There is an old trick for remembering the difference between stalactites and stalagmites in a cave: Stalactites hold tight to the ceiling while stalagmites might one day grow to reach the ceiling. Now, it seems, stalagmites might also fill a hole in our unders... More »
This raw, unprocessed image was taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on May 2, 2012. The camera was pointing toward Enceladus at approximately 239,799 miles (385,919 kilometers) away. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute › Larger view NASA’s Cassini sp... More »
This computer-simulated image shows gas from a tidally shredded star falling into a black hole. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHU/UCSC Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close... More »
Jared R. Leadbetter, professor of environmental microbiology, has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Fellows of the academy are elected annually through a selective, peer-review process based on their records of scientific achievem... More »
Artist concept of Cassini at Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will be flying within about 46 miles (74 kilometers) of Saturn’s moon Enceladus on Wednesday, May 2, aiming primarily to learn more about the moon’s internal structure. The f... More »
Jay Wilson Heefner II, an electrical engineer who contributed greatly to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project over the course of 18 years at Caltech, has died. He was 51. Before arriving at Caltech in 1994, Heefner had worke... More »
This artist’s concept depicts the moment that NASA’s Curiosity rover touches down onto the Martian surface. The entry, descent, and landing (EDL) phase of the Mars Science Laboratory mission begins when the spacecraft reaches the Martian atmosphere, about 81 m... More »
[Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech] Observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope show that the Sombrero galaxy is actually two galaxies in one. With a halo of stars surrounded by the thin edge of a stellar disk, the galaxy resembles a big hat. But by observing in i... More »
Phoebe’s true nature is revealed in startling clarity in this mosaic of two images taken during Cassini’s flyby on June 11, 2004. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute Data from NASA’s Cassini mission reveal Saturn’s moon Phoebe has more planet-like q... More »
It’s a dust bunny of cosmic proportions. Astronomers used images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, to locate an aging star shedding loads of dust (orange dot at upper left). Only one other star, called Sakurai’s object, has been caught ... More »
The young faces you see on campus today are not new prefrosh. They are students participating in Caltech’s annual Take Our Children to Work Day. Sponsored by Caltech Human Resources, today’s event is an opportunity for children and teenagers—from fourth gr... More »
Aquilia Area in Color These composite images from the framing camera aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft show three views of a terrain with ridges and grooves near Aquilia crater in the southern hemisphere of the giant asteroid Vesta. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/... More »
