Science

With 3.14-Day Orbit The longer we study the universe, the more exoplanets we find. Many of these discoveries are notable because of how Earth-like they are or because of the number of planets crammed into a single solar system. The rocky planet K2-315b, on the other hand, is notable because …

Before the age of 2 or 3 years, the human brain grows very rapidly and, during REM sleep, is busy building and strengthening synapses. After 2 or 3 years, however, sleep’s primary purpose switches from brain building to brain maintenance and repair, a role it maintains for the rest of …

An international team of archaeologists and paleoanthropologists has found ancient human and animal footprints on the surface of an ancient lakebed in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia. The footprints, dated to roughly 120,000 years ago, are contemporaneous with an early Homo sapiens out-of-Africa migration and represent the earliest evidence of …

  The margin for error in space exploration is tiny. Even an unassuming rock or a bit of sloped terrain can topple a robotic explorer, and what if there’s no one within millions of miles to flip it right-side-up again? NASA is developing a new precision landing system called Safe …

Spectral data gathered by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) onboard NASA’s Cassini spacecraft provide strong evidence that the northern hemisphere of Saturn’s moon Enceladus has been resurfaced with ice from its interior. In these detailed infrared images of Enceladus, reddish areas indicate fresh ice that has been deposited …

  Humanity has identified thousands of exoplanets, so you’d think we’ve got a pretty good handle on where to look for them. And yet, the universe keeps surprising us. A new study led by Andrew Vanderburg of the University of Wisconsin-Madison reveals a possible exoplanet some 80 light-years away. The …

  Rocket Lab has seen modest success with its petite Electron booster in the three years since its maiden flight. There have been a few setbacks, to be sure, but the little rocket that could has its sights set on a very timely target. Rocket Lab might be the first …

A new genus and species of an early ornithopod dinosaur has been identified from two nearly complete skeletons found in China’s Liaoning Province. Changmiania liaoningensis, an anterior part of the holotype in caudolateral view; red arrow indicates the emplacement of the gastrolith clusters. Image credit: Yang et al, doi: 10.7717/peerj.9832. …

Archaeologists have unearthed the well-preserved remains of a 2,700-year-old wine press at the Phoenician site of Tell el-Burak, 9 km south of Sidon in present-day Lebanon. The wine press at Tell el-Burak from the south-west. Image credit: Tell el-Burak Archaeological Project. The ruins of Tell el-Burak, a small Phoenician settlement …

The Carnian Pluvial Episode, a major climate change event that occurred around 234 to 232 million years ago (Late Triassic epoch), was a time of global environmental changes and possibly substantial volcanism. A new analysis of paleontological data suggests that this event was a major — but previously neglected — …