Science

What It Will Take for Humans to Live on the Moon

The last time we put a human on the moon was 1972, over four decades ago. Since then we’ve learned a lot about it. Our probes and robots have revealed it’s a harsh, barren space boulder with a nightmarish environment. But, you know what else we’ve learned? In the last 40 years we’ve also learned…

What’s Stopping Us from Building Cities in Space? No, It’s Not Tech.

The US has a plan for Americans to live in space. In 2012, the National Research Council was commissioned by Congress to roadmap the future of human space exploration. Last June, the team published its findings in a massive report, which called for several action steps to be taken immediately. One year later, are we…

40 Years of Bad Science: How Jaws Got Everything Wrong About Sharks

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of its original release, Jaws will be shown on the big screen once more on June 21st. Few other movies have cast such a long shadow into the “real” world as the first summer blockbuster. As a marine biologist whose research focuses on shark conservation, I’ve been living in that…

Stunning Image of Saturn’s Moon Captured from Just 300 Miles Above It

The pock-marked surface of this spherical chunk of rock looks a lot like images of our own Moon—but in fact, this is much, much further away. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft buzzed by Saturn’s moon Dione on June 16th, passing just 321 miles from its surface. As it soared through space, it also captured this amazing image…

View of the galaxy? Check. Earth’s moody atmosphere? Check. Sci-fi-like view of the International Space Station? Check. Yep, that’s a damn fine picture from astronaut Scott Kelly. [Scott Kelly]

Even Teenage Quasars Are a Hot Mess

Human teenagers don’t have the best rep for being stable, rational individuals. And so too with quasi-stellar objects in their formative years, which scientists are now calling “all messed up”. The image above, a composite set taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, have given scientists new insight into how quasars form, and how they can…

Police Are Trying to Use Honeybees to Detect Illegal Drugs

With drug laws changing all the time, it’s hard for police sniffer dogs to keep up with what they’re supposed to find and what they aren’t. That’s why police forces are turning to insects to sniff out narcotics. An odd scientific paper in PLoS One today details the very first attempts to get insects to…

NASA: We Are Going to Europa

Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered in a thick layer of constantly-shifting ice which appears to be floating atop a deep, warm ocean. Scientists have long suggested that it’s the most likely place that life might have evolved beyond Earth. And now, at last, NASA has confirmed our first mission to Europa has entered the development…

“Virgin Births” Won’t Save The Smalltooth Sawfish From Extinction

The critically endangered smalltooth sawfish was recently found to be capable of asexual reproduction. It’s an exciting discovery for many reasons, but breathless claims by the media that sawfish could save their species from extinction by resorting to virgin births are wrong, wrong, wrong. Let’s explore why. For those who missed the news: A couple…

A NASA Expert Is Here To Answer Your Questions About Orbital Settlements

It’s Space Habitats Week here at Gizmodo and io9. Planetary settlements have garnered a lot of attention lately, from caves on the Moon to eventual outposts on Mars (we’re not going to talk about Mars One). Today, you can ask Al Globus, an expert on orbital settlements, about why humanity’s future is in orbit rather…

6 Horrible and Doomed Space Missions, Brought to You By Crowdfunding 

Government funding for space travel ain’t what it used to be. Private organizations are our best hope for exploring beyond Earth’s increasingly noxious atmosphere, and to get your cash they’re turning to Indiegogo and Kickstarter to fund ambitious space missions. Unfortunately, most of the projects are bonkers messes doomed to fail. Reach for the moon,…

Who Will Really Benefit From the Internet Space Race?

In the film Elysium, the ultra-rich have left an apocalyptic Earth ravaged by global warming and overpopulation. Their utopian colony orbits high above Earth which festers below. Science fiction, but Silicon Valley techno-utopians also dream of rising above the planet’s problems. The Seasteading Institute, for example, seeks to create floating cities far enough from land…

Titan’s Lakes Captured In All Their Methane-Filled Glory

Despite the obvious similarities, this isn’t another satellite shot showing the Droughtpocalypse engulfing California. Instead, it’s a radar scan of methane-filled lakes on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. The images were taken by the international Cassini mission, as part of a study into what forms depressions on Titan. Although scientists have a handle on why the…

A Russian Official Wants To Investigate The Apollo Missions

Calling for ‘international investigations’ into the ‘murky’ details surrounding the Apollo Moon missions is normally the preserve of 4chan and tinfoil hat-wearers. But now, you can add Russian Investigative Commission spokesperson Vladimir Markin to that illustrious list. Markin penned a column for the Izvestia newspaper, arguing that U.S. officials have made themselves the ‘supreme arbiters…

A Galaxy of Gorgeous Space Habitats

Art allows us to see beyond the boundaries of what’s currently possible. On sites like DeviantArt and Tumblr, artists share their stunning visions for life in space. Let’s take a trip through the wormhole to a future of space stations, colony ships and distant living quarters on dusty planets. Space Habitat by Lyno3ghe on DeviantArt…

Interplanetary Spacecraft, Ranked

We may be dirty monkeys at heart, but humans have done some pretty astonishing things in outer space over the past 50 years. We’ve launched dozens of interplanetary spacecraft, and explored most of the solar system with space robots who sent back pictures and scientific data. Here are our favorite of those craft, ranked for…

This Is the World’s First 3D-Printed Platinum Spacecraft Thruster

More than 600 ignitions and an hour of firing—this was the heavy test for the world’s first spacecraft thruster with a platinum combustion chamber and nozzle made by 3D printing. And the thruster successfully passed its baptism of fire. This is the 10 N hydrazine thruster which was printed in platinum—rhodium alloy using a laser…

This Is Where Philae Phones Home

Earlier this week, the Philae lander finally woke up after seven months in hibernation on Comet 67P. And this is rather plain desk where the messages arrived. Well, what were you expecting? The European Space Agency released this wonderfully normal photograph yesterday, and it’s a lovely reminder that very normal people do very exciting science…

Physicists Just Cooled Molecules to a Hair Above Absolute Zero

Many scientists say that reaching absolute zero is a lot like traveling at the speed of light: impossible. Well, some MIT scientists almost pulled a Doc Brown and got a lot closer to the impossible goal by cooling a molecule to 500 nanokelvins. That’s just above absolute zero and about a million times colder than…

Why This Adorable Squid Cuddles For Hours After Sex

Southern dumpling squids (Euprymna tasmanica) are natives of shallow, sandy Australian sea beds, and their small, squat bodies and huge eyes combine to make them one of the most frickin-adorable animals on the planet. They spend their days hiding under the sand, but at night they’re tenacious lovers. Mature adults don’t spend much time on…