Ron Cowen

All Stories by Ron Cowen

  1. Astronomy

    Gammas from Heaven

    An orbiting gamma-ray observatory, set for launch next spring, will seek out the most violent events in the cosmos.

  2. Astronomy

    Odd Couples: Big black holes challenge star theory

    The discovery of a black hole almost 16 times as massive as the sun, and the possible discovery of an even heavier one, challenge theories of how such black holes form.

  3. Astronomy

    Record-breaking supernova

    A newly discovered supernova, 100 billion times as bright as the sun, is the most luminous ever recorded.

  4. Planetary Science

    Portrait of a Martian crater

    An ultrasharp image of part of Mars' Gale crater shows waterborne sediments and volcanic ash.

  5. Astronomy

    Motion of two nearby galaxies clouds the picture

    The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are not gravitationally bound to the Milky Way, but are relative newcomers passing by for the first time.

  6. Planetary Science

    Titan: Land of lakes—and drizzle

    A newly assembled mosaic of radar images of Saturn's moon Titan shows what appear to be hydrocarbon lakes and seas.

  7. Astronomy

    Sunstruck: Solar hurricanes rip comet’s tail

    Images from a spacecraft show a magnetic hurricane from the sun severing a comet's ion tail.

  8. Planetary Science

    Martian rovers survive storm

    Three months after being stymied by a planet-wide dust storm, NASA's twin Mars rovers are back in action.

  9. Astronomy

    Match Made in Heaven: Nearby galaxies resemble faraway type

    Several nearby galaxies seem nearly identical to some of the remotest galaxies known, offering a glimpse of the era when galaxies first formed.

  10. Planetary Science

    Neptune’s balmy south pole

    Neptune's south pole is about 10°C warmer than any other place on the planet.

  11. Astronomy

    Sputnik + 50

    The launch of Sputnik 1, 50 years ago, ushered in a scientific and technological revolution, but dreams of the human conquest of space have faded.

  12. Planetary Science

    Muddying the Water? Orbiter drains confidence from fluid story of Mars

    New images of Mars diminish the evidence that liquid water has flowed on some parts of the planet, but bolster the case in other places.