Ron Cowen

All Stories by Ron Cowen

  1. Planetary Science

    The Huygens Chronicles

    After several months of painstaking work analyzing data from the Huygens probe, planetary scientists are able to see the surface of Saturn's moon Titan in greater detail than ever before.

  2. Astronomy

    Distant Dust: Asteroid belt or boiling comet?

    A swarm of warm dust surrounding a star 41 light-years from Earth may be a sign of the closest extrasolar analog to the solar system's asteroid belt.

  3. Planetary Science

    Comet mission loses some focus

    A camera aboard the Deep Impact spacecraft, set to fire a projectile into the icy heart of Comet Tempel-1 on July 4, is slightly out of focus.

  4. Planetary Science

    A Martian haven for life?

    Images taken by two Mars spacecraft suggest that a volcano on the Red Planet erupted long ago at the confluence of two riverbeds, indicating that the region had two of the prequisites for life: heat and water.

  5. Astronomy

    Cosmic Primitive: Old star sheds light on early stellar formation

    Astronomers have found one of the most chemically primitive stars known, dating to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang.

  6. Planetary Science

    A moon with atmosphere

    Magnetic measurements by the Cassini spacecraft have revealed that Saturn's moon Enceladus has a tenuous atmosphere containing water vapor.

  7. Astronomy

    Stellar Question: Extrasolar planet or failed star?

    A tiny dot of light next to a young, sunlike star might be the long-sought image of an extrasolar planet.

  8. Planetary Science

    Dusty rejuvenation

    The Mars rover Spirit recently had its dirty solar arrays cleaned off, possibly by a dust devil, allowing the craft to generate nearly as much energy as it did when it first landed on the Red Planet in January 2004.

  9. Astronomy

    Star Packed: Super cluster is first to be detected in Milky Way

    Astronomers have detected the most massive and densest cluster of young stars ever detected in the Milky Way, a finding that could shed light on how stars formed in the early universe.

  10. Planetary Science

    Assault on Mars

    A Mars rover has discovered a patch of soil that's the saltiest place known on the Red Planet, an indication that water once coursed through the region.

  11. Astronomy

    It’s a star, but not much of one

    Astronomers have discovered the smallest star known.

  12. Astronomy

    Alien Light: Extrasolar planets are detected in new way

    Two teams of scientists report that they have for the first time directly detected the glow of planets that circle sunlike stars hundreds of light-years from Earth.