Featured
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News |
China and Europe pore over proposals for joint space mission
Contenders for 2021 launch include telescope exploring ‘Dark Ages’ of the Universe.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Obituary |
Charles H. Townes (1915–2015)
Laser co-inventor, astrophysicist and US presidential adviser.
- Robert Boyd
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News |
Crunch time for Canada’s role in mega-telescope
Astronomers ask federal government to honour promise for Thirty Meter Telescope.
- Alexandra Witze
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Editorial |
An array of problems
Political interference in the selection process for the headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array should not go unchallenged.
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News |
UK and Italy wrestle over mega-telescope's hub
Decision over SKA headquarters is postponed after Padua seemed to have won over Manchester.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
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News |
Spaceplane re-entry is a European first
Prototype for reusable vehicle opens up potential for ferrying planetary samples and carrying humans.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Hubble successor will struggle to hunt alien life
Exoplanet researchers will vie with astrophysicists for access to James Webb Space Telescope, which is not optimized for studying Earth-like worlds.
- Lee Billings
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News |
Comet scientists abandon Philae flyby
Rosetta comet orbiter will continue with its planned course which rules out making a special trip to find Philae lander.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Electric algae, capsized icebergs and cosmic pillars
January's sharpest science shots, as chosen by Nature's art team.
- Daniel Cressey
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News |
Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead
Combined data from South Pole experiment BICEP2 and Planck probe point to Galactic dust as confounding signal.
- Ron Cowen
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News |
Hunt for Philae hangs in the balance
Rosetta mission would have to sacrifice other science to search for comet lander.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Science pours in from Rosetta comet mission
The first thorough analyses of data from the European craft suggest that comet 67P originated in the distant reaches of the Solar System.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
British Mars lander find is bittersweet victory
Beagle 2 touched down softly in 2003 but failed to deploy or contact home.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Al Gore’s dream spacecraft gears up for launch
Delayed DSCOVR probe will monitor conditions on Earth and solar storms in space.
- Mark Zastrow
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News Feature |
Environmental science: Pollution patrol
Step aside, fitness trackers. The next wave of personal sensors is giving people the ability to monitor the air they breathe.
- Kat Austen
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News |
NASA launches next-generation scientific balloon
Super-pressure technology could keep γ-ray telescope aloft for 100 days or more around Antarctica.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Cloud monitor to hitch a ride on the space station
NASA instrument will gather data to improve and refine climate models.
- Gabriel Popkin
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News |
Europe proposes joint Moon trips with Russia
Space-agency scientists present plan to piggyback on two missions.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Japanese asteroid probe delayed
Thick cloud has postponed the launch of Hayabusa-2, which was scheduled to leave for a carbon-rich space rock on 30 November.
- Alexandra Witze
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Letter |
An impenetrable barrier to ultrarelativistic electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts
Analysis of data obtained by probe spacecraft shows that ultrarelativistic electrons in the Van Allen radiation belts are prevented from entering a sharply defined region around the Earth, possibly owing to a combination of slow natural inward diffusion and pitch angle scattering.
- D. N. Baker
- , A. N. Jaynes
- & L. J. Lanzerotti
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News |
Philae’s 64 hours of comet science yield rich data
Comet lander is now hibernating, but has already altered our understanding of these objects.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Philae: life and times of a comet lander
Rosetta mission images reveal spacecraft activity before hibernation.
- Lauren Morello
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News |
Landing on a comet: Live from Rosetta mission control
As the Philae lander descends, Nature watches the milestone mission unfold from the European Space Agency.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Rosetta probe makes history by landing on comet
Philae spacecraft has transmitted data to Earth, but may not be anchored to comet surface.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Editorial |
High ambition
The European Space Agency can be proud of its comet mission— whatever happens.
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News |
Landing on a comet: A guide to Rosetta’s perilous mission
A graphical guide identifies the dangers ahead for the Philae probe.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
California observatory wins back funding
University of California rescinds order for Lick Observatory to become self-supporting.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Half of stars lurk outside galaxies
Rocket experiment captures glow attributed to renegade stars in intergalactic space.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Fledgling space industry resolute after fatal crash
Virgin Galactic accident should not be allowed to stifle innovation, warn analysts.
- Alexandra Witze
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Research Highlights |
Mysterious signals may be from Earth
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Comment |
Human spaceflight: Find asteroids to get to Mars
Asteroid retrieval is a distraction, says Richard P. Binzel. Better steps to interplanetary travel abound.
- Richard P. Binzel
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News |
Science suffers in rocket explosion
Earth-viewing satellites and meteor camera among experiments lost on launch to space station.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Heavy comet traffic around young star
Environment of β Pictoris echoes Solar System’s turbulent early years.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Letter |
Characterizing and predicting the magnetic environment leading to solar eruptions
Modelling the solar magnetic field using observations of the photospheric field in the four-day period preceding a coronal mass ejection shows that the formation and later ejection of a twisted rope of magnetic flux provides the physical mechanism responsible for the ejection.
- Tahar Amari
- , Aurélien Canou
- & Jean-Jacques Aly
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News |
Sun’s stroke keeps Kepler online
Space telescope beats mechanical failures to begin a second mission that will trace new celestial targets.
- Mark Zastrow
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News |
Astronomy data bounty spurs debate over access
Small institutions fear exclusion from Large Synoptic Survey Telescope's benefits.
- Mark Zastrow
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News |
Earth has water older than the Sun
Not all water in the Solar System today could have formed here, researchers say.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Full-Galaxy dust map muddles search for gravitational waves
Planck probe's survey of polarized light casts further doubt on BICEP2's gravitational-wave discovery claims.
- Ron Cowen
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News |
Jubilation as NASA orbiter reaches Mars
MAVEN probe to focus on science of atmosphere.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Hubble telescope time preferentially goes to men
An internal study finds that female-led proposals to use the in-demand device are less likely to be selected.
- Clara Moskowitz
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News |
Lander to aim for comet’s ‘head’
Touchdown site for Rosetta probe chosen unanimously.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Rosetta comet lander gets a touchdown site
Philae probe will land on ‘head’ of rubber-duck-shaped comet.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
NASA to return sample from Earth-bound asteroid
US$800 million OSIRIS-REx will head for asteroid that could collide with Earth in twenty-second century.
- Robin Lloyd
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News Explainer |
Wayward Galileo satellites could still aid scientists
But the European navigation craft launched into wrong orbit are of little help to commercial users.
- Mark Zastrow
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News |
Row reignites over distance of Pleiades star cluster
New measurement points to possible error in ESA survey that could also affect the agency's new Gaia mission.
- Mark Zastrow
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Books & Arts |
Books in brief
Barbara Kiser reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
- Barbara Kiser
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Books & Arts |
Astrobiology: Cosmic prestige
Mario Livio welcomes a lucid description of attempts to evaluate how special humans are.
- Mario Livio