Planet X

The phenomenon El Niño has arrived, the U.S. weather agency said Thursday, and scientists expect the pattern, synonymous with droughts, floods and soaring temperatures, will intensify through the end of the year, potentially to historic strength.

How do you take measurements using one of the most sensitive scales in the world? Researchers at TU Wien have demonstrated how the measurement process affects not only the object being measured but also the scale itself, and where the absolute limits of precision lie.

Planetary nebulae like the Crystal Ball Nebula (NGC 1514) are sort of like stellar obituaries. Though crystal balls supposedly reveal the future, the Crystal Ball Nebula tells us more about the past. It shows us how a binary pair of stars met their end. And since NGC 1514 is 1,500 light years away, we're seeing what it looked like 1,500 years ago.

As people in the United States are coping with historic drought conditions, the country's wildlife is also facing problems because of the extreme aridity. Herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores in the southwestern U.S. have all seen the extent of their suitable habitat shrink due to drought, according to a new study led by the University of Michigan.

The 8.1-meter Gemini North telescope, located on the summit of Maunakea in Hawai'i, has captured NGC 1514, nicknamed the Crystal Ball Nebula, in awe-inspiring detail. This nebula, with its mesmerizing glow of gas, harbors hints of a past stellar death, and its asymmetrical shell is now being shaped by the pair of binary stars that lie at its center.