Looking Up by Bob Eklund

Renowned astrophysicist and National Medal of Science awardee Vera Rubin passed away in Princeton, N.J., the evening of December 25, 2016, at the age of 88. Rubin confirmed the existence of dark matter—the invisible material …[READ MORE]

The ALPHA collaboration at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, has reported the first-ever measurement of an antimatter atom’s optical spectrum. This achievement opens up a completely new era in high-precision antimatter research. It is the result …[READ MORE]

Boron has been identified for the first time on the surface of Mars, indicating the potential for long-term habitable groundwater in the ancient past. “No prior mission to Mars has found boron,” said Patrick Gasda, …[READ MORE]

NASA’s Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft has made its first close dive past the outer edges of Saturn’s rings since beginning its penultimate mission phase on Nov. 30. Cassini crossed through the plane of Saturn’s rings on …[READ MORE]

Frozen beneath a region of cracked and pitted plains on Mars lies as much water as what’s in Lake Superior, largest of the Great Lakes, researchers using NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have determined. Scientists examined …[READ MORE]

Two geo-scientists at Arizona State University have made a discovery among hot springs in Chile that may spur scientists to revisit a location on Mars explored several years ago by NASA’s Spirit rover. The discovery …[READ MORE]

Beneath Pluto’s “heart” lies a cold, slushy ocean of water ice, according to data from NASA’s New Horizons mission. In a paper published in the journal Nature [http://www.nature.com], the New Horizons team reports that the …[READ MORE]

Laser-zapping of a globular, golf-ball-size object on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity rover confirms that it is an iron-nickel meteorite fallen from the Red Planet’s sky. Iron-nickel meteorites are a common class of space rocks found …[READ MORE]

Astronomers using observations from NASA’s Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the Sun. The stars, …[READ MORE]

With the conclusion of the international Cassini mission orbiting Saturn and its moons set for Sept. 15, 2017, the spacecraft is poised to soon begin a thrilling two-part endgame. Cassini will enter the first part …[READ MORE]