Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Betelgeuse went dark, but didn’t go supernova. What happened?
Astronomers are anxious to learn why Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the sky, dimmed dramatically, but didn’t explode, in 2019.
- Astronomy
Arecibo Observatory, an ‘icon of Puerto Rican science,’ will be demolished
The telescope, known for cameos in moves like Contact and for fast radio burst observations, was feared to be on the verge of collapse.
- Planetary Science
Farming on Mars will be a lot harder than ‘The Martian’ made it seem
Lab experiments developing and testing fake Martian dirt are proving just how difficult it would be to farm on the Red Planet.
- Space
Planets with many neighbors may be the best places to look for life
Solar systems with many planets in circular orbits suggest a calm life-nurturing past, while single exoplanets with eccentric orbits hint at chaos.
- Planetary Science
Chemical reactions high in Mars’ atmosphere rip apart water molecules
Mars is so dry because its water constant escapes into space. A new study suggests this process occurs in the ionosphere and faster than thought.
- Physics
Giant lasers help re-create supernovas’ explosive, mysterious physics
For the first time, scientists have re-created a type of shock wave that occurs in supernovas.
- Earth
STEVE may be even less like typical auroras than scientists thought
The purple-and-green, atmospheric light show nicknamed STEVE just got even stranger.
- Space
Jupiter’s icy moon Europa may glow in the dark
Europa’s potential “ice glow” could help scientists map the chemical composition of its surface — and the ocean underneath.
- Space
The Milky Way makes little galaxies bloom, then snuffs them out
When dwarf galaxies cross the Milky Way’s frontier, our galaxy compresses their gas, sparking star birth, but then robs them of their star-making gas.
- Space
Jupiter may host atmospheric ‘sprites’ or ‘elves’ never seen beyond Earth
For the first time, NASA’s Juno spacecraft may have spied the bright, superfast light show on another world.
- Physics
LIGO and Virgo’s gravitational wave tally more than quadrupled in six months
Scientists report 39 sets of spacetime ripples from just half a year of data.
- Planetary Science
Doubts over a ‘possible sign of life’ on Venus show how science works
Detecting phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere made headlines, but reanalyses and new searches call into question the original discovery of the molecule.
