Space

  1. Astronomy

    Pay Dirt: Cometary dust collector comes home

    A capsule containing dust collected from the comet Wild-2 safely landed in the Utah desert.

    By Ron Cowen
  2. Astronomy

    Cosmic Push: Finding pieces of a dark puzzle

    A controversial new study, the first to use gamma-ray bursts to measure the expansion of the universe far back in time, hints that dark energy may not be constant in time.

    By Ron Cowen
  3. Astronomy

    Images reveal possible origin of young stars

    Astronomers say they have solved the riddle of how young, massive stars can reside so close to the monster black hole at the Milky Way's center.

    By Ron Cowen
  4. Planetary Science

    One star better than two?

    Rather than disrupting the planet-forming process around another star, a nearby companion may sometimes enhance it, new computer simulations suggest.

    By Ron Cowen
  5. Astronomy

    Hubble spots North Star companion

    Astronomers have obtained an image of a close companion star to Polaris, the North Star.

    By Ron Cowen
  6. Astronomy

    Gravity at play

    Astronomers have found 19 cosmic mirages, distorted images created when the gravity of a massive galaxy bends and magnifies the light from a background object.

    By Ron Cowen
  7. Astronomy

    Outer Limits

    A slew of recently discovered objects at the far reaches of the solar system, including a possible tenth planet, are providing scientists with clues about the origin and evolution of this distant region.

    By Ron Cowen
  8. Astronomy

    Gauging Star Birth: Spacecraft uses gamma rays as stellar tracer

    Using radioactive material spewed into space by dying stars, astronomers have measured the star-formation rate in our galaxy over the past few million years.

    By Ron Cowen
  9. Planetary Science

    Moon spray

    The Cassini spacecraft has found conclusive evidence that the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus spews jets of icy particles into space.

    By Ron Cowen
  10. Astronomy

    A puny way to make planets

    Brown dwarfs are failures in the star-making business, but new observations reveal that they may still succeed in growing planets.

    By Ron Cowen
  11. Astronomy

    Cosmic Expansion: Supernovas shed light on dark energy

    A new study of light from supernovas provides additional hints that dark energy, the mysterious entity revving up the expansion of the universe, might be distributed uniformly throughout space and time.

    By Ron Cowen
  12. Astronomy

    Dark shadows

    New radio telescope images of the center of the Milky Way make an even more compelling case that a supermassive black hole resides there.

    By Ron Cowen