Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Sun’s ejections collide to create extreme space storm
In July 2012, the sun shot off streams of charged particles and magnetic fields that collided to create a record-setting space storm.
- Space
Exoplanet oxygen may not signal alien life
Oxygen in an exoplanet atmosphere may come from water and ultraviolet light, not alien life.
- Cosmology
Gravitational waves unmask universe just after Big Bang
For the first time, researchers have seen traces of superfast cosmic expansion and gravity waves.
- Cosmology
Inflation rides gravity waves into cosmological history
The discovery of gravity waves in the cosmic microwave radiation signals the success of inflationary cosmology.
- Cosmology
First images of gravity waves, evidence of cosmic inflation reported
The first images of gravitational waves and the first direct evidence for cosmic inflation were announced March 17.
- Planetary Science
Mercury is more shriveled than originally thought
Like a week-old party balloon, Mercury has shrunk over the last 4.6 billion years.
- Astronomy
Mature galaxies found in young universe
Inactive galaxies the size of the Milky Way found dating to when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old.
- Astronomy
Behemoth star destroys potential solar systems
A massive star in the Orion Nebula is evaporating disks surrounding young stars in its neighborhood but some disks mysteriously manage to survive.
- Planetary Science
Feedback
Readers respond to a special report on neuroscience and discuss moon dust.
- Cosmology
Gravitational wave detection a big day for the Big Bang
On a snowy St. Patrick’s Day, our offices officially shut down by a late-winter storm, the Science News staff was abuzz over the biggest thing since the Higgs boson. On March 17, scientists announced the first direct evidence of the theory of cosmic inflation: primordial gravitational waves.
- Planetary Science
Mojave Crater may be source of many Martian meteorites
Many of the roughly 150 Martian meteorites found on Earth probably came from the Mojave Crater on Mars.
- Astronomy
Galaxy drags trail of stars behind it
A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy ESO 137-001 dragging star trails behind it as it plows through the Norma galaxy cluster.
