How can we know if we"re looking at habitable exo-Earths or hellish exo-Venuses?
The differences between Earth and Venus are obvious to us. One is radiant with life and adorned with glittering seas, and the other is a scorching, glowering hellhole, its volcanic surface shrouded by thick clouds and visible only with radar. But the.....»»
TESS finds eight more super-Earths
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered most of the confirmed exoplanets that we know of. But its successor, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), is catching up. New research announces the validation of eight more TESS candidates, and they'r.....»»
Civilizations are probably spreading quickly through the universe, researchers claim
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has always been plagued by uncertainty. With only one habitable planet (Earth) and one technologically advanced civilization (humanity) as examples, scientists are still confined to theorizing where.....»»
Uranus aurora discovery offers clues to habitable icy worlds
The presence of an infrared aurora on the cold, outer planet of Uranus has been confirmed for the first time by University of Leicester astronomers......»»
Do red dwarfs or sunlike stars have more Earth-sized worlds?
Earth is our only example of a habitable planet, so it makes sense to search for Earth-size worlds when we're hunting for potentially-habitable exoplanets. When astronomers found seven of them orbiting a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 system, peopl.....»»
How an ancient society in the Sahara Desert rose and fell with groundwater
With its low quantities of rain and soaring high temperatures, the Sahara Desert is often regarded as one of the most extreme and least habitable environments on Earth. While the Sahara was periodically much greener in the distant past, an ancient so.....»»
New observations of flares from distant star could help in search for habitable planets
Astrophysicists have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a close look at a volatile star......»»
Old stars don"t have hot Jupiters, suggests study
As we began to discover hundreds, then thousands of exoplanets, we found that there were two types of worlds unlike anything in our solar system. The first are super-Earths. These worlds straddle the line between large rocky worlds like Earth and sma.....»»
Firefighters tell of hellish battle against Canada wildfires
Facing grueling conditions worthy of a Dantean hell, up against soaring walls of blistering flames, thousands of firefighters mobilized throughout the Canadian summer. They came out exhausted and worried for the future......»»
Why build megastructures? Just move planets around to make habitable worlds
In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed how advanced civilizations could create megastructures that enclosed their system, allowing them to harness all of their star's energy and multiplying the habitable space they could occupy. In 2015, the astronomical co.....»»
An ambitious new technology might be needed to see other Earths
The race is on to discover truly habitable Earth-like worlds. While we are starting to observe the atmospheres of large potentially habitable planets such as Hycean worlds with the telescopes we currently have, the most significant breakthroughs will.....»»
Here"s how hot and extreme the summer has been, and it"s only halfway over
At about summer's halfway point, the record-breaking heat and weather extremes are both unprecedented and unsurprising, hellish yet boring in some ways, scientists say......»»
Chinese scientists complete a concept study for a 6-meter space telescope to find habitable exoplanets
We have discovered more than 5,400 planets in the universe. These worlds range from hot jovians that closely orbit their star to warm ocean worlds to cold gas giants. While we know they are there, we don't know much about them. Characteristics such a.....»»
An Astrobiologist’s Search for Life in Space—and Meaning on Earth
In Life on Other Planets, Aomawa Shields talks about her hunt for habitable exoplanets as a classically trained actress and one of the few Black women in astronomy......»»
The search for habitable moons in the solar system is heating up
Recent research has found phosphorus, one of the building blocks for life, at Saturn's icy moon Enceladus......»»
How to use emotes in Diablo 4
Even though the game is set in a hellish world overflowing with horrific monstrosities, friendliness is always appreciated by your fellow demon hunters......»»
One-third of galaxy"s most common planets could be in habitable zone
Our familiar, warm, yellow sun is a relative rarity in the Milky Way. By far the most common stars are considerably smaller and cooler, sporting just half the mass of our sun at most. Billions of planets orbit these common dwarf stars in our galaxy......»»
Astronomers discover a key planetary system for understanding formation mechanism of mysterious "super-Earths"
A study led by researchers of the University of Liège and the CSIC—using observations from NASA's TESS telescope—presents the detection of a system of two planets slightly larger than Earth orbiting a cold star in a synchronized dance. Named TOI.....»»
2 places on Mars could have been habitable
Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity continue to reveal details about the planet's former habitable conditions......»»
Study presents new clues about the rise of Earth"s continents
Continents are part of what makes Earth uniquely habitable for life among the planets of the solar system, yet surprisingly little is understood about what gave rise to these huge pieces of the planet's crust and their special properties......»»
Tesla’s magnet mystery shows Elon Musk is willing to compromise
The EV maker said it will expunge rare earths from its vehicles' motors. Enlarge / A 158 kW electric motor for the front-wheel drive of a Tesla Model Y. (credit: Patrick Pluel/Getty Images) Last month, at a livestreamed.....»»