Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Found: A missing hot halo
Astronomers have for the first time found a halo of hot inflowing gas around a massive, spiral galaxy, a likely leftover from the galaxy's formation.
- Astronomy
Blasts from the Past
Gamma-ray bursts may soon surpass quasars and galaxies as the most distant known objects in the universe and are likely to provide a new window on the early universe.
- Astronomy
Galactic cannibalism
A highly elongated group of stars is most likely a dwarf galaxy that is being gobbled up by the Milky Way.
- Astronomy
Pay Dirt: Cometary dust collector comes home
A capsule containing dust collected from the comet Wild-2 safely landed in the Utah desert.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Push: Finding pieces of a dark puzzle
A controversial new study, the first to use gamma-ray bursts to measure the expansion of the universe far back in time, hints that dark energy may not be constant in time.
- Astronomy
Images reveal possible origin of young stars
Astronomers say they have solved the riddle of how young, massive stars can reside so close to the monster black hole at the Milky Way's center.
- Planetary Science
One star better than two?
Rather than disrupting the planet-forming process around another star, a nearby companion may sometimes enhance it, new computer simulations suggest.
- Astronomy
Hubble spots North Star companion
Astronomers have obtained an image of a close companion star to Polaris, the North Star.
- Astronomy
Gravity at play
Astronomers have found 19 cosmic mirages, distorted images created when the gravity of a massive galaxy bends and magnifies the light from a background object.
- Astronomy
Outer Limits
A slew of recently discovered objects at the far reaches of the solar system, including a possible tenth planet, are providing scientists with clues about the origin and evolution of this distant region.
- Astronomy
Gauging Star Birth: Spacecraft uses gamma rays as stellar tracer
Using radioactive material spewed into space by dying stars, astronomers have measured the star-formation rate in our galaxy over the past few million years.
- Planetary Science
Moon spray
The Cassini spacecraft has found conclusive evidence that the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus spews jets of icy particles into space.
