Science

    A typical day in the workplacefor a planetary defense officer isn’t this exciting.20 th Century Fox NASA is working with a planetary protection officer with a salary of up to $187,000. The job was developed after the signing of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Planetary security officers are …

About 3.5 billion years ago volcanic activity on Earth’s only permanent natural satellite produced an atmosphere 1.5 times thicker than is currently on Mars, according to new research published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Volcanic activity 3.5 billion years ago released 1019 g of volatiles around the …

Black holes are some of the strangest and most interesting things found in deep space. They are items of severe density, with such strong gravitational attraction that even light can not get away from their grasp if it comes near enough. Albert Einstein first predicted black holes in 1916 with …

An international team of researchers has used advanced DNA sequencing methods to retrieve and analyze mitochondrial genome data from two lineages of saber-toothed cats, Smilodon and Homotherium. Published in the journal Current Biology, the results suggest that these iconic felids diverged from each other about 18 million years ago and …

A team of researchers at the University of Portsmouth, UK, has found evidence that domestic dogs move their faces in direct response to human attention. Kaminski et al provide evidence that dogs are sensitive to the human’s attentional state when producing facial expressions, suggesting that facial expressions are not just …

According to new research using data from NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission (MAVEN) spacecraft, the Red Planet has an invisible magnetic tail — or magnetotail — that is twisted by interaction with the solar wind. Artist’s conception of the complex magnetic field environment at Mars. Yellow lines represent …

If humans are going to live someplace other than Earth, the moon seems like a good option. It’s nearby and could serve as a launchpad for missions to other locations in the solar system. Scientists have long wondered if shadowy crevasses on the lunar surface could be entrances to caverns …

A team of marine biologists from Monterey Bay Aquarium and the California Academy of Sciences has discovered and described a new species of the butterflyfish genus Roa from the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines, West Pacific Ocean. Roa rumsfeldi. Image credit: Luiz Rocha, California Academy of Sciences. “We named …

Studying celestial objects from afar can tell you a lot about them, but some experiments can only be done up close and personal. NASA’s Cassini probe provided an opportunity for scientists to satisfy their curiosity about Saturn as it spiraled down to its demise in recent months. We’ll no doubt …

In a paper published this week in the journal Nature, the BASE collaboration at CERN reports the most precise measurement ever made of the magnetic moment of the antiproton. The new measurement outperforms the previous best measurement by a factor of 350 in experimental precision. Artist’s impression of a cloud …