Space
- Astronomy
Scientific success depends on finding light in darkness
Editor in chief Eva Emerson discusses using cleverness and persistence to uncover scientific truths.
- Planetary Science
Ice gave Pluto a heavy heart
Sputnik Planitia, the left half of Pluto’s heart-shaped region, might have been carved out by the weight of thick layers of ice built up billions of years ago.
- Astronomy
Star-starved galaxies fill the cosmos
Astronomers are detecting hundreds of galaxies that are almost devoid of stars. There are at least four theories on how they got that way.
- Science & Society
‘The Glass Universe’ celebrates astronomy’s unsung heroines
In “The Glass Universe,” science writer Dava Sobel shines a light on the women at the Harvard Observatory who mapped the stars.
- Astronomy
Giant gathering of galaxies discovered hiding on far side of Milky Way
An uncharted supercluster of galaxies lurks about 800 million light-years away, partly hidden by the Milky Way.
- Astronomy
Mysterious radio signals pack power and brilliance
The brightest fast radio burst has been detected, while another team reveals a previous burst might have carried gamma rays as well as radio waves across space.
- Earth
How a ring of mountains forms inside a crater
Rocks drilled from the Chicxulub crater linked to the demise of the dinosaurs reveal how mountainous peak rings form within large impact craters.
- Astronomy
Surprising number of meteoroids hit moon’s surface
A new analysis of lunar images reveals over 200 new craters and about 47,000 undiscovered “splotches” on the moon.
- Astronomy
Interactive map reveals hidden details of the Milky Way
Gleamoscope, an interactive map, lets you explore the Milky Way galaxy and the nearby universe in many different electromagnetic frequencies.
- Astronomy
Young planets carve rings and spirals in the gas around their suns
New telescope images show rings and spiral arms in disks encircling young stars, suggesting the presence of actively growing planets.
- Planetary Science
X-ray mystery shrouds Pluto
Chandra telescope detects seven X-ray photons coming from Pluto, suggesting that the solar wind runs into a tail of gas streaming from the dwarf planet.
- Astronomy
Readers unimpressed by Earth’s newest neighbor
Exoplanet fatigue, runaway fish and more in reader feedback.
