Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- 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.
- Planetary Science
Seeing the future hot spells
Satellite data could help scientists better predict killer heat waves, such as the one that hit Europe in 2003.
- Space
Frozen cosmic fingerprints
Researchers claim to find evidence of 11th century supernovas and the solar cycle in an ice core.
- Astronomy
These cosmic gluttons may be tight
Researchers may have discovered the most tightly bound pair of supermassive black holes known, an indication that two massive galaxies have merged.
- Physics
Black hole constant makes unexpected appearance
A mathematical constant that emerges only in the unusual conditions of specific black hole systems has shown up in a simple Newtonian system.
