All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Space
Extrasolar planetary system makes pictorial debut
The first images of a planetary system beyond the solar system are released, while the Hubble Space Telescope snaps a shot of likely planet orbiting a nearby star.
- Space
Hubble repair mission delayed yet again
Even as the Hubble Space Telescope was able to snap an image after several weeks of idling, a mission to visit and upgrade Hubble suffered another delay.
- Astronomy
Double the rubble: Nearby star system has two asteroid belts
Epsilon Eridani hosts an inner asteroid belt and planet arranged like those in the solar system.
- Space
New light on moon water
Kaguya, a Japanese spacecraft orbiting the moon, finds that a south pole crater called Shackleton has no visible signs of ice.
- Space
Hubble revives
A plan to switch the Hubble Space Telescope to a backup system works, waking up the telescope after more than two weeks of silence.
- Planetary Science
Huge cyclone churns at Saturn’s north pole
Planetary scientists have gotten their closest look yet at polar storms on the ringed planet. These polar cyclones are big enough to engulf Earth.
- Planetary Science
So close, yet so far away
Astronomers have found, in the frozen reaches beyond Neptune, two gravitationally bound objects that compose the most widely spaced binary system known in the solar system.
- Space
A comet doubleheader
Astronomers have discovered the first comet that appears to be a contact binary — two chunks somehow held together by a narrow neck of material.
- Space
Askew in the outer solar system
A chunk of ice orbiting backwards around the sun could offer hints about the mysterious origin of some comets.
- Space
Sniping at Jupiter
Giant Jupiter, often thought to protect the inner planets from space debris, may sometimes acts as a sniper, hurling material toward Earth.
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- Physics
Nobel Prize in physics shared for work that unifies forces of nature
Understanding of broken symmetry has been crucial to the standard model of particle physics.
