Bas den Hond

All Stories by Bas den Hond

  1. An illustration of the Milky Way galaxy.
    Astronomy

    Alien life may be possible even at the Milky Way’s edges

    Phosphorus detected far from the Milky Way’s center seems to extend the zone where life could exist in the galaxy by thousands of light-years.

  2. A lightning bolt piercing smoke and lava from a volcanic eruption
    Life

    Ancient giant eruptions may have seeded nitrogen needed for life

    A new study bolsters the idea that on the young Earth volcanic lightning may have provided some materials that made it possible for life to emerge.

  3. A dark planet in space with no star nearby, with a galaxy distantly cutting through the background
    Planetary Science

    Planets without stars might have moons suitable for life

    Thanks to gravitational squeezing by their host planets, some moons of rogue planets could stay warm for over a billion years, simulations suggest.

  4. Claude Monet’s 1899 painting “Charing Cross Bridge”.
    Environment

    Air pollution made an impression on Monet and other 19th century painters

    The impressionist painting style can be partly explained by the reality of rising air pollution from the industrial revolution, an analysis finds.

  5. Computer artwork of extinct woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) in a snow-covered field. A bison stands in the distance.
    Paleontology

    Mammoths may have gone extinct much earlier than DNA suggests

    Ancient DNA in sediments may be leading paleontologists astray in attempts to figure out when woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos died out, a new study argues.

  6. image of a pipe organ
    Physics

    Here’s why pipe organs seem to violate a rule of sound

    Why reedless wind instruments’ fundamental tones are lower than expected is an 160-year-old mystery. Physicists have now solved it.