Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Space
Portrait of a youthful planet
New pictures confirm that astronomers have recorded a planet circling the star Beta Pictoris, making the orb the youngest, star-orbiting extrasolar planet to be photographed.
- Life
Missing chemicals on Titan could signal life
Methane-based organisms on one of Saturn’s moons might be consuming the materials.
- Planetary Science
Hubble hunting for Jupiter bruise
No scar found yet on planet from June 3 crash with unidentified object.
- Planetary Science
Before the Mississippi, minerals show ancient rivers flowed west
Michigan zircons uncover the path of an ancient river system across North America.
