Space

Sign up for our newsletter

We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Planetary Science

    Neptune’s balmy south pole

    Neptune's south pole is about 10°C warmer than any other place on the planet.

    By
  2. Astronomy

    Sputnik + 50

    The launch of Sputnik 1, 50 years ago, ushered in a scientific and technological revolution, but dreams of the human conquest of space have faded.

    By
  3. Astronomy

    Out-of-focus find

    Blurry images yield estimates of the true width of glowing meteor vapor trails in Earth's upper atmosphere.

    By
  4. Planetary Science

    Muddying the Water? Orbiter drains confidence from fluid story of Mars

    New images of Mars diminish the evidence that liquid water has flowed on some parts of the planet, but bolster the case in other places.

    By
  5. Astronomy

    Cosmic void

    A region of the cosmos a billion light-years across is devoid of all matter.

    By
  6. Planetary Science

    Survivor: Extrasolar planet escapes stellar attack

    An extrasolar planet survived after its aging parent star ballooned into a red giant that almost engulfed it.

    By
  7. Astronomy

    Bloated planet

    A newly discovered exoplanet is the largest and lowest-density such object yet found.

    By
  8. Astronomy

    Major merger

    Four galaxies are ramming into each other in one of the biggest cosmic collisions ever recorded.

    By
  9. Planetary Science

    A different view of Uranus’ rings

    The rings of Uranus are now tilted edge on to Earth, revealing small, inner rings made of fine dust.

    By
  10. Astronomy

    Killer Collision: Dino demise traces to asteroid-family breakup

    The asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was a wayward fragment from a violent collision in the asteroid belt.

    By
  11. Astronomy

    Dawn of a Disk: Water vapor pours down on embryonic star

    Infrared observations show water vapor pouring down on a planet-forming disk around a young star.

    By
  12. Astronomy

    Separation Anxiety: Cosmic collision may shed light on dark matter

    The debris from an ancient collision of galaxy clusters seems to show cosmic dark matter behaving in a puzzling way.

    By