Ranked #1
New Moon Rises over Pluto
New Moon Rises over Pluto
A Hubble telescope search for dust rings around Pluto turned up a previously unknown moon. John Matson reports
26 Jul 2011
•
1min
Ranked #2
WiggleZ Project Confirms Dark Energy's Effects
WiggleZ Project Confirms Dark Energy's Effects
A survey of 150,000 galaxies confirms predictions about dark energy, thought to be what's driving galaxies apart. John M... Read more
23 May 2011
•
1min
Ranked #3
Milky Way Should Have Much More Companionship
Milky Way Should Have Much More Companionship
Our understanding of dark matter says the Milky Way should have many times more than its dozen or so small satellite gal... Read more
9 May 2011
•
1min
Ranked #4
Fragments of Single Meteorite Show Different Chemistry
Fragments of Single Meteorite Show Different Chemistry
The Tagish Lake meteorite fragments contain widely varying organic compounds, a sign that chemical reactions were taking... Read more
13 Jun 2011
•
1min
Ranked #5
Step Right Up and Guess the Star's Age
Step Right Up and Guess the Star's Age
A database of stars with known ages and spin rates could let astronomers gauge more stars' ages and find the ones old en... Read more
6 Jun 2011
•
1min
Ranked #6
What's Flinging Comets Out of the Oort Cloud?
What's Flinging Comets Out of the Oort Cloud?
A planet-size object could be behind the odd departure of some comets from the Oort Cloud--and toward us. John Matson re... Read more
31 May 2011
•
1min
Ranked #7
Space Boat Could See Sea Near Saturn
Space Boat Could See Sea Near Saturn
Among projects under consideration by NASA is one that would send a boat to the hydrocarbon sea on Saturn's moon Titan t... Read more
16 May 2011
•
1min
Ranked #8
Point Up and Click
Point Up and Click
The 2012 Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition is now accepting entries. John Matson reports
24 Jan 2012
•
1min
Ranked #9
Chilly, Chilly, Little Star
Chilly, Chilly, Little Star
A brown dwarf only about three to 10 times Jupiter's mass couldn't get fusion going and now sits freezing in space, in t... Read more
30 Apr 2014
•
1min
Ranked #10
Kepler Finds Multiple Exoplanets around Single Stars
Kepler Finds Multiple Exoplanets around Single Stars
The Kepler spacecraft has found 26 previously unknown exoplanets orbiting 11 stars. John Matson reports
30 Jan 2012
•
1min
Ranked #11
Faraway Planets May Be Far Better for Life
Faraway Planets May Be Far Better for Life
Astronomers have come up with a shopping list of what a planet needs to support life, perhaps even better than our Earth... Read more
31 Jan 2014
•
1min
Ranked #12
Help ID Moon Craters from Your Couch
Help ID Moon Craters from Your Couch
Citizen scientists have helped professional astronomers locate more than 500 million lunar craters by using an app calle... Read more
22 Apr 2014
•
1min
Ranked #13
Rings: They're Not Just for Planets Anymore
Rings: They're Not Just for Planets Anymore
The asteroidlike object Chariklo orbits between Saturn and Uranus and has been found to have its own set of rings. Clara... Read more
27 Mar 2014
•
1min
Ranked #14
Flame Dances on Board Space Station
Flame Dances on Board Space Station
The Flame Extinguishment Experiment, or FLEX, on board the ISS allows researchers to study zero-gravity fire--and ways t... Read more
6 Feb 2012
•
1min
Ranked #15
Weird Supernovae Spin Faster Than Blender Blades
Weird Supernovae Spin Faster Than Blender Blades
Two recently found supernovae are much farther away and brighter than almost any star explosion ever seen, perhaps becau... Read more
31 Dec 2013
•
1min
Ranked #16
Asteroid-Hunting Satellite Returns from Dead
Asteroid-Hunting Satellite Returns from Dead
The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer satellite that went into hibernation in 2011 has been brought to life as an aste... Read more
23 Dec 2013
•
1min
Ranked #17
Absence (of Weight) Makes the Heart Grow Rounder
Absence (of Weight) Makes the Heart Grow Rounder
After prolonged periods in microgravity, astronauts' hearts became more spherical, according to scans done on the Intern... Read more
8 Apr 2014
•
1min
Ranked #18
Gamma-Ray Burst Fingered for Carbon 14 Spike in A.D. 774
Gamma-Ray Burst Fingered for Carbon 14 Spike in A.D. 774
Tree-ring data from A.D. 774 show a sudden spike in radioactive carbon 14, pointing to a burst of charged particles or h... Read more
21 Jan 2013
•
1min
Ranked #19
Astronomers Cluster at Massive Meeting Conjunction
Astronomers Cluster at Massive Meeting Conjunction
More than 3,000 astronomers assembled last week for the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society. Clara Moskow... Read more
15 Jan 2014
•
1min
Ranked #20
Black Hole May Eat Asteroids
Black Hole May Eat Asteroids
The black hole at the center of Milky Way could be steadily feeding on a cloud of asteroids, producing frequent, small x... Read more
14 Feb 2012
•
1min