All Stories by Ron Cowen
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Planetary Science
Some deadly monikers
Two recently found small moons orbiting Pluto have now been officially dubbed Nix and Hydra.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Astronomy
Galactic de Gustibus
About 13 billion years after its birth, our galaxy is still packing on the stars.
- 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.
- Astronomy
Spewing superdust
Astronomers have identified a type of supernova as the main source of space dust.
- 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.
