Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
Cosmic Revelations: Satellite homes in on the infant universe
A new portrait of the infant universe pins down the age of the universe—13.7 billion years—to an unprecedented accuracy of 1 percent, provides new evidence that the universe began with a brief but humongous growth spurt, and reveals that it already contained a plethora of stars when it was just 200 million years old.
- Astronomy
Starry eruption on a grand scale
Monitoring the bloated star Rho Cassiopeiae, astronomers report they witnessed an explosion that blasted more material into space than any other stellar explosion ever observed.
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- Planetary Science
New moons for Neptune?
Astronomers say they have discovered three additional moons circling Neptune.
- Astronomy
Gamma-ray burst leaves ephemeral afterglow
A ground-based telescope on automatic pilot has taken one of the earliest images ever recorded of the visible-light afterglow of a gamma-ray burst, one of the most energetic flashes of radiation in the universe.
- Astronomy
In the Beginning: Dark matter builds galaxies, feeds quasars
Cosmologists say they have found compelling evidence that massive galaxies were already in place when the universe was less than a billion years old.
- Astronomy
Sundancing
Astronomers have solved the mystery of why supergranules—enormous cells of turbulent, charged gas on the sun's surface—appear to move across the sun faster than the sun rotates.
- Astronomy
Planet Formation on the Fast Track
New computer simulations suggest that planets as massive as Jupiter may have formed in only a few hundred years rather than several million years, as the leading theory of planet formation requires.
- Planetary Science
Martian leaks: Hints of present-day water
In some of the coldest regions on Mars, water appears to have recently gushed from just beneath the surface, running down crater walls and steep valleys.
- Astronomy
Distant and Strange: Orb isn’t just another extrasolar planet
A novel search technique that could ultimately find Earthlike worlds has uncovered an extrasolar planet that is 30 times farther away than any other planet detected and lies closer to its parent star than does any other orb discovered to date.
- Planetary Science
Mars reveals more frozen water
Planetary scientists have discovered ice near the edge of Mars' south polar cap.
- Astronomy
Sugarcoated news arrives from space
Scientists spotted a simple sugar in interstellar space for the first time.
