Texas woman who measures her life in eclipses about to see her 21st
By Evan Garcia FARMERS BRANCH, Texas (Reuters) - Leticia Ferrer is an "umbraphile" - literally, a shadow lover - but what it really means is that she is a chaser of eclipses. The 63-year-old Texas woman says she has traveled to all seven continents...
Apr 05, 2024
Explainer-How Monday's total solar eclipse affects U.S. grid operators
By Harshit Verma (Reuters) - Electric grids across the U.S. are anticipating a rapid decline in solar generation during Monday's total solar eclipse, which will span multiple states. NASA estimates the path of totality - when the sun is fully block...
Apr 05, 2024
Exclusive-Japan space startup Astroscale aims for June listing, sources say
By Sam Nussey and Miho Uranaka TOKYO (Reuters) - Space junk removal startup Astroscale is targeting a Tokyo listing as early as June, sources said, taking the high-profile venture public in a sector with out-of-this-world prospects and down-to-Eart...
Apr 05, 2024
Exclusive-White House directs NASA to create time standard for the moon
By Joey Roulette and Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House on Tuesday directed NASA to establish a unified standard of time for the moon and other celestial bodies, as the United States aims to set international norms in space amid a g...
Apr 02, 2024
Gene involved in cell shape offers clues on left-handedness
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - What do Lady Gaga, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Paul McCartney and Justin Bieber have in common with Ronald Reagan, Jimi Hendrix, Judy Garland, Fidel Castro and David Bowie? They are all left-handed, a trait share...
Apr 02, 2024
Dogs can associate words with objects, study finds
By Krisztina Fenyo BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Dogs are able to understand that some words refer to objects in a way that is similar to humans, a small study of canine brain waves has found, offering insight into the way the minds of man's best friends wo...
Mar 29, 2024
Secret planting operation boosts critically endangered Welsh shrub
By Helena Williams LONDON (Reuters) - At a secret location in the Welsh countryside, naturalists have planted 30 young specimens of a once-common plant that has been collected - and nibbled - almost to extinction. Cotoneaster Cambricus, Welsh Coton...
Mar 28, 2024
A million solar eclipse enthusiasts expected at Niagara Falls
By Wa Lone and Nivedita Balu NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario (Reuters) - From vintage train rides costing almost $4,000 per person to hotel rooms listed at $1,600 a night, businesses in and around majestic Niagara Falls are preparing to cash in on the April...
Mar 28, 2024
Scientists chronicle the earliest stages of a supernova
By Ari Rabinovitch REHOVOT, Israel (Reuters) - About 20 million years ago, in a galaxy not so far away, a large star exploded and sent elements representing the building blocks of life racing through space. About a year ago, by chance, as the light...
Mar 27, 2024
Twisted magnetic field observed around Milky Way's central black hole
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers on Wednesday announced that they have detected a strong and organized magnetic field twisted in a spiral pattern around the Milky Way's supermassive black hole, revealing previously unknown qualitie...
Mar 27, 2024
Humans give more viruses to animals than they give us, study finds
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some of the deadliest diseases to stalk humankind have come from pathogens that jumped from animals to people. The virus that causes AIDS, for example, crossed over from chimpanzees. And many experts believe th...
Mar 26, 2024
Send robots into space rather than people, says Britain's Astronomer Royal
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Astronomer Royal Martin Rees said sending people into space when robots could do the job just as effectively was a waste of public money, and space exploration should be left to billionaires and those willing to pay for...
Mar 26, 2024
Where did Homo sapiens go after leaving Africa? New study has an answer
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Our species emerged in Africa more than 300,000 years ago, with a migration out of the continent 60,000 to 70,000 years ago heralding the start of the global spread of Homo sapiens. But where did these pioneers...
Mar 25, 2024
Soyuz craft launches en route to International Space Station, 2 days after glitch
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a Russian, a Belarusian and an American en route to the International Space Station (ISS) was launched on Saturday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, live footage showed. The original ...
Mar 23, 2024
Scientists identify Milky Way's ancient building blocks Shakti and Shiva
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Astronomers have identified two ancient streams of stars - named after the Hindu deities Shakti and Shiva - that appear to be among the Milky Way's earliest building blocks, offering new insight into how our ga...
Mar 22, 2024
Soyuz spacecraft to launch Saturday, reach space station Monday, officials say
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A problem that forced the last-minute cancellation of a crew launch to the International Space Station has been successfully resolved and it will now take off on Saturday and dock with the ISS on Monday, Russian officials said. T...
Mar 22, 2024
Thai scientists breed coral in labs to restore degraded reefs
By Napat Wesshasartar OFF MAN NAI ISLAND, Thailand (Reuters) - On a starry night, four Thai marine biologists scuba dived through shallow waters off an island in the country's south as billions of pink specks floated up from the ocean floor in a sp...
Mar 22, 2024
Creature named for Kermit the Frog offers clues on amphibian evolution
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There definitely were no muppets during the Permian Period, but there was a Kermit - or at least a forerunner of modern amphibians that has been named after the celebrity frog. Scientists on Thursday described ...
Mar 21, 2024
Launch of Russian Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft has been cancelled -live stream
MOSCOW (Reuters) - The launch of a Russian Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft, which was meant to carry Russian and Belarusian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the ISS, has been cancelled, according to a live broadcast from the launch site. (Reporting ...
Mar 21, 2024
Fossil of 16-million-year-old river dolphin found in Peru
(Reuters) - Scientists on Wednesday unveiled a 16 million-year-old fossil skull unearthed in Peru of a river dolphin that once swam in waters that are now the Amazon, and whose closest living relative is the South Asian river dolphin in India's Gan...
Mar 20, 2024
Study of 'twin' stars finds some of them are planet-eaters
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The planetary system that includes Earth and its sibling planets orbiting the sun has been remarkably stable during its roughly 4.5 billion years of existence. But not all planetary systems are so lucky, as sho...
Mar 20, 2024
Ancient humans had piercings just like us, archaeologists in Turkey find
By Ece Toksabay ANKARA (Reuters) -Stone ornaments found around the mouths and ears of skeletons at an 11,000-year-old burial site in southeast Turkey prove that humans have been piercing their bodies since prehistoric times and thinking about self-imag...
Mar 20, 2024
Russia says CERN decision to cut science cooperation is unacceptable
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that a decision by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) to cut cooperation with Russian scientists was politicised, discriminatory and unacceptabl...
Mar 20, 2024
New fish invade the Adriatic Sea, threatening local species
DUBROVNIK, Croatia/KOTOR, Montenegro (Reuters) - For decades, Croatian fisherman Marko Kristic has cast his nets in the sparkling waters of the Adriatic Sea. Now an invasion of the Mediterranean parrotfish is endangering his traditional catch and h...
Mar 20, 2024
China launches satellite Queqiao-2 for upcoming lunar missions
BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Wednesday launched a satellite that will act as a communications bridge between ground operations on Earth and robotic missions on the far side of the moon as part of the country's lunar exploration programme, state med...
Mar 20, 2024