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Magazine
In the June 8 SN: Measles roars back, collapsars spin gold, a new kind of dementia, the Southern Ocean's secrets, Denisovans lived on top of the world, and more.
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Reviews & Previews
Carbon plays a starring role in the new book ‘Symphony in C’
06/10/2019 - 06:00 Chemistry, Evolution, Cosmology, EcosystemsSymphony in CRobert M. HazenW.W. Norton & Co., $26.95
Carbon is by no means the most abundant element in the cosmos, but it is undoubtedly the most important to life as we know it. For every 1,000 hydrogen atoms in the universe, there are only five or so carbon atoms. But every cell in the human body — indeed, every living cell on Earth — relies on carbon as the chemical...
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News
In a first, magnetic fields have been spotted between two galaxy clusters
06/06/2019 - 14:00 Astronomy, CosmologyFor the first time, astronomers have sighted magnetic fields between two galaxy clusters — a find that suggests some of the largest scale structures in the universe are magnetized.
The fields run between the galaxy clusters Abell 0399 and Abell 0401, which are beginning to merge about 1 billion light-years from Earth, researchers report in the June 7 Science. Radiation from electrons...
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News
Hidden ancient neutrinos may shape the patterns of galaxies
03/04/2019 - 11:00 Cosmology, Physics, AstronomyShadowy messengers from the Big Bang have seemingly left their mark on ring-shaped patterns imprinted on the sky.
Subatomic particles called neutrinos, released just one second after the universe’s birth 13.8 billion years ago, continually stream through the universe and are exceedingly hard to spot. But circular patterns of galaxies scattered across the sky reveal signs of the shy...
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News
A cosmic flare called the ‘Cow’ may reveal a new way that stars die
01/14/2019 - 11:12 Cosmology, AstronomySEATTLE — Astronomers may have discovered a new way that stars can die. A mysteriously brief and bright burst whimsically called the “Cow” reveals an entirely new type of stellar death.
The details of that stellar doom, however, remain hazy. Scientists are still debating whether the flare-up, spotted on June 16, 2018, was from an unusual type of star that was eaten by a black hole, or...
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News
A second repeating fast radio burst has been tracked to a distant galaxy
01/09/2019 - 13:08 CosmologySEATTLE — Astronomers have spotted a second repeating fast radio burst, and it looks a lot like the first. The existence of a second repeating burst suggests there could be many more of the mysterious signals in the cosmos.
The burst, called FRB 180814.J0422+73, is one of 13 newly discovered fast radio bursts, or FRBs — brief, bright signals of radio energy that come from distant...
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News
Voyager 2 spacecraft enters interstellar space
12/10/2018 - 12:57 Cosmology, Particle PhysicsVoyager 2 has entered interstellar space. The spacecraft slipped out of the huge bubble of particles that encircles the solar system on November 5, becoming the second ever human-made craft to cross the heliosphere, or the boundary between the sun and the stars.
Coming in second place is no mean achievement. Voyager 1 became the first spacecraft to exit the solar system in 2012. But that...
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News
Astronomers find far-flung wind from a black hole in the universe’s first light
12/05/2018 - 06:00 Astronomy, CosmologyScientists have spotted wind from a supermassive black hole blowing at much greater distances than ever before.
Astronomer Mark Lacy and colleagues used the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile to observe the universe’s first light, and found evidence of gusts flowing from a type of black hole called a quasar. The wind extends about 228,000 light-years away from the galaxy that...