Blasting out Earth’s location with the hope of reaching aliens is a controversial idea – two teams of scientists are doing it anyway

If a person is lost in the wilderness, they have two options. They can search for civilization, or they could make themselves easy to spot by building a fire or writing HELP in big letters. For scientists interested in the question of whether intelligent aliens exist, the options are much the same.

Tardigrades go where the slime takes them

Is snail slime the secret to the water bear's dominance?

Tardigrades can lumber along surprisingly well for their size, but to move from habitat to habitat, they probably have to hitch a ride. DEPOSIT PHOTOS

See The Jaw-Dropping New 83 Megapixel Photo Of The Sun Sent Back From A Spacecraft Halfway There

The European Space Agency's Solar Orbiter has returned an incredible 83 megapixel image of the Sun. ESA/ATG MEDIALAB

Pterosaurs May Have Had Brightly Colored Feathers, Exquisite Fossil Reveals

An amazingly well-preserved fossil suggests the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs also had some type of feather or feather precursor.

Artist reconstruction of Tupandactylus imperator. Credit: Bob Nicholls (CC BY)

Black Holes Raze Thousands of Stars to Fuel Growth

Astronomers have found evidence for the destruction of thousands of stars in multiple galaxies, using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Growing black holes within dense stellar clusters are thought to be responsible for this large-scale devastation. This process could account for "intermediate mass black holes" through the runaway growth of stellar-mass black holes. The new study involved the observations of over a hundred galaxies with Chandra.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Washington State Univ./V. Baldassare et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI

Next stop, Uranus? Icy planet tops priority list for next big NASA mission

Influential panel’s recommendation makes the ice giant a likely destination for a flagship space mission.

A US probe to Uranus (artist’s impression) is the top-priority space mission of an influential group of planetary scientists.Credit: QAI Publishing/Universal Images Group via Getty

Celebrating Hubble’s 32nd Birthday with a Galaxy Grouping

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 32nd birthday with a stunning look at an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called the Hickson Compact Group 40. This snapshot reflects a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall together before they merge.

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 32nd birthday with a stunning look at an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called the Hickson Compact Group 40. This snapshot reflects a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall together before they merge. Credit: NASA, ESA and STScI

Giant stars undergo dramatic weight loss program

Red giants’ mass ‘stolen’ by stellar neighbours.

A new, slimmer type of red giant star has been identified by astronomers, who liken their discovery to 'finding Wally'. Only around 40 of these stars exist amid a sea of thousands in the Milky Way.

In the binary named Mira, a red giant star transfers mass to a white dwarf. © NASA/CXC/M.Weiss.

The Story Of Daniel Lambert, The ‘Fattest Man In England’ Who Left 19th-Century Crowds In Awe

Although Daniel Lambert always insisted that he didn't overeat, his weight ballooned to 739 pounds by the time he was in his 30s, giving him a waist that measured more than nine feet around.

Daniel Lambert weighed 739 pounds at his heaviest.

SpaceX’s Starship and NASA’s SLS Could Supercharge Space Science

Scientists are beginning to dream of how a new generation of super-heavy-lift rockets might enable revolutionary space telescopes and bigger, bolder interplanetary missions.

NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) moon megarocket topped by the Orion spacecraft (left); SpaceX’s Starship with Super Heavy booster (right). Credit: Paul Hennessy/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images (left); SpaceX/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) (right)