Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
This year’s Perseid meteor shower will be especially flashy
This year’s Perseid meteor shower could produce up to 200 meteors per hour as Earth plows through the debris trail of comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle.
- Particle Physics
Cooling stars hint at dark matter particles
Stars that cool faster than expected can be explained by hypothetical particles called axions.
- Astronomy
Magnetic fields in sun rise at 500 kilometers per hour
Magnetic fields within the sun rise up no faster than about 500 kilometers per hour, suggesting that the movement of gas is responsible for bringing these fields to the sun’s surface.
- Planetary Science
Ceres is more than just a space rock
Dawn spacecraft reveals that the dwarf planet Ceres hides a core of solid rock beneath an outer crust of minerals, salts and ices.
- Earth
Science finds many tricks for traveling to the past
Our editor in chief discusses what science can tell us about the past.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft has stopped listening for Philae lander
Rosetta is no longer listening for communications from the comet lander Philae.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is hot
High temperatures over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot suggest that storms pump heat into the atmosphere and warm the entire planet.
- Cosmology
Debate accelerates on universe’s expansion speed
A puzzling mismatch is plaguing two methods for measuring how fast the universe is expanding.
- Particle Physics
Latest search for dark matter comes up empty
Scientists continue to come up empty-handed in the search for dark matter. The latest effort from the LUX experiment found no evidence for dark matter.
- Planetary Science
40 years ago, Viking 1 pioneered U.S. exploration on Mars
Forty years ago, Viking 1 became the first U.S. mission to land safely on the surface of Mars.
- Astronomy
Kepler tally grows: 104 more exoplanets confirmed
Kepler space telescope adds another 104 planets to its growing census of worlds in our galaxy.
- Astronomy
Black hole born without stellar parent, evidence suggests
A galaxy in the early universe might harbor the first known “direct collapse” black hole, one that forms when a cloud of gas collapses under its own weight without forming stars.
