Hubble spots auroras on Uranus

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This is a composite image of Uranus by Voyager 2 and two different observations made by Hubble — one for the ring and one for the auroras.
Ever since Voyager 2 beamed home spectacular images of the planets in the 1980s, planet-lovers have been hooked on auroras on other planets. Auroras are caused by streams of charged particles like electrons that come from various origins such as solar winds,…

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April 11, 2017 at 01:55AM

Metastasizing Academic Cancer

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The average American has little knowledge of the extent to which our institutions of higher learning have been infected with a spreading cancer. One aspect of that cancer is akin to the loyalty oaths of the 1940s and ’50s. Professors were often required to sign statements that affirmed their loyalty to the United States government plus swear they were not members of any organizations, including…

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April 11, 2017 at 01:44AM

The race to destroy space garbage

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Millions of pieces of human-made trash are now orbiting the Earth. Some are tiny, others are large enough to be seen with a telescope, but all pose a risk to space craft and satellites. And according to experts the threat is growing as space becomes more and more crowded.
Some 23,000 pieces of space junk are large enough to be tracked by the US Space Surveillance Network. But most objects are…

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April 11, 2017 at 01:34AM

Ocean tech: Robot sea snakes and shoal-swimming subs

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In the near future, ocean search-and-repair specialists won’t need arms or legs, according to one vision. In fact, they are destined to be much more slithery. "We try to get people to move away from the word snake because it’s seen as kind of scary but even I find myself all the time calling it a snake," says Richard Mills from marine tech firm Kongsberg.

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April 11, 2017 at 01:34AM