All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Space
A cometary blizzard
NASA's EPOXI mission encountered a snowstorm when it zipped by Comet Hartley 2.
- Space
It came from another galaxy
Extrasolar planet traces its origin outside the Milky Way to an ancient neighboring galaxy.
- Space
Cost overruns and delays add up to $6.5 billion for NASA’s next-gen space telescope
A new report finds that the James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, will cost NASA at least $1.5 billion more than the $5 billion the agency estimated in 2008 and, to meet its scheduled 2015 launch date, will need $400 million of that additional money over the next two years.
- Space
Milky Way’s black hole may blow bubbles
Astronomers have discovered two giant blobs of gamma ray–emitting gas above and below the galaxy’s center.
- Space
LHC switching gears
The premier European collider will spend the next month smashing lead nuclei together.
- Space
EPOXI spacecraft encounters comet
Passing within 700 kilometers of the peanut-shaped Hartley 2 nets detailed pictures.
- Space
Magnetars may fuel briefer bursts
Rapidly spinning neutron stars could be the source of some short gamma-ray explosions, astronomers propose.
- Space
Revealing the galaxy’s dark side
Observations of the Milky Way’s center detect gamma rays characteristic of the universe’s missing mass.
- Space
Spacecraft eavesdrops on distant stars
By listening to sound waves, researchers hope to learn about the age and composition of distant worlds.
- Space
New cosmic distance record-holder
A faraway galaxy hails from a time when the 13.7-billion-year-old universe was a mere 600 million years old.
- Space
Existence of habitable exoplanet questioned
A Swiss team has failed to confirm what has recently been claimed to be the first planet outside the solar system that might be right for life.
- Space
CSI: Asteroid Belt
Astronomers hunt clues in the rubble of a recent collision between two space rocks.
