Space

  1. A chain of craters on Enceladus looks like a Saturnian snowman.
    Planetary Science

    Enceladus is blanketed in a thick layer of snow

    Pits on the Saturnian moon reveal the surprising depth of the satellite’s snow, suggesting its plume was more active in the past.

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  2. The James Webb Space Telescope’s first image captured three “Green Pea” galaxies in the early universe (circled in green). The galaxies’ light has been stretched by the expansion of the universe, making them appear red.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope found ‘Green Pea’ galaxies in the early universe

    The James Webb telescope spotted tiny “green” galaxies that might have helped trigger a dramatic cosmic makeover more than 13 billion years ago.

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  3. An illustration of an exoplanet passing in front of a star.
    Planetary Science

    Methylated gases could be an unambiguous indicator of alien life

    On Earth, methylated gases are produced by organisms cleaning up their environment — and by little else. The same might be true on some exoplanets.

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  4. An illustration of green and white dots that make up a wormhole tunnel with a spaceship heading into the middle
    Physics

    We could get messages back from spacecraft sent through a wormhole

    A simulation of a probe sent to the other side of a wormhole shows it could send speedy messages back before the hole closes and the probe is lost.

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  5. A volcano erupts (blue) on Jupiter’s innermost moon, Io, in this picture from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft.
    Space

    Io may have an underworld magma ocean or a hot metal heart

    New calculations support dueling ideas for what powers the ubiquitous volcanoes on the hellish surface of Jupiter’s innermost moon.

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  6. Apollo astronaut Harrison “Jack” Schmitt collects moon samples
    Space

    Humans haven’t set foot on the moon in 50 years. That may soon change

    In 1972, the era of crewed missions to the moon came to an end. Fifty years later, a new one has begun.

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  7. Human skeleton from waist down showing earliest surgery
    Life

    Here are 5 record-breaking science discoveries from 2022

    The earliest surgery, fastest supercomputer and biggest single-celled bacteria were some of this year’s top science superlatives.

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  8. A night photo of the Artemis I rocket launching
    Astronomy

    The James Webb Space Telescope wasn’t the only big space news in 2022

    DART crashed into an asteroid, Artemis went to the moon and we got a pic of our galaxy’s monstrous black hole. Space was a busy place this year.

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  9. An illustration of exoplanet GJ 1214b and its star.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope is getting glimpses of small, far-off planets

    Hints of one exoplanet atmosphere’s chemical makeup and the discovery of a planet orbiting another star are two of the telescope’s early successes.

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  10. illustration of a planet spiraling into its star
    Astronomy

    The first planet found by the Kepler space telescope is doomed

    The exoplanet dubbed Kepler 1658b is spiraling toward its host star and will meet a fiery death in less than 3 million years.

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  11. Enceladus, the moon of Saturn, shown partly illuminated against the backdrop of space
    Planetary Science

    The last vital ingredient for life has been discovered on Enceladus

    The underground ocean on Saturn’s icy moon may contain phosphorus in concentrations thousands of times greater than those found in Earth’s ocean.

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  12. Regions of sky, shown as rectangles, observed by JWST, against a black backdrop
    Astronomy

    How the James Webb telescope’s glances back in time are reshaping cosmology

    The observatory has found dozens of galaxies from less than 550 million years after the Big Bang, suggesting galaxies formed faster than once thought.

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