EscaPADE explorer sort of goes to Mars

On 13 November, the Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamic Explorers (EscaPADE) mission launched to space on the New Glenn rocket provided by Blue Origin.

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Image: Hubble captures the death of a low-mass star in the Calabash Nebula

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured an uncommon sight—the death of a low-mass star—in this image of the Calabash Nebula released on Feb. 3, 2017.

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Utah repeals collective bargaining ban impacting public safety unions, first responders

Rep. Jordan Teuscher, the House sponsor of the February ban, said the repeal “allows us to step back, to lower the temperature and to create space for a clearer… conversation”

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Clues to the origin of hot Jupiters hidden in their orbits

The first exoplanet ever discovered in 1995 was what we now call a “hot Jupiter,” a planet as massive as Jupiter with an orbital period of just a few days. Today, hot Jupiters are thought to have formed far from their stars—similar to Jupiter in our solar system—and later migrated inward.

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Astronomers find planetary and stellar companions to two ultracool dwarfs in Taurus

Astronomers from the University of Hawai’i (UH) at Manoa and elsewhere have observed the Taurus star-forming region, which resulted in the discovery of planetary-mass and stellar companions of two ultracool dwarf stars. The new finding was presented in a paper published December 4 on the pre-print server arXiv.

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Video: Lunar impact flash detected on the moon by Armagh Observatory and Planetarium

On 12 December 2025 at 03:09:36 UTC, astronomers at the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium (AOP) have captured what is believed to be the first video recording of a lunar impact flash in Ireland, and the second recorded from the UK.

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Measuring radio leaks from 36,000 kilometers up

Radio astronomy has a pollution problem. Satellites thousands of kilometers overhead, designed to broadcast communications or relay data, are increasingly contaminating the frequencies astronomers use to study the universe. While much attention has focused on SpaceX’s Starlink and other low Earth orbit constellations, what about the satellites much farther away?

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New agentic AI platform accelerates advanced optics design

Stanford engineers debuted a new framework introducing computational tools and self-reflective AI assistants, potentially advancing fields like optical computing and astronomy.

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Newly engineered giant superatoms show promise for reliable quantum state transfer

Quantum technologies are systems that leverage quantum mechanical effects to perform computations, share information or perform other functions. These systems rely on quantum states, which need to be reliably transferred and protected against decoherence (i.e., a gradual loss of quantum information).

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Person of interest in Brown University shooting to be released

The release of the lone detainee leaves no known suspect, with officials pledging to ramp up the investigation by canvassing for surveillance video that could help pinpoint the suspect

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Thank the JWST for confirming the first runaway supermassive black hole

What could force a supermassive black hole (SMBH) out of its host galaxy? They can have hundreds of millions, even billions of solar masses. What’s powerful enough to dislodge one of these behemoths?

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SpaceX sets $800 billion valuation, confirms 2026 IPO plans

SpaceX has authorized an insider share sale that values Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at about $800 billion, according to a company message seen by Bloomberg on Dec. 12.

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The moon-forming event: Why it was by explosive ejection rather than a giant impact

One of the oldest unsolved riddles in planetary science concerns the origin of the moon. Over a century ago, George Darwin proposed that tidal and centrifugal forces on a rapidly rotating proto-Earth caused the moon to be spun off into an Earth orbit.

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Behold: Here Are 15 of the Greatest Ancient Cities in Human History

Some scholars argue that around the end of the last ice age, some 12 thousand years ago, our ancestors started building complex ancient cities around the globe.

In terms of written history, there is evidence of complex cities existing on Earth around 10,000 years ago. In this article, we take a look at 15 […]

25 Things You Should Know About the Lost City of Z

While Atlantis is perhaps one of the most famous mythological lost cities said to have existed on Earth, a number of other legendary cities make the list behind Atlantis.

The Lost City of Z is perhaps the most sought-after lost city in the history of mankind.

Countless expeditions have been organized to find the […]