Space
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Pluto’s cloud components verified
Newly analyzed observations suggest that particles are tiny spherules of frozen nitrogen and carbon monoxide.
- Space
Black hole may construct its own galactic home
Observations of a ‘homeless’ quasar suggest new ideas for galaxy formation.
- Space
Star outweighed any known in Milky Way
A nearby supernova was a big blast, challenging theories of how massive stars live and die.
- Space
World’s biggest atom smasher sets first record
After a year’s delay, the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, became the world’s highest energy particle accelerator on November 30, revving up each of its twin proton beams to energies of 1.18 trillion electron volts.
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- Space
Sun may not be a ‘Goldilocks’ star
The stars that are just right to support life-bearing planets might be dimmer and longer-lived than the sun.
- Space
Revving up particles in the cosmos
Newly recorded gamma rays from a microquasar may reveal how the black holes or neutron stars powering them can accelerate particles to enormous energies.
- Space
Moon crash reveals crater held water
Plume of lunar material contained roughly 25 gallons of vapor and ice.
- Space
Chemical fingerprint found for planet hunting
The amount of lithium in the atmosphere of sunlike stars is a powerful indicator of whether such stars have planets, a new study reveals.
- Space
The Milky Way, aglow with activity
Combining infrared and X-ray images from three orbiting observatories, NASA has unveiled a never-before-seen composite portrait of the Milky Way’s bustling center.
- Space
Signature of antimatter detected in lightning
The signature of positrons has been found for the first time in gamma rays associated with storms on Earth.
- Space
A little bit of gamma-ray music
BLOG: Art and science meld during a musical performance for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
