Books & Arts |
Featured
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Books & Arts |
Freeman Dyson’s life of scientific delight
Ann Finkbeiner is charmed by the originality and acuity in the physicist’s letters.
- Ann Finkbeiner
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News |
Astronomers detect light from the Universe’s first stars
Surprises in signal from cosmic dawn also hint at presence of dark matter.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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Letter |
Pulsating aurora from electron scattering by chorus waves
High-angular-resolution measurements allow the direct observation of the scattering of energetic electrons by chorus waves in the magnetosphere, which causes quasiperiodic electron precipitation that gives rise to pulsating aurorae.
- S. Kasahara
- , Y. Miyoshi
- & I. Shinohara
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News & Views |
The origin of pulsating auroras
Spectacular light shows in Earth’s atmosphere called pulsating auroras are directly linked to processes in space. After decades of research, the full chain of events that creates such auroras has been observed.
- Allison N. Jaynes
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News |
Deluge of astronomical data will soon hit South Africa
The expansion of a telescope network creates a thirst for more data-handling expertise and infrastructure.
- Sarah Wild
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Letter |
Magnetic cage and rope as the key for solar eruptions
Measurements and modelling of a large confined eruption on the Sun show that its evolution is controlled by a multilayer magnetic cage containing a twisted flux rope, which can sometimes be ejective.
- Tahar Amari
- , Aurélien Canou
- & Fréderic Alauzet
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News |
NASA test proves pulsars can function as a celestial GPS
Experiment shows how spacecraft could use stellar signals to navigate in deep space without human instruction.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Scientific ballooning takes off
Commercial providers open the market for new types of research flight.
- Alexandra Witze
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World View |
Put telescopes on the far side of the Moon
Current proposals for lunar development neglect our best chance to glimpse the beginnings of the Universe, says Joseph Silk.
- Joseph Silk
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Letter |
Measurement of electrons from albedo neutron decay and neutron density in near-Earth space
Electrons derived from cosmic rays become trapped in the radiation belts that surround Earth, but how the electrons are generated has been uncertain; new measurements confirm the involvement of neutron decay.
- Xinlin Li
- , Richard Selesnick
- & Michael A. Temerin
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News |
Arecibo telescope wins reprieve from US government
National Science Foundation will look for partners to provide extra financial support for Puerto Rico facility.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Europe sets priorities for hunting cosmic particles
Club of physics funding agencies pushes for projects including a neutrino observatory in the Mediterranean Sea.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Giant telescope’s mobile-phone ‘dead zones’ rile South African residents
Sensitive radio dishes of the Square Kilometre Array will affect phone reception — and could harm local economies, say farmers.
- Sarah Wild
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Comment |
Maximize the impacts of space science
Put research goals first when prioritizing and managing national and international projects, urge Ji Wu and Roger Bonnet.
- Ji Wu
- & Roger Bonnet
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News |
India gears up for second Moon mission
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, lander and rover will track how lunar dust might scupper settlement.
- T. V. Padma
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News |
Colliding stars spark rush to solve cosmic mysteries
Stellar collision confirms theoretical predictions about the periodic table.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Global networks of small telescopes will chase companion signals of gravitational waves
Seeing cosmic events is one thing, but what if you could hear them and taste them, too?
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Comment |
Build on the outer space treaty
Fifty years on, the agreement is being pushed to its limits by changing geopolitics, technology and commercial interests, warns Joan Johnson-Freese.
- Joan Johnson-Freese
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News |
Gravitational wave detection wins physics Nobel
Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne share the 2017 prize for their work at LIGO to detect ripples in space-time.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
High-energy cosmic rays come from outside our Galaxy
Giant observatory announces long-awaited result.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Letter |
Discrete and broadband electron acceleration in Jupiter’s powerful aurora
The process that generates Earth’s most intense aurora is found to occur at Jupiter, but is of only secondary importance in generating Jupiter’s much more powerful aurora.
- B. H. Mauk
- , D. K. Haggerty
- & P. Valek
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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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News |
Supernova’s messy birth casts doubt on reliability of astronomical yardstick
Brightness of exploding stars may vary more than researchers realized.
- Shannon Hall
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Summer Books |
Summer books
Head up to the heights of summer reading — picked by our regular reviewers — as labs and lecture halls empty.
- Sharon Weinberger
- , Louise Humphrey
- & Marcus Munafò
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News |
Clues emerge in mystery of flickering quasars
Some of the Universe's most luminous objects have disappeared much faster than expected.
- Shannon Hall
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News |
Giant radio telescope scaled back to contain costs
Crowding antennas closer together may affect the Square Kilometre Array's ability to observe the early Universe.
- Sarah Wild
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News |
Success of gravity-wave satellite paves way for three-craft mission
Technology far exceeded expectations in LISA Pathfinder test.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
United States revives space-policy council after 24-year absence
US vice-president to head group overseeing civilian and military space activities.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
NASA’s dark-energy probe faces cost crisis
Space agency takes a hard look at plans for its next big space observatory.
- Alexandra Witze
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News |
Neutron stars set to open their heavy hearts
Space mission will peer inside the densest matter in the Universe.
- Elizabeth Gibney
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News |
Canada weighs scientific consequences of moving a mega-telescope
Uncertain location for Thirty Meter Telescope prompts soul-searching about its research value.
- Alexandra Witze
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Books & Arts |
Astronomy: An all-American eclipse
Jay Pasachoff enjoys four books heralding this summer's US total solar eclipse.
- Jay Pasachoff
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News |
Fleeting phase of planet formation discovered
These celestial bodies coalesce into objects shaped like giant red blood cells.
- Ramin Skibba
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Books & Arts |
Space Science: First three round the Moon
Roger Launius on a valentine to the astronauts behind Apollo 8 and Earthrise.
- Roger Launius
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News |
Mysterious flashes on satellite images of Earth explained
Bright spots of light over land could help in the search for Earth-like exoplanets.
- Sarah McQuate
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Letter |
A universal model for solar eruptions
Simulations of a solar coronal jet driven by filament ejection demonstrate that magnetic reconnection underlies the energy release, implying that a universal ‘breakout’ model explains both tiny jets and huge mass ejections from the Sun.
- Peter F. Wyper
- , Spiro K. Antiochos
- & C. Richard DeVore
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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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News Feature |
How to hunt for a black hole with a telescope the size of Earth
Astronomers hope to grab the first images of an event horizon — the point of no return.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
Chinese mountain observatory to probe cosmic-ray origins
The massive project will intercept γ-ray showers in an unexplored energy band.
- David Cyranoski
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News |
LIGO’s underdog cousin ready to enhance gravitational-wave hunt
It missed the historic discovery, but the Virgo lab in Italy is now primed to extend LIGO’s reach and precision.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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News |
The hunt for rogue planets just got tougher
New analyses cut down the estimated number of planets unattached to a star by half.
- Ramin Skibba
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News & Views |
50 & 100 Years Ago
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Books & Arts |
Physics: The wave catchers
Davide Castelvecchi applauds an inside story on the discovery of gravitational waves.
- Davide Castelvecchi
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Obituary |
Vera Rubin (1928–2016)
Observational astronomer who confirmed the existence of dark matter.
- Neta A. Bahcall
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