All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Planetary Science
Rovers in overtime
NASA has extended the missions of the twin Mars rovers by 5 months, through September 2004.
- Planetary Science
New moons for Saturn
Astronomers reported the discovery of four new moons orbiting Saturn.
- Planetary Science
Threat to Titan mission deepens
If a communications problem between the Huygens probe and its mother craft is not corrected, as much as two-thirds of the data gathered by the probe during its 2004 descent through Titan's atmosphere could be lost.
- Astronomy
Rendezvous gets more personal with Eros
Venturing closer to a space rock than any satellite has ever gone before, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR)-Shoemaker mission last week took the sharpest images ever recorded of an asteroid.
- Astronomy
Puzzle on the Edge: The moon that isn’t there
Contrary to predictions, Sedna, the most distant object known in the solar system, does not appear to have a moon.
- Astronomy
A galaxy that goes the distance?
Aided by a cosmic magnifying glass, astronomers may have found the most distant galaxy known, a body that appears to reside 13.2 billion light-years from Earth.
- Planetary Science
Cassini spies storms on Saturn
Closing in on Saturn after a 7-year journey, the Cassini spacecraft has discovered two storms merging on the ringed planet, only the second times that scientists have observed such a phenomenon.
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- Astronomy
Are most extrasolar planets hefty imposters?
A new study makes the startling claim that nearly half the objects reported to be extrasolar planets are something much more massive and mundane—either lightweight stars or stellar wannabes known as brown dwarfs.
- Astronomy
Rare Passage: Crab’s X rays probe Titan
Observing a rare celestial alignment, astronomers have made the first X-ray measurement of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
- Astronomy
Sizing up a black hole
Astronomers are closing in on the size of the supermassive black hole that lies at our galaxy's center.
- Astronomy
Shades of Venus
On June 8, for the first time in 122 years, the silhouette of Venus will move across the face of the sun.
