Space

  1. Astronomy

    Cosmic Couple: One galaxy, two gravitational beasts

    Astronomers welcomed the discovery of two black holes in one galaxy, which confirms some ideas about how galaxies and black holes merge and evolve.

    By Carol Marzuola
  2. Astronomy

    More evidence of a flat universe

    Another balloon-borne experiment recording relic radiation from the Big Bang has found evidence that the universe is flat.

    By Ron Cowen
  3. Astronomy

    A supernova’s shocking development

    Astronomers have for the first time recorded the full force of the shock wave hurled from supernova 1987A, the brightest stellar explosion witnessed from Earth since the invention of the modern telescope.

    By Ron Cowen
  4. Astronomy

    New sky map: Look, Ma, no Milky Way!

    Using a radio telescope to record emissions from hydrogen gas, astronomers have penetrated the murk of the Milky Way to map the entire southern sky.

    By Ron Cowen
  5. Planetary Science

    Leapin’ Lava! Volcanic eruption on Io breaks the record

    Pointing a ground-based telescope at Jupiter's moon Io, astronomers have recorded the most powerful volcano ever observed in the solar system.

    By Ron Cowen
  6. Astronomy

    Newfound Galaxy Goes the Distance

    Astronomers have discovered a galaxy so remote that the light reaching Earth left the body some 13.6 billion years ago, making it the most distant object ever detected.

    By Ron Cowen
  7. Astronomy

    Something New on the Sun

    The sharpest visible-light images of the sun ever recorded are revealing puzzling, new features of sunspots, the dark regions where the sun's powerful magnetic field is concentrated.

    By Ron Cowen
  8. Planetary Science

    Europa’s freckles

    Reddish spots and shallow pits that pepper the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa may mark regions where warmer and less dense ice percolates to the surface.

    By Ron Cowen
  9. Planetary Science

    Another moon for Uranus

    Astronomers have confirmed the existence of the 21st moon known to be orbiting Uranus.

    By Ron Cowen
  10. Astronomy

    Milky Way black hole gets real

    Tracing the path of a star orbiting near the center of our galaxy, astronomers have found the best evidence to date that a supermassive black hole lies at the Milky Way’s core.

    By Ron Cowen
  11. Astronomy

    Cosmic rays from the solar system

    Dust grains from the Kuiper belt, a storehouse of comets and other frozen bodies in the outer solar system, are the source of some of the lower energy cosmic rays that bombard Earth.

    By Ron Cowen
  12. Astronomy

    Jet Astronomy

    For the first time, scientists have traced the slowing and dimming of X-ray-emitting jets from a black hole.

    By Ron Cowen