Space

  1. Planetary Science

    Odyssey’s First Look: Craft spies signs of ice at the Martian south pole

    Astronomers have for the first time found evidence of large amounts of frozen water in the subsurface of Mars.

    By Ron Cowen
  2. Astronomy

    Martian equator: A watery outpost?

    A catastrophic outpouring of water—four times the volume contained in Lake Tahoe—may have gushed from fissures near the equator on Mars as recently as 10 million years ago.

    By Ron Cowen
  3. Astronomy

    Ambitious Mission: Hubble slated to get one heckuva tune-up

    If all goes according to plan, astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia will embark on the fourth and most technically challenging mission to replace damaged parts and install new detectors on the Hubble Space Telescope.

    By Ron Cowen
  4. Planetary Science

    Galileo at Jupiter: The goodbye tour

    After more than 6 years spent touring Jupiter and its four largest moons, the Galileo spacecraft’s mission is beginning to wind down.

    By Ron Cowen
  5. Astronomy

    The Milky Way’s Middle

    Sensitive X-ray, infrared, and radio telescopes are now providing an extraordinarily clear view of the dust-shrouded center of our galaxy.

    By Ron Cowen
  6. Astronomy

    X-Ray Universe: Quasar’s jet goes the distance

    Collisions with photons left over from the birth of the universe appear to have generated the longest X ray-emitting jet ever found in a distant galaxy.

    By Ron Cowen
  7. Astronomy

    UV telescopes: One dead, one revived

    One ultraviolet observatory burned up in Earth's atmosphere late last month while another has gotten a new lease on life.

    By Ron Cowen
  8. Planetary Science

    Extreme weather: Massive hurricanes meet on Jupiter

    Both professional and amateur sky watchers are pointing their telescopes at Jupiter as two titanic storms in the giant planet's upper atmosphere meet each other.

    By Ron Cowen
  9. Astronomy

    Supernova dealt deaths on Earth? Stellar blasts may have killed ancient marine life

    The explosion of nearby supernova may have caused the widespread extinction of marine life on Earth 2 million years ago.

    By Ron Cowen
  10. Astronomy

    Some new stars in the neighborhood

    As part of an ongoing survey of faint stars in the southern skies, astronomers have discovered 12 previously unknown stars that lie within a mere 33 light-years of Earth.

    By Ron Cowen
  11. Astronomy

    Seeing green: Color of the cosmos

    We live in a pale-green universe, according to astronomers who analyzed the colors of some 200,000 galaxies as part of the largest galaxy survey completed to date.

    By Ron Cowen
  12. Astronomy

    Are pictures of extrasolar planets in the offing?

    The first image of a planet orbiting a star other than the sun may be only a year away.

    By Ron Cowen