Science News
A Scientist's Guide to Finding Alien Life: Where, When, and in What Universe
A variety of new findings point to the "habitable zones" where we're likely to find extraterrestrials. 05.11.2009
Big Picture: The Inspiring Boom in "Super-Earths"
At last we are finding rocky planets like our own. But some are pretty weird: The smallest may have a mineral-vapor atmosphere that condenses as lava rain or rock snow. 05.07.2009
The Best New Science Books
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Area 51, modern life vs human nature, and more 02.20.2009
Are You There, E.T.? It's Me, Maggie
Astrobiologist Maggie Turnbull gets paid by NASA to search for alien life. 02.03.2009
A Virtual Tour of 8 Strange Exoplanets
Astronomers have recently found hundreds of new planets. Here are what some of them might look like. 01.23.2009
The Man Who Made Stars and Planets
Alan Boss has spent a career predicting how stars and planets form—and has often been right. 01.12.2009
Visual Science: A (Dormant) Volcano Is a Great Place to Look at the Sky
Hawaii's Mauna Kea houses the world’s largest astronomical observatory. 01.09.2009
Beyond the Nine Planets
We are only beginning to discover how vast and strange our solar system truly is. 01.06.2009
#27: Astronomers Spy the Youngest Planet Ever Found
The latest, newest protoplanet is a "dusty, rocky, gaseous lump." 12.17.2008
20 Best Brains Under 40
Young innovators are changing everything from theoretical mathematics to cancer therapy. 11.20.2008
How Long Until We Find a Second Earth?
Researchers are racing to find the first planet that might support life as we know it. 10.10.2008
Inside the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
It starts with water and ends with intelligent aliens—hopefully. 12.25.2007
3. Planetpalooza
A new crop of alien planets raises the bar on bizarre. 12.12.2007
Scientist of the Year: David Charbonneau
His research heats up the search for alien life—and finds some amazing planets along the way. 12.06.2007
Fat times for Planet Hunters
New-found worlds are becoming bigger, hotter, and stranger. 11.27.2007
The Granddaddy of Space Colonization?
Fifty years after Sputnik, Burt Rutan leads a new space race. 10.08.2007
Pluto Gets Demoted. Again.
Newly discovered Eris is bigger and heavier than the spurned planet. 08.16.2007
Map: Alien Weather Report
A planet with supersonic winds, where a day lasts a year 07.16.2007
The Hunt for Other Earths Heats Up
We could hit the jackpot by 2010. 04.10.2007
The Man Who Finds Planets
Give Caltech astronomer Mike Brown a telescope and there's no telling what he might discover out there 05.27.2006
The Year in Science: Astronomy
Planet Xena, cosmic evolution, gamma ray bursts, and more. 01.08.2006
Planetary Peculiarities
05.01.2005
A Planet is Born
09.30.2004
The Hunt for Earth 2 Heats Up
02.05.2004
Astronomy
01.02.2004
Space Scientist: Geoff Marcy and Paul Butler
The Astronomers Who Proved Carl Sagan Correct 11.09.2003
Dusting for New Planets
03.01.2003
Can We Find Another Earth?
NASA is betting that we can, and a team of Princeton astronomers has a clever design for a telescope that could do it within 20 years 03.01.2002
Works in Progress
When it's a planet that's not a planet 01.01.2002
Planets in Peril
08.01.2001
Wonder Worlds
12.01.2000
A Field Guide to the New Planets
Amazing Worlds beyond our own Solar System 03.01.2000
Planet Poseur?
Is it the first planet seen outside our solar system, or something completely different? 08.01.1998
Planet Hatchery
12.01.1997
Planets by the Dozen
01.01.1997
Planets, Planets, Everywhere
04.01.1996
A Capella
03.01.1996
Hi-ho, Hi-ho
Brown dwarfs are the missing link between normal stars and planets. 01.01.1996
The Planet at 51 Peg
01.01.1996
Is Anyone Out There?
Surely, out of the countless spheres in the universe, one harbors something that can say hello. 11.01.1992
Forbidden Planets
Astronomers have looked long and hard for planets outside the solar system. At last their search may have paid off. 04.01.1992
