EverythingScience

NASA just released its incredibly cool concept for houses on Mars NASA researchers have a lot of problems to work through if they want astronauts to one day set foot on Mars. One of the biggest hurdles is where these early pioneers will sleep and live, and after a day of brainstorming, engineers might have come up with a solution – a conceptual 'ice home' design. Article @EverythingScience

Custom made Christmas present @Stephen got from his mum​ @EverythingScience

I hadn’t realized how dramatically our view of Pluto improved thanks to New Horizons' flyby.​ http://redd.it/5l58m1 @EverythingScience

Sorry everyone, 2016 will have an extra second added to the end of it For most of us, 2016 has been a crap pile of a year that just won't end. Many of our favourite celebrities and scientists have passed away, the planet is warmer than ever before, and now, to drag things out, scientists will be adding an extra second onto New Year's Eve. Yep, as you finally count down the end of 2016, you'll have to make it past 11:59:60, thanks to the addition of an extra 'leap second'. Article @EverythingScience

8 reasons why space is worth getting excited about in 2017 It’s been a rough 2016 on Earth, so I wanted to share (just some of) my reasons why I think we should celebrate New Years as 2017 is looking incredibly exciting. Everything from meteor showers and eclipses to epic space missions and more, 2017 will be worth looking up for and forward too. Article @EverythingScience

Scientists plan on contacting the closest Earth-like exoplanet to our Solar System Scientists are making preparations to send a transmission to Proxima b - the closest Earth-like exoplanet to our Solar System. The team is putting together a plan to build or buy a powerful deep-space transmitter, and is now figuring out what our message should be - after all, we don't want to make a bad first impression. Article @EverythingScience

New Method Could Aid Search for Life on Alien Worlds A newly proposed technique could make it possible to search for life on alien planets much sooner than scientists had expected. Article @EverythingScience

The sun’s surface spins more slowly than the rest of the star. This may be why... Sunbeams—what a drag. That’s the conclusion of physicists trying to solve a longstanding mystery: why the sun’s surface rotates more slowly than its inner core. The team argues that energy radiating outward from the sun pushes back slightly as it is expelled, providing just enough resistance to put on the brakes. The hypothesis is supported by a new observation: that the thin “skin” of the sun rotates more slowly than layers just beneath. Article @EverythingScience

Predicting weather on alien planets @EverythingScience

Merry Christmas everybody!

6 more mysterious radio signals have been detected coming from outside our galaxy Back in March, scientists detected 10 powerful bursts of radio signals coming from the same location in space. And now researchers have just picked up six more of the signals seemingly emanating from the same region, far beyond our Milky Way. These fast radio bursts (FRB) are some of the most elusive and explosive signals ever detected from space - they only last milliseconds, but in that short period of time, they generate as much energy as the Sun in an entire day. But despite how powerful they are, scientists still aren't sure what causes them. Article @EverythingScience

Overpopulation explained @EverythingScience

Cassini’s grand finale will see orbiter plunge into Saturn It’s an ending worthy of a Wagner opera. In September 2017– nearly 20 years after its launch – the Cassini spacecraft will crash into Saturn, sacrificing itself for the sake of the ringed giant’s potentially habitable moons. Article @EverythingScience @EverythingScienceChat

China claims it's already started testing an EM Drive in space Peer review or it didn't happen. The whole world got excited last month when NASA published the first peer-reviewed paper on the 'impossible' electromagnetic, or EM, Drive, which appears to somehow defy physics by producing thrust without a propellant. Their verdict was that it seems to work, although a lot of physicists still think the results are flawed. But now researchers in China have announced that they've already been testing the controversial drive in low-Earth orbit, and they're looking into using the EM Drive to power their satellites as soon as possible. Big disclaimer here - all we have to go on right now is a press conference announcement and an article from a government-sponsored Chinese newspaper (and the country doesn't have the best track record when it comes to trustworthy research). Article @EverythingScience

Mystery of 'Alien Megastructure' Star Testing Astronomers' Creativity Astronomers may have to think a little harder to solve the mystery of Boyajian's star. Researchers have come up with many possible causes for the dimming, including a swarm of broken-apart comet fragments, variability in the activity of the star itself, a cloud of some sort in the interstellar medium between Kepler and Boyajian's star, and, most famously, an orbiting "megastructure" built by an alien civilization to collect stellar energy. Researchers are testing these hypotheses to the extent possible. For example, the $100 million Breakthrough Listen initiative is using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia to hunt for signals coming from Boyajian's star, which lies about 1,500 light-years from Earth. Article @EverythingScience

Scientists have used 'pregnancy fluid' to strengthen ageing bones Researchers have collected stem cells from human amniotic fluid - the protective fluid that surrounds the baby in the uterus - and used them to treat mice with brittle bone disease. The treatment resulted in 79 percent fewer fractures by actively increasing the strength, plasticity, and structure of the animals’ bones, and now the team is investigating if it will work in humans - particularly astronauts, who can lose 2.5 percent of their bone density for every month in space. Article @EverythingScience

Bizarre Antimatter Emits Same Light As Regular Matter or the first time, physicists have shown that atoms of antimatter appear to give off the same kind of light that atoms of regular matter do when illuminated with lasers, a new study finds. More precise measurements of this emitted light could unearth clues that might finally help solve the mystery of why there is so much less antimatter than normal matter in the universe, researchers say. Article @EverythingScience