Space
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot explained
A computer simulation is the first to explain how Jupiter’s Great Red Spot has survived for the nearly 200 years humans have observed it.
- Space
Making the most of zero gravity
Astronaut and author Chris Hadfield discusses life in, and after, space.
- Astronomy
Bright gamma-ray burst tests idea of event’s origins
High-energy light particles suggest that physicists need to revise their theories explaining the origin of these cosmic blasts.
- Astronomy
High-energy neutrinos ensnared from beyond the solar system
Speedy particles detected in Antarctica may point to gargantuan black holes or cataclysmic explosions.
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- Planetary Science
Ancient Martian meteorite preserves chunks of planet’s early crust
Rock could reveal what Mars was like 4.4 billion years ago.
- Planetary Science
MAVEN spacecraft blasts off to Mars
In September 2014, the satellite will begin studying the Red Planet's upper atmosphere.
- Cosmology
For proposals that challenge paradigms, peruse arXiv.org
The online physics archive offers crazy ideas to confront cosmological challenges.
- Astronomy
Solar explosion forms ‘Canyon of Fire’
Just when the sun was looking especially lethargic, a violent eruption left behind a vast chasm of superheated gas on the solar surface.
- Astronomy
Black hole spurts jets of iron and nickel
New observations show that the jets of black hole 4U 1630-47 carry massive particles such as iron and nickel atoms instead of the typical low-mass particles such as electrons.
- Planetary Science
Uninhabitable Earth
A recent estimate of the lifetimes of the habitability zones of Earth and various exoplanets suggests Earth could become unable to support life as soon as 1.75 billion years from now, when the sun brightens before dying out.
- Astronomy
Moon’s craters remeasured
Large craters cover more of the moon’s surface on its nearside than its farside, according to new maps from NASA’s GRAIL spacecrafts.
