Space

Astronomy

Let There Be Spin

X-ray outbursts from two different pairs of stars in our Milky Way are providing clues about how the most rapidly rotating stars in the universe got their spin.

Planetary Science

Pristine fragments of asteroid breakup

Planetary scientists have for the first time precisely dated a collision that smashed an asteroid into fragments.

Astronomy

Hubble Space Telescope: Eye wide open

Two months after the failure of a fourth gyroscope shut it down, and 3 weeks after a shuttle crew paid it a service call, the Hubble Space Telescope is back in business.

Astronomy

Planetary System in the Making? Stellar eclipse hints at planet-forming debris

Astronomers reported the first evidence that a young star is periodically eclipsed by a stream of debris, possibly an orbiting belt of asteroids held in place by a massive, unseen planet.

Astronomy

Outlier Planet: Extrasolar places that are like home

A team of veteran hunters of planets outside the solar system has come up with a landmark finding: a Jupiterlike planet orbiting a Sunlike star at a Jupiterlike distance.

Astronomy

X-ray Data Reveal Black Holes Galore

Using a sensitive, new X-ray telescope, astronomers have identified the origin of the high-energy part of the X-ray background and found that supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies are far more numerous than visible-light surveys indicate.

Astronomy

Seeing Red: A cool revival of Hubble’s infrared camera

New images provide a graphic demonstration that the Hubble Space Telescope's infrared vision has been restored.

Astronomy

Rare Find: Odd type of ammonia detected in space

The discovery of deuterated ammonia in space could help astronomers better understand the complex chemistry of dark clouds in star-forming regions.

Planetary Science

Odyssey’s Homer: Hints of water near both poles of Mars

Sensors on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft have spied strong signs of ice buried near both poles of the Red Planet, exactly the regions where scientists previously had said that such frozen water deposits could exist.

Astronomy

A Dark View of the Universe

Two new studies suggest that galaxies may be surrounded by vast halos of dark matter extending at least 1.5 million light-years from each galaxy's center.

Astronomy

Cosmic Dawn

New computer simulations suggest that the first stars in the universe were extremely massive and left behind gamma-ray bursts that may already have been detected by telescopes orbiting Earth.

Astronomy

More evidence for a revved-up universe

By studying the clustering pattern of galaxies, astronomers have obtained additional evidence that cosmic expansion is accelerating.