
Technological Advances Bring Exoplanets into Clearer View
Techniques now coming of age allow astronomers to more easily photograph distant planets rather than inferring their presence indirectly

Technological Advances Bring Exoplanets into Clearer View
Techniques now coming of age allow astronomers to more easily photograph distant planets rather than inferring their presence indirectly

Multicellular Life Found That Doesn't Need Oxygen
Researchers have found in the deep ocean the first-known kinds of multicellular organisms, dubbed Loricifera, that live completely oxygen-free. Cynthia Graber reports


Teams Set for First Taste of Antarctic Lakes
Samples could reveal unique life forms from beneath the ice.

A Warm Jupiter: A Newfound Exoplanet Bears a Resemblance to the Solar System's Own Worlds
The COROT satellite has found a Jupiter-size world in a relatively temperate Mercury-like orbit

Shields Up: Magnetized Rocks Push Back Origin of Earth's Magnetic Field
Earth's churning interior produced a protective magnetic field as early as 3.45 billion years ago, closer to when life began

Mars's Environment Shown to Be Hostile, but Not Untenable for Earthly Microbes
A test of bacterial survivability points to possible avenues for microbial survival on Mars, assuming life--and specifically Earth-like life--ever developed there

Wild Ride: Comet Sample May Help Constrain the Early Evolution of the Solar System
A particle from Comet Wild 2, returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft, appears to have led a long and migratory life

In search of the eastern tropical Pacific's chlorophyll maximum

Meteorite That Fell in 1969 Still Revealing Secrets of the Early Solar System
A new analysis of the Murchison meteorite, which fell to Earth more than 40 years ago, reveals tens of thousands of organic compounds

Down to Earth: Technique Lets Ground-Based Telescopes Parse Exoplanet Atmospheres
A new study shows promise for Earthbound observatories in identifying molecules in planetary atmospheres outside the solar system

Just a Phase: Enceladus's Mysterious Behavior May Be Transient
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 galaxy of new worlds: Dispatch from the American Astronomical Society meeting