HercuList Secrets

April's Lyrid Meteors Peak Early this Week, But the Moon May Interfere

One of the oldest known annual meteor showers, peaking early this week, may unfortunately be hindered by an almost-full moon. The moon reaches full phase during the overnight hours of April 18-19, so many will likely dismiss this year's performance of the ...

Cygnus supply ship delivers 3.8-ton cargo load to International Space Station

The Cygnus spacecraft, christened the S.S. Roger Chaffee, is in the firm grasp of the space station's Canadian-built robotic arm Friday after arrival. Credit: David Saint-Jacques/CSA/NASA. NASA flight engineer Anne McClain grappled Northrop Grumman's ...

SpaceX's Next Space Station Cargo Launch Delayed to April 30

SpaceX has pushed back the launch of its next robotic resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) by four days, to April 30. The California-based company's Dragon cargo capsule is now scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 4:22 a.m. EDT ...

Here's How to Share Your 'Earth Day' Photos with NASA

NASA has a new social media campaign to gear up its audience for Earth Day, an annual event to celebrate our planet – and the importance of protecting the environment – on Monday (April 22). Social media users on Instagram, Twitter and the NASA Earth ...

Cosmic Crustacean Makes Great Birthday Card for Hubble's 29th Year (Image)

Hubble Space Telescope team members are celebrating the last birthday in the mission's 20s. In honor of that milestone, on Thursday (April 18), the team released a Hubble image featuring the hourglass-shaped Southern Crab Nebula. Not to be confused ...

Errant command doomed Israeli moon lander, officials vow to try again

A command uplinked by mission control to resolve an error in the guidance system on the Israeli Beresheet moon lander inadvertently triggered a chain reaction that led to the shutdown of the probe's main engine during descent to the lunar surface April 11, ...

Thermodynamic magic enables cooling without energy consumption

Theoretically, this experimental device could turn boiling water to ice, without using any energy. Credit: Andreas Schilling, UZH. Physicists at the University of Zurich have developed an amazingly simple device that allows heat to flow temporarily from a cold to ...

Tiny Mercury May Have a Solid Metallic Core That Rivals Earth's

A solid metallic core nearly as large as Earth's might be lurking deep within the solar system's smallest planet. That's according to new research based on data gathered by NASA's Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging ...

You can buy a baby T. rex skeleton on eBay for $3 million. Scientists would rather you didn't.

Washington Post

Washington Post

The 68-million-year-old remains of a young Tyrannosaurus rex are now up for grabs on eBay, appearing, alongside 50-piece dinosaur play sets and fiery-eyed T. rex action figures. The 15-foot skeleton, possibly the only in existence, can be had for the "buy it ...

Scientists uncover a link between RNA editing and chloroplast-to-nucleus communication

What will a three-degree-warmer world look like? How will plants fare in more extreme weather conditions? When experiencing stress or damage from various sources, plants use chloroplast-to-nucleus communication to regulate gene expression and help ...