When Artemis II sends a crew on a lunar flyby next year, the mission won’t just return astronauts to the moon’s surface. It could also begin a new era of space exploration.‘I love it when it just turns into a star!’ Christina Koch exclaimed. The NASA astronaut and three colleagues, dressed in blue flight apparel, were standing on a knoll at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida peering into the night sky as the most powerful rocket that had ever launched turned into a pinprick of light.Minutes earlier, at 1:47 a.m. on November 16, 2022, the 32-story flying machine known rather...…When Artemis II sends a crew on a lunar flyby next year, the mission won’t just return astronauts to the moon’s surface. It could also begin a new era of space exploration.‘I love it when it just turns into a star!’ Christina Koch exclaimed. The NASA astronaut and three colleagues, dressed in blue flight apparel, were standing on a knoll at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida peering into the night sky as the most powerful rocket that had ever launched turned into a pinprick of light.Minutes earlier, at 1:47 a.m. on November 16, 2022, the 32-story flying machine known rather...WW…

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.On a summer day 110 million years ago, an armored dinosaur likely ambled through the remains of a wildfire in what is now Alberta, Canada, gobbling up delicate green ferns peeking out from the ash. Somehow, shortly after, the dinosaur ended up dead in a river among the Cretaceous landscape and was swept out to sea. The ancient creature remained entombed in marine sediments until 2011, when an oil-sands miner stumbled across the remains: the best-preserved dinosaur of its kind ever discovered. Already, the fossil has shed new...…Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.On a summer day 110 million years ago, an armored dinosaur likely ambled through the remains of a wildfire in what is now Alberta, Canada, gobbling up delicate green ferns peeking out from the ash. Somehow, shortly after, the dinosaur ended up dead in a river among the Cretaceous landscape and was swept out to sea. The ancient creature remained entombed in marine sediments until 2011, when an oil-sands miner stumbled across the remains: the best-preserved dinosaur of its kind ever discovered. Already, the fossil has shed new...WW…

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.President Donald Trump’s diagnosis of COVID-19 is the most significant threat to presidential health in decades—and another case among the millions in the United States so far.On Monday, the president confirmed his intentions to return to the White House, just a day after his physicians disclosed that he has needed supplemental oxygen twice so far—once on Friday morning and again on Saturday—in response to periods when his blood oxygen saturation levels had dipped below 94 percent. Blood oxygen saturation is an indicator of...…Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.President Donald Trump’s diagnosis of COVID-19 is the most significant threat to presidential health in decades—and another case among the millions in the United States so far.On Monday, the president confirmed his intentions to return to the White House, just a day after his physicians disclosed that he has needed supplemental oxygen twice so far—once on Friday morning and again on Saturday—in response to periods when his blood oxygen saturation levels had dipped below 94 percent. Blood oxygen saturation is an indicator of...WW…

The massive cosmic object lurks in a star system you can see with the naked eye.During winter in the Southern Hemisphere, a blue point of light in the constellation Telescopium gleams overhead. The brilliant pinprick on the sky, which looks like a bright star, is actually two stars in close orbit—accompanied by the closest known black hole to Earth.The newly discovered black hole is about 1,011 light-years from our solar system in the star system HR 6819. Unveiled today , the invisible object is locked in an orbit with two visible stars. It’s estimated to be about four times the mass of the...…The massive cosmic object lurks in a star system you can see with the naked eye.During winter in the Southern Hemisphere, a blue point of light in the constellation Telescopium gleams overhead. The brilliant pinprick on the sky, which looks like a bright star, is actually two stars in close orbit—accompanied by the closest known black hole to Earth.The newly discovered black hole is about 1,011 light-years from our solar system in the star system HR 6819. Unveiled today , the invisible object is locked in an orbit with two visible stars. It’s estimated to be about four times the mass of the...WW…

Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities are contending with an emerging threat: new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Researchers around the world have recently identified three notable variants: , first found in the United Kingdom in December; , found in South Africa in December; and , identified in Brazil on January 13.There’s no evidence that any of these variants are deadlier than versions of the virus that came before. However, some may be more transmissible due to mutations that alter the...…Please be respectful of copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited.More than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, public health authorities are contending with an emerging threat: new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Researchers around the world have recently identified three notable variants: , first found in the United Kingdom in December; , found in South Africa in December; and , identified in Brazil on January 13.There’s no evidence that any of these variants are deadlier than versions of the virus that came before. However, some may be more transmissible due to mutations that alter the...WW…

Since 2000, there have always been humans living and working on the International Space Station—and the streak could just be getting started.On Halloween in the year 2000, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and flew into the history books, carrying one U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to the nascent International Space Station (ISS).The crew arrived two days later, and the space station has been continuously occupied by humans ever since, a 20-year streak of living and working in low-Earth orbit.“There’s kids now who are in college who, for...…Since 2000, there have always been humans living and working on the International Space Station—and the streak could just be getting started.On Halloween in the year 2000, a Russian Soyuz rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and flew into the history books, carrying one U.S. astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts to the nascent International Space Station (ISS).The crew arrived two days later, and the space station has been continuously occupied by humans ever since, a 20-year streak of living and working in low-Earth orbit.“There’s kids now who are in college who, for...WW…

The historic attempt to sample the asteroid Bennu could provide clues to the origins of our solar system—and of life itself.…The historic attempt to sample the asteroid Bennu could provide clues to the origins of our solar system—and of life itself.WW…

Two Spinosaurus aegyptiacus hunt Onchopristis, a prehistoric sawfish,in the waters of a vast river system that once covered Morocco more than95 million years ago. Newfound fossils demonstrate that the dinosaur'stail was well suited for swimming—bolstering the case that Spinosaurusspent much of its time in the water.April 29, 2020At the end of a dim hallway in Casablanca’s Université Hassan II, I’vewalked into a dusty room containing a remarkable set of fossils—bones thatraise foundational questions about ,one of the weirdest dinosaurs ever discovered.Longer than an adult Tyrannosaurus rex,...…Two Spinosaurus aegyptiacus hunt Onchopristis, a prehistoric sawfish,in the waters of a vast river system that once covered Morocco more than95 million years ago. Newfound fossils demonstrate that the dinosaur'stail was well suited for swimming—bolstering the case that Spinosaurusspent much of its time in the water.April 29, 2020At the end of a dim hallway in Casablanca’s Université Hassan II, I’vewalked into a dusty room containing a remarkable set of fossils—bones thatraise foundational questions about ,one of the weirdest dinosaurs ever discovered.Longer than an adult Tyrannosaurus rex,...WW…

More than 70 million years ago in what's now Montana, the plant-eatinghadrosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri roamed. A new study of H. stebingerinestlings has found fossils of dividing cells, nuclei, and chromosomes—aswell as tantalizing hints of preserved DNA.March 3, 2020For billions of years, DNA has served as life’s information molecule,containing instructions for how and when to build the proteins of livingorganisms. But how long can that biological information survive? In a provocativenew study, an international team of researchers reveals dinosaur fossilsthat are so well preserved, some...…More than 70 million years ago in what's now Montana, the plant-eatinghadrosaur Hypacrosaurus stebingeri roamed. A new study of H. stebingerinestlings has found fossils of dividing cells, nuclei, and chromosomes—aswell as tantalizing hints of preserved DNA.March 3, 2020For billions of years, DNA has served as life’s information molecule,containing instructions for how and when to build the proteins of livingorganisms. But how long can that biological information survive? In a provocativenew study, an international team of researchers reveals dinosaur fossilsthat are so well preserved, some...WW…

Months of testing confirm earlier suspicions that the fragments were made in modern times. What happens next?…Months of testing confirm earlier suspicions that the fragments were made in modern times. What happens next?WW…