Space
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We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
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SpaceLarge Hadron Collider shuts down early for the winter
CERN announces that needed repairs, plus high fuel costs, will delay the first planned collisions until next spring.
By Ron Cowen -
Planetary ScienceSaturn’s rings may not be as young as they look
Saturn's rings might be more massive, and thus older, than researchers had believed.
By Ron Cowen -
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Planetary ScienceRacing against the Martian winter
With solid findings under its belt and the Martian summer waning, the Phoenix Mars lander perseveres in its study of the soil and sky of the planet’s arctic plain.
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AstronomyMcCain Is Bullish on R&D
Featured blog: John McCain weighs in on science and technology issues with long-awaited written responses to the Science Debate 2008.
By Janet Raloff -
SpaceSnapshot of a planet beyond the solar system
After years of false alarms, astronomers may finally have recorded the first image of a planet orbiting a sunlike star beyond the solar system.
By Ron Cowen -
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SpaceBlast from the past poses puzzle
New observations suggest that the brilliant outburst of a hefty star that first wowed observers in the 1840s could be signs of a new, exotic type of stellar explosion.
By Ron Cowen -
SpaceBrightest gamma-ray burst
A bit of luck helps astronomers detect the most luminous object ever recorded from Earth.
By Ron Cowen -
SpaceRosetta finds a rocky jewel
On September 5, the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission became the first spacecraft to take a close-up portrait of a rare type of asteroid that lies in the main belt, between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
By Ron Cowen -
SpaceBlack holes have limits
A review of current evidence suggests an upper limit to a black hole's size.
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SpacePAMELA may have spotted the dark stuff
An orbiting observatory may have discovered particles of dark matter -- the proposed, invisible material that researchers believe holds the universe together.
By Ron Cowen