Space
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Planetary Science
The first rovers to explore an asteroid just sent photos home
Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft has deployed a pair of rovers to the surface of asteroid Ryugu.
- Astronomy
Japan has launched a miniature space elevator
The Japanese space agency just launched a prototype space elevator to the International Space Station to test motion along a taut cable in space.
- Astronomy
The TESS space telescope has spotted its first exoplanet
TESS’s first exoplanet is twice Earth’s size and may have lots of water.
- Planetary Science
The ghosts of nearly two dozen icy volcanoes haunt dwarf planet Ceres
The slumped remains of 21 ice volcanoes suggest that the dwarf planet Ceres has been volcanically active for billions of years.
- Physics
Nuclear pasta in neutron stars may be the strongest material in the universe
Simulations suggest that the theoretical substance known as nuclear pasta is 10 billion times as strong as steel.
- Astronomy
Jocelyn Bell Burnell wins big physics prize for 1967 pulsar discovery
Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell speaks about winning the Breakthrough Prize, impostor syndrome and giving back.
- Planetary Science
Saturn has two hexagons, not one, swirling around its north pole
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft spied a vortex growing high over Saturn’s north pole, whose hexagonal shape mirrors a famous underlying cyclone.
- Astronomy
Readers’ interest piqued by Parker Solar Probe, general relativity and more
Readers had questions about NASA's Parker Solar Probe, Einstein's general relativity theory and underwater cables used as earthquake sensors.
- Astronomy
To boldly go where no robot explorer has gone before
Editor in Chief Nancy Shute discusses the importance of robotic space missions for scientific research.
- Planetary Science
Jupiter’s magnetic field is surprisingly weird
New results from NASA’s Juno spacecraft reveal different magnetic behavior in the planet’s northern and southern hemispheres.
- Astronomy
‘Accessory to War’ probes the uneasy alliance between space science and the military
Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang’s ‘Accessory to War’ grapples with the millennia-old partnership between space science and warfare.
- Astronomy
New images reveal how an ancient monster galaxy fueled furious star formation
Scientists were able to see the abundance of star-forming gas and dust in a giant galaxy from when the universe was less than 2 billion years old.
