Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Up close and personal with an asteroid
The Rosetta orbiter makes its second swing past a relic of the early solar system.
- Space
The incredible shrinking proton
If the subatomic particle really is smaller than thought, a cherished theory may need tweaking.
- Astronomy
The universe according to Planck
Science News editor in chief Tom Siegfried reports on a new image of the early cosmos from the Euroscience Open Forum meeting in Turin, Italy.
- Space
Making lemonade with quantum lemons
Physicists produce “spooky action at a distance,” using a phenomenon that would usually disrupt it.
- Earth
Antarctic shoal breaks the ice
Instruments on a massive berg help pinpoint a previously unreported undersea ridge.
- Space
Wet past for Red Planet
An ocean blanketed one-third of Mars about 3.5 billion years ago, a new study suggests.
- Physics
Physics in free fall
Physicists drop supercold atoms down an elevator shaft to see what will happen.
- Space
All flash, no crash
New Hubble Space Telescope images confirm that Jupiter emerged unscathed from an impactor that created a fireball above the planet’s cloud tops on June 3. The new images indicate that the object exploded as a meteor in the planet’s upper atmosphere rather than plunging into the atmosphere
- Space
Astronomers stoke cosmic debate
Astronomers from the United Kingdom have published papers criticizing some of the evidence used to support theories of dark matter and energy.
- Space
Kepler craft reports apparent planetary bonanza
New results from an orbiting telescope promise to more than double the number of known extrasolar planets.
- Earth
Planes can trigger snowfall
Under certain conditions, aircraft can trigger precipitation as they pass through moisture-laden clouds.
- Space
Familiar comets may have distant roots
More than 90 percent of objects found in the vast outer–solar system reservoir may have been born around other stars, new computer simulations suggest.
