Hubble’s new view of NGC 4102 exposes the soft glow of a supermassive black hole hidden behind dense gas. Source: This Strange Spiral Galaxy Is Hiding a Massive Black Hole

The concept of blended-wing aircraft – where fuselage and wing are all one structure – is not new. But this radical design might soon be a credible concept for airliners.

Mars often looks calm and cold in most images, a red desert with rust-colored dunes and silent craters. But a new study reveals that dust devils—tiny tornado-like whirlwinds—are silently whipping across the surface with far greater ferocity than we assumed. These swirling columns serve as natural tracers, making invisible Martian winds visible. The team used deep learning to sift through over…

Yellowstone National Park is a geologic wonder—home to supervolcanoes, hydrothermal marvels, and some of the most dynamic terrain in North America. But understanding this complex landscape requires more than a rock hammer and a field notebook. Today’s geologists are embracing digital tools to modernize how we map and interpret the Earth beneath our feet. In a recent Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles article…

For centuries, tales of monstrous waves rising from calm seas were dismissed as sailor superstition. But on January 1, 1995, an 80-foot wave slammed into the Draupner oil platform in the North Sea, bending steel and tossing equipment like toys. More importantly, it left behind hard data: the first confirmed measurement of a rogue wave in the open ocean. Groundbreaking research led by Francesco Fedele at Georgia Tech, we know these waves aren’t oceanic anomalies.

What if the earliest signs of pancreatic cancer looked eerily similar to what happens in the brain during dementia? That’s the provocative question raised by new research from the Cancer Research UK Scotland Centre, where scientists have uncovered a startling biological overlap between two seemingly unrelated diseases. In a study published in Developmental Cell, researchers tracked pancreatic cells in mice to understand how normal cells begin their transformation into cancer.

For over seven decades, scientists have theorized about a powerful process unfolding in the Sun’s atmosphere—one that could explain solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and the storms that sometimes rattle Earth’s magnetic shield. Now, thanks to NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, we finally have proof: magnetic reconnection is real, and it’s spectacular. The Sun’s magnetic field lines are similar to taut rubber bands .

The dust emission of the high-mass star forming region G336.018-00.827 ALMA1 at radio wavelengths. The star symbol indicates the protostellar position. The gas is rotating and falling along the red and blue arrows. The gas flow (streamer) indicated by the blue arrow transports gas from the molecular cloud core to the high-density region in the vicinity of the protostar. Credit: KyotoU / Fernando Olguin…

A Shadowy Birth in a “Mirror World” The first theory revisits the notion of a hidden mirror universe—a realm with its own versions of particles and forces, invisible to us except through gravity. According to Prof. Stefano Profumo, such a hidden sector might have given rise to tiny, ultra-dense objects—perhaps miniature black-hole analogs—that constitute all of today’s dark matter…

The Grand Canyon has long been a geological marvel, but a recent discovery has added a new layer of awe to its ancient depths. Paleontologists from the University of Cambridge have uncovered a stunning cache of fossils dating back over 500 million years—offering a rare glimpse into the Cambrian explosion, a pivotal era when life on Earth diversified at breakneck speed.

Astronomers have made a major discovery: the red dwarf star L 98‑59, located a mere 35 light‑years from Earth, hosts a newly confirmed fifth planet—L 98‑59 f—that might lie within its habitable (Goldilocks) zone, raising the tantalizing possibility of surface liquid water or volcanic environments. What We’ve Learned About the L 98‑59 System Host star: L 98‑59 is a compact red dwarf, smaller and dimmer than the Sun, with a system of tightly packed rocky planets…

Picture by Diane Ripollone In the steaming pools of Yellowstone National Park, researchers discovered a bacterium Hydrogenobacter RSW1, thriving near hot springs. It does something that was considered impossible: aerobic and anaerobic respiration simultaneously—using both oxygen and sulfur at the same time. While humans and most lifeforms rely purely on aerobic respiration (using oxygen to harvest energy), many microbes live without oxygen entirely.

Astronomers have captured, for the very first time beyond our Solar System, the initial spark of planet formation around a distant protostar—HOPS‑315, located roughly 1,300 light‑years away in the Orion region. Key Highlights: First Solid MaterialsUsing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers detected hot minerals beginning to crystallize—notably silicon monoxide (SiO)—signaling the first moments of solid formation…

Fundamental technique lets researchers use a big, expensive “teacher” model to train a “student” model for less.

If you love birds, then this would be a fun thing to do in your backyard. Every summer, fledgling birds take to the skies, but instead of vibrant hues, many juveniles appear in muted browns with streaky plumage—camouflage against predators but perplexing to birders. That bland look? It’s nature’s protective cloak, not confusion—here’s how to crack the code: Most young songbirds wear…

A purple, pre-incubation BioNutrients-3 bag, left, and a pink bag, right, which has completed incubation, on a purple and pink board used for comparison.NASA NASA and SpaceX are preparing to launch Crew-11, the next rotational mission to the International Space Station (ISS), targeted for no earlier than July 31, 2025. This mission will not only transport astronauts to the station but also support a wide range of cutting-edge research aimed at expanding scientific knowledge and enabling future deep space exploration.

Source: How Bacteria Grow: Evolutionary Differences Point to New Ways to Combat Infection | Newswise

In this eye-opening video from the Wall Street Journal, tech columnist Joanna Stern explores the hidden energy costs behind AI-generated content. By tracing the journey of a single AI video prompt through Virginia’s “Data Center Alley,” she reveals how much electricity is consumed in the process—and cleverly compares it to the energy needed to cook steaks. Highlighting the growing environmental impact of AI, especially as data centers are projected to consume up to 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028.

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has made yet another exciting discovery—but it never works alone. Thanks to a recent study showcasing the efforts of professional astronomers and citizen scientists around the globe, including observers from the SETI Institute & Unistellar Network, the newly confirmed planet TOI-4465 b has found its place in our understanding of the universe. Source: Citizen Astronomers Help Confirm New Temperate Jupiter

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on Jan. 31, 2015.ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0 In a cosmic revelation that’s turning heads in the astronomy world, scientists have captured the first-ever molecular activity in the largest known comet from the Oort Cloud—C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein). This icy behemoth, measuring nearly 85 miles across, is not only massive but also mysteriously active—despite being over 16 times farther from the Sun than Earth.

Tracking Curiosity: A Journey Across the Martian Landscape Since its dramatic touchdown in Gale Crater on August 5, 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been steadily rewriting what we know about Mars. Exactly where this robotic explorer is right now—or how far it’s traveled? Thanks to NASA’s interactive Curiosity Rover Location Map, you can follow every twist and turn of its Martian road trip.

PUNCH tracked a recent geoeffective CME from the Sun to the Earth, against the backdrop of the Milky Way and familiar constellations. The field-of-view spans 90° of angle, and includes familiar constellations and planets. The tiny yellow dot at center represents the Sun; the dashed white circle represents the SOHO/LASCO C3 field of view, for comparison. The first pictures of coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are enormous solar eruptions, were released by NASA's PUNCH (Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere) mission.

In July 2024, amid Arizona's heatwave and a nationwide software outage, Grammy-winning audio engineer and ham radio enthusiast Richard Factor took a bold step in the search for extraterrestrial life. He offered his Sedona rooftop as the latest site for the SETI Institute’s LaserSETI project, an initiative designed to scan the entire sky continuously for laser pulses that could signify intelligent life beyond Earth.