New research gives the first accurate estimate of how much faster the Earth’s core is rotating compared to the rest of the planet. Previous research had shown that the Earth’s core rotates faster than ...

Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Mars is rotating more quickly than it ...

This image illustrates how a star illuminates and heats the day side of a synchronously rotating planet, and the phenomena of transit and occultation (eclipse). The bottom of the figure shows the ...

Last Word is New Scientist’s long-running series in which readers give scientific answers to each other’s questions, ranging from the minutiae of everyday life to absurd astronomical hypotheticals. To ...

Paul M. Sutter is an astrophysicist at SUNY Stony Brook and the Flatiron Institute, host of Ask a Spaceman and Space Radio, and author of How to Die in Space. He contributed this article to ...