Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s rings and tilt might have come from one missing moon
The hypothetical moon, dubbed Chrysalis, could have helped tip the planet over before getting shredded to form the rings, researchers suggest.
- Physics
Falling objects in orbit show Einstein was right — again
For more than two years, a pair of metal cylinders fell at the same rate in space, confirming the equivalence principle, a key tenet of general relativity.
- Planetary Science
Passing through the Milky Way’s arms may have helped form Earth’s solid ground
Barrages of comets stirred up by the early solar system’s journey around the center of the galaxy could explain the timing of ancient rock formation.
- Astronomy
Here’s the James Webb telescope’s first direct image of an exoplanet
Along with spying its first exoplanet, the James Webb telescope got its first direct spectrum of an object orbiting a star in another solar system.
- Space
‘The Milky Way’ wants you to get to know your home in the universe
In a new ‘autobiography,’ the Milky Way tells its own story with the help of astrophysicist Moiya McTier.
- Space
Physicists dispute a claim of detecting a black hole’s ‘photon ring’
A thin ring of light around a black hole, which would probe gravity in a new way, has been found, one team claims. Skeptics aren’t convinced.
- Astronomy
The James Webb telescope spotted CO2 in an exoplanet’s atmosphere
The first definitive detection of the gas on a world in another solar system paves the way for detections in planets that are more Earthlike.
- Space
NASA’s Artemis I mission sets the stage for our return to the moon
The launch will test many aspects of the rocket, capsule and spacesuits that will take astronauts back to the moon.
- Astronomy
The discovery of the Kuiper Belt revamped our view of the solar system
Thirty years ago, astronomers found the Kuiper Belt, a region of space home to Pluto and other icy worlds that helped show how the solar system evolved.
- Earth
Not one, but two asteroids might have slain the dinosaurs
A craterlike structure found off West Africa’s coast might have been formed by an asteroid impact around the same time the dinosaurs went extinct.
- Planetary Science
Oort cloud comets may spin themselves to death
How icy objects from the solar system’s fringe break up as they near the sun is a long-standing mystery. One astronomer now thinks he has an answer.
- Planetary Science
Asteroid impacts might have created some of Mars’ sand
Roughly a quarter of the Red Planet’s sand is spherical bits of glass forged in violent impacts, new observations reveal.
