A tiny universe in a bottle reveals clues to the origins of life
A PhD student in Sydney has produced cosmic dust from scratch by recreating a small piece of the universe inside a laboratory bottle. The experiment offers new clues about how…
A rare interstellar visitor triggered a SETI search for alien technology
Scientists with the SETI Institute have completed a search for possible technological signals coming from 3I/ATLAS, the third known interstellar object to pass through our Solar System. Using the Allen…
Massive asteroid impact 6.3 million years ago left giant glass field in Brazil
Scientists have identified Brazil’s first known field of tektites, the glassy material created when an asteroid or other extraterrestrial object strikes Earth with extreme force. These newly recognized specimens, called…
Scientists finally pinpoint Jupiter’s birth using “molten rock raindrops”
Four and a half billion years ago Jupiter rapidly grew to its massive size. Its powerful gravitational pull disrupted the orbits of small rocky and icy bodies similar to modern…
Organic Molecules in Space: A Key to Understanding Life’s Cosmic Origins
As researchers delve into the cosmos, organic molecules—the building blocks of life—emerge as a recurring theme, hinting at answers to some of science’s most profound questions. Recent studies, including data…
Massive asteroid impacts did not change Earth’s climate in the long term
Two massive asteroids hit Earth around 35.65 million years ago, but did not lead to any lasting changes in the Earth’s climate, according to a new study by UCL researchers.…
How did the building blocks of life arrive on Earth?
Researchers have used the chemical fingerprints of zinc contained in meteorites to determine the origin of volatile elements on Earth. The results suggest that without ‘unmelted’ asteroids, there may not…
Meteor showers shed light on where comets formed in the early solar system
An international team of 45 researchers studying meteor showers has found that not all comets crumble the same way when they approach the Sun. In a paper published in the…
Tracking down the asteroid that sealed the fate of the dinosaurs
Geoscientists from the University of Cologne have led an international study to determine the origin of the huge piece of rock that hit the Earth around 66 million years ago…
Interstellar signal linked to aliens was actually just a truck
Sound waves thought to be from a 2014 meteor fireball north of Papua New Guinea were almost certainly vibrations from a truck rumbling along a nearby road, new Johns Hopkins…