Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Cosmology
Despite a new measurement, the debate over the universe’s expansion rages on
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope finds the universe is expanding more slowly than supernova observations suggest.
- Space
Two new books explore Mars — and what it means to be human
‘Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars’ and ‘The Sirens of Mars’ are surprisingly apt reads during the pandemic.
- Planetary Science
How upcoming missions to Mars will help predict its wild dust storms
Predicting the weather on Mars is essential for landing and keeping rovers — or astronauts — safe on the surface. The next Mars missions will give forecasts a boost.
- Space
This is the most comprehensive X-ray map of the sky ever made
A new X-ray map of the entire sky, using data from the eROSITA telescope’s first full scan, looks deeper into space than any other of its kind.
- Space
Self-destructive civilizations may doom our search for alien intelligence
A lack of signals from space may also be bad news for Earthlings.
- Planetary Science
Some exoplanets may be covered in weird water that’s between liquid and gas
“Supercritical” water, a corrosive substance used to break down toxic waste on Earth, coats some small worlds around other stars, simulations suggest.
- Space
A newfound exoplanet may be the exposed core of a gas giant
A planet about 734 light-years away could be a former gas giant that lost its atmosphere or a failed giant that never finished growing.
- Planetary Science
An asteroid’s moon got a name so NASA can bump it off its course
A tiny moon orbiting an asteroid finally got a name because NASA plans to crash a spacecraft into it.
- Space
Colliding black holes may have created a surprising flare of light
A flare-up after a gravitational wave outburst may be the first sighting of light from colliding black holes.
- Particle Physics
Physicists spot a new class of neutrinos from the sun
Researchers with the Borexino experiment in Italy have detected neutrinos produced in the secondary fusion process taking place in the sun’s core.
- Space
LIGO and Virgo detected a collision between a black hole and a mystery object
The first evidence of an object more massive than any neutron star and more lightweight than any black hole has astronomers wondering what it is.
- Space
Black hole plasma jets are shaped like bell-bottoms
Jets of high-energy particles change from slightly curved sides to flared cones as they shoot away from galaxies, just like flare-legged pants.
