Ron Cowen

All Stories by Ron Cowen

  1. Planetary Science

    Jovian storms of surpassing beauty

    A new near-infrared image of two giant, oval storms in Jupiter's southern hemisphere reveals that they are now brushing past each other closely, separated by only 3,000 kilometers.

  2. Astronomy

    Double disks

    Astronomers have confirmed that the nearby star Beta Pictoris has two disks of dust orbiting it, each of which is generated by debris likely to be left over from planet formation.

  3. Astronomy

    Recurrent Eruption: Explosive stellar saga

    Six thermonuclear explosions have ripped off the outer layers of a dense, nearby star in the past 108 years.

  4. Planetary Science

    Some deadly monikers

    Two recently found small moons orbiting Pluto have now been officially dubbed Nix and Hydra.

  5. Astronomy

    Explosive Aftermath: Sluggish neutron star puzzles astronomers

    An X-ray–emitting object at the heart of a young supernova remnant doesn't fit the textbook view of what a stellar explosion is supposed to leave behind.

  6. Astronomy

    Repaired Vision: Hubble’s camera sees again

    The main camera on the Hubble Space Telescope is operating normally again after being blinded for 2 weeks by an electrical failure.

  7. Astronomy

    Astronomy Gets Polarized

    Studies using polarized light, an endeavor once considered astronomy's stepchild, are now elucidating the shape of supernovas as well as providing new details about the early universe.

  8. Astronomy

    Planet-making disk has a banana split

    Two banana-shaped arcs of gas and dust face each other within a newly discovered planet-forming disk that surrounds a young, nearby star.

  9. Astronomy

    Galactic de Gustibus

    About 13 billion years after its birth, our galaxy is still packing on the stars.

  10. Astronomy

    Not a planet?

    New observations add to the evidence that an image of a planetary-mass object discovered beyond the solar system is not that of a bona fide planet.

  11. Astronomy

    Spewing superdust

    Astronomers have identified a type of supernova as the main source of space dust.

  12. Astronomy

    Mini Solar Systems? Astronomers find disks around planet-size objects

    Disks with the potential to form planets, or at least moons, have been found orbiting objects outside the solar system that themselves are no heftier than planets.