Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life
Astronomers this week announced that they had found Earth's closest known analog outside the solar system, an object with an average temperature that may allow water to be liquid on its surface.
- Planetary Science
A hexagon on the ringed planet
NASA scientists are puzzled by a giant, hexagon-shaped feature that covers Saturn's entire north pole.
- Astronomy
Back to (Near) the Beginning: Galactic springtime
In their quest to capture ever-earlier moments of cosmic history, astronomers may have found some of the first galaxies.
- Planetary Science
Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?
Our solar system's periodic motion from one side of the galaxy to the other could expose life on Earth to massive amounts of cosmic rays and cause recurring, catastrophic mass extinctions.
- Planetary Science
Little Enceladus disturbs Saturn’s magnetic field
Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus is acting as a brake on the giant planet's magnetic field.
- Astronomy
Eclipsing a black hole
A chance eclipse has enabled astronomers for the first time to measure the width of a disk of swirling, hot matter around a supermassive black hole.
- Planetary Science
Cavernous findings from Mars
Images taken by a Mars-orbiting spacecraft show what appear to be caves on the Red Planet.
- Planetary Science
No Escape: There’s global warming on Mars too
The overall darkening of Mars' surface in recent decades has significantly raised the Red Planet's temperature, a possible cause for the substantial, recent shrinkage of the planet's southern ice cap.
- Astronomy
Late Bloomer: Hubble studies once-dormant galaxy
A wispy dwarf galaxy called Leo A has the potential to change the way astronomers build theoretical models of galaxy evolution.
- Planetary Science
Radar probes frozen water at Martian pole
If all the frozen water stored near the south pole of Mars suddenly melted, it would make a planetwide ocean 11 meters deep.
- Planetary Science
Solar-staring spacecraft shows its flare
A new image of the sun's chromosphere, a layer sandwiched between the sun's visible surface and its outer atmosphere, shows a surprisingly complex structure of filaments of roiling gas that promises to shed new light on why the sun erupts.
- Planetary Science
Radar reveals signs of seas on Titan
The northernmost reaches of Saturn's moon Titan appear to be covered with hydrocarbon lakes or seas that are at least 10 times as large as those predicted by earlier studies.
