#science
- Mars Traffic Jam: Three Missions Converge on the Red Planet This Month
Hope, Tianwen-1, and Perseverance all arrive at Mars within nine days of each other this February.
- The Space Stories That Made January 2021 Worth Watching
A look back at the record-setting launches, lunar samples, and cosmic discoveries that filled out an eventful month in space and astronomy.
- Astronomers Find a Six-Star System Built From Three Eclipsing Pairs
Researchers have identified a rare sextuple star system made of three gravitationally bound eclipsing binaries.
- Astronomers Find the Youngest Supermassive Black Hole Yet
A newly announced supermassive black hole dating to 800 million years after the Big Bang is forcing a rethink of how these giants grow so fast.
- Meet TOI-561b, the Rocky Planet Baking at 3,140°F
A newly detailed exoplanet orbiting one of the Milky Way's oldest stars completes a year in under 12 hours and bakes at over 3,140°F.
- Perseverance Enters Its Final Approach to Mars
NASA's Perseverance rover is now in its final approach phase, running trajectory corrections ahead of a nail-biting February 18 landing in Jezero Crater.
- 13 Million Doses Shipped, 4.2 Million in Arms: The Vaccine Rollout's Slow Start
The CDC's early January numbers show a wide gap between vaccine doses distributed and shots administered, just as a faster-spreading variant gains ground in the US.
- A 5,700-Year-Old Piece of Gum Just Gave Up a Full Human Genome
Scientists sequenced a complete ancient human genome from chewed birch pitch, the first time DNA has been recovered from something other than bone or teeth.
- The Best Present From Space Won't Arrive for Another Three Years
OSIRIS-REx is cruising home with a sample from asteroid Bennu so large it jammed its own collector — but Earth won't see it until 2023.
- A New, Faster-Spreading Coronavirus Variant Turns Up in South Africa
South African officials flagged a new SARS-CoV-2 variant, 501.V2, that appears more transmissible, days after a similar UK variant was reported.
- Chang'e 5 Comes Home: China Delivers the First New Moon Rocks Since 1976
Chang'e 5's return capsule landed in Inner Mongolia with about 1,731 grams of lunar material, the first fresh Moon samples since Luna 24 in 1976.
- DeepMind Says It Cracked the Protein-Folding Problem
AlphaFold2's CASP14 results put it near experimental accuracy on protein structure prediction, a 50-year grand challenge in biology.
- Hubble Catches One of the Most Perfect Einstein Rings Ever Seen
ESA/Hubble share a striking image of a near-complete Einstein ring, a gravitational-lensing effect that bends a distant galaxy's light into a circle.
- Arecibo Falls Silent the Same Day China Lands on the Moon
Arecibo Observatory's dish platform collapsed today, ending 57 years of service, hours after Chang'e 5 touched down at Mons Rümker.
- China's Chang'e 5 Is Chasing Down the First Fresh Moon Rocks in 44 Years
China launched Chang'e 5 on a Long March 5 to grab about 2 kg of lunar samples, the first attempted Moon sample return since Luna 24 in 1976.
- NSF Pulls the Plug on Arecibo's Iconic Radio Telescope
The NSF announced it will decommission Arecibo Observatory's 900-ton receiver platform after two cable failures made repairs too dangerous.
- A Bright Kilonova May Be Hinting at a Freshly Born Magnetar
An unusually luminous kilonova has researchers arguing that a neutron-star merger produced a magnetar rather than collapsing straight to a black hole.
- A Second Cable Snaps at Arecibo, and the Whole Dish Is Now on the Clock
A thicker auxiliary cable broke at Arecibo Observatory on Nov 6, gouging the dish and putting the 900-ton platform at serious risk of collapse.
- A Fast Radio Burst, Finally Traced to a Source We Can Point To
A Nature paper confirms FRB 200428 came from the galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154, the first fast radio burst ever traced to a source in the Milky Way.
- A Femur, a Skull, and a Fight Over Humanity's Oldest Ancestor
A new look at a 7-million-year-old femur from Chad reignites debate over whether Sahelanthropus tchadensis really walked upright.
- October 2020's Biggest Science Stories, In Review
A dense month for fundamental science: a double Nobel, NASA's first asteroid sample grab, and a new record for the shortest measured time.
- NASA Finds Water on the Sunlit Side of the Moon
SOFIA's airborne telescope confirmed molecular water in Clavius Crater, the first detection on a sunlit lunar surface rather than in shadowed polar craters.
- OSIRIS-REx Touches Bennu, Grabs NASA's First Asteroid Sample
NASA's OSIRIS-REx briefly touched down on asteroid Bennu and fired nitrogen gas to collect a sample, the first U.S. asteroid retrieval mission.
- Physicists Just Clocked the Shortest Time Interval Ever Measured
German researchers measured 247 zeptoseconds for a photon to cross a hydrogen molecule, smashing the previous record for shortest directly measured time span.
- Mars Sample Return Gets a Technical Green Light
An independent review board says NASA and ESA's plan to bring Mars rock cores back to Earth is technically ready to proceed.
- The Nobel Committee Just Rewarded the Ultimate Editing Tool
Charpentier and Doudna win the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for CRISPR-Cas9, the first all-woman team to win a Nobel science prize.
- Nobel Physics Prize Goes to Black Holes, and It's About Time
The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics honors Roger Penrose's math and Genzel/Ghez's discovery of the Milky Way's central monster.
- A Graphene Circuit That Wants to Turn Thermal Jitter Into Power
Researchers detail a graphene 'Brownian ratchet' circuit that taps atomic-scale thermal noise for tiny, always-on electric current.
- Tesla's Battery Day: bigger cells, no cobalt, a $25k EV promise
Tesla unveiled new 4680 cells, a cobalt-free roadmap, a sub-2-second Plaid Model S, and a three-year plan for a $25,000 EV.
- The Venus Phosphine Debate Begins
Days after the ALMA/JCMT phosphine announcement, astronomers are already pushing back on the data analysis behind it.