Space
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Quasars’ distance no longer in question
Astronomers now know quasars live around black holes in remote galaxies, but 50 years ago, one researcher argued they were much closer.
- Planetary Science
Get your Pluto trivia down cold
Eight months after visiting Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft has delivered a wealth of details about the dwarf planet and its family of moons.
- Planetary Science
Wandering Jupiter could have swept inner solar system clean
If Jupiter formed close to the sun and then wandered out, that might explain why there are no planets interior to Mercury’s orbit.
- Planetary Science
ExoMars mission to search for signs of life on the Red Planet
The next mission to Mars will tally gases in the planet’s atmosphere and test technologies for a 2018 rover.
- Astronomy
Black hole smashup generated yottawatts of power
For a split second, LIGO’s black hole collision generated 36 septillion yottawatts of power, or 50 times the power from all the stars in the universe.
- Neuroscience
Readers respond to stress, tattoos, and the universe
Stress, tattoos, cosmic origins and more reader feedback.
- Planetary Science
Mountains on Pluto are a winter wonderland of methane snow
On Pluto, methane snow blankets mountain tops.
- Planetary Science
Mercury’s dark secret revealed
Graphite from Mercury’s primordial crust might be responsible for making the innermost planet darker than the moon.
- Astronomy
A fast radio burst’s home galaxy may not be known after all
The recently claimed host galaxy of a fast radio burst may have been signs of a snacking black hole instead, study claims.
- Astronomy
Repeating fast radio bursts recorded for the first time
Until now, ephemeral blasts of radio waves from other galaxies have never repeated; this one erupted 10 times last year.
- Astronomy
Astronauts set to return to Earth after nearly a year in space
Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are scheduled to return Earth on Tuesday after a record-setting 340 days in space.
- Planetary Science
Charon’s surface cracked when ancient subsurface sea froze
A subsurface ocean on Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, might have once frozen and cracked the moon’s surface, creating some of the ridges and valleys seen today.
