Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Astronomical milestones of 2015
The New Horizons mission to Pluto was the No. 1 science story of the year. Here some other notable space missions.
- Science & Society
Science puzzles no longer so puzzling
This year, researchers solved the riddle of mysterious radio bursts, the Erdös discrepancy problem and an elusive acid.
- Planetary Science
Equipment failure delays Mars mission
A leaky instrument will push back launch of the Mars InSight lander by at least two years.
- Astronomy
Equipment failure pushes back Mars lander mission
The launch of the Mars InSight lander is suspended until at least 2018 because of a faulty seismometer.
- Astronomy
New recipe found for making supermassive black hole
The universe’s first supermassive black holes may have formed directly from gas in colliding galaxies, new simulations suggest.
- Tech
SpaceX rocket sticks its landing
A Falcon 9 rocket section lands after launching a set of satellites during a successful test of SpaceX’s reusable rocket parts.
- Tech
SpaceX rocket blasts to space and back, sticks the landing
A Falcon 9 rocket section lands after launching a set of satellites during a successful test of SpaceX’s reusable rocket parts.
- Astronomy
Exoplanets need right stuff to be habitable
The elemental makeup of a star can reveal whether planets in its solar system could support sustained plate tectonics, a requirement for Earth-like life, researchers propose.
- Earth
Solid inner, inner core may be relic of Earth’s earliest days
Earth’s innermost inner core may have formed billions of years earlier than previously thought, shortly after the planet’s accretion.
- Physics
Pulsar pair ripples spacetime
A pair of pulsars gives scientists the best evidence so far for gravitational waves, which have yet to be detected directly.
- Planetary Science
Cassini spacecraft preps for one last flyby of Enceladus
December 19 marks the last time the Cassini spacecraft flies in for a close look at the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
- Physics
General relativity caught in action around black hole
X-rays enable scientists to spot a black hole twisting the surrounding fabric of spacetime, just as Einstein’s theory predicts.
