All Science
- Comet's fiery plunge may tell us how planets form
For the first time, scientists have caught a glimpse of a comet's final minutes before it was vaporized by the sun. The comet was flying at about 1.4 million miles an hour.
- Ancient tulip-like creature had bizarre gut
The animal was a filter feeder, with a tulip-shaped body and a stem that anchored it to the seafloor.
- Dracula-esque monkey long thought vanished reappears
A team set up camera traps in Borneo in June, hoping to captures images of wildlife known to congregate at several mineral salt licks but the pictures that came back caught them all by surprise: groups of monkeys none had ever seen.
- Forecast: Seattle weather could stay eventful in next three months
Forecasters looking at temperature and precipitation trends are calling for cooler and wetter conditions than normal in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle weather this week has consisted of snow and ice storms.
- NASA still not hiding aliens: Triangular 'UFO' debunked
Footage captured by NASA shows Venus, Earth and, on the opposite side of the field-of-view, a briefly mysterious triangular object headed our way.
- Custom-mutated bacteria converts seaweed to fuel
Bacteria have been genetically engineered to break down a previously inaccessible sugar in seaweed, called alginate.
- Rare turtle back in the wild with fancy new satellite tracking device
Only about 200 Southern River terrapins still exist in the wild, and on Monday one of them plodded into the Sre Ambel River in Cambodia wearing a satellite tag as a crowd of officials and well-wishers cheered it on.
- Mysterious invisible galaxy may be composed of dark matter
Though telescopes can't spot the dwarf galaxy, scientists detected its presence through the tiny distortions its gravity causes to light that passes it by.
- Dwarf galaxies: breakthrough in bid to find 'fossils' of early universe
A team of astronomers reports that it has detected the most distant dwarf galaxy yet discovered orbiting an enormous elliptical galaxy some 10 billion light-years away.
- Meteorites in Morocco confirmed to be Martian in origin
The meteorites fell in the Moroccan desert in July and were recovered a few months later.
- Will Earth no longer define time? Leap second could be abolished.
The rotation of the Earth has defined time for as long as time has been kept, but keeping up with all of Earth's little quirks by adding and subtracting an occasional leap second is getting tiring. Timekeepers could vote Thursday to rely solely on atomic clocks.
- NASA's twin moon probes renamed by children: 'Ebb' & 'Flow'
The probes' new names were offered by fourth grade students in Bozeman, Mont., who were chosen as the winners of NASA's naming contest.
- Russia's dead Mars probe crashed in unknown location
So far, no eyewitness accounts of the Phobos-Grunt re-entry have surfaced, and there have been no verified sightings of any pieces of the 14.5-ton spacecraft that may have survived.
- First-ever private rocket launch to ISS postponed
The unmanned Dragon space capsule, built by SpaceX was scheduled to launch toward the space station on Feb. 7, but the company has decided to postpone the flight to accommodate more engineering tests.
- Scientists find 'lost' Darwin fossils in gloomy corner of British Geological Survey
Using a flashlight to peer into drawers at the British Geological Survey, a paleontologist saw one of the first specimens he had picked up was labeled 'C. Darwin Esq.'
- Why it's hard to predict where failed Russian craft will fall
Phobos-Grunt launched toward Mars on Nov. 8, but it failed to leave low-Earth orbit. Reentry into Earth's atmosphere could happen anywhere from Sunday morning to Monday night, according to current estimates.
- Elusive particles could help to stem climate change
The particles are called Criegee intermediates, or Criegee biradicals, and are short-lived molecules that form in the Earth’s atmosphere when ozone reacts with alkenes.
- Space station moves to avoid space junk in orbit
The International Space Station had to make a slight adjustment Friday to dodge a piece of a satellite, caused by an orbital collision over two years ago.
- Russian space probe turned space junk crash will have worldwide audience
According to ESA, studies by the Russian space agency and NASA indicate that Phobos-Grunt's fuel tanks should burst high above the Earth, releasing a load of propellant that will subsequently dissipate.
- Albatross species finds it easier to fly with changing winds near South Pole
Winds off the Southern Ocean, around Antarctica, are shifting, making it easier for a particular species of albatross to fly farther.