News
- Astronomy
On a mountain in Wyoming, the eclipse brings wonder — and, hopefully, answers
Astronomy writer Lisa Grossman joined scientists on a mountain in Wyoming who were measuring the corona using four different instruments to try to figure out why it’s so hot.
- Planetary Science
Mars has nighttime snow storms
When clouds of water-ice particles cool at night, snow starts to fall rapidly on Mars, simulations suggest. The squalls could explain observations made by the Phoenix lander in 2008.
- Astronomy
Eclipse watchers will go after the biggest solar mystery: Why is the corona so hot?
Usually when you move away from a heat source, it gets cooler. Not so in the sun’s atmosphere.
- Astronomy
Does the corona look different when solar activity is high versus when it’s low?
Carbondale, Ill., will get two eclipses in a row, seven years apart — making it the perfect spot to watch the solar cycle in action.
- Astronomy
Cosmic lens lets astronomers zoom in on a black hole’s burps
The beginnings of a jet from an active black hole in a distant galaxy were spotted thanks to a lucky alignment.
- Astronomy
We share the Milky Way with 100 million black holes
New census calculates black hole populations in galaxies big and small.
- Astronomy
Where does the solar wind come from? The eclipse may offer answers
A quick-fire polarization camera should help scientists detect the origins of the solar wind during the Aug. 21 eclipse.
- Life
Embryos kill off male tissue to become female
Female embryos actively dismantle male reproductive tissue, a textbook-challenging study suggests.
- Neuroscience
How an itch hitches a ride to the brain
Scientists have figured out how your brain registers the sensation of itch.
- Astronomy
Why are the loops in the sun’s atmosphere so neat and tidy?
Observations during the total solar eclipse may explain why the sun’s atmosphere is so organized despite arising from a tangled magnetic field.
- Health & Medicine
A new tool could one day improve Lyme disease diagnosis
There soon could be a way to differentiate between Lyme disease and a similar tick-associated illness.
- Astronomy
What can the eclipse tell us about the corona’s magnetic field?
The corona’s plasma jumps and dances thanks to the magnetic field, but scientists have never measured the field directly.
