Space & PhysicsSeptember 19, 2019
Asteroid Dust Triggered an Explosion of Life on Ancient Earth
At 466 million years ago, the breakup of a large space rock may have led to major changes in our planet’s biodiversity
Stories by Meghan Bartels
Meghan Bartels is a science journalist based in New York City. She joined Scientific American in 2023 and is now a senior reporter there. Previously, she spent more than four years as a writer and editor at Space.com, as well as nearly a year as a science reporter at Newsweek, where she focused on space and Earth science. Her writing has also appeared in Audubon, Nautilus, Astronomy and Smithsonian, among other publications. She attended Georgetown University and earned a master’s degree in journalism at New York University’s Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.
Space & PhysicsJune 3, 2019
NASA Picks First Private Landers for Lunar Science
Three companies are receiving millions of dollars apiece to ferry payloads to the moon’s surface in 2020 and 2021
Space & PhysicsMay 1, 2019
Gigantic Ice Formation Found on Saturn’s Moon Titan
The mysterious feature wraps almost halfway around the giant moon
Space & PhysicsFebruary 12, 2019
NASA Spots Another Possible Impact Crater Buried Under Greenland Ice
The newfound crater candidate is thought to be unrelated to another that was discovered last year
Space & PhysicsJanuary 29, 2019
Scientists Prepare for Mission to Europa
NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft could launch as early as 2023 to investigate one of the solar system’s most mysterious moons
Space & PhysicsJanuary 19, 2019
Lunar Craters Show Spike in Earth-Pummeling Space Rocks
A new analysis suggests the last few hundred million years of life on Earth has seen above-average asteroid impact rates
Space & PhysicsJanuary 14, 2019
Ocean Moons, Promising Targets in Search for Alien Life, Could Be Dead Inside
The interiors of Europa and other watery moons in the outer solar system might be too geologically inactive to support life
Space & PhysicsDecember 4, 2018
New Gravitational-Wave Detections Include Largest, Most Distant Black Hole Crash Ever
The four fresh signals from merging black holes hint at a forthcoming data deluge from the LIGO and Virgo observatories
Space & PhysicsNovember 15, 2018
Scientists Spot Giant Crater Hidden under Greenland's Ice
The enormous crater is among the 25 largest known on Earth, and likely came from a meteorite impact within the past three million years
Space & PhysicsNovember 6, 2018
Election Day 2018 Takes Absentee Ballots to the Extreme in Space
Even on the International Space Station, American astronauts manage to vote
Space & PhysicsNovember 3, 2018
NASA's Dawn Mission Ends, but Its Legacy Lives On
After visiting not one but two destinations in the Asteroid Belt, the interplanetary probe at last ran out of fuel
Space & PhysicsOctober 11, 2018
Soyuz Rocket Fails, Forces Emergency Landing for U.S.–Russian Space Station Crew
The accident occurred during the rocket’s ascent from the launch pad, allowing an abort system to jettison the crew to safety
Space & PhysicsOctober 5, 2018
Cassini’s Death Dive into Saturn Reveals Weird Ring “Rain” and More
The spacecraft’s final observations are turning up a wealth of bizarre, unexpected phenomena
Space & PhysicsSeptember 6, 2018
Space Station Leak May Have Been Caused by Human Error, Russian Reports Say
A small hole in a docked Soyuz spacecraft appears to have come from within, perhaps due to drillwork
Space & PhysicsSeptember 6, 2018
To Find Alien Life, NASA Needs Bigger, Bolder Exoplanet-Hunting Telescopes
A new, prestigious report charts an ambitious future for the space agency’s burgeoning search for Earth 2.0
Space & PhysicsAugust 14, 2018
Meteorites May Have Created Some of Earth’s Oldest Rocks
A barrage of impacts more than four billion years ago is linked to ancient stones found in Canada
Space & PhysicsAugust 1, 2018
To Fight Fake News, SETI Researchers Update Alien-Detection Scale
Dubbed Rio 2.0, the scale seeks to measure how important any potential signal from aliens might be