Science
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
How Do Lava Worlds Become Earth-Like, Living Planets?
Earth was once entirely molten. Planetary scientists call this phase in a planet's evolution a magma ocean, and Earth may…
Even Tiny Amounts of DNA on Mars Will Be Detectable
The Search for Life is focused on the search for biosignatures. Planetary life leaves a chemical fingerprint on a planet's…