Space
- Astronomy
Cosmic Pops: Nearby galaxy is hotbed of supernova formation
Large galaxies usually have no more than three supernovas blow up in a century, but the nearby galaxy NGC 1316 has had two such explosions within the past 5 months and four in the past 26 years.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Dark Fingerprints: Hubble sheds light on cosmic expansion
The mysterious cosmic push that's tearing up the universe began revving up about 5 billion years ago.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Nearest extrasolar planet
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of the nearest known planet beyond the solar system.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Black hole survey
Scanning the sky for high-energy X rays, a NASA satellite found more than 200 supermassive black holes within 400 million light-years of Earth.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
New eye on the sun
The recently launched Hinode spacecraft captured an X-ray portrait of several-million-degree gas in the sun's outer atmosphere.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Rejuvenating Observatory: Green light given for space telescope repairs
NASA this week gave the go-ahead for a shuttle crew to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope and to install new detectors that would vastly improve its capabilities.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
A Swarm of Umbrellas vs. Global Warming: Astronomer thinks small to save Earth
A trillion miniature spacecraft could provide a giant sunshade for Earth, significantly reducing global warming.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Web Special: Hubble Repair Mission Is a Go
After several years of uncertainty following the Columbia shuttle disaster, NASA this week gave the go-ahead for a shuttle crew to replace and repair parts on the 16-year-old Hubble Space Telescope.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Galactic spider
A Hubble Space Telescope image reveals a large galaxy in the early universe assembling from the merger of smaller ones.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Jovian storm grows stormier
Jupiter's Little Red Spot has become as strong as its big brother.
By Ron Cowen - Astronomy
Feeling the heat of an extrasolar planet
Astronomers have measured the temperature variation between the lit and unlit sides of a planet outside the solar system.
By Ron Cowen - Planetary Science
Satanic Winds
Dust devils send prodigious amounts of dust into Earth's atmosphere, and on Mars the electric fields generated by the dusty vortices may actually stimulate changes in atmospheric chemistry that sterilize the soil.
By Sid Perkins