Space
We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Space
Blob may signal monster galaxy feeding
Researchers have found a giant blob of gas and stars, the fourth most distant object known in the universe. The blob may offer the earliest snapshot of a very young galaxy caught in the act of gobbling up material for growth.
- Planetary Science
Antarctic ecosystem holds unusual microbes
Long isolated deep under a glacier, life thrives in dark, salty water by breathing iron and eating sulfates.
- Space
Massive solar flares captured in 3-D
Distance between orbiting STEREO craft allows better imaging of coronal mass ejections.
- Space
Heavyweight galaxies in the young universe
New observations of full-grown galaxies in the young universe may force astrophysicists to revise their leading theory of galaxy formation, at least as it applies to regions where galaxies congregate into clusters.
- Space
Planet hidden in Hubble archives
A new way to process images reveals an extrasolar planet that had been hiding in an 11-year-old Hubble picture.
- Astronomy
Planck by Planck
The launch of the European Space Agency’s Planck mission, set for late April or early May, will put into orbit a new tool —the microwave equivalent of polarized sunglasses — that may offer a view of the dawn of time.
- Space
Ice cubes in space
Planetary scientists have determined the composition and orbits of two moons at the fringes of the solar system, finding that the bodies were created when an impactor struck the dwarf planet that they now orbit.
- Space
Asteroid tracked from space to Earth
For the first time, researchers followed an asteroid from space to its crash into Earth, providing the opportunity to study an asteroid in a new way.
- Space
Quantum entanglement can be too much of a good thing
An overdose of the spooky connection can break down quantum computing systems, researchers find.
- Space
Brines on Mars
Unusually high concentration of perchlorate salts found in Martian soil suggests that the Red Planet may harbor shallow, extremely briny oceans just below its surface. The existence of these brines may explain a host of puzzles on Mars.
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- Space
Saturn’s quadruple play
Last February, the Hubble Space Telescope captured a portrait of Saturn as four of its moons simultaneously passed in front.
