Apr 18th, 2024 - Some 3,800 light-years away from Earth, in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Norma, lies a massive cloud of gas and dust. Nicknamed the "Dragon's Egg" nebula for its proximity to the Fighting Dragons of Ara nebula complex, this mysterious cosmic structure has baffled astronomers. Now, researchers have discovered new evidence to support the idea that the breathtaking purple, pink and orange orb was born from a violent past. A stellar tango flows beautifully inside the Dragon's Egg. Two massive stars reside, each bound by the other's gravitational pull, but they are rather unalike. One is ... [Read More]

Apr 18th, 2024 - Don't you hate it when you leave your valuables in your car with no way to get them back—and they're 140 million miles from Earth? That's the prospect NASA is facing right now. Its flagship multibillion-dollar mission to return invaluable and samples of rock and dust from Mars is in trouble . The mission is facing an "unacceptable" rising cost of $11 billion and a delay to 2040 for bringing the precious payload home, said NASA chief Bill Nelson in a call with reporters this week. That wait is "too long," he said. Instead the agency will now turn to private companies to provide it with ... [Read More]

Apr 18th, 2024 - The potential of quantum computing is immense, but the distances over which entangled particles can reliably carry information remains a massive hurdle. The tiniest of disturbances can make a scrambled mess of their relationship. To circumvent the problem, quantum computing researchers have found ways to stabilize long lengths of optical fibers or used satellites to preserve signals through the near-vacuum of space. Yet there's more to a quantum-based network than a transmission. Scientists struggled to crack their long sought-after goal of developing a system of interconnected units or ... [Read More]

Apr 18th, 2024 - Remains of the Vasuki indicus found in a mine are estimated to be 15 metres long A giant prehistoric snake that was longer than a Tyrannosaurus rex has been unearthed in an Indian mine. The fossil vertebrae have been proven to be the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres (49 feet)  in length that prowled the swamps of what is now India around 47 million years ago. Scientists said on Thursday that they have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the reptile was ... [Read More]

Apr 18th, 2024 - convergence In the wake of North America's recent solar eclipse, another historic natural event is on the horizon. From late April through June 2024, the largest brood of 13-year cicadas, known as Brood XIX, will co-emerge with a midwestern brood of 17-year cicadas, Brood XIII. This event will affect 17 states , from Maryland west to Iowa and south into Arkansas, Alabama and northern Georgia, the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland. A co-emergence like this of two specific broods with different life cycles happens only once every 221 years . The last time these two groups emerged together was ... [Read More]

Apr 17th, 2024 - Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Wisconsin, USA, have developed a broad-spectrum vaccine that can protect against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants as well as bat sarbecoviruses. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications . Study: Broad protection against clade 1 sarbecoviruses after a single immunization with cocktail spike-protein-nanoparticle vaccine Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the most recently emerged beta-coronavirus responsible for the devastating ... [Read More]

Apr 17th, 2024 - Jupiter's moon Io has been continuously shaped by volcanic activity for billions of years — possibly even for the Solar System's entire 4.57-billion-year history, a study suggests. The findings, published in Science on 18 April 1 , have implications for the search for extraterrestrial life and for the understanding of volcanic moons and planets, including Earth. Io is the most volcanically active place in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes on its surface. This makes it difficult to study the moon's past. The moon is continuously resurfaced by the constant flow of runny lava ... [Read More]

Apr 17th, 2024 - M ore than a trillion noisy, inch-long cicadas are set to emerge from underground this spring to embark on the final leg of their lifetimes, in a massive co-emergence that hasn't been seen in more than 200 years. Cicadas that are part of both a 13-year and a 17-year brood will emerge at the same time this spring. It will be the first time since 1803—when Thomas Jefferson was President—that these particular broods simultaneously tunnel up from their burrows to find a mate and make way for the next generation of cicadas. Cicadas will be visible in a number of states including Iowa, ... [Read More]