Space

Planetary Science

Surprise found in comet dust

Scientists find an odd mineral that could offer clues to the solar system's origins.

Astronomy

Otherworldly triple play

Astronomers have discovered the first known system of three superEarths beyond the solar system.

Astronomy

Accidental astrophysicists

MATH TREK: The mathematicians thought they'd just extended a fundamental result in algebra, but it turns out that they'd also proven a conjecture in astrophysics.

Astronomy

Visions of dirt

Phoenix Lander gets first close-up of Martian soil.

Astronomy

Not a ripple

Another null result for gravitational waves. But findings from LIGO still reveal new information about the Crab Pulsar.

Science & Society

Confirmed: Big Dipper to Get Doritos

A European astronomy group beamed a video of a Doritos sacrifice to the god of salsa at a possible alien race in a star system associated with the Big Dipper.

Humans

Doritos in Space

Today, a huge European radar-transmitter system sent an ad for a cheesy snack radiating out into space.

Space

Before the beginning

A new analysis suggests that the universe exists within a bigger space.

Planetary Science

Shake, shake, shake

Instrument succeeds in capturing first soil sample, allowing Mars Phoenix Lander team to begin scientific studies.

Astronomy

From planet to plutoid

Pluto and its dwarf planet neighbors are christened plutoids, the International Astronomical Union rules.

Space

Sizing up black holes

ST. LOUIS—Astronomers are all wound up over a new method for sizing up supermassive black holes found at the cores of galaxies. The method allows researchers for the first time to estimate the weight of these black holes in spiral galaxies up to 8 billion light-years away, or halfway across the universe, reports Marc Seigar […]

Space

Outsiders look in

Astronomers stitch together the most detailed infrared picture of the inner Milky Way.