Waiting on Enceladus

Of all the possible life-beyond-Earth questions hanging fire, few are quite so intriguing as those surrounding the now famous plumes of the moon Enceladus:  what telltale molecules are in the constantly escaping jets of water vapor, and what dynamics inside the moon are pushing them out? Seldom, if ever before, have scientists been given such …

How Will We Know What Exoplanets Look Like, and When?

An earlier version of this article was accidently published last week before it was completed.  This is the finished version, with information from this week's AAS annual conference. Let's face it:  the field of exoplanets has a significant deficit when it comes to producing drop-dead beautiful pictures. We all know why.  Exoplanets are just too …