Astronomy
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft confabs with a comet
After a 10-year chase, ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft has met up with comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
- Astronomy
Single black hole may be masquerading as a pair
New observations of a recently discovered binary black hole reveal that astronomers may have been seeing double.
- Planetary Science
Three volcanic eruptions rock Jupiter’s moon Io
Over two weeks last year, the tiny moon Io blazed with three vigorous volcanic eruptions.
- Planetary Science
Saturn moon’s geysers draw water from subsurface sea
More than six years of Cassini data indicate that the water jets on the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus connect to deep-ocean reservoirs via expanding cracks in surface ice.
- Astronomy
Gamma rays streaming from stellar explosions stump astronomers
The Fermi satellite detected gamma rays coming from an unexpected source — and astronomers don’t understand what made that possible.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft gets better view of comet’s fuzz
News images are giving astronomers a sense of the size of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko's coma and the shape of its core.
- Astronomy
When looking for aliens, try finding their pollution
Future telescopes may discover civilized aliens by detecting the industrial pollutants called fluorinated gases in exoplanet atmospheres.
- Astronomy
Tilted binary stars test theories of planet formation
Tilted disks in binary star systems may help astronomers explain variety of exoplanet orbits.
- Astronomy
Listening in on cosmic messages
Yet to be deciphered, fast radio bursts represent the latest messages from space with the potential to tell us more about the cosmos.
- Astronomy
Searching for distant signals
Fast radio bursts are bright, brief and seem to come from very far away. Astronomers are pointing major telescopes skyward to solve the puzzle of these cryptic signals.
- Planetary Science
Comet ISON fell apart earlier than realized
Comet ISON disintegrated at least eight hours before it grazed the surface of the sun last fall, new observations show.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft sees possible ‘double’ comet
The comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko may actually be two objects stitched together.
