Space
- Physics
Preserving remnants of human culture on the moon
Artifacts left behind by lunar landings have value to research and human history. Scientists now want to preserve those cast-offs while also learning from them.
- Planets
Students help name 5 of Jupiter’s newly discovered moons
Astronomers announced discovering 12 new moons of Jupiter in July 2018. Five of them now just been named for goddesses and spirits of Greek and Roman mythology.
- Materials Science
Could humans build a tall tower or giant rope to space?
The movie Ad Astra shows a space antenna, a spindly structure reaching up into the stars. We look at what it would take to build something that big.
- Space
Scientists Say: Galaxy
A galaxy is a group of millions to billions of stars, plus a lot of dust and gas.
- Planets
Welcome to moon rock central
A Science News reporter’s visit to NASA’s moon-rock lab shows the hyper-pristine conditions in which these rocks are kept — and why that’s so important.
- Physics
This idea would turn the Earth into a giant space telescope
One astronomer has a bold solution to getting around the high cost of building big telescopes.
- Space
The Milky Way is shaped like a curvy potato chip
Our galaxy’s got curves. You can see them in a chart of thousands of stars called Cepheids.
- Physics
Scientists Say: Big Bang
The Big Bang is the current theory about how our universe came to be. It began with a vast explosion of matter — a very Big Bang.
- Planets
What do you call a moon that escapes its planet? A ‘ploonet’
Giant planets in other star systems might lose their moons, creating new planets. And if moons do go rogue, current telescopes may be able to find them.
- Space
Caught: A ghost galaxy that may have hit ours long ago
Astronomers think they’ve found a galaxy that hit the Milky Way. The collision took place millions of years ago, leaving ripples in our galaxy.
- Climate
Space weather forecast: Big storms ahead
Scientists studying blobs of energetic particles shot from the sun may help us prepare for stormy consequences on Earth.
- Physics
Dying stars can make gold as they collapse into black holes
There are spinning stars in space. Some of them collapse into black holes. Along the way, they may generate a lot of heavy elements — including gold.
