Magnetic bubbles may mean Voyager 1 has left the Solar System

Leaving the Solar System is like leaving any familiar territory without maps — you have no idea what’s coming next, or even what you’ve just journeyed through. Such is the fate of NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, which, at 18.7 billion kilometres from the sun, has been flirting with the edge of interstellar space for the past year. Conflicting data from its various experiments suggest that it both has and hasn’t left the Solar System.  Read more

Sprawling Khmer cities unearthed in Cambodian jungle

The complex that includes Angkor Wat, a temple built by the long-gone Khmer empire in Cambodia, may be larger than scientists suspected.

The famous temple complex of Angkor Wat, which draws so many tourists to Cambodia, is but one small structure in a new view of the region. Archaeologists have unearthed more sprawling remains of the once-mighty Khmer empire, which ruled Southeast Asia between the ninth and the 15th centuries.  Read more

Antarctic science looks ahead

Antarctic science looks ahead

There’s no continent like Antarctica, and there’s no science like Antarctic science. The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is now trying to figure out where the field should be 20 years from now — by gathering the 100 most compelling science questions that can be answered in or from the frozen continent.  Read more

Commercial access to suborbital space still on the horizon

Commercial access to suborbital space still on the horizon

BROOMFIELD, COLORADO — In a packed hotel ballroom within sight of the Rocky Mountains, entrepreneurs and researchers gathered on 3 June to discuss their sky-high dreams for commercial spaceflight. One day soon, they say, private spaceships will zip aloft on a daily or even hourly basis, for a brief taste of zero gravity in suborbital space. Tourists will line up for rides, while scientists hop on board to do planetary science, materials research, and even human physiology studies.  Read more

Quake off eastern Russia may be biggest-ever deep temblor

Quake off eastern Russia may be biggest-ever deep temblor

An extraordinarily deep earthquake shook Russia’s Far East this morning. The magnitude-8.3 quake took place nearly 610 kilometres below Earth’s surface, according to preliminary estimates from the US Geological Survey.  Read more