Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Year in Review: Visitor from the Oort cloud
A visitor from the outer solar system flies past the sun.
- Cosmology
Year in Review: Dark energy gets more confusing
New data raise the prospect of a ‘Big Rip’ destroying the cosmos.
- Planetary Science
Year in Review: Methane shortage on Mars
A trace of the gas is not enough to be a sign of life.
- Astronomy
Year in Review: Death of a planet hunter
The Kepler space telescope finishes a brilliant career.
- Astronomy
Year in Review: Voyager 1 reaches interstellar space
The planetary probe is the first human-made object to break out of the heliosphere.
- Cosmology
Year in Review: Planck refines cosmic history
The satellite data hint at a slower expansion rate for universe.
- Astronomy
Exoplanet dangerously close to demise
Kepler-91b could be on the brink of death — at least on astronomical time scales.
- Planetary Science
Exoplanet mass revealed in light
A new method could help identify habitable planets.
- Astronomy
Gaia spacecraft launches to map Milky Way
The ESA spacecraft blasted off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, at 4:12 am EST.
- Planetary Science
Sinkholes, tectonics may have shaped Titan’s lakes and seas
A map of Saturn’s largest moon reveals clues about the object's landscape.
- Astronomy
Milky Way may indeed have four spiral arms
In 2008, the galaxy lost two of its spiral arms. But it may be getting them back.
- Astronomy
China’s Chang’e-3 craft lands on the moon
The unmanned Chang’e-3 lunar lander and Yutu rover have made it to the moon's surface.
