Space & Earth Science

1. Dark energy camera captures sparse pockets of light among dark clouds of Chamaeleon I

   The origin of our sun, and all the planets, comets and asteroids that orbit it, can be traced back to their birthplace inside a massive cloud of cold gas and dust, not unlike the billowing molecular cloud featured in this image. Found within these cool regions of highly condensed interstellar material are stellar nurseries where young stars are emerging from the swirling gaseous plumes. These regions are also home to nebulae that shine bright with the reflected light of newly formed stars.

2. Moons of Uranus surprise scientists in Hubble study

   Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope went looking for evidence of one phenomenon and found quite another.

3. A 'teenage' white dwarf pulsar may be the missing link among magnetic stars

   The future of yellow dwarf stars, like our sun, is determined almost entirely by their mass. The most massive stars, about eight to 12 times heftier than the sun, can explode as supernovae, leading to the most extreme objects in the universe—neutron stars and black holes.

4. Where is the center of the universe?

   About a century ago, scientists were struggling to reconcile what seemed like a contradiction in Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.