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. Astronomy

    Rocky, overweight planet shakes up theories

    Kepler-10c is a rocky exoplanet 17 times as massive as Earth, and astronomers are puzzled as to how it formed.

  2. Planetary Science

    Do-it-yourself solar system

    If you've always wanted to build your own solar system, roll up your sleeves — SuperPlanetCrash is an online solar system simulator, set up as a game.

  3. Astronomy

    Young, hot exoplanet takes title for longest year

    Newly discovered exoplanet sits a whopping 2,000 times farther from its star than Earth does from the sun.

  4. Astronomy

    Sun shines new life on Kepler space telescope

    NASA approved a proposal to bring the crippled Kepler spacecraft back to life, using sunlight as balance to help the telescope search for planets and more.

  5. Cosmology

    Dustup emerges over gravitational waves discovery

    While cosmologists wait for data from Planck satellite, some worry that BICEP2 data actually come from our galaxy.

  6. Astronomy

    Sun’s sibling spotted

    A nearby star may have come from the same birth cluster as the sun; learning how to find other solar siblings could point the way to their common origin.

  7. Astronomy

    Milky Way’s far side reveals some secrets

    Variable stars provide first direct measurements of distance to the far side of the Milky Way.

  8. Astronomy

    Milky Way’s magnetic field mapped

    The Planck telescope sees the galaxy’s magnetic field in polarized light bouncing off interstellar dust grains.

  9. Cosmology

    Universe re-created in computer simulation

    The Illustris Project traces the detailed evolution of the universe starting from 12 million years after the Big Bang.

  10. Cosmology

    See the sky in a different light

    An interactive map lets you explore the galaxy with infrared light.

  11. Physics

    Gravity’s Ghost and Big Dog

    Sociologist Harry Collins chronicles the occasionally heated (and often arcane) debates among scientists studying gravitational waves.

  12. Astronomy

    Exoplanet spin measured for first time

    Astronomers measure the spin of a planet outside our solar system, and its days are short: just over eight hours.