Science

According to NASA, the agency’s next Mars rover will have more cameras than any rover before it: a grand total of 23, to create sweeping panoramas, reveal obstacles, study the atmosphere, and assist science instruments. There will even be a camera inside the rover’s body, which will study samples as …

The Curiosity rover has been an unqualified success since the moment it touched down on Mars aboard a magnificent rocket sled contraption. It’s traveled farther on the red planet than any other machine while delivering huge amounts of data to researchers here on Earth. Curiosity is suffering from camera envy …

A small, simple improvement in diet over the long-term — such as replacing one sugary beverage with a serving of nuts each day — may significantly reduce the risk of premature death, according to new research. Sotos-Prieto et al show that modifying dietary habits can have a significant impact on …

Astronomers are always tracking asteroids and comets in space near Earth, and some of them are from unfathomably far away in the outer solar system. However, scientists may have spotted the first such object that’s from someplace even more distant–another solar system. The mysterious object known only as A/2017 U1 …

A paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science presents the first results of the dating of indigenous pre-Columbian cave art in the Caribbean, as well as insights into the artistic choices made about location, technique, and paint recipes of the time. Cave art on Mona Island, Puerto Rico. Image …

A team of scientists at North Carolina State University has demonstrated that a gallium-based liquid metal alloy forms snowflake-like fractal patterns when electrochemically oxidized. The results appear in the journal Physical Review Letters. Gallium indium forms fractal patterns with the application of low voltage. Image credit: North Carolina State University. …

A new species of rhabdodontid dinosaur, named Matheronodon provincialis, has been discovered in southern France. Artist’s impression of Matheronodon provincialis. Image credit: Lukas Panzarin. Matheronodon provincialis was a primitive cousin of the well-known European dinosaur Iguanodon. The ancient beast lived 70 million years ago (Late Cretaceous epoch) and was approximately …

Analysis of data from ESA’s Rosetta mission continues to yield insights into the nature of cometary ice and organics. Artist’s impression of a comet. Image credit: DLR / CC-BY 3.0. Launched in March 2004 and following a ten-year journey across the Solar System, ESA’s Rosetta probe made history in 2014 …

Precipitation on Earth can be a mild inconvenience, but it’s part of the ecosystem that makes our planet habitable. Some much less pleasant substances fall from the sky on other planets and moons. For example, it rains sulfuric acid on Venus and liquid methane on Titan. NASA has just detected …

In a paper published on October 1 in the journal Astronomy Geophysics, independent scholar and astrophysicist Graeme Waddington and University of Cambridge Professor Colin Humphreys report on the oldest recorded solar eclipse. The event — which occurred on October 30, 1207 BC — is mentioned in the Bible, and could …