Morgan McFall-Johnsen

New types of polar lights are upending what we know about the aurora. Amateur scientists and interns made the latest discoveries.

The Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) in the sky in Ivalo, Lapland, Finland September 27, 2019. Alexander Kuznetsov/Reuters Scientists, amateur aurora-hunters, and a NASA intern have discovered fascinating new types...

A scientist's quick animation reveals that Earth has two types of day. Humans use the one that's 4 minutes longer.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured this view of Earth from the spacecraft's vantage point in orbit around the moon. NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University An animation by planetary scientist James...

Wildfire smoke is likely to leave millions of people more vulnerable to flu and the coronavirus this fall

Local residents look at smoke and fire over a hill during wildfires near the town of Medford, Oregon, September 9, 2020. Carlos Barria/Reuters Smoke from unprecedented wildfires on the West Coast could leave...

Some states have 'unintentionally' pursued a herd-immunity strategy to control the coronavirus, experts say — and it's kind of working

A server at the Hungry Tarpon Restaurant in Islamorada, Florida, gives an entree to a couple on June 1, 2020. Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/Handout via REUTERS A population can achieve herd immunity after...

Rocket Lab just launched its first spacecraft, transforming a leftover piece of its rocket into a satellite that can carry missions to the moon or Venus

One of Rocket Lab's carbon-fiber Electron launch vehicles lifts off from New Zealand. Trevor Mahlmann/Rocket Lab Rocket Lab just launched its first Photon satellite: a spacecraft designed for missions to the moon,...

SpaceX says its Starlink satellite internet can download 100 megabits per second, and 'space lasers' transfer data between satellites

A photo of SpaceX's user terminal, or satellite dish, on a roof. Elon Musk has called such devices "UFOs on a stick" — they're designed to connect to the internet via a fleet of Starlink...

SpaceX broke a record by launching 180 satellites in 1 month — accelerating Elon Musk's project to blanket Earth in high-speed internet

President Trump acknowledges Elon Musk after SpaceX launched the manned Crew Dragon spaceship, at the Kennedy Space Center on May 30, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Saul Martinez/Getty Images SpaceX launched...

NASA just fired up the most powerful rocket booster ever built — a key part of its Space Launch System to return humans to the moon

Northrop Grumman ignites its Flight Support Booster-1 test of a solid-fuel rocket for NASA's Space Launch System on September 2, 2020. NASA TV/Nothrop Grumman Northrop Grumman, a rocket manufacturer, test-fired a...

A collision in space revealed a black hole physicists thought could never exist. The observatory that detected it cracked a 100-year-old mystery posed by Einstein.

A worker inspects quartz fibers that suspend a mirror inside the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory. EGO/Virgo Collaboration/Perciballi Physicists discovered a new type of black hole in the "forbidden...

Pursuing herd immunity is a non-strategy that could cause mass death without boosting the economy. A Trump adviser may be pushing for it.

Business Insider President Trump talks to staff and guests as he checks out the stage where he would later deliver his acceptance speech as the 2020 Republican presidential nominee during the 2020 Republican...