Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
A Hubble Decade
To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope’s 10th anniversary, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md., has created a new Web site devoted to the Earth-orbiting telescope and its spectacular images. Offering much more than pretty pictures, the site recounts Hubble’s discoveries, illustrates how the telescope works, and suggests various educational activities and games. Until […]
- Astronomy
Celestial Divide: Finding two families of galaxies
By analyzing data from a mammoth sky survey, astromoners have found that galaxies divide into two distinct families, depending on their stellar mass.
- Astronomy
Hefty Discovery: Finding a Kuiper belt king
A newly discovered celestial body appears to be the largest object that scientists have found in the solar system since their detection of Pluto in 1930.
- Astronomy
There’s life in the old galaxies yet
An unexpectedly large number of supermassive black holes in old galaxy clusters suggests these elderly groupings of galaxies aren't as quiescent as had been expected.
- Astronomy
Big Bang Confirmed: Seeing twists and turns of primordial light
The latest observations of the cosmic microwave background reveal that photons from adjacent patches of the sky have slightly different polarizations.
- Astronomy
Found: Gamma-ray background information
Resolving a 30-year-old mystery, astronomers say they have identified the source of the faint, high-energy glow of radiation known as the gamma-ray background.
- Astronomy
Hole in the Middle: Are midsize black holes the missing link?
Two teams of astronomers reported that they had confirmed the existence of a new class of black hole.
- Astronomy
Reflecting on the Kuiper belt
A new study suggests that at least some members of the Kuiper belt, the reservoir of comets and other frozen objects that lie beyond the orbit of Neptune, reflect more sunlight and are considerably smaller than previously calculated.
- Astronomy
Magnetars: A missing link
A rare group of ultradense stars may be magnetars, objects with the strongest magnetic fields known in the universe.
- Astronomy
Birth of a Tiny Galaxy: In the universe, dwarfs may pop up last
Using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe a tiny galaxy still in the process of being born, astronomers are getting a rare glimpse of how larger galaxies formed early in the history of the universe.
- Planetary Science
Pluto and the Occult: Rare events illuminate Pluto’s atmosphere
Twice in the past month, astronomers were given a rare opportunity to peer through the tenuous atmosphere of Pluto.
- Planetary Science
Planetary Beginnings: Data reveal Earth’s quick gestation
Two new studies confirm that Earth's core formed in a hurry—during the first 30 million years after the solar system's birth.
