An ancient drawing of a demon blamed for epileptic seizures has been discovered on a 2,700-year-old Assyrian clay tablet. The tablet came from the library of a family of exorcists who lived in about 650 B.C. in the city of Assur, now in northern Iraq. But it’s likely it was copied from a much older text.…
The world of the teeny-tiny may have a favorite flavor. Before you go imagining itsy-bitsy chocolate bars, understand that the world of quantum particles is split into 3 camps, called “flavors” (don’t ask why). The electrons represent one flavor, and the muon and tau particles are the other two. Science has long believed that all…
If we discovered alien life, would we even recognize it? It might be so different that we wouldn’t even realize it was life. Scott Gaudi of Nasa’s Advisory Council has said: “One thing I am quite sure of, now having spent more than 20 years in this field of exoplanets … expect the unexpected.” But is that…
So I tried this writing analysis website recently – I might have found why my science fiction isn’t “grabbing” the editors … I write likeAgatha ChristieAbout Agatha Christie | Analyze your text I mean, I adore Dame Agatha — who doesn’t like a good whodunnit? But shouldn’t I be writing like Isaac Asimov or Robert…
Scientists have discovered evidence in South Carolina that seems to point to an extraterrestrial event which caused the extinction of many large animals and a possible decline in human population nearly 13,000 years ago. A controversial theory that an extraterrestrial body crashing to earth caused another widespread extinction event is gaining traction due to such…
Astronomers may have found the solar system’s smallest dwarf planet, even smaller than Ceres. Using ESO’s SPHERE instrument at the Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered that the asteroid Hygiea has all four requirements to be classified as a dwarf planet. 1) It orbits the sun. 2) It is not a moon. 3) Unlike a…
I’ve picked up a fun series by John Varley recently. It’s about the science invented by a Cajun idiot-savant which allows apparently free energy and near light-speed travel. In the first book, Red Thunder, a group of teenagers (nearly ready for college) befriend an alcoholic space pilot and his cousin, a super-genius with a head…
Astronomers feel that ocean worlds like Jupiter’s moon Europa and Saturn’s Enceladus may be our best hope for finding life outside of our own planet. Both are icy with a subsurface ocean. The discovery of complex organic molecules that rise in plumes from Enceladus’ ocean further suggests the moon could support life as we know…
Astronomers have discovered what might be an exomoon – a moon outside our solar system. This would be the first such ever found. The moon, estimated to be about the size of our planet Neptune, was found in orbit around a gigantic gas planet 8,000 light-years from Earth. Although moons are common in our system…
Although we bid farewell to several historic space missions recently (Keppler’s nine-year planet hunting mission, Dawn’s 11-year mission to the asteroid belt, and Opportunity’s nearly 15-year exploration of Mars), we’ve had a few ground-breaking new ones to take over the skies. TESS, a planet-hunting satellite, launched in April, 2018, and is NASA’s next mission in…