Dawn took this image during its current orbit of Vesta, traveling from the day side to the night side. The large structure near the south pole that showed up so prominently in previous images is visible in the center of the illuminated surface. Compared to oth... More »
New observations from the Herschel Space Observatory show a bizarre, twisted ring of dense gas at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. Only a few portions of the ring, which stretches across more than 600 light-years, were known before. Herschel’s view reveals ... More »
Edward M. Stolper, provost of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and William E. Leonard Professor of Geology, has been named a Foreign Member of Great Britain’s Royal Society. He is one of eight scientists elected in 2011. Stolper’s election br... More »
Environmental scientist and engineer Michael Hoffmann of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has received a $400,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build a solar-powered portable toilet that could help solve a major health pr... More »
NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has returned the first close-up image after beginning its orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta. On Friday, July 15, Dawn became the first probe to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Â The i... More »
Caltech scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft now have the first-ever, up-close details of a Saturn storm that is eight times the surface area of Earth. On Dec. 5, 2010, Cassini first detected the storm that has been raging ever since. It ap... More »
Astronomers at Caltech have discovered that galaxies in the distant, early universe continuously ingested their star-making fuel over long periods of time. This goes against previous theories that the galaxies devoured their fuel in quick bursts after run-ins ... More »
Caltech geochemists Rob Eagle (left) and John Eiler display a dinosaur tooth, which was used to determine the body temperature of the extinct creature. [Photo: California Institute of Technology] Were dinosaurs slow and lumbering, or quick and agile? It depend... More »
Students from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) won a large number of awards this spring, including a Fulbright grant, a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, three Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, two Barry M. Goldwater Scholarships, a ... More »
Elliot Meyerowitz, a plant genetics and developmental biology expert at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), has been awarded one of 15 five-year, $5 million grants for fundamental plant science research. The awards were made by the Howard Hughes ... More »
This image of comet Hartley 2 was taken as NASA’s EPOXI mission flew by around 6:59 a.m. PDT (9:59 a.m. EDT), from a distance of about 435 miles (700 kilometers). [Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UMD ] Comet Hartley 2’s hyperactive state, as studied by NASA’s EPOXI ... More »
They’re bright and blue—and a bit strange. They’re a new type of stellar explosion that was recently discovered by a team of astronomers led by Caltech. Among the most luminous in the cosmos, these new kinds of supernovae could help researchers better unders... More »
