All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Space
All flash, no crash
New Hubble Space Telescope images confirm that Jupiter emerged unscathed from an impactor that created a fireball above the planet’s cloud tops on June 3. The new images indicate that the object exploded as a meteor in the planet’s upper atmosphere rather than plunging into the atmosphere
- Space
Astronomers stoke cosmic debate
Astronomers from the United Kingdom have published papers criticizing some of the evidence used to support theories of dark matter and energy.
- Space
Kepler craft reports apparent planetary bonanza
New results from an orbiting telescope promise to more than double the number of known extrasolar planets.
- Space
Familiar comets may have distant roots
More than 90 percent of objects found in the vast outer–solar system reservoir may have been born around other stars, new computer simulations suggest.
- Space
Portrait of a youthful planet
New pictures confirm that astronomers have recorded a planet circling the star Beta Pictoris, making the orb the youngest, star-orbiting extrasolar planet to be photographed.
- Life
Missing chemicals on Titan could signal life
Methane-based organisms on one of Saturn’s moons might be consuming the materials.
- Planetary Science
Hubble hunting for Jupiter bruise
No scar found yet on planet from June 3 crash with unidentified object.
- Space
Jupiter takes yet another hit
For the third time in 16 years, astronomers have documented a collision between Jupiter and a nearby body.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s crash of ’09
The body that crashed into Jupiter last summer was likely an asteroid, and such impacts might occur as frequently as every 10 to 15 years, new studies suggest.
- Space
Neutrino quick-change artist caught in the act
A transformation from one ‘flavor’ to another confirms the elusive elementary particles have mass and suggests a need for new physics.
- Space
Big baby stars found in Milky Way pockets
Astronomers have uncovered stellar nurseries that could help map the galaxy’s trademark spiral arms.
- Astronomy
Black hole shoved aside, along with ‘central’ dogma
A new study has shoved aside the idea that supermassive black holes always reside smack-dab at the centers of their host galaxies.
