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There's a weird, disappearing dark spot on Saturn's moon Enceladus
"After staring at dozens and dozens of image pairs, she found something interesting."
This red giant star has starspots larger than the entire sun
Astronomers modeled sunspot activity on a nearby red giant star to learn about its chaotic interior.
Potentially habitable planet TRAPPIST-1b may have a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere
The innermost Earth-like planet in the famous TRAPPIST-1 system might be capable of supporting a thick atmosphere after all, according to new research.
2,000-year-old RSVP: A birthday invitation from the Roman frontier that has the earliest known Latin written by a woman
This wafer-thin wooden tablet from a first-century Roman fort in the U.K. includes a heartfelt birthday party invitation.
Could we ever retrieve memories from a dead person's brain?
Neuroscientists have identified the physical locations where memories are stored in the brain. But would that enable us to retrieve memories from someone who has died?
Fungus is wiping out frogs. These tiny saunas could save them.
Our purpose-built "frog saunas" allow amphibians to warm up in winter and bake off chytrid infections. You can even DIY and build a frog sauna for your own backyard with our step-by-step guide.
What's the difference between an active, dormant and extinct volcano?
To be considered active, a volcano must have erupted at some point during the Holocene, but dormant and extinct are a little harder to define.
A sea monster with its head on its butt? 10 times we were completely wrong about dinosaur-age creatures
Humans have a long history of misinterpreting ancient fossils. Here are 10 creatures from the dinosaur age that looked way different than we thought.
What is embodied AI?
Embodied AI enables robots and autonomous drones to interact with the real world, but how does it work?
Space photo of the week: Hubble captures a cosmic snow angel created by a bright, young star
Created by a young star, the bipolar star-forming region Sharpless 2-106 in this Hubble image depicts how intense the star-formation process can get.
Our favorite space stories of 2024 — from lost planets to human-caused meteor showers
From the mysterious Planet Nine to the prospect of a "human-caused meteor shower," space and physics editor Brandon Specktor lists his favorite stories of 2024.
Hairy giant tarantula: The monster among mini tarantulas with 'feather duster' legs
The newly discovered tarantula Trichopelma grande has unusually hairy legs for a ground-dwelling species. It's also much bigger than its relatives — and scientists aren't sure why.
Do blind people 'see' images in their dreams?
For people who have been blind since birth, brain scans alone can't reveal if they dream in images.
Sunlight shapes our evolution — and may explain why some people have curly hair
Light helps explains the evolution of our skin color, why some of us have curly hair, and the size of our eyes. And light still shapes us today.
Why is fluoride added to drinking water?
Fluoride is added to tap water in many countries around the world. But why?
10 times space missions went very wrong in 2024
From astronauts getting stranded on a leaking ISS and faceplanting moon landers to injured Mars robots and a tumbling solar sail, here are 10 of the biggest space exploration mishaps in 2024.
Climate change is the worst. Here's just how bad it got this year.
The big news in Earth science this year was all about climate change, with extreme weather, flooding and drought attributed to warming. Scientists also warned about much worse to come if we don't rein in carbon emissions.
Parker Solar Probe survives historic closest-ever flyby of the sun, NASA confirms
On Christmas Eve, NASA's Parker Solar Probe flew closer to the sun than any human-made object ever — a stunning technological feat that scientists liken to the historic Apollo moon landing in 1969. Now, we know it survived.
