Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Earth
Earth is reflecting less light. It’s not clear if that’s a trend
A decrease in Earth’s reflectance shows our planet is absorbing more solar radiation, but it’s not clear if the trend will last.
- Astronomy
A Jupiter-like planet orbiting a white dwarf hints at our solar system’s future
A new planet is the first ever discovered that is orbiting a white dwarf and resembles Jupiter in both its mass and its distance from its star.
- Astronomy
The fastest-spinning white dwarf ever seen rotates once every 25 seconds
A white dwarf star that spins every 25 seconds owes its record-breaking rotation rate to a companion star dumping gas onto it.
- Astronomy
China’s lunar rock samples show lava flowed on the moon 2 billion years ago
The first lunar rocks returned to Earth in more than 40 years show that the moon was volcanically active later than scientists thought.
- Science & Society
How our SN 10 scientists have responded to tumultuous times
COVID-19, social justice movements and the realities of climate change have given our Scientists to Watch new perspective.
- Astronomy
When James Webb launches, it will have a bigger to-do list than 1980s researchers suspected
The James Webb Space Telescope has been in development for so long that space science has changed in the meantime.
- Astronomy
Space rocks may have bounced off baby Earth, but slammed into Venus
New simulations suggest a way to help explain dramatic differences between the sibling worlds.
- Astronomy
Satellite swarms may outshine the night sky’s natural constellations
Simulations suggest that satellite “mega-constellations” will be visible to the naked eye all night long in some locations.
- Astronomy
A supernova’s delayed reappearance could pin down how fast the universe expands
“SN Requiem” should reappear in the 2030s and help determine the universe’s expansion rate.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Perseverance rover snagged its first Martian rock samples
Two tubes of stone drilled from a basalt rock nicknamed Rochette are the first from Mars slated to eventually return to Earth.
- Cosmology
Astronomers may have seen a star gulp down a black hole and explode
It took sleuthing through data collected by a variety of observatories to piece together the first firm evidence of a theorized cosmic phenomenon.
- Astronomy
How radio astronomy put new eyes on the cosmos
A century ago, radio astronomy didn’t exist. But since the 1930s, it has uncovered cosmic secrets from planets next door and the faint glow of the universe’s beginnings.
