headshot of temporary astronomy writer Liz Kruesi

Liz Kruesi

Temporary Astronomy Writer

Liz Kruesi is the temporary astronomy news writer for Science News. She has written about astronomy and space since 2005, and received the AAS High-Energy Astrophysics Division science journalism award in 2013. She holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisc.

All Stories by Liz Kruesi

  1. Crab Nebula
    Astronomy

    Pulsars may power cosmic rays with the highest-known energies in the universe

    Earth is pelted by energetic particles from space. The source might be the magnetic remains of massive stars, a new study suggests.

  2. a picture of a large screen showing a video of an unidentified aerial phenomenon during a congressional hearing
    Science & Society

    Why some scientists want serious research into UFOs

    Science grapples with unknown phenomena all the time. Investigating UAP and whether they're related to aliens shouldn't be different, researchers say.

  3. An image of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way
    Astronomy

    We finally have an image of the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way

    Observations from the Event Horizon Telescope reveal the turbulent region around our home galaxy’s black hole, Sagittarius A*, in new detail.

  4. illustration of sunlight heating and evaporating the disk of gas and dust around a young star
    Astronomy

    The sun’s searing radiation led to the shuffling of the solar system’s planets

    As the young sun’s radiation evaporated gas from its surrounding disk, it triggered a jumbling of the giant planets’ orbits, simulations suggest.

  5. meteorite
    Space

    All of the bases in DNA and RNA have now been found in meteorites

    Scientists have detected adenine and guanine in meteorites for decades and seen hints of uracil. But cytosine and thymine had remained elusive.

  6. infrared composite image of the two hemispheres of Uranus in blue
    Planetary Science

    U.S. planetary scientists want to explore Uranus and Enceladus next

    A report on recommendations for the next 10 years of U.S. planetary science prioritizes sending an orbiter to Uranus and an “orbilander” to Enceladus.

  7. NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars
    Planetary Science

    Here’s how NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has spent 1 year on Mars

    The first flying robot on the Red Planet arrived as a technology demonstration. It’s now a trusty scout for its rover partner, Perseverance.

  8. illustration of a magnetic neutron star
    Astronomy

    Crumbling planets might trigger repeating fast radio bursts

    Mysterious blasts of cosmic radio waves might be due to planets sweeping extremely close to their host neutron stars.

  9. image of Neptune
    Planetary Science

    New thermal maps of Neptune reveal surprising temperature swings

    Neptune's atmospheric temperatures show a global drop and later, a weird isolated spike at the south pole. Scientists don't yet know why.

  10. photo of NASA's Perseverance rover next to the Ingenuity helicopter on the surface of Mars
    Planetary Science

    Mars has two speeds of sound

    High-pitched clacks from a laser on NASA’s Perseverance rover zapping rocks traveled faster than the lower-pitched hum of the Ingenuity helicopter’s blades.

  11. image of galaxies in the sky with an inset showing newfound possible star
    Astronomy

    A star nicknamed ‘Earendel’ may be the most distant yet seen

    Analyzing Hubble Space Telescope images revealed a star whose light originates from about 12.9 billion light-years away, researchers say.

  12. illustration of a black hole and a warped red giant star
    Space

    Binary stars keep masquerading as black holes

    The drive to find black holes in ever-larger astronomy datasets is leading some researchers astray.