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Silicon-rich rocky material was found around white dwarfs in the Hyades star cluster by the Hubble Space Telescope, despite the fact that almost no known planets exist in star clusters. John Matson reports
Based on the Milky Way's effect on the motion of a nearby dwarf galaxy, our galaxy seems to have more mass than we previously thought. John Matson reports
NASA's orbiting Kepler telescope recently spotted three exoplanets in or near their stars' so-called habitable zones, the temperate region where a planet could accommodate liquid water. John Matson reports
Using imagery taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2007, amateur astronomers located an object that could be a Russian lander that went dark after a few seconds on Mars in 1971. John Matson reports
Saturn's rings and moons contain a uniform distribution of water ice, which seems to reflect their common origins billions of years ago. John Matson reports
New data from the European Planck satellite indicate that the universe is 13.8 billion years old rather than a mere 13.7 billion years old. John Matson reports
An incomplete version of Chile's ALMA telescope array found that star formation was in full swing earlier than had been thought. John Matson reports
A study of the star HD 140283, only about 190 light-years away from us, finds that it formed in short order after the big bang. John Matson reports
The Van Allen Probes recently found a third belt of charged particles circling Earth, which was then destroyed by a solar shock wave. John Matson reports
Heat radiating from an asteroid imparts a tiny push to the rock, meaning that we could subtly steer an asteroid by changing its reflectance. John Matson reports
The Russian city of Chelyabinsk was awakened on February 15 when a meteor exploded overhead, with an energy equivalent to about 300 kilotons of TNT
Even as a few of its sensors cause problems, the Curiosity rover became the first robotic visitor to bore into the Martian surface. John Matson reports
The star TW Hydrae should be too old to still have planets forming around it, but its gas and dust indicate it still has planetary potential. John Matson reports
Tree-ring data from A.D. 774 show a sudden spike in radioactive carbon 14, pointing to a burst of charged particles or high-energy radiation that struck Earth. A relatively nearby gamma-ray burst could be the culprit. John Matson reports
After a few false alarms, the star SN 2009ip appears to have gone supernova at last. John Matson reports
Six volunteers spent 520 days in a simulation of a trip to Mars, and wound up experiencing sleep disturbances and becoming more sedentary. John Matson reports
Opening the door to the paying public means that less healthy individuals will soon have access to space--if their doctors approve. John Matson reports
The Cassini orbiter spotted a river system on Titan that NASA likens to a miniature version of the Nile River, but flowing with liquid ethane and methane. John Matson reports
NASA has plans for another Mars rover, but no trips scheduled for exotic places like Titan or Europa. John Matson reports
A proof-of-concept 3-D printing job using lunarlike material shows that quick-and-dirty tools or spare parts could be manufactured on the moon. John Matson reports
Global 3-D climate simulations for plausible Martian atmospheres show that even with a much thicker CO2 layer, the greenhouse effect could not have warmed Mars above freezing. John Matson reports.
Thanks to gravitational lensing by a cluster of galaxies, the light emitted by a small galaxy 13.3 billion years ago has reached Earth. John Matson reports
A planet at least seven times as massive as Earth orbits comfortably in the habitable zone of the star HD 40307. John Matson reports
Fomalhaut b looked like an exoplanet to some astronomers and like dust to others. But new analyses strengthen the planet view. John Matson reports
A chemical analysis of lunar samples now points to the solar wind being behind the ultrathin dusting of water molecules first detected in 2009 from spacecraft measurements. John Matson reports
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