Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Racing against the Martian winter
With solid findings under its belt and the Martian summer waning, the Phoenix Mars lander perseveres in its study of the soil and sky of the planet’s arctic plain.
- Astronomy
McCain Is Bullish on R&D
Featured blog: John McCain weighs in on science and technology issues with long-awaited written responses to the Science Debate 2008.
- Space
Snapshot of a planet beyond the solar system
After years of false alarms, astronomers may finally have recorded the first image of a planet orbiting a sunlike star beyond the solar system.
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- Space
Blast from the past poses puzzle
New observations suggest that the brilliant outburst of a hefty star that first wowed observers in the 1840s could be signs of a new, exotic type of stellar explosion.
- Space
Brightest gamma-ray burst
A bit of luck helps astronomers detect the most luminous object ever recorded from Earth.
- Space
Rosetta finds a rocky jewel
On September 5, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission became the first spacecraft to take a close-up portrait of a rare type of asteroid that lies in the main belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
- Space
Black holes have limits
A review of current evidence suggests an upper limit to a black hole's size.
- Space
PAMELA may have spotted the dark stuff
An orbiting observatory may have discovered particles of dark matter -- the proposed, invisible material that researchers believe holds the universe together.
- Space
Milky Way’s black hole seen in new detail
New radio wave observations are giving astronomers their closest look yet at the supermassive black hole believed to be lurking at the center of our galaxy.
- Space
Cosmic heavyweight
Astronomers discover the heftiest, most distant galaxy cluster, suggesting evidence for dark energy’s existence.
- Space
Clashing clusters
Two space telescopes capture the titanic collision of galaxy clusters in an image that shows dark matter separating from normal matter.
