Science
Scientific discoveries and research
China's space probe reaches asteroid after 1-billion-kilometer chase for first sample return
China's Tianwen-2 space probe, which is set to bring back samples from an asteroid for research, has reached its target after traveling 1 billion kilometers (62...
Thousands flee raging wildfires in southern Europe
Wildfires raged across Southern Europe on Monday, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their homes and prompting officials to ban spectators from a stage of...
Euclid discovers the most ancient quasars in the universe
The European Space Agency's Euclid space telescope has discovered 31 of the most ancient quasars ever found. Two of these giant and dazzling galaxy cores, power...
An island of calm at the violent heart of the galaxy
Where would you go to watch a star being born? Probably not the heart of the Milky Way, which is about the most violent neighborhood our galaxy has to offer, a...
Rats show empathy, according to model
A rat first frees a cagemate rat and then shares food with it. Is this animal just as empathetic as humans? In an American study from 2011, researchers observed...
Spring songbirds may help pollinate UK trees, with pollen on 89% of studied birds
The warblers—those harbingers of spring in the U.K.—have an unappreciated talent of a different sort. Common U.K. birds, including chiffchaffs and blackcaps, ar...
Deuterium in comets tells interesting tales
Comets have played an interesting role in the history of astronomy. Since antiquity, many cultures saw them as omens or spirits, portending good or bad news for...
European cities short on shade as heat waves hit, urban mapping reveals
More than four in five homes and workplaces across 25 European cities have less nearby tree canopy than what is needed for meaningful cooling, according to an o...
Mars express captures dozens of dust devils in Mars valley
Dust devils are a regular feature on Mars. Just like those found on Earth, these mini whirlwinds form when parts of Mars are warmed by the sun, causing air abov...
A nearby black hole as a window into the early universe
An international team led by Stefanie Komossa from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn has studied a galaxy that has been shining excep...
Scattered bronze bells in Chinese lord's 2,600-year-old tomb point to ritual deactivation
When archaeologists opened the 2,600-year-old tomb of an ancient Chinese lord, they discovered his magnificent bronze bells had been scattered, their wooden han...
Mini monitor measures artificial heartbeat
An international team, including the University of Tokyo, has created a sensor inspired by the lateral line in fish—their "sixth sense" organ—which measures the...