Space
- Space
Star cluster rockets through space
It’s the first time astronomers have ever detected a cluster of stars moving collectively at such speed.
- Animals
We are stardust
Everything making up Earth and what’s now living upon it — from trees and people to our pets and their fleas — owes their origins to the elements forged by ancient stars.
- Planets
New evidence of a wet Mars
Ten years in to its tour of Mars, the Opportunity rover finds another place on the Red Planet that once might have hosted water.
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- Space
Galaxies stash mass in clouds of gas
Astronomers may have finally figured out why predictions of the amount of matter in the universe don’t match observations. A huge amount may hide in the gas clouds that surround galaxies.
- Space
Dusty remains from a dead star
A supernova first spotted in 1987 produced a huge cloud of space dust. Astronomers are now finding clues in it to how stars formed in the early universe.
- Space
The sun’s giant heat elevators
Scientists have long known that plumes of hot plasma rise from the sun’s interior to its outer layers. New observations have now identified especially big plumes that can be 15 times as wide as Earth’s diameter and last for months.
- Planets
Jupiter’s long-lasting storm
Most studies of Jupiter’s centuries-old Great Red Spot suggest this giant storm should have petered out after a few decades. A new study traces the storm’s staying power to the vertical movement of its gases.
- Planets
The comet that came in from the cold
Comet ISON is hurtling toward the sun at breakneck speed. During this first (and possibly last) trip around the sun, it will either shoot back into space or be torn apart.
- Planets
So many ‘Earths’
A new analysis suggests humans are not alone in the universe. Our galaxy alone may host billions of Earth-like planets, ones able to support life as we know it.
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- Space
Oldest, most distant galaxy found
Galaxy's light comes from a time shortly after the Big Bang.
