
Asteroids Get a Surface Makeover When They Pass Near Earth
Earth's gravitational pull shakes up weathered surfaces on asteroids that venture into the planet's surprisingly large sphere of influence
John Matson is a former reporter and editor for Scientific American who has written extensively about astronomy and physics. Follow John Matson on Twitter @jmtsn
Earth's gravitational pull shakes up weathered surfaces on asteroids that venture into the planet's surprisingly large sphere of influence
Among the countless achievements of Isaac Newton, any number of which would have made him a houseold name on their own, his articulation of the force of gravity in the late 17th century surely ranks near the top...
What if the only thing life has to fear is life itself?
At a lecture Monday evening at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, paleontologist Peter D.
A new model for the inner workings of the Saturnian moon proposes that it only acts out every billion years or so, and we just happen to be around to see it
A team of researchers has successfully factored a 232-digit number into its two composite prime-number factors, but too late to claim a $50,000 prize once attached to the achievement.
A timely Q&A with physicist Sean Carroll about how our one-way trip from past to future is entangled with entropy and the origin of the universe
Some proposed exoplanets have proved to be more massive objects such as brown dwarfs or stars, and some may prove not to exist at all
NASA hopes that Kepler will eventually turn up habitable, Earth-like worlds
Chemists catch nanometer-scale structures self-assembling around transient templates
Anatoly Perminov, the head of Russia's space agency, said today that Russia will consider deflecting the near-Earth asteroid Apophis from its present path, according to news reports.
Plotting the roots of run-of-the-mill polynomials yields dazzling results
'Tis the season for snowstorms and for the holiday-themed artwork that references them. Snowflakes abound these days, even in places not buried in last weekend's East Coast blizzard—in advertisements, on Christmas cards, on paper cutouts made by schoolchildren...
On the frontier of planetary exploration, nothing is easy
Detectors buried deep within a mine registered two potential signals of dark matter, but either or both could have been background noise
A trio of studies presents evidence for the more elusive small planets orbiting nearby stars
In the swimming motions of aerobic bacteria against asymmetric gears, apparent randomness can yield directed motion
After a series of delays, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) began its mission Monday morning, rocketing toward orbit at 9:09 A.M. (Eastern Standard Time).
Krypton trapped in Earth's mantle appears not to have been captured from the sun, as some models would predict
So far, 2009 has been a much kinder year to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) than 2008 was. The gargantuan particle accelerator, sidelined for more than a year after a breakdown halted its initial run shortly after start-up in September 2008, has been steadily clearing performance benchmarks since resuming operations on November 20 of this year...
NASA's latest space surveyor should be able to peer at distant galaxies and uncover dim objects right in our own celestial backyard
Support science journalism.
Thanks for reading Scientific American. Knowledge awaits.
Already a subscriber? Sign in.
Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue.
Create Account