Pioneering oceanographer Walter Munk dies of pneumonia in California
The death of pioneering oceanographer Walter Munk was announced on Friday by the University of California, San Diego. He was 101 and died of pneumonia in La Jolla,
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Scientists report correlation between locations of Easter Island statues and water resources
A United-States-based team of scientists released findings on Thursday about the large statues that dot the island of Rapa Nui, also called Easter Island. The study, published on Thursday in PLOS One, employed…
Simple animals could live in Martian brines: Wikinews interviews planetary scientist Vlada Stamenković
Planetary scientist Vlada Stamenković of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and colleagues have developed a new chemical model of how oxygen dissolves in Martian conditions, which raises the possibility of oxygen-rich…
Manned Soyuz space mission aborts during launch
Soyuz MS-10, a manned Russian space mission bound for the International Space Station (ISS) for a six-month stay, was forced to abort by a booster rocket failure Thursday morning. Rescue teams successfully recovered…
Total lunar eclipse occurs in July 2018
On Friday–Saturday —depending on observer's timezone— a total lunar eclipse occurred as the Moon was in the shadow of the Earth. As normal during such an eclipse, the Moon became faint and turned completely red as bluer…
NASA's InSight lander and MarCO craft launch in new mission to Mars
On Saturday, United Launch Alliance launched a Atlas V 401 rocket carrying NASA's InSight Mars lander and two Mars Cube One (MarCO) miniature spacecraft known as cubesats. The pre-dawn launch from Vandenberg Air Force…
British scientist Stephen Hawking dies aged 76
British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking died at his home in Cambridge, England, early on Wednesday morning, a family spokesman said that day. Hawking was 76 years
Peggy Whitson, record-breaking 'American space ninja', returns to Earth
Just after sunrise on Sunday (1:21 UTC), NASA astronaut and biochemist Peggy Whitson, 57, returned to Earth in Kazakhstan, in a Soyuz capsule, after a 288-day mission in the International Space Station (ISS), bringing…
Former NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan dies aged 82
Eugene Cernan, former NASA astronaut and the most recent human to walk on the Moon, died on Monday aged 82, according to a NASA statement. Cernan, who commanded the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon in 1972, was in Houston,…
Geneticists produce laser-activated killer mice
In research released on Thursday in Cell, scientists from Yale University report they managed to trigger instinctive hunting behavior in mice using optogenetics, a manner of priming cells within an organism's brain to…
Slow-cooking dinosaur eggs may have contributed to extinction, say scientists
A joint research team from the University of Calgary, American Museum of Natural History, and Florida State University announced on Monday that the eggs of non-avian dinosaurs such as the duck-billed dinosaur took as…
Scientists find dinosaur feathers preserved in amber
An international team of researchers announced on Thursday they have found the tail of a juvenile dinosaur preserved in amber — with its feathers still attached. Although some preserved feathers that may have been from…
Final panel added to China's FAST radio telescope
On Sunday, China announced the attachment of the final panel to its telescope named Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST). This piece marks the end of a five-year-long US$180 million (CNY¥1.2 billion)…
NASA releases complete image of Pluto's crescent
On Thursday, NASA released the first complete picture of Pluto's crescent from the New Horizons probe. The probe captured the image with its Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) on July 14, fifteen minutes after…
Biologist Nick Bos tells Wikinews about 'self-medicating' ants
Nick Bos, of the University of Helsinki, studies "the amazing adaptations social insects have evolved in order to fight the extreme parasite pressure they experience". In a recently-accepted Evolution paper Bos and…
NASA's New Horizons space probe performs first close planetary flyby of Pluto
On Tuesday, NASA's space probe New Horizons reached near Pluto. It was launched about nine-and-a-half years ago on January 19, 2006 to collect data about the dwarf planet, amongst other targets. With its flyby on…
Explorers find shipwreck thought to be massive WWII battleship Musashi
Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen yesterday announced his ocean exploration team has found a wreck thought to be the Musashi, one of the largest warships ever built. The Musashi was a Japanese battleship sunk…
Rare megamouth shark found dead in Pio Duran, Philippines
A megamouth shark was found dead in the Philippines on Wednesday. There have been only fifteen confirmed sightings in the nation and around 60
SpaceX launches fifth resupply rocket to International Space Station
Space transport services company SpaceX launched their fifth Dragon resupply vehicle to the International Space Station yesterday. The spacecraft — containing more than 2,200kg (5,000 pounds) of food, experiments, and…
Orion Spacecraft accomplishes first spaceflight test
NASA has finally accomplished its first spaceflight with the new Orion spacecraft, uncrewed, on Friday morning. The spacecraft has now traveled farther from the Earth than any other spacecraft designed to carry a crew…
