Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
A new receiver for alien broadcasts
A $12.5 million grant will help build the world's largest telescope designed to search for radio broadcasts from alien civilizations.
- Astronomy
Taking a census of brown dwarfs
Researchers have completed the most thorough census to date of brown dwarfs in stellar clusters and have confirmed earlier findings about these failed stars.
- Astronomy
Revved-up antics of a pulsar jet
Flailing like an out-of-control fire hose, a mammoth jet of charged particles gushing from a collapsed star is varying its shape and brightness more rapidly than any other jet known in the heavens.
- Astronomy
Supernova Spectacular
Studying starburst galaxies, relatively nearby galaxies that are undergoing a tremendous rate of star formation, may reveal how elliptical galaxies arose and black holes grew in the early universe.
- Astronomy
Record Breaker: A planet from the early universe
Astronomers have found the oldest and most distant planet known in the universe.
- Astronomy
Strange Matter
What’s materials science? This engaging Web site for kids of all ages introduces “the study of stuff.” It describes how materials fit into different categories and provides accounts of what materials scientists do. Games and activities require a browser with a Flash plug-in. Go to: http://www.strangematterexhibit.com/
- Astronomy
Timing a Moonrise: Van Gogh painting put on the calendar
Astronomical detectives suggest that van Gogh painted the picture now known as "Moonrise" in 1889, capturing the rising moon as it appeared at 9:08 p.m. local mean time on July 13.
- Astronomy
Telescope unveils a stellar deception
A heavenly masquerade may shed light on the nature of astrophysical jets—the beams of material spewed by a wide variety of celestial objects.
- Astronomy
Solar Terrain: Revealing the sun’s complex topography
The sharpest images of the sun ever taken, released last week, show our stellar neighbor’s rugged surface in new and surprising detail.
- Astronomy
Stellar Top: Astronomers find a squashed star
Astronomers have found a rapidly spinning, squashed star that is more than 1.5 times as wide as it is tall.
- Astronomy
Telescope spies a galactic satellite
A huge gas cloud once considered a remnant from when the Milky Way or nearby galaxies formed is, in fact, a satellite of our galaxy.
- Astronomy
Mystery in the Middle
The Milky Way's core is loaded with seemingly young stars, which have no business being there.
