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Space and Science

See early stars form in a galaxy 20 million light-years away

J. Spilker/S. Doyle/NASA/ESA/CSA

Webb telescope detects organic molecules in distant galaxy

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Nonsurgical cat contraception could help curb overpopulation, study says

Ben Smegelsky/NASA

NASA’s Psyche mission will launch to an unexplored metal world this fall

Mark Thiessen/National Geographic

Mysterious species buried their dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans

Courtesy Nonfiction LLC

A culinary lab offers astronauts a taste of the future

Northwestern University

Scientists ‘stunned’ by mysterious structures found in the Milky Way

Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

The strawberry moon will illuminate the sky this weekend

See images from the first Mars live stream

NASA/Getty Images

For the first time, you can see Mars as it is right now

Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images/FILE

Boeing mission to send NASA astronauts to space station faces more lengthy delays

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/G. Villanueva/A. Pagan

Webb telescope spies massive plume erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus

Seth Shostak/SETI Institute

Alien-like message sent to Earth in a test to prepare for the real thing

Aaron M. Sprecher/AP

NASA team studying unidentified phenomena shares preliminary update

From The Francis Crick Institute

4,000-year-old DNA unlocks secrets of the plague

Mark Schiefelbein/AP

China sends first civilian astronaut to space as Shenzhou-16 blasts off

SpaceX mission carrying former NASA astronaut, three paying customers returns from space station

Julia Nikhinson/AP

Manhattanhenge: Where to see New York City’s special sunset show

F. Vukosavović

Ancient toilets unearthed in Jerusalem reveal a debilitating and sometimes fatal disease

James Blair/NASA /Johnson Space Center

Meet the lunar rover that will venture to the moon’s south pole

Company selling tickets for high-end dining on the edge of space for 2024

Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters

Lunar spacecraft likely fell 3 miles before crashing into moon in historic landing attempt

From Virgin Galactic

Billionaire entrepreneur’s space tourism company pulls off high-stakes crewed test flight

Virgin Galactic

See inside high-stakes test flight to edge of space

New unprecedented images reveal what’s happening on the sun as it approaches ‘solar maximum’

Saturn’s iconic rings are disappearing

Amanda Perobelli/Reuters

New York City is sinking due to its million-plus buildings, study says

New video shows NASA rover’s stunning view into Mars crater

SpaceX mission carrying former NASA astronaut, three paying customers docks with space station

Bienvenido Velasco/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Global loss of wildlife is ‘significantly more alarming’ than previously thought, according to a new study

Saber-toothed mammalian ancestor reveals how unstable life was during ‘the Great Dying’

Alan Dyer/VW Pics/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Here’s when you can see the moon in the Da Vinci glow

Scott Camazine/Alamy Stock Photo

What mosquitoes are most attracted to in human body odor is revealed

Joe Skipper/Reuters

SpaceX mission lifts off with former NASA astronaut, three paying customers

Joel Kowsky/NASA

SpaceX to launch former astronaut, three paying customers to orbit

Joe Skipper/Reuters

See moment of liftoff as manned rocket blasts off to space

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Rushing rivers may have raced across ancient Mars

Martin Schutt/dpa-Zentralbild/picture alliance/Getty Images

6 surprising things about bees on World Bee Day

Bezos-founded Blue Origin lands major NASA moon lander project

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Perseverance rover captures new images of ancient river evidence

Atlantic Productions/Magellan

‘Largest underwater scanning project in history’ gives never-before-seen view of Titanic

Chris Smith (KRBwyle)/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Earth-size exoplanet may be covered in volcanoes

How the Mars rover searches for signs of life

Stone Age humans made to-scale plans to build mysterious mega structures

Kristen Grace/Florida Museum of Natural History

Rare fossils reveal the butterfly ‘tree of life’ over the past 100 million years

Megan Jacobs/University of Portsmouth

Size of a Jurassic sea giant found due to fossil discovery, study says

pixelprof/iStockphoto/Getty Images

What defines a species?

