Space
- Astronomy
Beyond Galileo’s universe
Astronomers grapple with cosmic puzzles both dark and light
By Ron Cowen - Tech
White House commissions spaceflight-review panel
Outside experts are being asked to advise NASA on how to get astronauts into space after the shuttle program dies next year.
By Janet Raloff - Space
Honing the Hubble constant
Revised value supports finding that dark energy does not vary with time.
By Ron Cowen - Space
Using dead stars to spot gravitational waves
Astronomers are proposing a novel way to detect gravitational waves using ultraprecise observations of already known stars.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
U.S. radiation dose has doubled
New analysis finds radiation-based medical procedures have skyrocketed.
By Janet Raloff - Space
Origin of high-energy cosmic rays more mysterious, again
The origin of the rare, energetic particles that previous evidence indicated came from galaxies that house supermassive black holes, is now much less certain.
By Ron Cowen - Space
Introducing the young Milky Ways
Astronomers discover ancestors of modern-day spiral galaxies
By Ron Cowen - Space
Another clue in the case for dark matter
New data from the Fermi spacecraft fail to debunk a sister craft's possible finding of dark matter's mark.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
They’re calling Obama the ‘science guy’
Speakers at a science forum offered support for the thesis that researchers have found a big ally in the new president.
By Janet Raloff - Space
MESSENGER’s second pass
New studies detail the latest findings about Mercury from the MESSENGER spacecraft, including the discovery of the second largest crater known on the planet and a surprisingly strong interaction between the sun’s magnetic field and that of the planet.
By Ron Cowen - Space
Most distant known object in the universe
Astronomers have discovered a gamma-ray burst emanating 13.035 billion light-years from Earth, making it the universe's most distant known object.
By Ron Cowen - Earth
A little air pollution boosts vegetation’s carbon uptake
Aerosols bumped up world’s plant productivity by 25 percent in the 1960s and 1970s, new research suggests.
By Sid Perkins