The winds on this alien planet are blisteringly fast 🌬️ WASP-127b, a puffball planet 500 lightyears from Earth, has circulating winds of 33,000 km/h, or nearly 30 times the speed of sound on Earth. That's the fastest planetary winds we know of. newscientist.com/article/246495…

Human urine contains lots of tasty nutrients (for plants), but it's difficult to separate them out into useable fertiliser. A new method from Chinese researchers shows that we might be able to more easily extract fertiliser from wastewater. newscientist.com/article/246477…

A mysterious kind of superconductivity found in a twisted crystal could eventually help us build room-temperature superconductors. But first, we need to figure out what's going on inside it. newscientist.com/article/246524…

If you want to cook a perfect boiled egg, then set aside 30 minutes and grab yourself two pans. That's according to new research from Italian food physicists who say that they have found a foolproof (but admittedly time-consuming) method for egg cooking. newscientist.com/article/246703…

There is now a 1-in-43 chance that asteroid 2024 YR4 will hit Earth in 2032. It could be as wide as 100-metres, and would cause serious damage if it collides in populated areas. How worried should we be? My analysis for New Scientist newscientist.com/article/246716…

This robotic hand is almost as dexterous as a human hand, but half as heavy 👋 The hand, which is voice-controlled, can tie knots, comb hair and play chess, thanks to a clever system of heat-sensitive metal strips that function like human tendons. newscientist.com/article/246732…

The new largest thing in the universe is mind-bogglingly large 🫨 Quipu is a structure of nearly 70 galactic superclusters and, in total, is more than 100,000 times as massive than a galaxy like our Milky Way. (1.4 billion light years across!) newscientist.com/article/246748…

If this planet's atmosphere really is as packed full of sulphur as it looks, then it is probably *brimming* with volcanoes 🌋 Volcanoes as far as the eye can see, magma ocean just below nearly the whole planet, eggy-smelling air - hell, basically. newscientist.com/article/246750…

Jonathan McDowell has painstakingly amassed one of the world's largest collections on the space industry 🚀 Jonathan McDowell is now retiring, after four decades, and considering the future of his collection. We spoke all things space for New Scientist newscientist.com/article/246833…

The asteroid barreling towards Earth (maybe) has just got an even higher risk rating from NASA - it's now at a 1-in-38 chance, the highest odds yet of collision. Not worth worrying (yet), but the world's space agencies are keeping a *very* close eye. newscientist.com/article/246889…

When the first exoplanets were discovered 30 years ago, we had only the faintest idea of what they looked like. Fast forward to today, and we have mindboggling detail - 3D atmospheres, actual wind speeds (70,000 km/h!) and altitude-dependent elements! newscientist.com/article/246899…

Microsoft researchers have shown off a new AI tool that can produce full-length, physically accurate gameplay sequences for Bleeding Edge, a multiplayer online battle game 🎮 Could this lead to fully AI-designed games? Probably not anytime soon. newscientist.com/article/246918…

Good news: asteroid 2024 YR4, which was on a collision course for Earth, will probably miss us. But that doesn't mean scientists aren't still considering a space mission to study it up close! (The chance of a moon impact has also quadrupled, at 1.2%) newscientist.com/article/246951…

A lucky bit of timing meant astronomers could witness a thunderstorm on Jupiter in exquisite detail, as NASA's Juno spacecraft floated directly overhead 🛰️ newscientist.com/article/246953…

Another moon launch tomorrow, including: 🌑 The southern-most point ever visited 🌑 A hopping robot entering a crater w/ permanent shadows (for the 1st time) 🌑 An asteroid mining mission 🌑 A rover with a tiny cute ant-sized rover on its back newscientist.com/article/246971…

50 years after it was first dreamt up by Douglas Hofstadter, this fascinating fractal butterfly has been found in a real physical system (in graphene, no less)! It's butterflies all the way down 🦋 newscientist.com/article/247002…

A computer contained in a thin thread of stitchable fabric could be used to record, and understand, all sorts of information about the body that devices like Apple watches can't. And it's being tested on Canadian and US soldiers right now, in the Arctic. newscientist.com/article/247000…

The asteroid Bennu, which NASA brought back samples from to Earth in 2023, is baffling scientists with its abundance of nitrogen and odd magnetic properties. newscientist.com/article/247174…