Astronomy
- Astronomy
Comet dust harbors life’s building blocks
Samples collected from a comet’s halo suggest comets could have carried amino acids to the early Earth
- Planetary Science
Stars go kaboom, spilling cosmic secrets
Astronomers hope type 1a supernovas will help in quest to explain dark energy.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
The Star That Ate a Mars
COVER STORY: Scientists probe debris trapped by white dwarfs to learn more about what faraway Earthlike planets are made of.
- Astronomy
Saturn’s moon may host an ocean
Geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus could have delivered sodium from its underground ocean and into the planet's E ring
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Supernova may be in a new class
A recently discovered stellar explosion may be part of a new class of supernova.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Pinning down a pulsar’s age
Reporting at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society, researchers suggest some of these swirling stellar remnants are older, younger by a factor of 10.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Healing Hubble
A retrospective on the final Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.
By Science News - Astronomy
New eyes on the cosmos
The next constellation of telescopes will dramatically extend and sharpen scientists’ view of the universe.
By Janet Raloff - Astronomy
Beyond Galileo’s universe
Astronomers grapple with cosmic puzzles both dark and light
By Ron Cowen - Tech
White House commissions spaceflight-review panel
Outside experts are being asked to advise NASA on how to get astronauts into space after the shuttle program dies next year.
By Janet Raloff - Astronomy
They’re calling Obama the ‘science guy’
Speakers at a science forum offered support for the thesis that researchers have found a big ally in the new president.
By Janet Raloff - Astronomy
Planck by Planck
The launch of the European Space Agency’s Planck mission, set for late April or early May, will put into orbit a new tool —the microwave equivalent of polarized sunglasses — that may offer a view of the dawn of time.
By Ron Cowen