Webb telescope spots water in rare comet

Dr. David Duffy, the University of Florida

Human DNA can now be pulled from thin air or a footprint on the beach. Here’s what that could mean

Darryl Leja/NHGRI

Updated human DNA map captures diversity of life

B. Huertas/Trustees Natural History Museum

A new group of butterflies has been named after the ‘Lord of the Rings’ villain

Astronomers spot largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed

Guide Star Engineering LLC/Sandia National Laboratories

Mysterious rumblings were recorded in Earth’s stratosphere

Oscar Sanisidro/KU Biodiversity Institute/The University of Kansas

How did massive prehistoric ‘thunder beasts’ get super big, super fast?

SpaceX and startup Vast hope to put the world’s first private space station in orbit

From Darryl Leja/NHGRI

Scientists have updated the human genome to make it more equitable and inclusive

How the Voyager probes keep going and going decades after launch

Lasers on Artemis II will share high-definition video of the moon

From Hopewell Township PD

Possible meteorite strikes New Jersey home, authorities say

NASA/ESA/CSA/A. Pagan/A. Gáspár

Webb telescope spies evidence of hidden planets around nearby star

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic prepared to launch to the edge of space after hiatus

Rocket Lab USA Inc.

Loaf-size mission launches to improve hurricane forecasting

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Scientists used DNA to unlock who wore a 25,000-year-old pendant

Denis Riek/GO-SEA

A surprising number of drifting sea creatures found living in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Alex Milan Tracy/Sipa USA/AP

How to view a lunar eclipse, full ‘flower moon,’ and meteor shower this weekend

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

Ancient DNA from a 25,000-year-old pendant reveals intriguing details about its wearer

University of Michigan

Scientists unlock new secrets from a male woolly mammoth tusk

R. Hurt/K. Miller/Caltech/IPAC

Astronomers observe star swallowing planet for first time – and it’s the size of Jupiter

NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)

Webb telescope detects mysterious water vapor in a nearby star system

courtesy Joseph Botting

Unique fossil site discovered in Wales reveals early life forms

Alberto Cecio/Soprintendenza Archeologia

Buried treasure, including nearly 200 Roman coins, found in Italy

More massive species-ending asteroids may have hit our planet

Joe Skipper/Reuters

Starship could be ready to launch again in ‘six to eight weeks,’ Elon Musk says

Ocean Census/AP

The search for 100,000 new species in Earth’s oceans

Natural Visions/Alamy Stock Photo

Life in the ocean’s ‘twilight zone’ could disappear due to the climate crisis

Hector Retamal/AFP/Getty Images

Almost two-thirds of elephant habitat lost across Asia, study finds

Ocean Census/AP

Ocean census aims to discover 100,000 previously unknown marine species

R.-S. Lu/E. Ros/S. Dagnello/ESO

New first-of-its-kind image reveals a jet of material launching from a black hole

British Library

Listen to the mating call of a bird that went extinct two decades ago

M. Kornmesser/European Southern Observatory

Solving the mystery of the most powerful objects in the universe

Sweden Space Corp/Handout/Reuters

Rocket that landed in the wrong country recovered

Commercial lunar lander presumed lost after historic moon landing attempt

Fulya Kiroglu/Northwestern University

Messy eating habits might reveal elusive black hole

China’s Mars rover dormant likely due to dust

Universal History Archive/Getty Images

Opinion: 70 years ago, the structure of DNA was revealed. Was Rosalind Franklin robbed?

NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA mission detects first seismic waves traveling through the center of Mars

Sanka Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images

Why the northern and southern lights appear to be so active right now

Go Nakamura/Reuters

SpaceX Starship’s explosion is not the failure it appears to be, experts say

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Bill Nye explains light-years and the vastness of the universe

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Was the SpaceX launch really a ‘success’?

