Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
A Swarm of Umbrellas vs. Global Warming: Astronomer thinks small to save Earth
A trillion miniature spacecraft could provide a giant sunshade for Earth, significantly reducing global warming.
- Astronomy
Web Special: Hubble Repair Mission Is a Go
After several years of uncertainty following the Columbia shuttle disaster, NASA this week gave the go-ahead for a shuttle crew to replace and repair parts on the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope.
- Astronomy
Galactic spider
A Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a large galaxy in the early universe assembling from the merger of smaller ones.
- Planetary Science
Jovian storm grows stormier
Jupiter's Little Red Spot has become as strong as its big brother.
- Astronomy
Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet
Astronomers have measured the temperature variation between the lit and unlit sides of a planet outside the solar system.
- Planetary Science
Satanic Winds
Dust devils send prodigious amounts of dust into Earth's atmosphere, and on Mars the electric fields generated by the dusty vortices may actually stimulate changes in atmospheric chemistry that sterilize the soil.
- Astronomy
Assault on Andromeda: Nearby galaxy had recent collision
New findings suggest that a small galaxy recently plunged into Andromeda, opening a new window on collisions that are rare today but were common in the early universe.
- Planetary Science
A sunrise view of Mars
The first high-resolution images sent by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter support the notion that water once flowed across much of the Red Planet.
- Astronomy
Record-breaking galaxy
Looking ever deeper into space and farther back in time, astronomers have found a galaxy more distant than any other known in the universe.
- Planetary Science
Ring Shots
With the sun poised behind Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft recently got a unique view of the rings' icy dust particles, enabling it to discover two new rings and confirm the presence of two ringlets.
- Planetary Science
Web Special: Clay magic on Mars
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has just completed a week of picture taking from as low as 300 kilometers above the surface of the Red Planet.
- Astronomy
Enigmatic Eruption
An erupting star near the outskirts of the Milky Way has become one of the most puzzling objects in the galaxy.
