Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Explosive Tales
Four hundred years after the explosion of the Kepler supernova, the last such stellar eruption in our galaxy, astronomers have examined the supernova's remnant with state-of-the-art telescopes that view it in infrared, optical, and X-ray light.
- Astronomy
Extrasolar Planet News: Superplanet or brown dwarf?
New observations of an oddball planetary system 150 light-years from Earth suggest that some planets either are superheavy, more than 17 times as massive as Jupiter, or that they form from disks of gas and dust that encircle not just a single star, but two starlike objects.
- Astronomy
Belt Tightening: Icy orbs are surprisingly small
Objects in the distant reservoir of comets known as the Kuiper belt are intrinsically much brighter, and therefore smaller, than previously thought.
- Planetary Science
A Titan of a Mission
On Jan. 14, a space probe will plunge through the thick atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, looking for insights into the origins of life on Earth.
- Astronomy
First Light: Faint object may be youngest star detected
Peeking into the dusty core of a dark cloud seemingly devoid of stars, astronomers have found a faintly glowing body that could be the earliest glimmerings ever recorded from a newborn star.
- Planetary Science
Riddles on Titan
Two puzzles have emerged from the Cassini spacecraft's first close flyby of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
- Planetary Science
Titanic Close-up: Cassini eyes Saturn’s big moon
Using radar to penetrate the thick haze surrounding Saturn's moon Titan, the Cassini spacecraft has found evidence that the moon's surface is coated with hydrocarbons and dark patches that might be lakes of ethane or methane.
- Astronomy
Renegade stars in sun’s neighborhood
Some stars in the neighborhood of the sun may be renegades from the center of our galaxy.
- Astronomy
Messy Findings: Planets encounter a violent world
Some young planets continue to take a beating hundreds of millions of years after they've formed.
- Planetary Science
Mars Rovers: New evidence of past water
Twin rovers on opposite sides of the Red Planet have found additional evidence that liquid water once flowed there.
- Planetary Science
Martian water everywhere
Combining data taken from two craft orbiting Mars with images and spectra collected by one of the Mars rovers, a scientist has found evidence that a body of water greater in area than all the Great Lakes combined once covered the Red Planet.
- Astronomy
Planet Signs? Sifting a dusty disk
Infrared spectra of a disk of debris surrounding the young star Beta Pictoris reveals three distinct bands of dust, suggesting the location of a possible planet flanked by belts of asteroids or comets.
