Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Space
Backward planets may have flipped into place
Reversed orbits among ‘hot Jupiters’ decreases chance of Earthlike neighbors.
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- Space
Newfound neighbor to solar system is a cool slacker
Researchers have found the closest brown dwarf to Earth and the coolest yet seen, raising the possibility that the nearest starlike body to the solar system may be a brown dwarf rather than a star.
- Space
Cosmic magnetic field strength measured
Hints of weak magnetism between galaxies narrows options for how the early universe got its fields.
- Planetary Science
Warmth in the dark age
Lower reflectivity kept Earth from freezing under a fainter young sun.
- Planetary Science
Signs of giant comet impacts found in cores
An uptick in ammonium may be evidence of a 50-billion-ton strike at the end of the ice age.
- Space
Cosmic telephoto lens shows intense, early star formation
A recently discovered galaxy gives a detailed view of stellar birth in the young universe.
- Space
This exoplanet is so cool
A satellite has found the first temperate planet outside the solar system that can be studied in detail.
- Space
Spacecraft takes express tour of Martian moon
New images and gravity data reveal details about the origin and composition of Phobos.
- Space
Magnetic flows cause sunspot lows, study shows
Observations of gas flows on the solar surface may explain why the sun recently had such a prolonged case of the doldrums; could lead to more accurate predictions for the duration and severity of future solar cycles.
- Space
Geophysicists push age of Earth’s magnetic field back 250 million years
South African rocks suggest that the earliest stages of life on Earth were protected from harmful solar radiation.
- Space
Spirit: ‘The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated’
The Mars rover makes a small, but promising, move.
