What Fuels a White Dwarf’s Luminous Detonation?
What fuels a white dwarf's luminous nuclear detonation?
Stories by John Matson
Exoplanet Discoveries to Date Are Just a Drop in the Bucket
Systematic searches are revealing a plenitude of alien worlds
Solar System's Moons May Have Emerged from Long-Gone Planetary Rings
Ancient, Saturn-like ring systems may have acted as assembly lines for natural satellites
Rare Apparition of Dwarf Planet Makemake Reveals a Largely Airless World
Makemake briefly eclipsed a run-of-the-mill star last year, allowing astronomers to measure the dwarf planet's physical properties
The November 2012 Solar Eclipse, as Seen 3 Times by Satellite [Video]
Yesterday’s total solar eclipse, the last until 2015, was visible to precious few. The path of the total eclipse barely skimmed northern Australia and otherwise fell only on the South Pacific Ocean...
LHC Experiment Yields No Insight into Post-Higgs Physics
A new discovery at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva casts a shadow across a hypothetical realm of particle physics that many had hoped would be the collider’s next major exploration after the apparently successful hunt for the Higgs boson.Physicists working with the collider’s LHC beauty, or LHCb, detector have observed a new kind of particle behavior, the researchers announced November 12 at the Hadron Collider Physics Symposium in Kyoto, Japan...
RFID Tags Track Possible Outbreak Pathways in the Hospital [Interactive]
Patterns of personal contact in a hospital reveal true pathways of transmission
Mini Mover and Shaker: Single-Molecule "Engine" Vibrates Macro Object
The random motion of a hydrogen molecule can drive the oscillation of a much larger structure
Quantum Flip-Floppers: Photon Findings Add to Mystery of Wave-Particle Duality
New experiments show that a photon can traverse an optical obstacle course as both a wave and particle simultaneously
Astronomers Spot Most Distant Supernova Yet
A superluminous supernova may sound like a designation dreamed up by someone with a penchant for hyperbole, but such explosions are deserving of the extravagant language.
Massive Planets Might Escape Stellar Engulfment Largely Undiminished
Having your planet swallowed by a star is no fun. But some planets might be able to run the astrophysical gauntlet and make it through more or less intact.When a star comparable to or somewhat larger than the sun enters advanced age, it swells up into a red giant, expanding far beyond its original radius...
Destination: Missing--Comet Once Targeted by NASA Mission Vanished
Little-known Comet 85P/Boethin, chosen as the destination for an extended mission of NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, disappeared sometime after 1986
Voyager 1 Sends Back Conflicting Data as It Approaches Interstellar Space
Physicists try to puzzle out Voyager 1's position as it approaches interstellar space
Bay Area Fireball Caught on Tape [Video]
Just before 7:45 P.M. Pacific time yesterday, as baseball fans in the San Francisco Bay Area were tuning in to the playoff game between the hometown Giants and the St.
RFID Tags Track Possible Outbreak Pathways in the Hospital
Patterns of personal contact in a hospital reveal true pathways of transmission
Giant Impact Theory of Lunar Formation Gains More Credibility
A lingering problem in explaining the genesis of the moon appears to have been solved
The Exoplanet Next-Door: Astronomers Discover World in Nearest Star System
The small planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B, just four light-years away, is too hot for life but may have habitable neighbors
NASA Plans to Commercialize a Nasal Spray for Motion Sickness
A new product designed to fight motion sickness promises to put the “NASA” back in “nasal spray.”The space agency announced October 12 that it had signed an agreement with a pharmaceutical company to develop, test and bring to market a nasal gel designed to ward off queasiness from spaceflight, as well as from more mundane travel.The active ingredient, scopolamine, is about as effective as antihistamines (such as dimenhydrinate, used in Dramamine) in preventing motion sickness, but carries less risk of common side effects such as drowsiness, according to a recent Cochrane Review...
A New Scale Weighs Single Molecules in Real Time
A new nanodevice can weigh single molecules in real time
Cluster Coexistence: Neighboring Black Holes Defy Predictions of Violent Interactions
Astronomers have found two stellar-mass black holes in a surprising cohabitation within a cluster of Milky Way stars
