Space & PhysicsMarch 11, 2015
First Active Hydrothermal System Found beyond Earth
Saturn's icy moon Enceladus has a surprisingly warm inner world
Stories by Lee Billings
Lee Billings is a science journalist specializing in astronomy, physics, planetary science, and spaceflight and is senior desk editor for physical science at Scientific American. He is author of a critically acclaimed book, Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars, which in 2014 won a Science Communication Award from the American Institute of Physics. In addition to his work for Scientific American, Billings’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Wired, New Scientist, Popular Science and many other publications. Billings joined Scientific American in 2014 and previously worked as a staff editor at SEED magazine. He holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota.
Space & PhysicsMarch 6, 2015
Dawn Spacecraft Arrives at Ceres, Becomes First to Orbit a Dwarf Planet
Shortly after 7:30 am Eastern time this morning, a seven-year space voyage at last reached its final destination: NASA's Dawn mission entered orbit around Ceres, a small, icy world orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.
Space & PhysicsMarch 2, 2015
Dawn Spacecraft Sees Spots as It Approaches Mysterious Ceres
Spectacular new images are trickling in from NASA’s mission to a dwarf planet in the Asteroid Belt
Space & PhysicsFebruary 27, 2015
The Shifting Politics of NASA's Astronaut Program
Ever since President George W. Bush's decision to retire the space shuttles in the aftermath 2003's Columbia disaster, NASA's human spaceflight program has been adrift.
Space & PhysicsFebruary 23, 2015
Bacteria Got an Early Fix on Nitrogen
New evidence points to the evolution of the ability for bacteria to grab nitrogen from the atmosphere some 3.2 billion years ago, about 1.2 billion years earlier than thought—with implications for finding extraterrestrial life. Lee Billings reports
Space & PhysicsFebruary 17, 2015
The Universe's Oldest Stars Were Late Bloomers
The Planck satellite reveals the universe's first stars formed more than a hundred million years later than previously believed
Space & PhysicsFebruary 10, 2015
Space Science Budget Gets Small Lift
NASA has to deal with the unexpected financial consequences of robotic missions that just keep going. Lee Billings reports
Space & PhysicsFebruary 9, 2015
NASA’s Next Space Telescope Promises the Stars—and Planets, Too
The much-hyped James Webb Space Telescope promises to revolutionize exoplanet science, but only if astronomers can agree on how to use it.
Space & PhysicsJanuary 27, 2015
Planet Hunters Bet Big on a Small Telescope to See Alien Earths
In 1990, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft briefly looked back from its journey out of the solar system, capturing a view of the faraway Earth. Carl Sagan called it the "pale blue dot." From more than 6 billion kilometers away, beyond the orbit of Pluto, it seemed remarkable that our planet was even visible.
Space & PhysicsJanuary 26, 2015
Long-Lost Lander Found on Mars
New images from a NASA orbiter reveal Beagle 2’s final resting place. Lee Billings reports
Space & PhysicsJanuary 6, 2015
Newfound Exoplanets Are Most Earth-Like Yet
NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft finds two worlds that have sizes and orbits similar to ours
Space & PhysicsJanuary 1, 2015
NASA’s Asteroid Retrieval Mission Faces Criticism
The agency’s proposed human trip to a space rock has a bumpy road ahead
Space & PhysicsDecember 31, 2014
SpaceX Will Try Launch, Then Soft-Land Returning Booster
The company hopes to send up a Falcon 9 rocket and then safely land the discarded first stage for reuse. Lee Billings reports
Space & PhysicsDecember 22, 2014
The Top Ten Space and Physics Stories of 2014
From humanity’s first, flawed foray to the surface of a comet to the celebrated discovery of (and less celebrated skepticism about) primordial gravitational waves, 2014 has brought some historic successes and failures in space science and physics.
Space & PhysicsDecember 16, 2014
NASA Rover Finds Mysterious Methane Emissions on Mars
New results suggest evidence for extraterrestrial life could be near at hand
Space & PhysicsDecember 16, 2014
Fact or Fiction?: The Explosive Death of Eta Carinae Will Cause a Mass Extinction
We almost certainly have nothing to fear from one of the largest and brightest stars in the sky
Space & PhysicsDecember 10, 2014
Rosetta Pours Cold Water on the Cometary Origins of Earth's Oceans
In the Enuma Elish, a Babylonian epic that recounts the creation of the world, the heavens and the Earth emerge from a primordial abyss of brackish water
Space & PhysicsDecember 8, 2014
2 Futures Can Explain Time's Mysterious Past
New theories suggest the big bang was not the beginning, and that we may live in the past of a parallel universe
Space & PhysicsDecember 1, 2014
UV Light Colors Great Red Spot
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is its particular crimson shade because of the interaction of ultraviolet light and specific chemical compounds in the gas giant's atmosphere. Lee Billings reports
Space & PhysicsNovember 28, 2014
Parsing the Science of Interstellar with Physicist Kip Thorne
In an earlier blog post about Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster movie, Interstellar, I lauded the film for its ambition, its visuals and the strong performances of its cast.
Space & PhysicsNovember 12, 2014
Lander Stable on Comet, for Now
The Philae lander settled atop the “head” of the rubber duck–shaped object despite trouble with systems designed to secure the probe to the comet
Space & PhysicsNovember 12, 2014
What "Interstellar" Gets Wrong about Interstellar Travel
Christopher Nolan’s new film, Interstellar, is a near-future tale of astronauts departing a dying Earth to travel to Saturn, then through a wormhole to another galaxy, all in search of somewhere else humanity could call home.
Space & PhysicsNovember 10, 2014
NASA's Plan to Visit an Asteroid Faces a Rocky Start
America's keystone human spaceflight mission for the next decade may be over before it begins
Space & PhysicsNovember 4, 2014
Comet Reeks of Cat Crap and Rotten Eggs
The Rosetta spacecraft has unexpectedly detected hydrogen sulphide and ammonia coming from Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Lee Billings reports