All Science
European probe to be awakened for bold comet missionThe Rosetta probe is slated to land the first spacecraft on a comet, a feat that will require incredible precision.
How cold is the coldest place on Earth?A team of researchers has presented the coldest ever recorded temperature on Earth.
Mars was not only habitable, it was downright Earth-like, Curiosity findsMars' Gale Crater had a long, thin lake that could have supported microbial life in a setting 'really similar to an Earth environment,' according to data collected by NASA's Curiosity rover.
Beneath the ocean, a sea of drinkable water?A new study suggests the presence of massive freshwater reserves amounting to billions of gallons of hidden underneath the world's oceans. Can the discovery delay an impending global water shortage?
Curiosity measures radiation at Martian surfaceThe first measurement of radiation at Mars' surface has implications for a human mission to the Red Planet, as well as for where Mars' missions might find traces of Martian life – if it was ever there.
Mirrors for giant space telescope take shapeSeven 27-foot mirrors will power the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT), designed to peer farther than ever before into the universe from a mountaintop in Chile.
Japan's monster quake: Do scientists have key to decode future temblors?The 2011 earthquake that devastated northern Japan slid along a thick layer of nearly frictionless clay called 'smectite', say scientists who made the first-ever friction measurements of an earthquake.
What's that Jupiter-like thing doing so far afield from nearest star?The huge orbit of a Jupiter-like gas giant has researchers scratching their heads over how the thing could ever form so far from the nearest star and the star's accompanying debris disk. But they've got some intriguing theories.
What a mission to Venus could tell us about Earth's moonMeasuring Venus' isotopic composition could give clues to how Earth's moon was formed.
- How slippery clay helps explain Japan's 2011 mega tsunami
Clay greased the plate boundary fault which suddenly slipped 165 feet. Three papers published in the journal Science explain why an earthquake-generating fault behaved so peculiarly in 2011, sending a deadly tsunami over Japan.
Kepler revival plan advances to next vetting stageThe Kepler team’s proposed mission for the hobbled telescope must now compete with other astrophysics missions for a share of NASA's funds.
How extreme magnetic fields shape the universe's cataclysmsScientists have captured their best view yet of how super-intense magnetic fields shape gamma ray bursts, extremely fast jets that originate in the most powerful explosions in the universe.
- Beached whales: How do you lead a whale to deeper water?
Beached whales: Wildlife workers are trying to herd 41 pilot whales beached in the Everglades to deeper waters.
- Hubble finds water on 5 planets, heralding new era in search for other Earths
Scientists have found evidence of water vapor in the atmospheres of five 'hot Jupiter' planets. Refining their ability to find water vapor could be key to the search for life on other planets.
Why scientists are baffled by a half-million-year-old human thigh boneScientists sequenced 400,000-year-old mitochondrial DNA, exploding the previous record for oldest DNA and introducing new questions into European and Asian history.
WWII submarine found: what it was doing in underwater 'trash heap' off HawaiiWWII submarine built by Japan to transport bomb-carrying planes to within striking distance of New York was captured by the US. The WWII submarine was studied and scuttled before the Soviets could get a good look.
Oldest human DNA discovered, complicating models of our originScientists have discovered a bone unearthed in northern Spain that is apparently 400,000 years old. Analysis of its DNA suggests that it belongs to an extinct human lineage whose members had previously been found only in Asia.
About 40 whales trapped in Florida's Everglades National ParkFour of about 40 whales stranded in the Everglades National Park in southwest Florida have died, news media reported on Wednesday morning.
Hubble telescope spots hints of water on five alien worldsFive planets beyond our solar system show signs of water in their atmospheres, according to data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
'Spooky' physics: How quantum entanglement could link wormholesQuantum entanglement, the phenomenon where the behavior of particles can be connected regardless of distance, could link wormholes, scientists say.
