Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Astronomy
One of Earth’s shimmering dust clouds has been spotted at last
Almost 60 years after a Polish astronomer spotted clouds of dust orbiting Earth near the moon, astronomers have detected those clouds again.
- Planetary Science
China is about to visit uncharted territory on the moon
The next two Chinese missions to the moon will visit places no spacecraft has been before. The rest of the world wants a piece of the lunar action.
- Planetary Science
Hints of Oort clouds around other stars may lurk in the universe’s first light
Sifting through the universe’s early light could reveal planetary graveyards orbiting other stars.
- Astronomy
Hubble has been busy since coming back online
Since getting back to work on October 26, the Hubble Space Telescope has been studying red dwarf flares, among other celestial objects.
- Planetary Science
Dawn, the first spacecraft to orbit 2 alien worlds, has gone silent
The Dawn probe, which hopped between two objects in the asteroid belt during its seven-year mission, ran out of fuel and stopped calling home.
- Astronomy
The Milky Way feasted on a smaller galaxy 10 billion years ago
The Milky Way swallowed another galaxy billions of years ago, and the leftover stars are still roaming the sky.
- Astronomy
Three gas clouds nearly grazed the edge of the Milky Way’s black hole
Gas clumps cozy up to the Milky Way’s enormous black hole, new observations reveal.
- Astronomy
The planet-hunting Kepler space telescope is dead
The Kepler space telescope is officially out of fuel and will hunt planets no more, NASA announced.
- Planetary Science
Saturn’s moon Dione has stripes like no others in the solar system
Icy moon Dione has long, thin, bright lines at its equator that run surprisingly parallel to each other for tens to hundreds of kilometers.
- Astronomy
Readers wonder about a hydrogen wall, pig lung transplants and more
Readers had questions about a glow at the edge of the solar system, pig lung transplants, the use of the word promiscuous and more.
- Astronomy
The Neil Armstrong biopic ‘First Man’ captures early spaceflight’s terror
At a time when NASA is considering how to return astronauts to the moon, ‘First Man’ is a sobering reminder of how risky the first giant leap was.
- Astronomy
The first observed wimpy supernova may have birthed a neutron star duo
Scientists have spotted a faint, fast supernova for the first time, possibly explaining how pairs of dense stellar corpses called neutron stars form.
