All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Astronomy
Swift detection of a gamma-ray burst
A telescope has for the first time detected X rays directly from an ongoing gamma-ray burst, the most powerful type of explosion in the universe.
- Astronomy
Proton storm erupts from the sun
A storm of high-speed protons, triggered by a Jan. 20 solar eruption, bombarded spacecraft and was the most energetic such squall recorded in 15 years.
- Astronomy
Puny Parent? Planets may form around tiny orbs
Barely more massive than a planet itself, a tiny failed star 500 light-years from Earth is nonetheless cloaked in a disk of gas and dust from which planets may coalesce.
- Astronomy
Hubble views bar in galaxy
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a strikingly detailed image of the starlit arms, glowing gas, and dark dust clouds of a barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1300, which lies 69 million light-years from Earth.
- Planetary Science
A World Unveiled: Crème brûlée on Titan
Penetrating the orange haze of a frigid, alien world, a space probe parachuted onto Saturn's moon Titan and unexpectedly came face-to-face with terrain that looks a lot like Earth.
- Astronomy
The Hole Story
New evidence suggests that supermassive black holes have an impact on the evolution of galaxies that goes far beyond their gravitational grasp.
- Astronomy
Ultimate Retro: Modern echoes of the early universe
Two teams of astronomers have for the first time detected the surviving notes of a cosmic symphony created just after the Big Bang, when the universe was a foggy soup of matter and radiation.
- Astronomy
Ring robber
Images taken by the Cassini spacecraft provide graphic evidence of Saturn's moon Prometheus stealing particles from the planet's narrow F ring.
- Astronomy
A dwarf with a disk
The Hubble Space Telescope has examined in unprecedented detail a ring of debris around a star that could be the nearest and youngest known home for planets outside the solar system.
- Astronomy
Young and Near: Baby galaxies roam our backyard
An ultraviolet-detecting satellite has found that youthful versions of massive galaxies like the Milky Way may be only a cosmic stone's throw away.
- Astronomy
People, Not Robots: Panel favors shuttle mission to Hubble
Sharply challenging NASA on the issue of safety in space, a National Academy of Sciences panel has recommended that the agency send astronauts to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope rather than send a robotic device.
- Astronomy
Disks of Dust: Planet-stuff surrounds other sunlike stars
Two orbiting observatories for the first time are homing in on planetary debris circling sunlike stars.
