TESS Science Office at MIT hits milestone of 5,000 exoplanet candidates
Catalog of planet candidates nearly doubles in size during 2020-21.
Richard Cohen: Pioneering biomedical research and education at MIT for half a century
The physician, scientist, and professor has made influential contributions to the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology since it began 50 years ago.
MIT engineers test an idea for a new hovering rover
A levitating vehicle might someday explore the moon, asteroids, and other airless planetary surfaces.
Super-bright stellar explosion is likely a dying star giving birth to a black hole or neutron star
The discovery, based on an unusual event dubbed “the Cow,” may offer astronomers a new way to spot infant compact objects.
“Newer, nimbler, faster:” Venus probe will search for signs of life in clouds of sulfuric acid
Report led by MIT scientists details a suite of privately-funded missions to hunt for life on Earth's sibling planet.
NASA selects three MIT alumni for astronaut training
Marcos Berríos ’06, Christina Birch PhD ’15, and Christopher Williams PhD ’12 make up a third of the 2021 NASA astronaut candidate class.
TESS discovers a planet the size of Mars but with the makeup of Mercury
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
One year on this giant, blistering hot planet is just 16 hours long
A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.
Neutron star collisions are a “goldmine” of heavy elements, study finds
Mergers between two neutron stars have produced more heavy elements in last 2.5 billion years than mergers between neutron stars and black holes.
Q&A: Lucy mission launches to study ancient Trojan asteroids
Co-Investigator Scientist Professor Richard Binzel discusses NASA’s latest interplanetary mission, which is co-led by Cathy Olkin ’88, PhD ’96.
Scientists find evidence the early solar system harbored a gap between its inner and outer regions
The cosmic boundary, perhaps caused by a young Jupiter or an emerging wind, likely shaped the composition of infant planets.
Rover images confirm Jezero crater is an ancient Martian lake
The findings include signs of flash flooding that carried huge boulders downstream into the lakebed.
TESS Science Conference II draws nearly 700 virtual attendees
Not just an exoplanet-finder anymore, TESS yields diverse astrophysics results at second science conference.
With the HUMANS project, a message that space is for everyone
A student-run project is collecting messages from around the world, using nanotechnology to etch them on a disk, and sending the disk to the International Space Station.
Pathfinder satellite paves way for constellation of tropical-storm observers
Lincoln Laboratory’s TROPICS satellites will help scientists study extreme tropical weather once all six are launched next year.