Space
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s moons could keep each other warm by raising tidal waves
Along with gravity from the enormous planet, tidal forces between Jupiter’s moons could generate a surprising amount of heat.
- Space
‘Exotic’ lightning crackles across Jupiter’s cloud tops
Newly spotted lightning, which could form thanks to ammonia antifreeze, is weaker but more frequent than any flashes seen on Jupiter before.
- Astronomy
50 years ago, Mauna Kea opened for astronomy. Controversy continues
Current plans to build a new telescope on the volcano sparked the latest conflict.
- Cosmology
‘The End of Everything’ explores the ways the universe could perish
As Katie Mack explains in The End of Everything, the universe’s demise could be disastrously violent or deadly calm.
- Physics
The physics of solar flares could help scientists predict imminent outbursts
Physicists aim to improve space weather predictions by studying the physical processes that spark a solar flare.
- Planetary Science
The Perseverance rover caps off a month of Mars launches
With the launch of NASA’s Perseverance rover, the rush to the Red Planet is under way.
- Space
An Antarctic ice dome may offer the world’s clearest views of the night sky
The highest point in East Antarctica could be an ideal place for an optical telescope, a new study finds.
- Space
To rehearse Perseverance’s mission, scientists pretended to be a Mars rover
Seven Mars scientists pretended to be the Mars Perseverance rover on a training exercise in the Nevada desert.
- Planetary Science
NASA’s Perseverance rover will seek signs of past life on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover will collect rocks and search for past life on Mars using lasers and zoomable cameras among other instruments.
- Physics
A black hole circling a wormhole would emit weird gravitational waves
A new calculation reveals the strange gravitational waves LIGO and Virgo could see if a black hole were falling into a hypothetical tunnel in spacetime.
- Astronomy
The star cluster closest to Earth is in its death throes
Gaia spacecraft observations of stars’ motion within and fleeing the cluster suggest the 680-million-year-old Hyades has only 30 million years left.
- Astronomy
This is the first picture of a sunlike star with multiple exoplanets
A first family portrait reveals a weird cousin of the solar system: a star about the mass of the sun orbited — distantly — by two massive gas giants.
