Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
It’s a new planet! It’s an unknown star! It’s — oops!
A couple of unexpected wandering points of light in the sky could be new planets or even a dim star orbiting the sun, but researchers have plenty of reasons to be skeptical.
- Planetary Science
Salty source of Ceres’ mysterious bright spots found
Bright spots on Ceres contain salts from a possible subsurface layer of ice while ammonia-rich minerals hint at building blocks incorporated from the far outer solar system.
- Planetary Science
Japanese spacecraft reaches Venus — five years late
The Japanese Space Agency’s Akatsuki spacecraft succeeded at a second attempt at orbiting Venus, five years after an engine failure prevented its intended mission.
- Astronomy
LISA Pathfinder to pave way for gravitational wave detection
The successful launch of the LISA Pathfinder mission marks the first step toward testing techniques needed to build a space-based gravitational-wave detector.
- Astronomy
Mysterious cosmic signals carry a clue to their origins
A burst of radio waves from another galaxy ran into a dense magnetized plasma while en route to Earth, hinting at an origin near a population of young stars.
- Astronomy
Super-Earths, meet superpuffs, a lighter weight class of planet
Superpuffs are underweight, oversized planets that formed in outskirts of star systems before cuddling up close to their sun.
- Planetary Science
A defenseless Mars is losing its atmosphere
Measurements of Mars’ atmosphere leaking into space could help scientists explain how the Red Planet lost its once life-friendly climate.
- Astronomy
More mysterious extragalactic signals detected
Five more fast radio bursts from other galaxies have shown up and one of them is a double.
- Planetary Science
Phobos to create ring around the Red Planet
Mars’ moon Phobos will shatter and create a temporary ring around Mars 20 million to 40 million years from now.
- Planetary Science
Way-out world is solar system’s most distant object — for now
An icy world over 15 billion kilometers from the sun is the new record holder for most distant object in the solar system.
- Planetary Science
Glimpse of baby planet shows what to expect when a star is expecting
A baby planet is still growing in the disk of gas that encircles a young star.
- Planetary Science
Bright minds, antineutrinos and more reader feedback
In the November 28, 2015, issue of Science News, readers discussed humanizing science, frog mating calls, antineurtrinos and Martian dust storms.
