headshot of Associate News Editor Christopher Crockett

Christopher Crockett

Associate News Editor

Christopher Crockett is an Associate News Editor. He was formerly the astronomy writer from 2014 to 2017, and he has a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

All Stories by Christopher Crockett

  1. Planetary Science

    Martian crater was once filled with liquid water

    Sandstone deposits on Mars indicate that Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover’s stomping ground, was once a lake fed by rivers.

  2. Astronomy

    Radio burst from beyond Milky Way detected in real time

    First real-time detection of radio burst from outside galaxy triggers worldwide hunt for cause of mysterious signals.

  3. Astronomy

    Starlight robs galaxy of stellar ingredients

    Light from newborn stars drives gas out of a distant galaxy, a process that may prevent future stars from being born.

  4. Cosmology

    Most precise snapshot of the universe unveiled

    New results from the Planck satellite provide the most detailed look yet of the makeup of the universe.

  5. Cosmology

    Galaxies may be aligned across 1 billion light-years

    Powerful plasma jets from cores of galaxies seem to mysteriously align with one another and hint at an unknown mechanism shaping galaxy groups.

  6. Planetary Science

    Setting sights on Mars — a half-century ago

    Fifty years ago, the United States turned its eyes toward Mars and set a goal of sending humans as soon as possible.

  7. Planetary Science

    Planets stake their claim around infant star

    At the center of the newly released telescope image is HL Tau, a star located about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. A dense disk of gas and dust surrounds the star, which is a youthful million years old.

  8. Planetary Science

    Cassini maps depths of Titan’s seas

    NASA’s Cassini spacecraft finds that some methane seas on Titan extend more than 200 meters beneath the Saturnian moon’s surface.

  9. Planetary Science

    Unseen planets sweep up dust around young star

    A large gap in the dusty disk around a young star reveals what our solar system might have looked like 4.6 billion years ago.

  10. Planetary Science

    Two travelers from far beyond Neptune return home

    Two bodies approaching from the edge of the solar system may have been tossed out there by Jupiter over 4 billion years ago.

  11. Planetary Science

    A distant planet may lurk far beyond Neptune

    Strange orbits in the Kuiper belt revive talk of a Planet X in the solar system.

  12. Astronomy

    Infant worlds carve gaps in planet-forming disk

    A new image shows planets sweeping up gas and dust in a disk encircling the infant star HL Tau.