Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Astronomy
Ticket to Ride?
Astronomers are investigating how they might jump on NASA's lunar bandwagon, using the moon or its environs to study distant stars and galaxies.
- Astronomy
First Family: Pluto-size body has siblings
Astronomers have found the first family of objects in the Kuiper belt, a remote outpost of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune.
- Astronomy
Dance of the dead
Astronomers have found what appears to be the fastest-spinning stellar corpse known.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings: A panoramic perspective
Sailing high above Saturn's equator, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took the most sweeping views of the planet's icy rings ever recorded.
- Planetary Science
A crack at life
New images of ancient cracks on Mars suggest that liquid may have percolated through underground rock on the Red Planet, providing a possible habitat for primitive life.
