Ron Cowen

All Stories by Ron Cowen

  1. Astronomy

    A night of shooting stars

    Thousands of people in North America who got up early on Nov. 18 were treated to a memorable sky show: White, yellow, blue, and green fireballs, some leaving behind smoke trails, streaked across the sky.

  2. Astronomy

    Journey through the Universe

    A new permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum traces the development of tools used to study the heavens and how they have changed our understanding of the universe.

  3. Astronomy

    Did Space Rocks Deliver Sugar?

    Planetary scientists have for the first time detected sugar compounds in meteorites, bolstering the view that space rocks seeded the early Earth with ingredients essential for the development of life.

  4. Astronomy

    X-ray craft sees Venus in whole new light

    Astronomers have unveiled the first X-ray image of Venus.

  5. Astronomy

    Craft Probes Alien Planet’s Atmosphere

    Astronomers have for the first time detected the atmosphere of a planet that lies well beyond the solar system.

  6. Astronomy

    Is this young star ready to form planets?

    New observations suggest that a mere stripling of a star, which might be as young as 300,000 years old, has already formed planetesimals, the building blocks of planets.

  7. Astronomy

    SOHO craft gets the lowdown on sunspots

    Using sound waves to obtain the first clear picture of the structure beneath the surface of a sunspot, scientists say they now have an explanation for why these dark blemishes-sites of intense magnetic activity-can persist for days.

  8. Astronomy

    Extrasolar planets: More like home

    A trove of newly discovered planets orbiting other stars suggests that the solar system may not be the oddball it had begun to seem.

  9. Astronomy

    Meteor shower promises quite a show

    In the early morning hours of Nov. 18, sky watchers in North America may be treated to one of the most spectacular displays of shooting stars they're likely to see for a generation, if not longer.

  10. Astronomy

    After a martian dust storm

    The largest dust storm seen on Mars in more than 2 decades is now beginning to wane.

  11. Astronomy

    Tracking the path of a black hole

    Astronomers have for the first time measured the motion of a small black hole and a companion star speeding through our galactic neighborhood.

  12. Astronomy

    X-ray study: Energy from a black hole?

    Astronomers claim that for the first time, they've observed energy extracted from a black hole, or more precisely, from the tornadolike swirl of surrounding space that a spinning black hole drags along with it.