Science

Planetesimals Are Buffeted by Wind in their Nebula, Throwing Debris into Space

Before planets form around a young star, the protosolar disk is populated with innumerable planetesimals. Over time, these planetesimals combine…

3 months ago

Hubble Returns to Science Operations

After a brief interruption, NASA announced that the Hubble Space Telescope is back in business. Problems with one of its…

4 months ago

What Would a Modern “Golden Record” Include?

Now that several decades have passed since the launch of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977, we look back…

4 months ago

Fly Slowly Through Enceladus' Plumes to Detect Life

Enceladus is blasting water into space from the jets at its southern pole. This makes it the ideal place to…

4 months ago

The Second Most Energetic Cosmic Ray Ever Found

"Oh My God," someone must have said in 1991 when researchers detected the most energetic cosmic ray ever to strike…

4 months ago

What Can Slime Mold Teach Us About the Universe?

What can slime molds tell us about the large-scale structure of the Universe and the evolution of galaxies? These things…

5 months ago

TESS Finds Eight More Super-Earths

NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered most of the confirmed exoplanets that we know of. But its successor, TESS (Transiting Exoplanet…

5 months ago

Old Data from Kepler Turns Up A System with Seven Planets

NASA's Kepler mission ended in 2018 after more than nine years of fruitful planet-hunting. The space telescope discovered thousands of…

5 months ago

A Huge New Gaia Data Release: More Stars, Gravitational Lenses and Asteroids

The ESA's Gaia mission is releasing a new tranche of astronomical data. The mission has released three regular, massive hauls…

6 months ago

Seeing the Moment Planets Start to Form

Nature makes few duplicates, and planets are as distinct from one another as snowflakes are. But planets all start out…

6 months ago