Space, astronomy and planetary science

David Mindell, right, the Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, speaks about the history of exploration. Stephen J. Pyne, Regents’ professor at Arizona State University, and Rosalind Williams, Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology, look on.

Exploring exploration

From deep space to deep sea, two-day symposium examined MIT’s impacts and innovations.

April 29, 2011

The space shuttle lifts off in December, 1993, with Hoffman aboard, for the first mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.

3 Questions: Jeffrey Hoffman on the Space Shuttle at 30

Anniversary of the first shuttle flight comes just as it nears retirement, but the vehicle has changed space travel dramatically.

April 12, 2011

One of the thousands of fragments recovered from the Allende meteorite, which fell in Mexico in 1969. The black area is a fusion crust, produced from the heat of slamming into Earth's atmosphere. New studies of one such fragment provided evidence that the object the meteorite originated from had a magnetic field.

Cold asteroids may have a soft heart

Partially molten small bodies may be abundant in space, and may have given the Earth its oceans.

April 8, 2011

$A transiting planet obscures just a tiny fraction of the light from its parent star, allowing astronomers to detect its presence.$

Explained: Transiting exoplanets

How astronomers learn whether a planet is habitable by observing slight changes in light emanating from its parent star.

January 27, 2011

Close up of the EDGES antenna. The four panels are made from aluminum sheet metal and supported by PVC legs. The white bag under the antenna encloses analog amplifiers and calibration circuits.

And then there was light

Astronomers probe ancient radio waves for clues about the universe’s first light.

January 13, 2011

Massive planetesimals — some as large as 2,000 miles in diameter — may have struck other objects in space, including possibly Earth, Mars and the Moon, in a similar fashion to this artist's rendering of a space collision.

Earth’s final growth spurt

NASA team suggests that massive projectiles added mass to Earth, Mars and the Moon during final phase of planet formation

December 17, 2010

For the past 15 years, Sara Seager, the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Planetary Science in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and professor in MIT’s Department of Physics, has been studying exoplanet atmospheres and interiors.

The final frontier

Now that an Earthlike planet has been discovered, the key to confirming that it can host life will be to study its atmosphere in detail

December 16, 2010

Joshua Winn, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Physics and a researcher for the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, has been studying “hot Jupiters” for six years.

Learning from hot Jupiters

By studying how massive planets may have formed, MIT astrophysicist sets the stage for studying smaller, more Earthlike planets.

December 15, 2010

Building a list of Earth candidates

MIT researchers increase their odds of detecting an Earthlike planet by working on a combination of satellite missions.

December 14, 2010

Artist concept of the extremely hot exoplanet WASP-12b and the host star.

Astronomers detect first carbon-rich exoplanet

Discovery opens door to new class of exoplanets, including rocky planets rich in diamond and graphite.

December 9, 2010

Artist’s rendition of what liquid oceans on young rocky planets may have looked like.

Growing Earth’s oceans

Study suggests that trace amounts of water created oceans on Earth and other terrestrial planets, including those outside the solar system.

December 8, 2010

Sara Seager, the Ellen Swallow Richards Associate Professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.

3 Questions: Sara Seager on the discovery of a ‘new’ form of life

The MIT planetary scientist discusses what the finding means for life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe.

December 3, 2010

Astronaut Joseph R. Tanner, STS-115 mission specialist, waves at the camera during a space walk.

Lending a hand

MIT researchers may be closer to understanding why spacesuit gloves hurt astronauts’ hands.

October 13, 2010

Using measurements taken by an instrument onboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, researchers have mapped all large craters on the moon. In this image, blue indicates low elevation, and red indicates high elevation.

Telling time on the moon

New map of lunar craters sheds light on early solar-system activity and points to oldest parts of the moon’s surface.

September 20, 2010

Robert J. Butler, former design research engineer at MIT, dies at 89

An MIT engineer for 25 years, he helped design instruments for NASA’s Voyager spacecraft.

September 17, 2010

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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