All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Space
Phoenix gets ready for work
After a day’s delay, scientists successfully sent up commands to unstow the robotic arm of NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander.
- Space
Martian dig delayed
The Phoenix Mars Lander was in good health after its safe May 25 landing on the Red Planet, but a communication problem delayed plans to unlatch its robotic digging arm.
- Planetary Science
See how it lands
A camera on a Mars-orbiting spacecraft caught an image of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute just before it descended onto the Red Planet’s northern plains on May 25.
- Planetary Science
Touchdown! Phoenix lands on Mars
The first close-up color images of the northern arctic circle on the Red Planet were recorded by the Mars Phoenix Lander spacecraft only a few hours after its flawless descent at 7:38 p.m. EDT, May 25. The detailed images suggest ice lies beneath the hard soil.
- Space
Many stars, many planets
A new study reveals that as many as 30 percent of sunlike stars have close-in, relatively small planets — only 4 to 30 times as heavy as Earth.
- Space
Gamma-ray bling!
A recent, unusually luminous gamma-ray burst is shedding new light on these stellar explosions and the visible light they produce.
- Space
Supernova Outbreak
Thanks to a lucky break and an overactive galaxy, astronomers report the earliest detection yet of a normal supernova—the explosive death of a massive star.
- Space
Twisted roots for solar jets
Researchers have constructed the first 3-D image of a jet of gas zooming out of the sun's outer atmosphere, revealing the role that twisted magnetic fields play in generating such outbursts.
- Astronomy
Galaxy’s youngest supernova
Astronomers have found the youngest Milky Way supernova remnant ever recorded from Earth.
- Space
A shifty moon
Astronomers have found evidence that the icy shell of Jupiter's large moon Europa has rotated nearly a quarter-turn, which supports the notion that the moon has a subterranean ocean.
- Space
A special place
Two proposed studies might determine whether dark energy is real or humans live in a special place in the cosmos
- Space
A new look at the gamma-ray sky
Explosions pouring out as much energy in seconds as the sun does in its entire lifetime. Invisible beams of radiation sweeping across the sky like giant searchlights. Supermassive black holes emitting powerful and highly variable jets of radiation. GAMMA GLOW Simulation of the high-energy sky that will be seen by GLAST. Sonoma State, NASA The […]
