Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Space
What NASA’s InSight lander has learned about Mars’ magnetism and quakes
In its first 10 months, the InSight lander detected Marsquakes and an unexpectedly strong magnetic field at its landing site on the Red Planet.
- Physics
This fundamental constant of nature remains the same even near a black hole
A number that sets the strength of electromagnetic interactions isn’t altered by the extreme gravity around the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole.
- Astronomy
Molecular oxygen has been spotted beyond the Milky Way for the first time
Astronomers have detected molecular oxygen in another galaxy for the first time. The discovery is only the third sighting beyond our solar system.
- Space
An ancient galaxy grew massive — then oddly stopped making stars
After ferociously producing stars for a few hundred million years, this galaxy in the early universe gave up, and astronomers aren’t sure why.
- Space
ESA’s Solar Orbiter will be the first spacecraft to study the sun’s polar zones
ESA's Solar Orbiter is now on its way to the sun, beginning a nearly two-year journey.
- Earth
Here are 5 of the weirdest auroras, including the newly spotted ‘dunes’
A newfound type of aurora dubbed the “dunes” joins the ranks of black auroras, STEVE and other obscure auroral phenomena.
- Space
This is the first fast radio burst known to have a steady beat
Brief blasts of radio energy from other galaxies keep stumping astronomers, but one seems to be on a 16-day cycle, a new clue in an ongoing puzzle.
- Space
The wobbling orbit of a pulsar proves Einstein right, yet again
Astronomers have found a pulsar’s orbit being rocked to and fro as a neighboring white dwarf whips up spacetime, in accordance with general relativity.
- Space
These are the most detailed images of the sun ever taken
First images from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope reveal details on the surface of the sun three times as small as ever seen.
- Space
An astrophysicist honors citizen scientists in the age of big data
In ‘The Crowd and the Cosmos,’ an astrophysicist gives due to citizen scientists and says they will continue to have a future in discovery.
- Space
As NASA’s Spitzer telescope’s mission ends, here’s a look back at its discoveries
For more than 16 years, the Spitzer Space Telescope has witnessed the births and deaths of stars, charted the Milky Way, found faraway worlds and more.
- Space
Phosphorus, a key ingredient of life, has been found in a newborn star system
Astrochemists map phosphorus-bearing molecules in a star-forming cloud, giving clues to how this vital element may have arrived on Earth.
