Space

Planetary Science

Cozying up to Mars

The Hubble Space Telescope photographed Mars on Aug. 27 when the planet came closer to Earth than it had in nearly 60,000 years, enabling the telescope to take the sharpest global image of Mars ever taken from Earth's vicinity.

Astronomy

Stellar Tantrums: Tracking the flaring cycles of other stars

Astronomers are closely tracking the ebb and flow of magnetic activity and powerful flares on stars other than the sun.

Astronomy

Black Hole Life Preserver: Don’t get sucked in without one

By temporarily counteracting a black hole's tremendous tidal forces, a proposed black hole life preserver would slightly lengthen the life and shorten the agony of anyone exploring one of these gravitational beasts.

Astronomy

Ulysses makes a return trip

Just as the sun has reached the stormy peak of its 11-year activity cycle, the European Space Agency's Ulysses spacecraft has begun its second and final pass over the sun's poles.

Astronomy

Magnetic-mapping mission resurrected

The European Space Agency successfully launched Cluster II, a group of four spacecraft that will fly in tandem to generate a three-dimensional map of Earth's magnetosphere.

Astronomy

Spirograph in the sky

Some 2,000 light-years from Earth, an elderly star has ejected its outer layers to form a puffy, gaseous cocoon that resembles a "spirograph" pattern.

Astronomy

It’s Raining Stardust: Spacecraft measures record amount of stellar debris

Stardust is sneaking into our solar system at three times the rate that it had just 4 years ago, and the influx of dust could triple through 2010.

Planetary Science

A warmer, fluffier Pluto

Although Pluto has been receding from the sun for more than a decade, planetary scientists have now found that between 1988 and 2002, Pluto’s atmosphere has nearly doubled in size and its temperature has increased by about 1 degree C.

Astronomy

Stellar speed limit

Ripples in the fabric of space-time may put the brakes on the fastest-spinning stars in the universe and prevent them from flying apart.

Planetary Science

Mars Encounter

On Aug. 27, Mars and Earth will be closer to each other than at any other time in the last 50,000 years. Amateur astronomers with small backyard telescopes can already view features such as dust clouds, the southern polar ice cap (because the southern cap is tipped toward Earth), and volcanic terrain. This NASA Web […]

Astronomy

Swallow Thy Neighbor: Strong evidence of galactic cannibalism

Astronomers have found a compelling case of a large galaxy caught in the act of eating a small fry.

Astronomy

Repulsive Astronomy: Strengthening the case for dark energy

Astronomers have found new evidence that a mysterious substance, dubbed dark energy, is ripping the cosmos apart, causing the universe to expand at an ever-faster rate.