Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Water found on Neptune-sized world
Just four times as wide as Earth, HAT-P-11b is the smallest exoplanet known to store water in its atmosphere.
- Cosmology
Gravitational wave discovery gives way to Milky Way dust
New polarization maps from the Planck satellite suggest that the BICEP2 announcement this year of primordial gravitational waves might be due entirely to dust in our galaxy.
- Planetary Science
MAVEN spacecraft set to explore Martian atmosphere
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution, or MAVEN, spacecraft entered into orbit around the Red Planet on September 21.
- Planetary Science
Feedback
Readers discuss sources of stress in everyday life and tell us what they think about NASA's plan to nab an asteroid.
- Astronomy
Enormous black hole resides at core of tiny galaxy
A small galaxy stores 15 percent of its mass in a black hole, suggesting compact galaxies might be shreds of once larger galaxies.
- Astronomy
Tweak to dark matter may explain Milky Way mystery
Dark matter weakly interacting with light in the early universe might have prevented satellite galaxies from forming around Milky Way, astronomers propose.
- Planetary Science
Spot on comet chosen for Rosetta mission lander
Philae, the Rosetta mission lander, will attempt to land on a spot called site J on comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
- Planetary Science
Moon’s farside hints at violent volcanic explosions
The spread of the element thorium in the moon's Compton-Belkovich region suggests that silica volcanoes there once had violent explosions.
- Astronomy
Mystery of missing lithium extends beyond Milky Way
Stars in cluster Messier 54, part of a nearby dwarf galaxy, have just as little lithium as stars in the Milky Way, suggesting that the mystery of the missing element is universal.
- Planetary Science
Plate tectonics spotted on Europa
First evidence for plate tectonics elsewhere in solar system discovered on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.
- Astronomy
Rosetta’s comet shows few signs of surface ice
The first data sent back from one instrument aboard the Rosetta spacecraft suggests that comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has little surface ice.
- Astronomy
Plasma corkscrews form on sun during stellar eruption
Coronal mass ejection creates twisted loop in sun’s magnetic field.
