Category Astronomy/Space

NASA scientists found that microbes brought by astronauts could survive in cold, shadowed niches around the Moon’s South Pole, potentially complicating future searches for pristine lunar chemistry. Some refuges may be no larger than a footprint, while one hardy fungus could even withstand limited exposure to sunlight.

NASA scientists say some microbes carried into space by human explorers may be able to survive in sheltered, shadowed areas near the Moon’s South Pole.

The findings, published on Aug...

The surface of Mars is home to some of the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring landscapes in the solar system. This is primarily because the Red Planet lacks several resurfacing processes that Earth possesses, including plate tectonics, volcanism and flowing water.

While Mars does have dust storms, these have done little to reshape the planet’s surface, which has remained largely undisturbed for billions of years. However, this near-pristine landscape has enabled scientists to look back in time while slowly piecing together what Mars was like long ago.

Now, NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover recently beamed back images of a lands...

What happens to a space rock as it falls through Earth’s atmosphere and becomes a meteorite? By studying 75 meteorite falls captured on video and in photographs, researchers identified seven distinct phases in the journey from space rock to meteorite...

Science seems like a straightforward endeavor. You come up with a hypothesis, collect data to prove or disprove it, and analyze that data to see whether the hypothesis is right. But anyone who actually does science will tell you that it is often not that straightforward. One of the most common complexities is data analysis.

A new paper in Nature suggests that one such complexity, known as regression to the mean, might be causing us to massively underestimate how severe solar storms can be.

The interaction between the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere can be thought ...