Planet-making: What Happens First?
Before planets, there was dust. But gravity doesn't affect dust. So how did the planets form before solar wind blew all the dust away? Experiment shows that dust in planetary nebulas was coated with...
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In the Shadow of Cronus
Saturn in eclipse Yes, this is a real picture. More accurately, it’s 165 pictures pasted together from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft’s flyby of Saturn as the planet between the probe and the sun. From this...
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The importance of being Einstein
Gravity is a drag… and Einstein’s right again! ENLARGE Photo: Albert-Einstein-Archiv, Jerusalem, Lucien Chavan Albert, Einstein was a patent clerk in 1905, the year he published his first paper on...
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Galactic rays
Get the jet! Big things you can see—like a beam of light half a million light years long — need big explanations. Ditto for big things you can’t see — like a black hole holding the mass of a billion...
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Exploring a volcano
One of these days… A field of volcanoes you have never heard of will wake up, and if it fulfills its geologic potential, the consequences will be heard around the world. ENLARGE The Why Files. Placid,...
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China visits moon!
China visits moon! ENLARGE Top: Chang’e 3 lander on the Moon, in an image taken by the Yutu rover. Images released by China’s official news agency show the lander, covered in golden foil, its solar...
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