All Stories by Ron Cowen
- Astronomy
Have scientists seen planets in the making?
Astronomers may finally have glimpsed a key step in the construction of a planet.
- Astronomy
Solar cannibalism
Billion-ton clouds of charged gas hurled from the sun can overtake and eat their slower-moving gaseous brethren, complicating predictions of when and if one of these clouds might strike Earth.
- Astronomy
Raging sun provides earthly light show
At the tumultous peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the sun is spitting out X-ray flares and belching giant clouds of high-energy particles at a furious rate.
- Astronomy
Gamma-ray bursts reveal distant galaxies
A gamma-ray burst recorded Feb. 22, one of the brightest ever detected, is proving to be the strongest evidence so far that these cosmic flashbulbs originate in star-forming regions of distant galaxies and are generated by the explosive death of massive stars.
- Astronomy
Searching for a lost craft
A recent Department of Defense analysis of images of the Red Planet may have located a lost spacecraft on Mars, but NASA says the images could just be electronic noise.
- Astronomy
Probes find a new plume on Io
Two spacecraft jointly eyeing Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active body in the solar system, have spotted a towering new plume.
- Astronomy
A comet’s odd orbit hints at hidden planet
Far beyond the solar system's nine known planets, a body as massive as Mars may once have been part of our planetary system, and it might still be there.
- Astronomy
A Dark Force in the Universe
Cosmologists are thinking dark thoughts about what kind of mystery force may be contorting the cosmos, pushing galaxies apart at a faster and faster rate.
- Astronomy
Starry Data Support Revved-Up Cosmos
Astronomers have confirmed one of the weirdest properties of the universe: Some mysterious force is pushing galaxies apart at a faster and faster rate.
- Astronomy
Some of galaxy’s dark matter comes to light
A new study adds to the evidence that astronomers have unveiled some of the dark matter in our galaxy and that it's pretty ordinary stuff—white dwarfs, the cold, compact embers of low-mass stars.
- Astronomy
Creating a warmer, wetter Mars
A new study adds to the evidence that past volcanic activity could have temporarily created a warmer, wetter Mars, a place on which water once flowed freely.
- Planetary Science
Debate over life in Mars rock rekindles
Two recent studies could inject new life into the argument that a 4-billion-year-old Martian meteorite contains fossils of bacteria from the Red Planet but several scientists say the reports fall short of resurrecting that notion.
