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Editors of EarthSky

Milky Way strips nearby galaxies of star-forming hydrogen

Astronomers have discovered that our nearest galactic neighbors are devoid of star-forming gas, and that our Milky Way is to blame.

What are super-Earths made of?

Astronomers struggle to learn about super-Earths - bigger than our Earth, smaller than Neptune - the most common type of planet found by the Kepler spacecraft.

Earth’s last magnetic reversal took less than 100 years

A study demonstrates that Earth's last magnetic reversal - 786,000 years ago - happened in roughly the span of a human lifetime.

Spacecraft catches Mars atmosphere in act of escaping

Earth's atmosphere is leaking into space, too, but only very, very slowly. Meanwhile, Mars is thought to have lost much of its atmosphere already.

Crocodiles work as a team to hunt their prey

Crocs are able to conduct highly organized game drives. They might be second only to humans in their hunting prowess, says a researcher.

Mega flares from a mini star

You've heard of X flares from our sun? This mini star's biggest flare - seen in April, 2014 - was 10,000 times bigger than the biggest known solar X flare.

Curiosity rover drill pulls first taste from Mars mountain

The mission's emphasis has changed from drive, drive, drive to systematic layer-by-layer investigation. "Curiosity flew hundreds of millions of miles to do this."

The water in your bottle might be older than the sun

Up to half of the water on Earth and throughout our solar system likely originated as ices that formed in interstellar space.

Ice crystals don’t melt inside these fish

Antifreeze blood helps fish called notothenioids survive in icy Antarctic waters. The down side is that the ice crystals in their blood don't melt as temperatures warm.

Astronomers observe mysterious winds from a T Tauri star

T Tauri stars - infant solar systems - were thought to have powerful stellar winds. Astronomers have now observed T Tauri winds and might know what's causing them.