All Stories by Lisa Grossman
- Space
Here’s why some shooting stars have long-lasting afterglows
Atmospheric chemistry is the most important factor in determining which meteors leave behind these persistent trails.
- Space
James Webb telescope catches newborn stars sculpting spiral galaxies
Dark voids riddle the galaxies, revealing new details about how stars alter their environments.
- Space
The next astronauts to walk the moon will be more diverse than the last
Space agencies are preparing to send the next generation of astronauts to the moon and beyond. Here’s how future crews will differ from the last.
- Planets
Saturn’s moon Enceladus wears a thick blanket of snow
Pits on the frosty moon reveal the snow’s surprising depth, up to 700 meters (2,300 feet) in some places.
- Planets
The dwarf planet Quaoar hosts an impossible ring
Quaoar’s ring lies outside the Roche limit. That’s an imaginary line beyond which rings aren’t thought to be stable.
- Space
Jets may have sculpted rings of Cat’s Eye nebula
The Cat’s Eye nebula is one of the most complex of its kind. A 3-D model now reveals the source of that complexity.
- Space
NASA’s DART spacecraft successfully bumped an asteroid onto a new path
The spacecraft’s intentional crash into an asteroid changed the space rock’s orbit by more than 30 minutes — far more than expected.
- Space
A missing moon could have given Saturn its rings — and tilt
The hypothetical moon is being called Chrysalis. It could have helped tip the planet over before getting shredded to form Saturn’s rings.
- Space
Awesome! Here are the James Webb Space Telescope’s first pictures
The first image shows ancient galaxies. Some reveal light that has been traveling 13 billion years to reach us.
- Space
Wild art? No, it’s a radio image of the heart of our Milky Way
Eyelash-like radio filaments accent the brightest feature in this image — a supermassive black hole.
- Space
The long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope has a big to-do list
The James Webb Space Telescope has been in the works for so long that new fields of science have emerged for it to study.
- Space
Astronomers may have found first known planet in another galaxy
The spiral-shaped Whirlpool galaxy may be home to the first planet spotted outside our own Milky Way galaxy.
