A newly discovered comet could be visible to the naked eye in coming days as it makes its closet approach to the planet in its orbit around the sun.
Why it matters: Comet Nishimura, which was found by astronomer Hideo Nishimura just last month, has an estimated orbit of over 400 years, meaning it likely last passed near Earth in the 17th century.
SpaceX's Starship will remain grounded while the Elon Musk-founded company fixes dozens of issues found after its most powerful rocket exploded during a test in April, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday.
Why it matters: Starship is arguably SpaceX's most important rocket to date. The reusable launch system is expected to power the company's ambitions to bring humans and supplies to the Moon, Mars and beyond. But first, it has to work.
About 7.95 billion people experienced summer temperatures that human-driven climate change made at least twice as likely, a new analysis suggests.
Why it matters: The rapid attribution analysis from Climate Central, a climate research and communications nonprofit, drives home that climate change is already tilting the odds in favor of increasingly hazardous heat, particularly in the developing world.
AI's first language is English — a bias that researchers are racing to counter before it gets permanently baked into the new technology.
Why it matters: Most of today's generative AI tools are built on large language models (LLM) trained on texts and data in English and Chinese, leaving the 6 billion native speakers of the world's more than 7,000 other languages at risk of being left out as the technology reframes work, business, education, art and more.
Scientists have detected the magnetic field of a galaxy that existed just 2.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
Why it matters: Magnetic fields — emitted by stars, planets, galaxies and other objects — permeate our universe. Understanding them could be crucial for researchers trying to learn more about our cosmos as a whole.
Toxic smoke from Canada's historic wildfires is drifting across the U.S. — triggering air quality alerts throughout much of Colorado, Wyoming, Minnesota and Nebraska through Thursday.
The big picture: Canadian officials warn there's no immediate let-up in sight from the country's worst-ever wildfire season which has left an estimated 41 million acres razed and repeatedly choked North American cities with unhealthy smoke this summer, sending carbon emissions to record levels and posing a grave threat to people's health.
