Space
Sign up for our newsletter
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Physics
Galaxy Zoo’s blue mystery (part I)
A Dutch science teacher found a novel celestial object that had eluded the notice of astronomers.
By Janet Raloff - Space
Twinkle, twinkle little planet
Scientists could use scattered light to identify habitable extrasolar planets.
By Ron Cowen - Space
Rocky cores form first
A theorist says new extrasolar findings prove that the standard model of planet formation is correct.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Surprise found in comet dust
Scientists find an odd mineral that could offer clues to the solar system's origins.
- Astronomy
Otherworldly triple play
Astronomers have discovered the first known system of three superEarths beyond the solar system.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Accidental astrophysicists
MATH TREK: The mathematicians thought they'd just extended a fundamental result in algebra, but it turns out that they'd also proven a conjecture in astrophysics.
-
- Astronomy
Not a ripple
Another null result for gravitational waves. But findings from LIGO still reveal new information about the Crab Pulsar.
- Science & Society
Confirmed: Big Dipper to Get Doritos
A European astronomy group beamed a video of a Doritos sacrifice to the god of salsa at a possible alien race in a star system associated with the Big Dipper.
By Janet Raloff - Humans
Doritos in Space
Today, a huge European radar-transmitter system sent an ad for a cheesy snack radiating out into space.
By Janet Raloff - Space
Before the beginning
A new analysis suggests that the universe exists within a bigger space.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Shake, shake, shake
Instrument succeeds in capturing first soil sample, allowing Mars Phoenix Lander team to begin scientific studies.