Astronomy
- Science & Society
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Our redesigned cover and the astronomy stories from the Oct. 19 issue get readers' reviews.
- Astronomy
Billions and billions of Earth-sized planets call Milky Way home
Using Kepler data, astronomers estimate that a sizeable fraction of the galaxy’s sunlike stars have Earth-sized planets that could support liquid water.
- Astronomy
Giant loner could shift idea of star formation
Observations of WR 102ka suggest it could have been born without any gaseous companions.
- Astronomy
Astronomers explain planets’ backward motion
Giant planets in distant orbits may be reversing the direction of their closer-in neighbors.
- Astronomy
An Earth-sized hell circles faraway star
Kepler-78b, an Earth-sized, extremely hot exoplanet made of rock and iron, is the smallest with known diameter and mass.
- Astronomy
Solar system with seven planets discovered
Kepler data has identified a star with a seven-planet system structured similarly to the sun’s clutch of planets.
- Astronomy
Oort cloud tosses astronomers a cometary curveball
In late November, ISON will deliver debris from the dawn of the solar system to Earth’s doorstep.
- Astronomy
Most distant galaxy discovered
Astronomers have observed a galaxy as it existed 700 million years after Big Bang.
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- Environment
Feedback
Readers respond to "Solving soot," trade-offs of horn size for male Soay sheep and the huge galactic explosion story from 50 years ago.
- Astronomy
Quiet maximum
By almost any measure, this solar maximum has been pathetic. No more than 67 sunspots have appeared in a month so far; at the last peak, in 2000, that number was above 120.
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