Miniature livers will fly aboard the International Space Station in an upcoming study on whether microgravity can encourage the growth of healthy tissue with an ample blood supply. It’s an effort that could potentially lead to personalized, space-grown tissues and organs for use in transplant surgeries, scientists say. In two upcoming experiments, researchers plan to … Read more
Tiny photosynthetic microbes could be secretly thriving on Mars — hiding inside small bubbles of liquid water in the thin layers of dusty ice that litter the Red Planet’s surface, a new NASA-led study reveals. Researchers believe the icy patches could be among the most promising targets in the hunt for extraterrestrial life within our … Read more
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend a night on Mars? This excerpt from the new book “Daydreaming in the Solar System” by John E. Moores and Jesse Rogerson, takes a poetic look at what it might be like to explore the Red Planet if you were faced with the daunting … Read more
Material harvested from asteroids could be used to sustain astronauts during long-duration space missions. Researchers from Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration have identified a way to produce edible biomass, aka food, using microbes and the organic compounds found in asteroids. Their proposed process addresses the issue of how to pack enough food … Read more
It may take less than 1,000 years for an advanced alien civilization to destroy its own planet with climate change, even if it relies solely on renewable energy, a new model suggests. When astrophysicists simulated the rise and fall of alien civilizations, they found that, if a civilization were to experience exponential technological growth and … Read more
Far beyond the eight familiar planets in our solar system, countless bizarre and extreme worlds await discovery — and some have already been found. Thanks to rapidly advancing telescope technology, astronomers have detected more than 5,600 planets outside our solar system. These exoplanets, as scientists call them, are worlds of lava, and worlds of water. They’re worlds … Read more
Every planet in our solar system is essentially round. But out in the universe, are there any planets that aren’t spherical? Technically, planets are round, by definition; they need to have enough mass to produce the gravity required to pull themselves into a spherical shape. “Actually, one of the specifications for being a planet is, … Read more
A nuclear bomb could save Earth from a catastrophic asteroid impact, according to a first-of-its-kind lab study. The new experiment, conducted using the world’s most powerful laboratory radiation source, demonstrated that detonating a coordinated nuclear strike close to an asteroid would produce enough force to deflect it from a fatal collision with our planet. Yet … Read more
We have some incredibly powerful telescopes that have given us spectacular views of the cosmos and allowed us to look back to the early days of the universe. These observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), are amazing feats of engineering that have required billions of dollars and decades of work. But what … Read more
Earth may have had a giant ring of space rocks surrounding it, similar to those around Saturn, which could have led to chaotic meteorite strikes on our planet’s surface, new research suggests. The hypothesized ring may have formed roughly 466 million years ago and was the remains of a gigantic asteroid tugged apart by Earth’s … Read more
