Ron Cowen

All Stories by Ron Cowen

  1. Astronomy

    Chasing a stellar blast

    An exploding star recently discovered in a nearby galaxy may be a milestone in the study of type 1a supernovas.

  2. Planetary Science

    Eyeing a Saturn storm

    The Cassini spacecraft recently captured an image of the most powerful storm ever seen on Saturn.

  3. Astronomy

    Tiny planet orbits faraway star

    Taking advantage of some gravitational sleight of hand, astronomers have found indirect evidence of the smallest planet known to exist outside the solar system.

  4. Astronomy

    Radio Daze: Staccato pulses suggest a new stellar class

    Astronomers have discovered what may be a new class of star that emits bursts of radio waves for 2 to 30 milliseconds before falling silent for minutes to hours.

  5. Planetary Science

    Stellar passage yields Charon’s girth

    By observing Pluto's moon Charon passing in front of a star, astronomers have obtained precise measurements of the moon's radius and density.

  6. Astronomy

    Found: A missing hot halo

    Astronomers have for the first time found a halo of hot inflowing gas around a massive, spiral galaxy, a likely leftover from the galaxy's formation.

  7. Astronomy

    Blasts from the Past

    Gamma-ray bursts may soon surpass quasars and galaxies as the most distant known objects in the universe and are likely to provide a new window on the early universe.

  8. Astronomy

    Galactic cannibalism

    A highly elongated group of stars is most likely a dwarf galaxy that is being gobbled up by the Milky Way.

  9. Astronomy

    Pay Dirt: Cometary dust collector comes home

    A capsule containing dust collected from the comet Wild-2 safely landed in the Utah desert.

  10. Astronomy

    Cosmic Push: Finding pieces of a dark puzzle

    A controversial new study, the first to use gamma-ray bursts to measure the expansion of the universe far back in time, hints that dark energy may not be constant in time.

  11. Astronomy

    Images reveal possible origin of young stars

    Astronomers say they have solved the riddle of how young, massive stars can reside so close to the monster black hole at the Milky Way's center.

  12. Planetary Science

    One star better than two?

    Rather than disrupting the planet-forming process around another star, a nearby companion may sometimes enhance it, new computer simulations suggest.