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Cosmologists have long struggled to determine whether the universe’s accelerating expansion is being driven by a simple cosmological constant, or whether dark energy’s influence is evolving over time. In a new analysis published in Physical Review D, Samsuzzaman Afroz and Suvodip Mukherjee at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, have identified a subtle impact on the inference of the nature of dark energy, due to a tiny mismatch between a fundamental cosmological distance relation and two key datasets used to measure the properties of dark energy.
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Asteroid mining seems simple in theory. A spacecraft flies up to a giant rock in space, scoops out some material, and either processes it on site or returns it back to a huge central processing facility. But in practice, it is certainly not that simple, and a new paper from some Spanish researchers, published in the journal Icarus, showcases one of the reasons why—many small asteroids are spinning ridiculously fast.
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The middle of the twentieth century was a period of significant scientific advancement, particularly in the realm of physics. Within this rapidly changing landscape, academic disciplines emerged and evolved to keep pace with scientific discoveries. The new subdiscipline of solid-state physics gained prominence in the United States, but it was later subsumed by the broader category of condensed matter physics.
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A joint European-Chinese spacecraft blasted off into orbit Tuesday to investigate what happens when extreme winds and giant explosions of plasma shot out from the sun slam into Earth’s magnetic shield.
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Before Smile can begin studying how Earth responds to the streams of particles and bursts of radiation from the sun, the spacecraft had to complete an extraordinary journey here on Earth.
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In December 2023, scientists looking at Mars data stumbled across something completely unexpected—observations of an atmospheric effect never before seen in the Red Planet’s atmosphere. Using instruments aboard NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) mission, scientists identified a phenomenon known to occur in Earth’s magnetosphere, where charged particles are squeezed like toothpaste coming out of a tube along magnetic structures called flux tubes.
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The rapid growth of large language models is placing increasing demands on data centers, where large volumes of data must be transferred efficiently between servers. Optical interconnects are essential for enabling this communication, but as data rates continue to rise, these systems must deliver higher bandwidth while maintaining low latency and energy efficiency. However, integrating electronic and photonic components remains challenging, as conventional approaches often introduce signal loss, limit interconnect density, and restrict scalability.
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Water molecules do not simply swirl around in complete disorder; they can form certain preferred structures. This scientific fact is often presented in entirely unscientific ways. For example, when people speak of an alleged “memory of water” or of “water clusters” as a possible explanation for homeopathy, among other things.
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Both suspects, believed to be teens, also died after what police are investigating as a hate crime at the Islamic Center of San Diego
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As misinformation spreads faster than ever across digital platforms, new research highlights growing risks to public understanding of planetary defense, an area of science that deals with the threat from asteroid and comet impacts, with potentially global consequences.
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Looking back at 14 years of Hubble telescope data for Jupiter’s moon Europa has given Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) scientists a better understanding of its tenuous atmosphere. The findings have cast doubt on previous evidence suggesting that the icy moon intermittently discharges faint water plumes from a presumed subsurface ocean.
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Earth has a group of cosmic stalkers. Known as “co-orbitals,” these small bits of rock have a 1:1 mean motion resonance with Earth. Basically, they take the exact same amount of time to orbit the sun as we do. Astronomers have long believed these objects wandered in from the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but recent spectral analysis suggests they better match the space-weathered lunar silicates that make up the moon’s surface. As such, there has been an ongoing debate about whether these cosmic stalkers are actually visitors from the belt or blasted pieces of the moon. A new study, published in Icarus, from researchers Elisa Alessi and Robert Jedicke provides strong hints that the belt is the more likely source—but pretty soon we’ll get a definitive answer from a spacecraft.
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This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals an enigmatic galaxy with a bright center and a face that hints at spiral structure, yet it holds no obvious spiral arms. Reddish-brown clumps and filaments of dust partially obscure the galaxy’s full face, while red, blue, and orange light from distant galaxies shines through its diffuse outer regions and dots the inky-black background.
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Bizarre Venus surface formations (or coronae) are likely key to understanding our twin planet’s heretofore inscrutable interior. Using NASA Magellan spacecraft data from decades past, Anna Gulcher, an Earth and planetary scientist at Germany’s University of Freiburg, has created innovative new 3D models of the largest coronae to better understand Venus’ puzzling geodynamics.
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