Stories by John Matson

17th-century Brueghel paintings trace the early, mysterious history of the telescope

Thanks to the much-heralded International Year of Astronomy, this much we know: Galileo used a telescope to observe the moon in 1609. But the inventor of the revolutionary resolutionary device remains unknown, and its early history is muddied by simultaneous discoveries and competing claims...

(Un)inflated Expectations: Airless Lunar Wheel Concept Gets a Workout on Moon Rover Prototypes [Slide Show]

A tire company works toward a design for the extremes of space that doesn't need inflating

What (Maybe) Didn't Kill the Dinosaurs: Comets

A new model for comet production revises the theory of their origins

NASA spacecraft to buzz Mercury a third and final time today

Champagne Bubbles Liberate Flavor Compounds

The aerosols sprayed upward from sparkling wine have a different chemical signature than the wine itself

Meteorite impacts turn up nearly pure water ice in Mars's mid-latitudes

Stream of Evidence from 3 Spacecraft Indicates That the Moon Has Water

A trio of reports using recent and archival data points to molecular water across the lunar surface

Wasted Space: U.S. Military Looking for Ideas on How to Curb the Threat of Orbiting Junk

DARPA is soliciting pitches on how best to remove orbital debris

NASA's moon orbiter returns promising early data in the hunt for lunar water ice

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), launched in June to survey the moon with an eye toward a human return there, is already hard at work. At a news conference from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., NASA presented preliminary results from the spacecraft's instruments, which have just finished a transition from the commissioning to operational phases...

Recovered meteorite points to an unusual origin

Meteorites can reveal a lot about the composition and formation of their parent bodies, but such postcards from beyond come with no return address, making their provenance difficult to establish...

Solar System Dwarf Planet "Haumea" Has a Mystery Spot

A blotch on the distant, football-shaped body could help reveal what the dwarf planet is made of

Microbe-ferrying Russian probe reportedly won't head for Mars orbit until 2011

Drilling Project Pulls Up Evidence for Early Oxygen in the Oceans

The timeline of oxygen's appearance is a contentious point in Earth sciences

Jupiter borrowed a passing comet to make a moon for 12 years

Electron Bolts: Even Deeply Bound Electrons Can Escape Molecules via Quantum Tunneling

The intriguing quantum-mechanical property is looking less conventional all the time

NASA picks a moon crater for LCROSS probe's double smash landing

Review panel deems NASA to be "on an unsustainable trajectory"

Japanese Lunar Mission Provides a Glimpse at How the Moon Took Shape

Data from the recently retired Kaguya spacecraft support the notion that the moon's crust congealed from an ocean of magma

Researchers Claim to Cook Up Isolated Magnetic Poles

A family of rare-earth compounds called spin ices appears to harbor a form of long-sought magnetic monopoles, if not their theoretical ideal

"P" is for plants: Human urine plus ash equals tomato fertilizer, study says

Gardeners, take note: the secret to growing hearty tomatoes is remarkably close at hand. Look no further than your fireplace and, er, your bladder.

According to a study from a group of environmental scientists at the University of Kuopio in Finland, human urine and wood ash make a reasonably potent tomato fertilizer, boosting plant growth and fruit yield dramatically over untreated plants and nearly keeping pace with conventional fertilizer...