Science & Earth

Stony Brook planetary geologist Timothy Glotch is one of 10 scientists NASA selected to help plan research for upcoming Artemis missions, including locating minerals and water ice near the lunar south pole for a 2028 mission.

NASA says Artemis II performed a translunar engine burn about 25 hours after liftoff, putting the Orion capsule on a free-return path to a lunar flyby expected Monday.

The Artemis II crew released photos of Earth on their second day in space while more than 90,000 miles from Earth; the 10-day mission is testing the spacecraft in a deep-space environment ahead of future Moon and Mars missions.

NASA has certified three science officers—Kelsey Young, Trevor Graff, and Angela Garcia—to serve in Mission Control for Artemis II; the crew will photograph and record audio of the Moon during the April 6 flyby and deliver those data to science back rooms at Johnson Space Center.

Artemis II will send a four-person crew beyond the moon on a roughly 10-day circumnavigation and includes the first woman and the first Black person to travel to deep space; the test flight is set to launch as soon as April.

A three-week-old mountain lion cub named Crimson was found alone in Southern California, monitored by biologists, and taken for medical care after losing about 10% of his body weight; he was flown to Oakland Zoo where staff are providing intensive round-the-clock care.

Coal-fired facilities around Kakanj emit well above EU limits and Bosnia and Herzegovina now faces Energy Community infringement proceedings while a desulphurisation plant is planned for late 2027.

Eagle Days at Harry S. Truman Lake drew more than 400 visitors in 2026 and offered viewing of wild bald eagles along with live birds of prey and educational exhibits.

A cohort study reports that windblown dust from the shrinking Salton Sea is associated with reduced lung growth in nearby children; changes in water agreements and planned development may increase dust exposure.

NASA has named nine candidate landing zones for Artemis missions concentrated near the lunar south pole, but those extreme southerly locations are largely out of clear view from Earth except during favorable libration.

Biruté Galdikas, who founded Orangutan Foundation International and spent decades studying and protecting wild orangutans in Borneo, died of lung cancer in a hospital, her foundation said.

MV Lord of the Isles has returned to service after main engine repairs, and CalMac says several other vessels remain under maintenance while Storm Dave may disrupt sailings over the Easter weekend.

Conservation teams relocated California red‑legged frogs from Baja into prepared ponds in Southern California starting in 2020, and AI acoustic models recently detected the species' calls and led surveyors to a new egg mass.

A multi-institution study reports a new record for logical-qubit fidelity on superconducting processors using a hybrid protocol called normalizer dynamical decoupling, reaching 98.05% peak fidelity and 84.87% after 55 microseconds.

Artemis II, a 10-day crewed lunar flyby, is scheduled to launch Wednesday at 6:24 p.m. ET; Sacramento-based Tecma made thousands of components used across the rocket and San Diego is tied to recovery efforts.

Artemis II astronauts reported a tense propulsion burn after launch and sent back messages about views of Earth and a temporary onboard toilet fault that was fixed; Orion remains in Earth orbit en route to the Moon.

After a roughly six-minute translunar injection burn, Orion and its four-person crew departed Earth orbit and are on a planned trajectory for a lunar flyby and return to Earth.

A 20-year-old fisherman, Kevin Phan, waded into surf at Hermosa Beach to free a great white shark entangled on a fishing line, and beach-goers captured the event on video; Phan reported only minor cuts and scrapes.

NASA's Mission Management Team cleared the Orion spacecraft and its four-person Artemis II crew for a trans-lunar injection burn to leave Earth orbit; the burn was scheduled Thursday evening and will set the crew on a multi-day flight that loops behind the moon.

Drone footage from July 2023 shows elder female sperm whales surrounding a mother and helping lift a newborn calf so it could breathe, and Project CETI reported related findings in studies published in Nature and Science.

NASA commanded Artemis II's translunar injection burn on April 2, sending Orion onto a free‑return path that will carry the crew about a quarter‑million miles from Earth. The roughly six‑minute firing is the mission's last major engine burn and reshaped the spacecraft's trajectory to use the moon's gravity to bring Orion back.

A paper in American Antiquity reports that archaeologist Robert Madden compiled evidence showing two-sided bone and wooden dice were used in the present-day Southwestern U.S. about 12,000 years ago, earlier than comparable Old World finds.

Researchers in Sarasota recorded signature whistles and identified at least 20 shared non‑signature whistle types used by multiple dolphins, with playback tests and observations linking some types to retreat or surprise behaviors.

NASA's Artemis II is scheduled to send four astronauts on a roughly 10‑day crewed flyby of the Moon using the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion capsule, and a space policy expert described decades of technical and policy choices that led to this test flight.

NASA said several early technical issues aboard Orion — a communications fault, a blinking toilet warning and email access problems — were resolved, and mission managers approved a translunar injection burn to send the spacecraft toward the moon.

A UN report presented at COP15 says migratory freshwater fish populations have declined about 81% since 1970 and identifies 325 species as candidates for international conservation.

Four astronauts launched on a crewed Artemis II flight around the Moon this week; the team includes three space station veterans and a Canadian who will be the first from his country to travel beyond low‑Earth orbit.

Yale researchers screened 774 FDA‑approved drugs in larval zebrafish and used behavioral fingerprints to identify candidates that reverse dysregulated behaviors tied to autism risk genes, notably finding levocarnitine as a top rescue for SCN2A and DYRK1A and reporting rescue in human neuron models; they also published an open, searchable database of the screened drugs.

During Artemis II, astronaut Christina Koch described seeing a sunset over India from the Orion spacecraft as the four-person crew continues a roughly 10-day lunar flyby mission.

A Finnish brewery has installed an industrial pilot that uses heated sand to produce steam, and researchers say similar sand-based thermal storage could be scaled for industrial heat and even considered for repowering coal plants.