Earth's Place in the Universe
- Space
Here’s why people picked certain stars as constellations
Patterns of human eye movement help explain why particular sets of stars form iconic shapes, a high school student showed.
- Plants
Dinosaur-killing asteroid radically changed Earth’s tropical forests
The asteroid collision initially reduced the diversity in what had been sunny tropical rainforests. In time, the forests would become permanently darker.
- Space
Ingenuity helicopter makes history by flying on Mars
The copter's 40-second-long flight in the Red Planet’s thin air is only the first in a planned series of daring flights.
- Planets
Signs of a hidden Planet Nine in our solar system may be an illusion
Hints of the remote planet, also called Planet X, relied on clumped up orbits of bodies beyond Neptune. A new study suggests that clumping doesn’t exist.
- Space
Let’s learn about the moon
The moon is Earth’s nearest neighbor, and its gravity helps stabilize the planet’s climate and creates the tides.
- Space
Scientists Say: Planet
Planets have to orbit a star, be big enough to form a sphere and keep other objects out of their path around their star.
- Chemistry
Extreme pressure? Diamonds can take it
Diamond retains its structure even at extreme pressures, which could reveal how carbon behaves in the cores of some exoplanets.
- Space
Exploding neutron star proves to be energy standout of the cosmos
This is what scientists had suspected. But until one showed up outside our galaxy, they couldn’t be sure. Now they are.
- Space
Our feverish universe is getting hotter every day
For the first time, astronomers have taken the temperature of the cosmos at different times in its history. Galaxy clusters are cranking up the heat.
- Space
Rogue planets wander the galaxy all alone
Some planets don’t orbit stars. They were kicked into space long ago. The newest, smallest one found is only about as massive as Earth.
- Space
Meet ‘Pi’ — a new Earth-sized planet
Searching through data from NASA’s K2 Mission, researchers found a new planet. Some call it K2-315b, others smile and refer to it as “Pi Earth.”
- Space
Jupiter may have ‘sprites’ or ‘elves’ in its atmosphere
This is the first time that scientists have seen hints of these weird side effects of lightning storms somewhere other than on Earth.
