Something is glowing at the heart of the Milky Way – there’s more diffuse gamma radiation than can be explained by what we can directly observe. It’s called the Galactic Center GeV Excess (GCE), and astronomers have been trying to explain it for years. One idea was that the glow is produced by the annihilation
Month: April 2019
A digital simulation created in 2007 using the Unreal Engine 2 of a housing group from the ancient Maya city of Chunchucmil Created by David Hixson Archaeological field work typically involves lots of dirt, sun, and at least an insect or two, but archaeologist David R. Hixson of Hood College is opening new frontiers to
Titan is a mystery as mighty as its namesake. A thick haze of atmospheric nitrogen conceals the moon’s surface from view, hiding a giant and ancient geological oddity that scientists have only just unmasked. In new research, scientists report the discovery of a massive ‘corridor’ of ice-rich bedrock that spans almost halfway around Saturn’s largest
The push away from needless plastic use is a noble and necessary one, but new research casts doubt over just how environmentally friendly some forms of biodegradable plastic actually are. Researchers found that bags labelled biodegradable and compostable were still able to carry a full load of shopping after being left to degrade in the
Earth from ISS Credit: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Could the microbes that surround us actually be encoded with interstellar messages from some far-flung race of space aliens? It’s a question that has been posed for decades by some members of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) community. But most recently it was tackled by
Vice commander of Air Force Space Command Lt. Gen. Thompson: “We have to understand we’re on the cusp of an explosion in commercial space.” WASHINGTON — In the contentious Space Force debate, many of the questions have been about its cost and whether a separate military branch would do a better job than the Air
A strange encounter between fishermen and a mysteriously geared-up white beluga whale in the Barents Sea off the coast of Norway has raised suspicions the animal might be a trained recruit from a Russian military facility. The whale (Delphinapterus leucas), which was discovered near the island of Ingøya in Arctic Norway, appeared tame and well-adapted
In the bewildering quagmire that is the gas between the stars, the Hubble Space Telescope has identified evidence of ionised buckminsterfullerene, the carbon molecule known colloquially as “buckyballs”. Containing 60 carbon atoms arranged in a soccer ball shape, buckminsterfullerene (C60) occurs naturally here on Earth – in soot. But in 2010, it was also detected in
Red Cross aid helps resident, from GlobalChange.gov, the 2018 National Climate Assessment Globalchange.gov “We moved into our new house and three weeks later, lost it all in Hurricane Harvey.” My heart sank for when the pleasant man sitting next to me at a legendary local D.C. bar and restaurant recently recounted his family’s experience relocating to Houston.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Scientists used an appearance by the NASA administrator at a conference April 29 to press him to fund additional missions that support the agency’s work in discovering and characterizing near Earth objects. In an opening keynote at the Planetary Defense Conference here, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the agency was taking
Some 7,800 light-years away, in the constellation of Cygnus, lies a most peculiar black hole. It’s called V404 Cygni, and in 2015, telescopes around the world stared in wonder as it woke from dormancy to devour material from a star over the course of a week. That one event provided such a wealth of information
Astronomers have discovered a black hole that’s blasting out jets of plasma in all directions – because it’s spinning so fast, it’s warping spacetime around it. It’s totally normal for a black hole to shoot out fast-moving material when it’s chewing up a companion star, as V404 Cygni is doing right now. The black hole
Within half a century, it’s possible that Facebook could be overrun by the dead, with more deceased users making up the world’s largest social network than living, active people, a new study suggests. This provocative projection comes from a pair of researchers at the University of Oxford, who ran the numbers on Facebook’s massive audience
It came out of nowhere. Just a few short weeks ago – in an alternate reality otherwise identical to our own – it popped up on our screens: a giant asteroid hurtling through space, and headed straight for us. At least, maybe it is. Nobody really knows. In this hypothetical scenario, the facts on the
School girl kid’s imagination with learning inspiration in innovative science technology engineering maths STEM education concept Getty I keep a number of quotes in my work office wall for a routine reading throughout my days. One of them is by 92 years’ young Benedictine monk David Steindl Rast. It says, “Today is a wonderful new
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith is said to be unsatisfied with the Air Force’s response to his concerns about the Launch Service Procurement competition. WASHINGTON — A war of words between the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the Air Force over a multibillion-dollar national security launch services competition appears to
At the end of Avengers: Infinity War half the people (including heroes and villains) in the universe were gone in the snap of a finger from Thanos (Josh Brolin). So how can Avengers: Endgame (in cinemas from this week) try to bring them back? Well, with that tried and tested movie plot device: time travel.
For five nights, the skies above Jean Dean’s home were dark and clear. Here in her backyard, on the remote Channel Island of Guernsey, the 60-year-old grandmother and retired oceanographer was taking part in a star-gazing course. Whatever she saw up there was too beautiful not to capture. Using 13 hours of exposure, the amateur
It may soon be legal for the dead to push daisies, or any other flower, in backyard gardens across Washington state. The state legislature recently passed a bill that, if signed by the governor, allows human bodies to be composted – and used for mulch. As the nation ages, US funeral practices are changing. Rates
I typically write about contemporary weather and climate science from many perspectives. But at times, I just like to use my Forbes outlet to provide basic “weather 101” on topics that may be of interest to the reader. In this installment, I explore the concept of air temperature. You probably check the air temperature reading routinely
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