Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Dying stars called collapsars may forge much of the universe’s gold
Spinning stars that collapse into black holes could help explain the origins of heavy elements such as gold and silver.
- Physics
What a nearby kilonova would look like
Physicists imagined what we’d see in the sky if two neutron stars collided just 1,000 light-years from Earth.
- Physics
LIGO is on the lookout for these 8 sources of gravitational waves
Gravitational wave hunters are on a cosmic scavenger hunt. Here’s what they’re hoping to find.
- Physics
LIGO and Virgo made 5 likely gravitational wave detections in a month
It took decades to find the first gravitational wave event, and now they’re a weekly occurrence.
- Planetary Science
Water has been found in the dust of an asteroid thought to be bone-dry
Scientists detected water in bits of an asteroid thought to be devoid of the liquid. Such space rocks might have helped create Earth’s oceans.
- Astronomy
Skepticism grows over whether the first known exomoon exists
New analyses of the data used to find the first discovered exomoon are reaching conflicting results.
- Planetary Science
Pictures confirm Hayabusa2 made a crater in asteroid Ryugu
Hayabusa2’s crater-blasting success, confirmed by an image beamed back from the spacecraft, paves the way to grab subsurface asteroid dust.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Mars InSight lander may have the first recording of a Marsquake
NASA’s InSight mission appears to have detected a Marsquake for the first time.
- Astronomy
Seeing very far away and hitting closer to home
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses the first-ever image of a black hole and what can be done to help young children with anxiety.
- Planetary Science
Readers ponder Opportunity’s future, animal consciousness and more
Readers had questions about NASA’s Opportunity rover, pollen shapes and more.
- Planetary Science
Mercury has a massive solid inner core
The distribution of Mercury’s mass and small stutters in the planet’s spin suggest it has a giant solid inner core.
- Physics
The M87 black hole image showed the best way to measure black hole masses
The first image of M87’s black hole suggests it is 6.5 billion times the mass of the sun — close to what was expected based on how stars move around it.
