science
Topics and developments in science and medicine, presented by Futurism.
ESA's Solar Orbiter has made new measurements that illustrate the chaotic origins of solar flares.
There is no big bang at the start of a solar flare. They begin modestly. In actuality, the early warning indicators were hardly noticeable to scientists until recently.
By Francis Damiabout a month ago in Futurism
A breakthrough in optics enables quantum computers to read data more quickly.
A novel method for simultaneously capturing light from numerous individual atoms has been developed by researchers, enabling the reading of their quantum information in tandem rather than one at a time.
By Francis Damiabout a month ago in Futurism
Exoplanets That Defy Classification — Even in Theory
In 1990s, many expected them to resemble familiar worlds: rocky planets like Earth, gas giants like Jupiter, or icy bodies similar to Neptune. The assumption was simple—different systems, same basic categories. Reality, however, turned out to be far more imaginative.
By Holianyk Ihorabout a month ago in Futurism
Worlds with an Extremely Short Daylight Cycle
On Earth, the rhythm of life is deeply tied to a simple and familiar pattern: day follows night, night follows day, and one full cycle takes 24 hours. This steady cadence has shaped everything from human biology to global climate systems. But beyond our Solar System, this comforting regularity quickly breaks down. In the vast diversity of exoplanets discovered so far, astronomers have identified worlds where daylight lasts only a few hours—or even less. On such planets, the Sun barely rises before it sets again, and the very concept of a “day” becomes something alien.
By Holianyk Ihorabout a month ago in Futurism
Exoplanets That Survived Planetary Collisions
When we imagine planets, we often think of calm, stable worlds tracing predictable paths around their stars for billions of years. But the reality of planetary systems—especially in their early stages—is far more violent. Young systems are chaotic environments where worlds migrate, gravitationally interact, and sometimes collide at unimaginable speeds. Remarkably, some exoplanets we observe today appear to have *survived* massive collisions with other planets, carrying the scars of ancient cosmic disasters.
By Holianyk Ihorabout a month ago in Futurism
Worlds Where the Night Is Hotter Than the Day
On Earth, the rhythm of temperature feels intuitive. When the Sun rises, the ground warms. When darkness falls, heat slowly leaks back into space. Day means warmth; night means cooling. This pattern is so deeply ingrained in our everyday experience that it feels almost universal. Yet beyond the Solar System, astronomers have discovered worlds where this logic completely breaks down. On some distant planets, night is not a time of cooling at all. Instead, the darkness can be hotter than the blazing day.
By Holianyk Ihorabout a month ago in Futurism
The concept of human reproduction in space is rapidly becoming a reality.
One uncomfortable subject is becoming more difficult to ignore as spaceflight transitions from infrequent government missions to something more akin to everyday travel and employment: what happens to human reproductive health when we are away from Earth?
By Francis Damiabout a month ago in Futurism
