Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Conditions right for stars, planets near Milky Way’s supermassive black hole
Four clouds of gas near the galactic center have roughly the right mass to be young stars, possibly with planets.
- Animals
Readers weigh in on mathematical animals and more
Animal math, dinosaur digestion and more in reader feedback from our December 10, 2017, issue.
- Life
Asteroid barrage, ancient marine life boom not linked
Impacts from asteroid debris probably didn’t trigger the boom in marine animal diversity around 471 million years ago during the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event.
- Planetary Science
Weird wave found in Venus’ wind-whipped atmosphere
A 10,000-kilometer-long gravity wave arched across the upper atmosphere of Venus. The feature may have been the largest of its kind in the solar system.
- Climate
Petrified tree rings tell ancient tale of sun’s behavior
The 11-year cycle of solar activity may have been around for at least 290 million years, ancient tree rings suggest.
- Planetary Science
The moon is still old
New analysis of moon rocks points to our satellite forming about 4.51 billion years ago, roughly 60 million years after the start of the solar system.
- Astronomy
Milky Way’s black hole may hurl galactic spitballs our way
Gas blobs formed in the wake of stars shredded by the black hole in the center of the galaxy could pass within several hundred light-years of Earth on their way to intergalactic space.
- Astronomy
Earliest galaxies got the green light
Galaxies in the early universe might have emitted lots of green light, powered by large populations of stars much hotter than most found today.
- Planetary Science
Many tiny moons came together to form moon, simulations suggest
Earth’s moon formed from mini-moons generated by a series of medium to large impacts, rather than from one colossal collision, researchers propose
- Astronomy
Some pulsars lose their steady beat
Two pulsars spend most of their time switched off, hinting at a large population of part-time pulsars hiding in the Milky Way.
- Astronomy
Saturn’s 10th moon was the first satellite discovered in the modern space age
Fifty years ago, astronomers knew of 10 moons orbiting Saturn. Since then they’ve catalogued a diverse set of 62 satellites, with the help of the Cassini spacecraft.
- Astronomy
Gotcha: Fast radio burst’s home nabbed
For the first time, astronomers pinpoint a precise position on the sky for a fast radio burst, revealing that the outburst originated in a galaxy about 2.5 billion light-years away.
