Earth's Place in the Universe

  1. Teen makes sure bacteria stay hands-off

    Germs are everywhere. One teen has designed a way to keep them from sticking to a surgeon’s gloves.

    By
  2. Planets

    Juno’s knocking on Jupiter’s door

    The Juno spacecraft will peer into Jupiter’s clouds and fly in close to its monstrous auroras.

    By
  3. Space

    Scientists Say: Wormhole

    Scientists have predicted the presence of tunnels in space that connect two points in space and time. They are named for the shape they resemble.

    By
  4. Planets

    Jupiter’s stormy weather runs deep

    Jupiter is covered in swirling storms. A new 3-D map of the planet’s atmosphere shows those storms start far, far below the clouds.

    By
  5. Physics

    Cool Jobs: Solar sleuthing

    No star is closer than the sun, and yet there’s much science still don’t know about how it actually works. These scientists are helping solve the mysteries.

    By
  6. Physics

    Spinning black holes may ‘sing’ during a collision

    The massive black hole in the movie Interstellar would create a unique gravity-wave signal when gobbling a smaller partner.

    By
  7. Climate

    This planet’s lightning storms are like nothing on Earth

    Radio waves from a faraway exoplanet could signal intense lightning storms there.

    By
  8. Chemistry

    Key sugar for life on Earth could have formed in space

    Ribose, a sugar in RNA, may have formed in space and then rained down on a young Earth, a new study suggests.

    By
  9. Chemistry

    Dwarf galaxy spawned heavy elements

    A study of nine stars in the dwarf galaxy Reticulum II found heavy elements. They had been produced after a violent stellar event sparked a chemical chain reaction.

    By
  10. Space

    Hurricane at this galaxy’s center is wicked fast

    The gale-force winds around one quasar whip by at almost 200 million kilometers per hour. That’s 625,000 times faster than the strongest hurricanes on Earth.

    By
  11. Earth

    Cool Jobs: Mapping the unknown

    Scientists find different ways of exploring places humans will never visit — and drawing maps to help us better understand such mysterious places.

    By
  12. Physics

    Scientists Say: Yottawatt

    On Earth, scientists measure energy use in watts. When you have lot of those watts — one million billion billion — you have a yottawatt.

    By