Findings pose a possible answer to long-standing question of when the black holes at galactic centers formed.

Videos chart old supernova remnant, give 3-D perspective

Heftier size puts our galaxy on par with its neighbor Andromeda, implying a closer collision date. Findings also suggest Milky Way has four spiral arms. (p. 8)

New high-resolution mosaic sharpens understanding of Milky Way’s turbulent center. (p. 8)

Cosmologists analyzing an apparent asymmetry in the pattern of radiation reveal evidence for a new type of field in the early universe.

New X-ray and visible-light observations of the growth of galaxy groups and clusters are offering confirming evidence for the existence of dark energy and suggest that it may resemble the cosmological constant.  (p. 9)

Astronomers report a new value for the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center. (p. 9)

Researchers analyzing the wiggles imprinted on the cosmic microwave background, the radiation leftover from the Big Bang, have now demonstrated that those wiggles can be used to find the fingerprints of dark energy.

New telescope finds that the high-energy share of gamma-ray bursts arrive at Earth significantly later than the low-energy portion. (p. 5)

Moving one step closer to finding the fingerprints of life in a habitable planet beyond the solar system, astronomers have for the first time detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. (p. 8)

For years, planet hunters have been preoccupied with hot Jupiters—giant, gaseous planets that tightly hug their sunlike parent stars. These massive, close-in planets, not yet directly seen, are the easiest to find because they induce the largest wobble in the motion of the stars they orbit. But now astronomers are following a rockier road—seeking rocky, icy planets only a few times as massive as Earth. Soon, astronomers predict, they will discover an Earth-sized planet that orbits within the habitable zone of its parent star. And if David Charbonneau has any say about it, that hist... (p. 16)

Tilt in Mars' axis could have created stair-stepped rock formations long ago. (p. 8)