Cindy Hopkins/Alamy Stock Photo

Rising sea levels may have forced the Vikings out of a successful settlement

Owen Humphreys/PA Images/Getty Images

Viewing the Lyrids meteor shower could be a fun weekend activity

Go Nakamura/Reuters

SpaceX’s Starship rocket lifts off for inaugural test flight but explodes midair

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

How 4/20 became ‘Weed Day’

Jessica Kendall-Bar

Elephant seals enter ‘sleep spiral’ during deep ocean dives

Illustration/NASA

Defunct NASA spacecraft returns to Earth after 21 years

Courtesy University of Oregon

When you give a worm weed, it gets the munchies, researchers find

Watch SpaceX’s uncrewed Starship explode shortly after liftoff

SpaceX’s Starship rocket, built for the moon and Mars, lifts off in inaugural test flight

SpaceX readies for another attempt to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built

Plants that devour insects could be luring prey with signature scents

Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images

How to view this week’s rare hybrid eclipse

Catherine Falls Commercial/Moment RF/Getty Images

10-year-old asks Jane Goodall a real thinker

Joe Skipper/Reuters

SpaceX targets Thursday for next attempt to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built

J. Bayarsaikhan

Ancient DNA reveals secrets of empire that pushed China to build its Great Wall

New mission launches to explore three icy moons that could support life

In predicting the future of science, a few classic films got it eerily right

A fireball landed in the US last week, and now there’s a reward to find it

Courtesy Dominic Alberico

Paper airplane designed by Boeing engineers breaks world distance record

Rietbergen et al., 2023, PLOS ONE

Bats are an evolutionary mystery. This fossil could fill in a piece of the puzzle

An elephant living in a Berlin zoo learns how to peel a banana

The University of Western Australia / Caladan Oceanic

See the world’s deepest fish

Oriol Garcia i Quera/ASOME-Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

3,000-year-old hairs hold the oldest clues about psychoactive drug use in Europe

Josh Valcarcel/NASA

Meet the cosmic rock stars headed for the moon

ColorBlind/Digital Vision/Getty Images

Fossilized eggs crack open the mysteries of the past

David Smith/Joseph Samuel Myers/Craig S. Kaplan/Chaim Goodman-Strauss

Newly discovered ‘einstein’ shape can do something no other tile can do

Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images

Medieval moon observations reveal ‘mysterious’ volcanic eruptions

Batard Patrick/ABACA/Shutterstock

April’s full pink moon will rise this week

Alice Kitterman/National Science Foundation

Repeating radio signal leads astronomers to an Earth-size exoplanet

Sean Coughlin/Institute of Philosophy/Czech Academy of Sciences

Scientists have decoded the smell of Cleopatra’s perfume

Andrea Terceros

Scientists were able to enhance long-term memory storage in mice. Here’s how

Mike Blake/Reuters

Virgin Orbit, Richard Branson’s rocket company, will lay off 85% of staff

Chesnot/Getty Images

Scientists identify secret ingredient in Leonardo da Vinci paintings

Courtesy of Tel Aviv University

Plants aren’t silent. They make clicking sounds, a study finds

Frank Rubio’s first spaceflight will turn into the longest mission by a US astronaut

ESA/Hubble/Digitized Sky Survey

Astronomers discover ultramassive black hole using new technique

This lizard species stress-eats to cope with noisy US Army aircraft

Hubble telescope captures images of Jupiter and Uranus looking different

Charlie Riedel/AP

A stunning lineup of five planets will decorate the night sky

Meatballs made with mammoth DNA created by Australian food startup

Luis Acosta/AFP/Getty Images

Water is trapped in glass beads on the moon’s surface, lunar samples show

Sean Coughlin/Institute of Philosophy/Czech Academy of Sciences

How scientists are decoding what the past smelled like

Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University

Secrets uncovered as scientists explore Beethoven’s DNA

Emanuele Biggi/naturepl.com

A terrifying fungal disease is infecting frogs in Africa. Here’s why it matters

Prof. Hayashi, Osaka University

Scientists create mice from two dads after making eggs from skin cells

Elusive animal spotted outside its usual range for the first time in over 30 years

NASA/ESA/Joseph Olmsted and Frank Summers, STScI

Scientists uncover what accelerated an interstellar comet through our solar system

Relativity Space/YouTube

Startup’s 3D-printed rocket delivers stunning night launch but fails to reach orbit