Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Space
Plenty of black holes do-si-do
Team finds 33 merging galaxies with 'waltzing' black-hole pairs, suggesting the phenomenon is more common than thought.
- Space
Kepler space telescope finds its first extrasolar planets
The NASA mission uncovers one Neptune-like and four Jupiter-like bodies.
- Space
New-found galaxies may be farthest back in time and space yet
Potential finding uses data that push limits of current technology.
- Earth
Age of solar system needs a fresh look
Honed measurements show age overshot by amount significant to earliest stage of formation.
- Space
Stay tuned: New star coming in 1 million years
Radio observations of a dark, dusty cloud in a nearby star-forming region have revealed one of the earliest phases of star formation and may reveal new insights on starbirth.
- Space
Herschel Space Observatory sees stars being born
A recently launched infrared observatory has discovered about 700 newly forming stars.
- Space
2009 Science News of the Year: Atom & Cosmos
A post-crash plume kicked up from the moon contained vapor and ice. NASA crashed an unmanned spacecraft into the lunar surface on October 9 in order to analyze the resulting debris for signs of water. Image Credit: NASA Water on the moonThe moon isn’t bone dry: Although planetary scientists had suspected as much for years, […]
- Space
Experiment detects particles of dark matter, maybe
Events in underground experiment too few for certainty, but match the signature of WIMPs.
- Space
Super-Earth found close by, may host water
Astronomers say this discovery and others suggest that finding habitable planets is 'only a matter of time.'
- Earth
Irrigation draining California groundwater at ‘unsustainable’ pace
The GRACE satellites have tracked water movement from the Central Valley since 2003.
- Space
Heat-seeking WISE spacecraft to scan the skies
The new instrument promises to discover millions of infrared-bright galaxies and thousands of previously unknown asteroids and brown dwarfs.
- Planetary Science
Pluto’s cloud components verified
Newly analyzed observations suggest that particles are tiny spherules of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide.
