Science

Roads and the vehicles that use them are responsible for 84% of the microplastics found in the atmosphere, according to a new study. Researchers at Utah State University have studied various sources of atmospheric microplastic pollution found in the western United States over a period of 14 months. These microscopic pieces of plastic contamination are so widespread that they affect …

by Zoltan Fodor, Penn State When the results of an experiment do not match the predictions made by the best theory of the day, something is out of the question. Fifteen years ago, physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory discovered something confusing. The muons, a type of subatomic particle, moved in unexpected ways that did not match theoretical predictions. Was the …

(Newer) – When Alena Wicker realized the racial and gender differences in employment in the fields of STEM, she went to work. The 12-year-old from Texas told her mother, “I want to create this culture of brown girls at STEM because it’s all this gap and I just want to do something,” Good Morning America reports. In fact, the Pew …

The prototype of the Starship SN8 during landing, when one of its engines ignites. Re-ignition was a key test parameter that was successfully performed during the prototype test last December. Image: SpaceX / Twitter In an interesting experimental permission request filed with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this week, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) asked the regulator to give …

NASA has released a new image of the blue dunes of Mars, and it looks more like an alien planet from Mass Effect than our own solar system. Although the image is new to our eyes, it is actually a fairly old photo. The image below was taken using multiple images taken by NASA’s longest-running spacecraft, the Mars Odyssey orbit, …

Born of the winds of the imagination, a new innovative project to deliver a swarm of small spacecraft to explore Venus’s dense atmosphere has just received an encouraging financial boost from NASA’s $ 500,000 funding. According to a press release from NASA, scientists from the Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI) have designed these miniature soaring sensors, so they have appropriately named …

A unique astronomical music project has turned NASA spacecraft data into celestial sound baths into a set of new videos. On Wednesday (March 24th), NASA released three videos made in collaboration with its Chandra X-ray Center (CXC) and the SYSTEM Sounds research program. Videos combine light data from Hubble Space Telescope, observations made by NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory and other …

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have discovered three liquid phases in aerosol particles that change our understanding of air pollutants in the Earth’s atmosphere. While aerosol particles are known to contain up to two liquid phases, the detection of an additional liquid phase may be important to provide more accurate atmospheric models and climate forecasts. The study was …

In your opinion, how much dust from comets and asteroids finds its way to our beautiful planet and falls to earth every year? Come on, guess what. One ton? Ten tons? A new study looking at micrometeorites – literally microscopic particles of meteorites, particles of rocks and metals from space that fall to Earth – shows that about 5200 tons …

Today, a relatively small asteroid is expected to miss Earth just 12,000 miles away. This may sound like a long distance, but it is a very close omission compared to most asteroids. The asteroid is called 2021GW4 and according to NASA is about 16 feet in diameter. According to Mike Murray, an astronomer at the Delta College Planetarium, the 16-foot …