Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Exoplanets need right stuff to be habitable
The elemental makeup of a star can reveal whether planets in its solar system could support sustained plate tectonics, a requirement for Earth-like life, researchers propose.
- Earth
Solid inner, inner core may be relic of Earth’s earliest days
Earth’s innermost inner core may have formed billions of years earlier than previously thought, shortly after the planet’s accretion.
- Physics
Pulsar pair ripples spacetime
A pair of pulsars gives scientists the best evidence so far for gravitational waves, which have yet to be detected directly.
- Planetary Science
Cassini spacecraft preps for one last flyby of Enceladus
December 19 marks the last time the Cassini spacecraft flies in for a close look at the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
- Physics
General relativity caught in action around black hole
X-rays enable scientists to spot a black hole twisting the surrounding fabric of spacetime, just as Einstein’s theory predicts.
- Planetary Science
Ancient Mars’ weather report: Continued cold and dry
The assortment of water-carved features on the Martian surface suggest that ancient Mars was cold and fairly dry, not warm and wet.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Pluto unveiled as a world like no other
Long out of reach, Pluto came into focus in 2015 with the New Horizons mission.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Global ocean spans Enceladus
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is offering the best evidence yet that Saturn's moon Enceladus could be a great place to search for extraterrestrial life.
- Planetary Science
Year in review: Best evidence yet for water on Mars
New data from the Mars Reconaissance Orbiter supported the presence of salty water on Mars.
- Planetary Science
Comets-spewing-oxygen club gets new member
Halley’s comet becomes possibly the second comet known to be carting around oxygen buried since the formation of the solar system.
- Cosmology
Debate grows over whether X-rays are a sign of dark matter
The dwarf galaxy Draco, which is chock-full of dark matter, doesn’t emit a band of X-rays that researchers hoped were produced by the mysterious invisible stuff.
- Planetary Science
It’s a new planet! It’s an unknown star! It’s — oops!
A couple of unexpected wandering points of light in the sky could be new planets or even a dim star orbiting the sun, but researchers have plenty of reasons to be skeptical.
