All Stories by Christopher Crockett
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Planetary ScienceNASA’s Perseverance Mars rover has begun its first science campaign
Now about 1 kilometer south of its landing spot, the rover has spotted several promising spots in its search for hints of ancient life.
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SpaceThis new image reveals a sunspot in unrivaled detail
An image taken by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope — the largest solar observatory on Earth — provides the best look yet at a sunspot.
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SpaceA ‘lake’ on Mars may be surrounded by more pools of water
Radar data hint at patches of liquid water beneath Martian polar ice, but some urge caution in interpreting results.
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Planetary ScienceEarth’s building blocks may have had far more water than previously thought
Space rocks and dust from the inner solar system could have delivered enough water to account for all the H2O in the planet’s mantle.
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SpaceSalty water might exist on Mars, but it’s probably too cold for life
Salty liquids may last for several hours on the Red Planet but be too chilly for any known microorganisms from Earth to survive, simulations suggest.
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SpaceInterstellar comet Borisov has an unexpected amount of carbon monoxide
The second known visitor from outside the solar system has three times as much CO relative to H2O than any comet seen in the inner solar system.
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AstronomyNew images of the sun reveal superfine threads of glowing plasma
Snapshots from NASA’s High-Resolution Coronal Imager show thin filaments of plasma not seen before in the sun’s outer atmosphere.
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Astronomy‘Oumuamua might be a shard of a broken planet
A new origin story for the solar system’s first known interstellar visitor suggests it may have been part of a world that got shredded by its star.
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SpaceNew fleets of private satellites are clogging the night sky
As private companies launch dozens of satellites at a time, researchers are assessing the impact on ground-based telescopes.
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SpaceCecilia Payne-Gaposchkin revealed stars’ composition and broke gender barriers
The book ‘What Stars Are Made Of’ celebrates the life of astronomer Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin.
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SpaceA black hole eruption marks the most powerful explosion ever spotted
Hundreds of millions of years ago, a black hole blasted out roughly 100 billion times as much energy as the sun is expected to emit in its lifetime.
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Planetary ScienceAn ancient magma ocean may have once driven Earth’s magnetic field
Computer simulations of molten silicate under extreme temperatures and pressures may have just filled in a gap in the history of Earth’s magnetism.