Astrophysics

The sun's gravitational pull on dark matter particles may cause seasonal patterns not previously expected

As observations fail to pin down the so-far undetectable stuff, explanations once considered fringe are now getting another look

Moons orbiting distant planets might be visible in existing spacecraft data

Two recently found supernovae are much farther away and brighter than almost any star explosion ever seen, perhaps because they wound up as rapidly spinning magnetars. Clara Moskowitz reports

The editors of Nature picked these feature stories as the best among the magazine's longer journalistic reports of the year

NASA's long-term vision, released by the agency's astrophysics division, restates its broad and popular themes for scientists to pursue including "Are We Alone?" and "How Did We Get Here?"

Astronomers may have discovered a moon orbiting an alien planet, but the signal is far from definitive

A carbon threshold breached, commitments to brain science made, mystery neutrinos found and human evolution revised—these and other events highlight the year in science and technology as picked by the editors of Scientific American

Physicists prefer Roman-era lead ingots to recently mined metal for shielding particle experiments, but archaeologists want them preserved

The existence of the Higgs boson particle was confirmed, a strong case for human-caused climate change was released and scientists analyzed the oldest-known human DNA

If different wavelengths of light experience spacetime differently, the big bang may never have happened

Agency restructuring will postpone a major grants program for one year