IN THE BALANCE A trio of freefloating spacecraft called LISA (one of the satellites illustrated) will search for gravitational waves from space in a mission expected to launch in 2034.
AEI/Milde Marketing/Exozet
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Magazine
In the June 24 SN: Unlikely worlds around dim red stars, bacteria to the rescue, flamingos’ balancing act, Jupiter up close, hominid origins revisited, spacetime shakes again, ladybug wing origami and more.
Atom & Cosmos
Topic Image Rail
PLANETARY COUSINS Planets may be lumped into two groups: smaller and rocky like Kepler-452b (left), or bigger and gassy like Kepler-22b (right).
W. Stenzel/NASA Ames
NIGHT AND DAY Solar physicists gained new insight into the origins of coronal mass ejections as they watched the 2015 solar eclipse darken the sky above Svalbard, Norway.
© 2015 Miloslav Druckmüller, Shadia Habbal, Peter Aniol, Pavel Štarha
Atom & Cosmos
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Astronomy
Science TickerSatellite trio will hunt gravitational waves from space
The European Space Agency has green-lighted the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, expected to launch in 2034.News
Eclipse watchers catch part of the sun’s surface fleeing to space
A serendipitous eruption during a solar eclipse showed relatively cool blobs of plasma, wrapped in a million-degree flame, streaming from the sun. -
Cosmology
News in Brief
Milky Way’s loner status is upheld
Galaxy surveys show the Milky Way lives in a vast cosmic void, which could help ease tensions between ways of measuring how fast the universe is expanding.News in Brief
New data fuel debate on universe’s expansion rate
Quasar observations add to discrepancy in measurements of the universe’s expansion speed. -
Planetary Science
Science Visualized
See the latest stunning views of Jupiter
Once every 53 days, NASA’s Juno spacecraft zooms past Jupiter’s cloud tops. A new sequence of images reveals the encounter from Juno’s viewpoint.News
Jupiter’s precocious birth happened in the solar system’s first million years
Jupiter formed within the first million years of the solar system, according to meteorite measurements. -
Particle Physics
Letters to the EditorReaders puzzled by proton's properties
Readers sent feedback on under-ice greenhouses in the Arctic, the Martian atmosphere and more.News in Brief
Antiproton count hints at dark matter annihilation
Antimatter in cosmic rays could be a sign of dark matter. -
Exoplanets
News
Kepler shows small exoplanets are either super-Earths or mini-Neptunes
The final catalog from the Kepler space telescope splits Earthlike exoplanets into two groups and pinpoints 10 new rocky planets in the habitable zone.Feature
Life might have a shot on planets orbiting dim red stars
The number of planets in the habitable zone of dim red suns, known as M dwarfs, is growing. They’re a good place to look for life. -
Astrobiology
Letters to the EditorReaders weigh in on ET and the meaning of life
All about aliensNew telescopes and spacecraft will soon help researchers scour our galaxy for signs of extraterrestrial life. But what might aliens look like? And if they do exist, why haven’t they returned our calls? These are just some of the questions addressed in the Science News special report “In Search of Aliens” (SN: 4/30/16, p. 24).
Editor's NoteTrying to find ET and our place in the universe
Editor in Chief discusses the search for life beyond Earth.
