A team of British and American astronomers used data from several telescopes on the ground and in space – among them the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope – to study the atmosphere of the hot, bloated, Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-39b, about 700 light-years from Earth. The analysis of the spectrum showed a large amount of water in the exoplanet’s atmosphere – three times more than in Saturn’s atmosphere. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)

An international team has used Hubble Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the hot exoplanet WASP-39b. By combining this new data with older data they created the most complete study yet of an exoplanet atmosphere...

Holding the hand of a loved one in pain can synchronize breathing, heart rate and brain wave patterns. The more empathy a comforting partner feels for a partner in pain, the more their brainwaves fall into sync. Increased brain synchronization is associated with less pain.

Reach for the hand of a loved one in pain and not only will your breathing and heart rate synchronize with theirs, your brain wave patterns will couple up too, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The study, by researchers with the University of Colorado Boulder and University of Haifa, also found that the more empathy a comforting partner feels for a partner in pain, the more their brainwaves fall into sync...

A new study shows four distinct compositional regions within and around the Moon’s largest impact basin. The findings could help guide future exploration of the basin. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientists have long wanted to retrieve rock samples from the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin, and a new study could be helpful in locating an ideal landing site. A detailed study of a giant impact crater on the Moon’s far side could provide a roadmap for future lunar explorers.

The study, by planetary scientists from Brown University, maps the mineralogy of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, a gash in the lunar surface with a diameter of ~2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles)...

PCN nanolayers under sunlight can split water. Credit: Nannan Meng /Tianjin University

One of the major challenges of the energy transition is to supply energy even when the sun is not shining. Hydrogen production by splitting water with the help of sunlight could offer a solution. Hydrogen is a good energy storage medium and can be used in many ways. However, water does not simply split by itself. Catalysts are needed, for instance Platinum, which is rare and expensive. Research teams the world over are looking for more economical alternatives. Now a team headed by Dr. Tristan Petit from the HZB, together with colleagues led by Prof. Bin Zhang from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China, has made important progress using a well-known class of metal-free photocatalysts.

Bin Zhang and his team ...