Stories by Clara Moskowitz

The half-the-speed-of-light spin of a giant black hole suggests it grew by digesting another black hole in a galaxy merger. Clara Moskowitz reports 

A brain area associated with emotional reactions to beauty activates when mathematicians view especially pleasing formulas
 

Reviews and recommendations from Scientific American

Scientists draw battle lines over metal salvaged from ancient shipwrecks

A leak that put an astronaut at risk of drowning during a spacewalk could have been prevented if the problem was recognized earlier, an investigation found
 

Physicists have created a new composite "quasiparticle" that could help probe the quantum mechanics of many particles working together
 

A trove of 715 planets—all members of multiworld systems—joins the list of Kepler's finds
 

Spanish astronomers spotted a meteoroid impact at 61,000 kilometers per hour using a telescope network that automatically scans the moon. Clara Moskowitz reports 

Basic science research has an image problem. People object to spending public money on studies that could never affect them. Lawmakers routinely call out obscure-sounding math, physics and biology research as a waste of taxpayer funds.

The Hubble Telescope's new set of Frontier Fields images includes a galaxy some 13-billion light-years away, which makes it a candidate for the most distant object ever seen. Clara Moskowitz reports 

A disagreement between observations of galaxy clusters and the cosmic background radiation could be explained by the existence of a fourth type of neutrino
 

Reviews and recommendations from Scientific American

Reviews and recommendations from Scientific American

Galileo—who, among many accomplishments, was first to use a telescope to discover moons around Jupiter—was born 450 years ago this week. Clara Moskowitz reports 

 

Concordia station offers the isolation and hardships explorers will face on the Red Planet. Here, where participants can’t be rescued from an unforgiving environment, the danger is real
 

Scientific American technology editor Seth Fletcher talks about the recent Consumer Electronics Show and astronomy editor Clara Moskowitz discusses last month's American Astronomical Society conference  

 

Exoplanet Kepler 413 b's tilt can vary by as much as 30 degrees over 11 years, leading to extremely erratic seasons. Clara Moskowitz reports 

 

After setbacks, delays and cost overruns that almost led to its cancellation, “the telescope that ate astronomy” should be able to meet its 2018 launch date

At the West Coast Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics, 170 female students gathered to hear from physicists and share their research. Clara Moskowitz reports

 

Extreme conditions yield exotic molecules

Able to detect light from the first stars just 380,000 years after the big bang, the Square Kilometer Array will be the world's biggest radio observatory and promises to spur science and economic development in Africa

On January 20th the European Space Agency woke its Rosetta probe after two-and-a-half years in hibernation, in preparation for its final approach to a comet

 

Thousands of years ago a star exploded in a supernova, leaving behind the glorious riot of colored gas we see now as the Crab Nebula. The light from this explosion reached Earth in 1054 A.D., creating what looked like a new bright star in the sky as recorded by ancient Chinese and Arab astronomers.

Astronomers have measured a distance scale in the universe to unprecedented accuracy, opening the door to better tests of dark energy models than ever before