formed in the short span of 200,000 years. This is the conclusion of a group …

[ad_1] NASA and SpaceX are targeting the launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station this Saturday, in what should be the first of many regular crew flights into space from US soil. Here’s what you need to know about this historic mission and how you can watch it. …

[ad_1] A taurid fireball captured in 2015. P. Spurny / Czech Academy of Sciences One of the most explosive meteor showers the year has just passed its peak but is still very active, which is good news if you like to see fire in the sky. The South Tauris and …

[ad_1] One of the most venerable radio telescopes in the world is on the brink of catastrophe, triggering a frenzied race by engineers at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to save it after breaking two critical cables supporting a 900-ton equipment platform. The platform, held aloft on an enormous …

[ad_1] UW Medicine researchers at Seattle’s Brotman Baty Institute have created two cell atlases that track gene expression and chromatin accessibility during the development of human cell types and tissues. An atlas maps gene expression within single cells in 15 fetal tissues. The second atlas maps the chromatin accessibility of …

[ad_1] It’s no exaggeration to say that extendable sensors could change the way soft robots work and feel. In fact, they will be able to try quite a lot. Cornell researchers have created a fiber-optic sensor that combines low-cost LEDs and dyes, resulting in a stretchable “skin” that detects deformations …

[ad_1] It’s no exaggeration to say that extendable sensors could change the way soft robots work and feel. In fact, they will be able to try quite a lot. Cornell researchers have created a fiber-optic sensor that combines low-cost LEDs and dyes, resulting in a stretchable “skin” that detects deformations …