Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Zoom in on amazing detail in NASA moon map
An interactive mosaic of images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter lets you fly over the Moon’s north pole with unprecedented detail.
- Cosmology
Cosmic question mark
Two ways of measuring the universe’s expansion rate disagree by about 10 percent. One of the methods may be flawed. Or it could be that a hitherto unobserved phenomenon is at work.
- Cosmology
Top 10 cosmological discoveries
The cosmic microwave background radiation has played a part in many of cosmology’s greatest discoveries.
- Planetary Science
How Earth’s radiation belt gets its ‘stripes’
The rotation of the Earth may give the planet's inner radiation belt its zebralike stripes.
- Astronomy
Sun’s ejections collide to create extreme space storm
In July 2012, the sun shot off streams of charged particles and magnetic fields that collided to create a record-setting space storm.
- Space
Exoplanet oxygen may not signal alien life
Oxygen in an exoplanet atmosphere may come from water and ultraviolet light, not alien life.
- Cosmology
Gravitational waves unmask universe just after Big Bang
For the first time, researchers have seen traces of superfast cosmic expansion and gravity waves.
- Cosmology
Inflation rides gravity waves into cosmological history
The discovery of gravity waves in the cosmic microwave radiation signals the success of inflationary cosmology.
- Cosmology
First images of gravity waves, evidence of cosmic inflation reported
The first images of gravitational waves and the first direct evidence for cosmic inflation were announced March 17.
- Planetary Science
Mercury is more shriveled than originally thought
Like a week-old party balloon, Mercury has shrunk over the last 4.6 billion years.
- Astronomy
Mature galaxies found in young universe
Inactive galaxies the size of the Milky Way found dating to when the universe was just 1.5 billion years old.
- Astronomy
Behemoth star destroys potential solar systems
A massive star in the Orion Nebula is evaporating disks surrounding young stars in its neighborhood but some disks mysteriously manage to survive.
