Copernical Team
Despite doubts from quantum physicists: Einstein's theory of relativity reaffirmed
One of the most basic assumptions of fundamental physics is that the different properties of mass - weight, inertia and gravitation - always remain the same in relation to each other. Without this equivalence, Einstein's theory of relativity would be contradicted and our current physics textbooks would have to be rewritten. Although all measurements to date confirm the equivalence principle, qua MSU studies nutrients that may have fertilized ancient photosynthesis in Earth's oceans
The Earth is 4.5 billion years old, and, during that time, it has seen some things. Life has been a part of most of that history, but what life has looked like has changed dramatically over the eons.
Deciphering how life worked on this planet during its different epochs is one of the things that Dalton Hardisty works on at Michigan State University.
In fact, he's part of an internati Asteroid-smashing NASA probe sent boulders into space
When a NASA spacecraft successfully knocked an asteroid off course last year it sent dozens of boulders skittering into space, images from the Hubble telescope showed on Thursday.
NASA's fridge-sized DART probe smashed into the pyramid-sized, rugby ball-shaped asteroid Dimorphos roughly 11 million kilometres (6.8 million miles) from Earth in September last year.
The spacecraft knocked th On space, poll shows most Americans support NASA's role, U.S. presence
New polling data released by the Pew Research Center indicates that Americans want the nation to maintain a continued presence in space.
A sample group of 10,329 U.S. adults was surveyed between May 30 and June 4.
About seven in 10 respondents said America's role in space was essential, while 30% said it was not.
The survey indicates that 47% of Americans have done at leas Life on Earth didn't arise as described in textbooks
No, oxygen didn't catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth's first multicellular organisms. The result defies a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ago.
Between 685 and 800 million years ago, multicellular organisms began to appear in all of Earth's oceans during what's known as the Avalon explosion, a forerunner era of the mor Week in images: 17-21 July 2023
Week in images: 17-21 July 2023
Discover our week through the lens
California Science Center starts complex process to display Space Shuttle Endeavour vertically
Earth from Space: New York
Image:
This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image highlights the colours of autumn over the southern part of New York state in the US. Galaxy J1135 reveals its water map
First contact with aliens could end in colonization and genocide if we don't learn from history
We're only halfway through 2023, and it feels already like the year of alien contact.
In February, President Joe Biden gave orders to shoot down three unidentified aerial phenomena—NASA's title for UFOs. Then, the alleged leaked footage from a Navy pilot of a UFO, and then news of a whistleblower's report on a possible U.S. government cover-up about UFO research. Most recently, an independent analysis published in June suggests that UFOs might have been collected by a clandestine agency of the U.S. government.
If any actual evidence of extraterrestrial life emerges, whether from whistleblower testimony or an admission of a cover-up, humans would face a historic paradigm shift.
As members of an Indigenous studies working group who were asked to lend our disciplinary expertise to a workshop affiliated with the Berkeley SETI Research Center, we have studied centuries of culture contacts and their outcomes from around the globe. Our collaborative preparations for the workshop drew from transdisciplinary research in Australia, New Zealand, Africa and across the Americas.
In its final form, our group statement illustrated the need for diverse perspectives on the ethics of listening for alien life and a broadening of what defines "intelligence" and "life.