Ian Randall

Royston

Deputy Science Editor at Newsweek

Deputy Science Editor at Newsweek. Woeful caffeine addict. Purveyor of useless information. All opinions are my own.

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Articles

End of the universe coming sooner than thought, scientists reveal

2 days ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

The end of everything is coming sooner than we thought-but don't worry, you've probably still got time to work through your bucket list. This is the conclusion of researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands, who calculated how long it would take for the last remnants of the stars to decay into oblivion. The universe, they say, will go absolutely dark in 1078 years (that's a 1 with 78 zeros)-far sooner than the previous estimate of 101100 years (or 1 with 1100 zeros).
NASA reveals roaming monster black hole that's eating stars

5 days ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the cosmos, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered a terrifying, roving, oft-invisible monster dubbed "Space Jaws."Lurking 600 million light-years away, the supermassive black hole-which has the same mass as some 1 million suns-betrayed its presence when it was caught shredding and then devouring a poor star that got too close.
Deadly hospital superbug could eat patient's dressings, implants and suture

6 days ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

A potentially deadly hospital superbug is able to feast on and break down medical-grade plastics-including those used to make implants, sutures and wound dressings. This is the conclusion of a study by researchers from Brunel University of London, England, who warn that this trick could allow the bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, to survive longer both within patients and on surfaces around hospital wards.
Nearby star's song shakes up astronomy with "long-lost tuning fork"

1 week ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

Our understanding of how stars evolve has been shaken up by astronomers who have been listening to the "song" sung by a nearby star. While the movement of celestial bodies might not quite play the "music of the spheres"-as poetically imagined by the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras-each star does still resonate with natural frequencies.
NASA's Webb reveals secrets of Milky Way's most common type of planet

1 week ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

Astronomers are pulling back the hazy veil on the Milky Way's most common-and arguably most mysterious-type of planet: so-called sub-Neptunes. Not seen among the planets of our solar system, these are gassy worlds that, as their names imply, fall in size between that of Earth and Neptune. First discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope, the atmospheres of sub-Neptune had proven impossible to probe because of how they are shrouded in haze.
Easter Island Volcanoes Challenge Textbooks on Earth’s Interior (C1)

1 week ago | newsweek.pl | Ian Randall

The Earth’s mantle might not always move along in lockstep with the overlying tectonic crust—as set out in science textbooks for decades—but may instead behave differently. This is the conclusion of an international team of geologists who made a mysterious find on Easter Island, the Chilean special territory in the Pacific that is famous for its giant statues.
Easter Island Volcanoes Challenge Textbooks on Earth’s Interior (C1)

1 week ago | onet.pl | Ian Randall

HOR01 EASTER ISLAND 01 158680148The Earth’s mantle might not always move along in lockstep with the overlying tectonic crust—as set out in science textbooks for decades—but may instead behave differently. This is the conclusion of an international team of geologists who made a mysterious find on Easter Island, the Chilean special territory in the Pacific that is famous for its giant statues.
Milky Way's "Dark River" discovered in ancient Egyptian art

1 week ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

An unusual depiction of the ancient Egyptian sky goddess Nut may include a representation of the "Dark River" or "Great Rift"-the band along the Milky Way caused by dust clouds. This is the conclusion of Professor Or Graur of the University of Portsmouth, England, who studies the multicultural mythology of the Milky Way. In a recently published study in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage, Graur analyzed over 100 images of Nut from 555 coffins dating back 5,000 years.
Cosmic broken "bone" caused by Pulsar hit-and-run, NASA satellite reveals

1 week ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

The Milky Way has a broken "bone"-and it was caused by a collision with a pulsar, a rapidly rotating neutron star, speeding through it at some 1-2 million miles per hour. This is the diagnosis of a U.S.-based team of astronomers, led from Northwestern University, who studied the cosmic fracture in G359.13142-0.20005 (also known as "the Snake"), one of a number of enormous, elongated structures found near the center of our galaxy.
Astronomers may be close to finding Planet Nine

1 week ago | newsweek.com | Ian Randall

Good news for those with a Pluto-shaped hole in their life, as astronomers may be on the verge of finding a new ninth planet in our solar system. The researchers-an international team led from Taiwan's National Tsing Hua University-found a candidate for the new world by comparing data from two all-sky surveys. "The outer solar system is theoretically predicted to harbor an undiscovered planet, often referred to as Planet Nine," the researchers wrote in their paper.