Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Space
Long the stuff of fantasy, wormholes may be coming soon to a telescope near you
For decades now, black holes have been the rock stars of popular astrophysics, both fact and fiction. Physicists rely on them to explain all sorts of mysterious astrophenomena, and black holes have been essential plot devices in various films, from Star Trek (2009) to Galaxy Quest (1999) to (obviously) The Black Hole (1979). But black […]
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s tides drive icy moon’s plumes
Enceladus' chilly jets ebb and flow in time with its planet's tug.
- Planetary Science
Cassini photo puts Earth in perspective
Probe captures planet from 1.4 billion kilometers away.
- Space
Mars meteorite reveals its age
Long difficult to estimate, date of space rocks' formation emerges with new technique.
- Cosmology
Gold seen in neutron star collision debris
Material ejected in gamma-ray bursts may be a main source of the heavy elements.
- Astronomy
Milky Way’s black hole pulling in gas cloud
Galaxy's maw begins to tear apart and change the velocity of an approaching object.
- Planetary Science
Neptune gets 14th moon
Images from Hubble Space Telescope reveal tiny, dark satellite orbiting blue-green gas giant.
- Astronomy
The solar system has a tail
Clover-shaped clumps of charged particles extend billions of kilometers in our wake.
- Planetary Science
Gas, not planets, may be source of rings around stars
Interactions between gas and dust may form elliptical patterns.
- Astronomy
Clouds may keep exoplanets cool
Even when close to their stars, other worlds could harbor liquid water.
- Space
Interstellar chemistry makes use of quantum shortcut
Reactions in the frigid cold of space are sped by a quirk of physics, researchers propose.
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