Space

Astronomy

Super Wallops: Tracking the origin of cosmic rays

Two new studies shed light on the longstanding mystery of where cosmic rays—the energetic charged particles that bombard our galaxy—originate.

Astronomy

Strange Stars? Odd features hint at novel matter

Two stellar corpses thought to be made of neutrons may actually contain weird forms of matter never observed before.

Astronomy

Cosmic Remodeling: Superwinds star in early universe

New measurements reveal that some of the earliest galaxies in the universe produced winds so powerful and persistent that they blew material from one galaxy to another, temporarily separating dark matter from visible matter and profoundly influencing the evolution of future generations of galaxies.

Planetary Science

Jupiter’s Whirlpool

The surprising birth and rapid evolution of a giant vortex highlight the first movie of Jupiter’s polar regions seen in the ultraviolet. The movie and other Jupiter images from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft are available online at the Cassini imaging team and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Web sites. Go to: http://ciclops.org/view.php?id=58 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2002/release_2002_59.html

Astronomy

Gamma-Ray Burst: A black hole is born

New evidence supports the notion that gamma-ray bursts, the most violent explosions in the universe, are the primal calling cards of newborn black holes.

Astronomy

Galaxy Hunter

At the interactive “Galaxy Hunter” Web site, students use data from the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate a bewildering assortment of deep-space galaxies in various stages of evolution–and learn statistical concepts such as sample variability and size along the way. Go to: http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/ghunter/

Astronomy

Long Ago and Far Away: Astronomers find distant galaxy, early cluster

Peering ever deeper into space and further back in time, two teams of astronomers have uncovered new details about the earliest galaxies and galaxy clusters in the universe.

Astronomy

Repainting the cosmic palette

After all the hue and cry about the color of the universe, astronomers have now revised their findings: It’s not pale green, but boring old beige.

Planetary Science

Mars Odyssey instrument revived

Flight controllers have revived an instrument on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft that measures the amount of radiation bombarding the Martian surface.

Astronomy

Telescope Tuned Up: Back to work for orbiting observatory

A rejuvenated Hubble Space Telescope floated away from the space shuttle Columbia on March 9 after astronauts spent a week renovating the observatory.

Planetary Science

Probing Jupiter’s big magnetic bubble

Simultaneous measurements by two spacecraft have probed in greater detail than ever before Jupiter’s magnetosphere, the invisible bubble of charged particles that surrounds the giant planet.

Astronomy

Rethinking an Astronomical Icon

Examining the Eagle nebula's pillars of creation with infrared detectors, scientists are viewing an astronomical icon in a whole new light.