Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Cosmology
Candidates for dark matter particles bite the dust
Most sensitive experiment yet determines that earlier findings were just artifacts.
- Astronomy
An Earth-sized hell circles faraway star
Kepler-78b, an Earth-sized, extremely hot exoplanet made of rock and iron, is the smallest with known diameter and mass.
- Astronomy
Solar system with seven planets discovered
Kepler data has identified a star with a seven-planet system structured similarly to the sun’s clutch of planets.
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- Astronomy
Oort cloud tosses astronomers a cometary curveball
In late November, ISON will deliver debris from the dawn of the solar system to Earth’s doorstep.
- Astronomy
Most distant galaxy discovered
Astronomers have observed a galaxy as it existed 700 million years after Big Bang.
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- Planetary Science
Carbonation may have grounded Mars’ atmosphere
The chemical interaction could have forced Red Planet’s atmospheric carbon dioxide into the dirt.
- Environment
Feedback
Readers respond to "Solving soot," trade-offs of horn size for male Soay sheep and the huge galactic explosion story from 50 years ago.
- Planetary Science
A grander canyon on Mars
Hebes Chasma, a huge trough on Mars, reflects the Red Planet’s tumultuous and varied past.
- Astronomy
Quiet maximum
By almost any measure, this solar maximum has been pathetic. No more than 67 sunspots have appeared in a month so far; at the last peak, in 2000, that number was above 120.
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