Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Meet Big Bird, highest-energy neutrino ever detected
Big Bird, the neutrino, struck the Antarctic ice with a record 2 million billion electron volts of energy.
- Planetary Science
Mercury’s surface once exploded in volcanoes
Newly released images show ancient vents and ash scattered within craters on Mercury's surface.
- Planetary Science
Subsurface sea hides below ice of Saturn moon
Astronomers add to evidence for a subsurface ocean on Enceladus using subtle variations in the moon’s gravity.
- Planetary Science
Moon gets younger age estimate
The moon may have formed about 95 million years after the birth of the solar system, up to 70 million years later than some scientists previously predicted.
- Cosmology
Maybe time’s arrow needs ergodicity as well as entropy
Explaining the arrow of time might require an equilibrium universe with hidden ergodic dynamics.
- Astronomy
This winter warrior made the gravitational waves discovery possible
Engineer Steffen Richter played an important role in the recent gravitational waves discovery, wintering at the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole and making daily treks to keep the BICEP2 telescope running.
- Planetary Science
Icy rings found around tiny space rock
Astronomers discover an icy ring around the planetoid Chariklo, held in place by unseen moons.
- Planetary Science
Icy planetoid found lurking at edge of solar system
Astronomers discovered an icy planetoid orbiting beyond the edge of the Kuiper belt.
- Astronomy
Zoom in on amazing detail in NASA moon map
An interactive mosaic of images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter lets you fly over the Moon’s north pole with unprecedented detail.
- Cosmology
Cosmic question mark
Two ways of measuring the universe’s expansion rate disagree by about 10 percent. One of the methods may be flawed. Or it could be that a hitherto unobserved phenomenon is at work.
- Cosmology
Top 10 cosmological discoveries
The cosmic microwave background radiation has played a part in many of cosmology’s greatest discoveries.
- Planetary Science
How Earth’s radiation belt gets its ‘stripes’
The rotation of the Earth may give the planet's inner radiation belt its zebralike stripes.
