Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Rocky, overweight planet shakes up theories
Kepler-10c is a rocky exoplanet 17 times as massive as Earth, and astronomers are puzzled as to how it formed.
- Astronomy
Kepler space telescope finds first ‘mega-Earth’
'Mega-Earth' has been added to the distinctions that describe exoplanets thanks to a newly announced Kepler space telescope discovery.
- Planetary Science
Do-it-yourself solar system
If you've always wanted to build your own solar system, roll up your sleeves — SuperPlanetCrash is an online solar system simulator, set up as a game.
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- Astronomy
Young, hot exoplanet takes title for longest year
Newly discovered exoplanet sits a whopping 2,000 times farther from its star than Earth does from the sun.
- Planetary Science
Titan’s haze gives clues to clouds on exoplanets
Titan’s hazy atmosphere may help astronomers better understand what’s going on in the clouds of exoplanets.
- Cosmology
2014 Kavli Prize winners announced
Cosmic inflation, nanoscale imaging and a better understanding of memory earn million-dollar honors with the Kavli Prize.
- Astronomy
Sun shines new life on Kepler space telescope
NASA approved a proposal to bring the crippled Kepler spacecraft back to life, using sunlight as balance to help the telescope search for planets and more.
- Cosmology
Dustup emerges over gravitational waves discovery
While cosmologists wait for data from Planck satellite, some worry that BICEP2 data actually come from our galaxy.
- Planetary Science
Rosetta spacecraft’s comet develops dusty envelope
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the target of ESA’s Rosetta mission, has developed a dust coma.
- Astronomy
Sun’s sibling spotted
A nearby star may have come from the same birth cluster as the sun; learning how to find other solar siblings could point the way to their common origin.
- Cosmology
The mysterious boundary
A debate has arisen over whether an astronaut passing a black hole’s point of no return would get stretched to death or flash-fried. Resolving the controversy may lead to new insights about gravity and more.
