Planetary Science
- Earth
A little air pollution boosts vegetation’s carbon uptake
Aerosols bumped up world’s plant productivity by 25 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, new research suggests.
- Planetary Science
Antarctic ecosystem holds unusual microbes
Long isolated deep under a glacier, life thrives in dark, salty water by breathing iron and eating sulfates.
- Planetary Science
Seeing the future hot spells
Satellite data could help scientists better predict killer heat waves, such as the one that hit Europe in 2003.
- Space
Galaxy mix: No dark matter required
New ultraviolet observations suggest dwarf galaxies may form without dark matter. The findings have implications for the early universe.
- Planetary Science
Earth may be home to unearthly life
No need to look on other planets for new forms of life — weird life could exist right here on Earth.
- Space
Cosmic mystery
High-energy invaders from space could signal a nearby pulsar, or perhaps dark matter.
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- Earth
The Hunt for Habitable Planets
Here and now, a new suite of small telescopes are poised to look for Earthlike planets beyond the solar system.
- Space
Water-ice deposits found beneath Martian hills
Using radar from an orbiting spacecraft to penetrate the hidden recesses of Mars, planetary prospectors have uncovered vast reserves of water-ice buried beneath rocky debris.
- Planetary Science
Huge cyclone churns at Saturn’s north pole
Planetary scientists have gotten their closest look yet at polar storms on the ringed planet. These polar cyclones are big enough to engulf Earth.
- Planetary Science
So close, yet so far away
Astronomers have found, in the frozen reaches beyond Neptune, two gravitationally bound objects that compose the most widely spaced binary system known in the solar system.
