Astronomy
- Planetary Science
Subsurface sea hides below ice of Saturn moon
Astronomers add to evidence for a subsurface ocean on Enceladus using subtle variations in the moon’s gravity.
- Planetary Science
Moon gets younger age estimate
The moon may have formed about 95 million years after the birth of the solar system, up to 70 million years later than some scientists previously predicted.
- Astronomy
This winter warrior made the gravitational waves discovery possible
Engineer Steffen Richter played an important role in the recent gravitational waves discovery, wintering at the Amundsen-Scott research station at the South Pole and making daily treks to keep the BICEP2 telescope running.
- Planetary Science
Icy planetoid found lurking at edge of solar system
Astronomers discovered an icy planetoid orbiting beyond the edge of the Kuiper belt.
- Astronomy
Zoom in on amazing detail in NASA moon map
An interactive mosaic of images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter lets you fly over the Moon’s north pole with unprecedented detail.
- Cosmology
Cosmic question mark
Two ways of measuring the universe’s expansion rate disagree by about 10 percent. One of the methods may be flawed. Or it could be that a hitherto unobserved phenomenon is at work.
- Astronomy
Sun’s ejections collide to create extreme space storm
In July 2012, the sun shot off streams of charged particles and magnetic fields that collided to create a record-setting space storm.
- Space
Exoplanet oxygen may not signal alien life
Oxygen in an exoplanet atmosphere may come from water and ultraviolet light, not alien life.
- Cosmology
Gravitational waves unmask universe just after Big Bang
For the first time, researchers have seen traces of superfast cosmic expansion and gravity waves.
- Astronomy
Mature galaxies found in young universe
Inactive galaxies the size of the Milky Way found dating to when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old.
- Astronomy
Behemoth star destroys potential solar systems
A massive star in the Orion Nebula is evaporating disks surrounding young stars in its neighborhood but some disks mysteriously manage to survive.
- Astronomy
Galaxy drags trail of stars behind it
A Hubble Space Telescope image shows the galaxy ESO 137-001 dragging star trails behind it as it plows through the Norma galaxy cluster.
