Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
A first look at rocks from the lunar farside create a volcanic mystery
Rocks returned by China’s Chang’e-6 mission suggest volcanic activity just 2.8 billion years ago but lack telltale heat-generating elements.
- Planetary Science
Uranus may have looked weird when NASA’s Voyager 2 flew by
A solar wind event days before the NASA probe flyby in 1986 may have compressed the planet’s magnetosphere, making it look odder than it usually is.
- Astronomy
A cosmic census triples the known number of black holes in dwarf galaxies
The DESI survey reveals that active black holes in small galaxies are common. The findings may help reveal how the two cosmic bodies evolve together.
- Astronomy
A star winked out of sight. Could it be a ‘failed supernova’?
The dramatic dimming of a star in the nearby Andromeda galaxy could mark the birth of a black hole.
- Astronomy
A zombie star’s spiky filaments shed light on a 12th century supernova
A 3-D map of the strange remains of a supernova seen in 1181 traces the odd tendrils of gas that jut out for several light-years in all directions.
- Planetary Science
50 years ago, scientists found a new moon orbiting Jupiter
In 1974, astronomers discovered Jupiter’s 13th moon. They now know of at least 95 moons and have launched missions to study some up close.
- Space
A distant quasar’s black hole is oddly huge for its galaxy
The black hole’s mass is over half that of all the stars in the surrounding galaxy, a record for any galaxy hosting a quasar.
- Science & Society
Using AI, historians track how astronomy ideas spread in the 16th century
A new AI machine learning technique helped historians analyze 76,000 pages from astronomy textbooks spanning nearly two centuries.
- Space
A near-Earth asteroid offers clues to one dark matter theory
Data from the OSIRIS-REx mission to Bennu place a ceiling on the strength of a hypothetical fifth force that could explain dark matter’s origins.
- Space
JWST spots the first known ‘steam world’
Astronomers have found a world shrouded in an atmosphere of water vapor, orbiting a star 100 light-years away.
- Planetary Science
The cataclysmic origins of most of Earth’s meteorites have been found
Just a few smashups in the asteroid belt may account for 70 percent of Earth’s meteorites, limiting what’s known about our solar system’s history.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Europa mission is a homecoming for one planetary astronomer
Over her long career, Bonnie Buratti has seen the search for life in the solar system go from a joke to a flagship mission.
