Ron Cowen

All Stories by Ron Cowen

  1. Astronomy

    Death of a pioneer

    Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to reach the fringes of the solar system, appears to have sent its last feeble signal to Earth on Jan. 22.

  2. Astronomy

    Cosmic Doomsday Scenario: Phantom energy would trigger the Big Rip

    According to a new model, the universe may end with a Big Rip—every galaxy, star, planet, molecule, and atom torn asunder and the cosmos ceasing to exist some 21 billion years from now.

  3. Astronomy

    Dead stars may masquerade as ingenues

    A heavenly deception in which dead stars lie about their ages could throw into disarray theories describing some of the densest objects in the cosmos.

  4. Astronomy

    Mature Before Their Time

    Some galaxies were in place and forming stars at a prolific rate when the universe, now 13.7 billion years old, was just an 800-million-year-old whippersnapper.

  5. Planetary Science

    Martian Gullies: Carved by melting snow?

    Melting snow may have sculpted the recently formed gullies found at midlatitudes on Mars.

  6. Astronomy

    Gamma-ray craft plunges into Pacific

    As planned, NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, which had detected some of the highest-energy radiation in the universe for 9 years, crashed into the Pacific Ocean on June 4.

  7. Astronomy

    Stars’ wobbles reveal six more planets

    Swiss astronomers have found indirect evidence of six additional planets that lie outside the solar system, bringing the tally to more than 40.

  8. Astronomy

    Cosmic Revelations: Satellite homes in on the infant universe

    A new portrait of the infant universe pins down the age of the universe—13.7 billion years—to an unprecedented accuracy of 1 percent, provides new evidence that the universe began with a brief but humongous growth spurt, and reveals that it already contained a plethora of stars when it was just 200 million years old.

  9. Astronomy

    Starry eruption on a grand scale

    Monitoring the bloated star Rho Cassiopeiae, astronomers report they witnessed an explosion that blasted more material into space than any other stellar explosion ever observed.

  10. Tech

    Columbia Disaster: Why did the space shuttle burn up?

    The space shuttle Columbia, which tore apart killing all seven of its crew on Feb. 1 just minutes before it was scheduled to land, may have been doomed since its liftoff.

  11. Planetary Science

    Forgotten Planet

    Mercury: The solar system's inner frontier.

  12. Planetary Science

    New moons for Neptune?

    Astronomers say they have discovered three additional moons circling Neptune.