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2017 total solar eclipse

TOTALLY AMAZING Keon Gibson, an intern for the National Center for Atmospheric Research, shot the moment of totality through a telescope atop Casper Mountain, Wyo., on August 21. The corona stretches around the moon-blocked sun. The planet Mercury is visible in the bottom left.

Keon Gibson

Science News

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illustration of blocking fertilization

Birth control research is moving beyond the pill

After decades of research, reproductive biologists are on the verge of developing new birth control options that stop sperm from maturing or save a woman's eggs for later.

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highway sign about eclipse

Science Ticker

Today is the day! A last-minute guide for watching the Great American Eclipse

By Kate Travis

1 day ago

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Some secrets of China’s terra-cotta army are baked in the clay

Specialized production system lay behind the famous terra-cotta troops found in ancient Chinese emperor’s tomb.

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Science Visualized

map of next 15 total solar eclipses

Here are the paths of the next 15 total solar eclipses

From 2017 to 2040, there will be 15 total solar eclipses. Here's a map of where to see them.

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time lapse of solar eclipse

What will scientists learn from the Great American Eclipse?

Between now and August 21, astronomy writer Lisa Grossman will explore the top questions scientists will tackle during the 2017 total solar eclipse.

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multi-wavelength mosaic of the sun

Eclipse watchers will go after the biggest solar mystery: Why is the corona so hot?

Usually when you move away from a heat source, it gets cooler. Not so in the sun’s atmosphere.

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Mars has nighttime snow storms

When clouds of water-ice particles cool at night, snow starts to fall rapidly on Mars, simulations suggest. The squalls could explain observations made by the Phoenix lander in 2008.

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Black-legged tick

Ticks are here to stay. But scientists are finding ways to outsmart them

Researchers acknowledge that there’s no getting rid of ticks, so they are developing ways to make them less dangerous.

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2016 solar eclipse

Does the corona look different when solar activity is high versus when it’s low?

Carbondale, Ill., will get two eclipses in a row, seven years apart — making it the perfect spot to watch the solar cycle in action.

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Photographs of Rwandans killed in 1994 genocide

A look at Rwanda’s genocide helps explain why ordinary people kill their neighbors

New research on the 1994 Rwanda genocide overturns assumptions about why people participate in genocide. A sense of duty, not blind obedience, drives many perpetrators.

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black hole jets from M87

Cosmic lens lets astronomers zoom in on a black hole’s burps

The beginnings of a jet from an active black hole in a distant galaxy were spotted thanks to a lucky alignment.

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Milky Way

We share the Milky Way with 100 million black holes

New census calculates black hole populations in galaxies big and small.

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aurora

Where does the solar wind come from? The eclipse may offer answers

A quick-fire polarization camera should help scientists detect the origins of the solar wind during the Aug. 21 eclipse.

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female mouse embryo

Embryos kill off male tissue to become female

Female embryos actively dismantle male reproductive tissue, a textbook-challenging study suggests.

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Itch

How an itch hitches a ride to the brain

Scientists have figured out how your brain registers the sensation of itch.

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solar loop structures

Why are the loops in the sun’s atmosphere so neat and tidy?

Observations during the total solar eclipse may explain why the sun’s atmosphere is so organized despite arising from a tangled magnetic field.

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black-legged tick on the left, lone star tick on the right

A new tool could one day improve Lyme disease diagnosis

There soon could be a way to differentiate between Lyme disease and a similar tick-associated illness.

News in Brief

soft robots

Robot, heal thyself

Self-healing material is helping make more resilient robots.

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sun illustration

What can the eclipse tell us about the corona’s magnetic field?

The corona’s plasma jumps and dances thanks to the magnetic field, but scientists have never measured the field directly.

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hiker taking in view of mountains

Seismologists get to the bottom of how deep Earth’s continents go

Scientists may have finally pinpointed the bottoms of the continents.

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example of gravitational lensing

Can the eclipse tell us if Einstein was right about general relativity?

During the eclipse, astronomers will reproduce the 1919 experiment that confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity.

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two photons bounce off each other

Normally aloof particles of light seen ricocheting off each other

Scientists spot evidence of photons interacting at the Large Hadron Collider.

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Mercury

What can we learn about Mercury’s surface during the eclipse?

Instruments aboard twin research jets will take advantage of the total solar eclipse to make the first thermal map of Mercury.

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turtle-headed sea snake

Polluted water: It’s where sea snakes wear black

Reptile counterpart proposed for textbook example of evolution favoring darker moths amid industrial soot.

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total solar eclipse

Why is this year’s solar eclipse such a big deal for scientists?

Total eclipses offer scientists a way to see all the way down to the sun’s surface.