Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Space
2009 Science News of the Year: Atom & Cosmos
A post-crash plume kicked up from the moon contained vapor and ice. NASA crashed an unmanned spacecraft into the lunar surface on October 9 in order to analyze the resulting debris for signs of water. Image Credit: NASA Water on the moonThe moon isn’t bone dry: Although planetary scientists had suspected as much for years, […]
- Space
Experiment detects particles of dark matter, maybe
Events in underground experiment too few for certainty, but match the signature of WIMPs.
- Space
Super-Earth found close by, may host water
Astronomers say this discovery and others suggest that finding habitable planets is 'only a matter of time.'
- Earth
Irrigation draining California groundwater at ‘unsustainable’ pace
The GRACE satellites have tracked water movement from the Central Valley since 2003.
- Space
Heat-seeking WISE spacecraft to scan the skies
The new instrument promises to discover millions of infrared-bright galaxies and thousands of previously unknown asteroids and brown dwarfs.
- 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.
