All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Physics
Shaping up the sun
The most accurate measurements yet of the sun’s shape show that magnetic activity plays a role in making the sun appear more oval than it really is.
- Planetary Science
Water’s role in Martian chemistry becoming clearer
As mission nears end, Phoenix Mars Lander finds strong evidence for minerals similar to those formed on Earth by liquid water.
- Space
Hubble suddenly quiet
Updated September 30: After the orbiting observatory suddenly stopped transmitting data, NASA announced planned repair mission will be delayed at least until early next year
- Space
With a twinkle, pulsating stars could deliver signals from E.T.
Neutrino beams may turn Cepheids into messengers for advanced alien civilizations.
- Humans
The first sound bites
During the 1908 presidential race, Taft and Bryan sounded off in a new way as use of the phonograph got serious.
- Space
Lowdown on the sun
The current solar minimum is the lowest — and one of the longest — recorded in the past 50 years, since modern measurements began.
- Space
Large Hadron Collider shuts down early for the winter
CERN announces that needed repairs, plus high fuel costs, will delay the first planned collisions until next spring.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings may not be as young as they look
Saturn's rings might be more massive, and thus older, than researchers had believed.
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- Space
Snapshot of a planet beyond the solar system
After years of false alarms, astronomers may finally have recorded the first image of a planet orbiting a sunlike star beyond the solar system.
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- Space
Blast from the past poses puzzle
New observations suggest that the brilliant outburst of a hefty star that first wowed observers in the 1840s could be signs of a new, exotic type of stellar explosion.
