Planetary Science
A Mars rover found organic carbon just sitting on a rock
The organic molecules could come from life or from ordinary chemistry — only samples returned to Earth can settle it.
By Fechi Inyama
Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
More Stories in Space
- Space
Otherworldly music albums feature space weather data
A science-art team uses research data to make music featuring sounds of Antarctica and outer space
- Space
NASA declares MAVEN, its Mars atmosphere orbiter, dead
Over more than a decade at Mars, the orbiter revealed how the solar wind strips away the planet’s atmosphere — and why the world lost its water.
- Astronomy
Even quiet black holes create winds, new Milky Way observations reveal
New observations suggest the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s core is blowing gas away from the central behemoth.
- Planetary Science
Europa may not vent water into space after all
The debate could reopen in 2030 when NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft gets the closest view of the icy moon’s surface.
- Space
Solar flares may show predictable warning signs hours before erupting
Scientists spotted patterns hours before a major solar flare, a discovery that could help forecast dangerous eruptions.
- Planetary Science
An ancient moonpocalypse may explain Neptune’s odd moon Nereid
Neptune’s oddball moon Nereid may be the sole remnant of an earlier system, formed near the planet rather than being pulled in from afar.
- Physics
Water drops on soap bubble films act like merging galaxies
Water droplets on soap films orbited and merged like colliding galaxies, a technique that could help scientists study the cosmos.
- Astronomy
Astronomers may have found a record-breaking pair of black holes
At some 60 billion times the mass of the sun, this dark void could be home to a pair of black holes that are due for a cosmic collision.
- Particle Physics
To understand black holes, physicists turn to a mathematical ‘Rosetta stone’
A link between particle physics and gravity equations, called the double copy, applies to Hawking radiation, creating a new way into black hole puzzles.
