Astronomers report a new value for the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. (p. 9)

Researchers analyzing the wiggles imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, the radiation leftover from the Big Bang, have now demonstrated that those wiggles can be used to find the fingerprints of dark energy.

New telescope finds that the high-energy share of gamma-ray bursts arrive at Earth significantly later than the low-energy portion. (p. 5)

Moving one step closer to finding the fingerprints of life in a habitable planet beyond the solar system, astronomers have for the first time detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. (p. 8)

For years, planet hunters have been preoccupied with hot Jupiters—giant, gaseous planets that tightly hug their sunlike parent stars. These massive, close-in planets, not yet directly seen, are the easiest to find because they induce the largest wobble in the motion of the stars they orbit. But now astronomers are following a rockier road—seeking rocky, icy planets only a few times as massive as Earth. Soon, astronomers predict, they will discover an Earth-sized planet that orbits within the habitable zone of its parent star. And if David Charbonneau has any say about it, that hist... (p. 16)

Tilt in Mars' axis could have created stair-stepped rock formations long ago. (p. 8)

Correct calculation strengthens theory of quark-gluon interactions in nuclear particles. (p. 13)

Using radar from an orbiting spacecraft to penetrate the hidden recesses of Mars, planetary prospectors have uncovered vast reserves of water-ice buried beneath rocky debris. (p. 10)

During an experiment in Fermilab's Tevatron particle accelerator, a group of elementary particles called muons showed up in a strange place. Physicists are considering the likely implications. (p. 15)

The first images of a planetary system beyond the solar system are released, while the Hubble Space Telescope snaps a shot of likely planet orbiting a nearby star. (p. 5)