(University of Arizona) Researchers are gearing up to take the first picture ever taken of a black hole. By stringing together radio telescopes across the globe, they are building an Earth-sized, virtual telescope powerful enough to see all the way to the center of our Milky Way where a supermassive black hole is devouring matter caught in its extreme gravitational field. In the process, they are putting Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to the ultimate test.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) When it launches in 2014, NASA’s new Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will give scientists unprecedented insights into a little-understood physical process at the heart all space weather. This process, known as magnetic reconnection, sparks solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other phenomena that can imperil Earth-orbiting spacecraft and even power grids on terra firma.

(California Institute of Technology) A team of astronomers led by scientists at the California Institute of Technology has discovered the three smallest confirmed planets ever detected outside our solar system. The three planets, which all orbit a single star, are smaller than Earth and appear to be rocky. Their existence suggests that the galaxy could be teeming with similarly rocky planets—and that there’s a good chance that many are in the so-called habitable zone, where liquid water and possibly life could exist.

(University of Arizona) Researchers are gearing up to take the first picture ever taken of a black hole. By stringing together radio telescopes across the globe, they are building an Earth-sized, virtual telescope powerful enough to see all the way to the center of our Milky Way where a supermassive black hole is devouring matter caught in its extreme gravitational field. In the process, they are putting Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity to the ultimate test.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) When it launches in 2014, NASA’s new Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will give scientists unprecedented insights into a little-understood physical process at the heart all space weather. This process, known as magnetic reconnection, sparks solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other phenomena that can imperil Earth-orbiting spacecraft and even power grids on terra firma.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) When it launches in 2014, NASA’s new Magnetospheric Multiscale mission will give scientists unprecedented insights into a little-understood physical process at the heart all space weather. This process, known as magnetic reconnection, sparks solar flares, coronal mass ejections, and other phenomena that can imperil Earth-orbiting spacecraft and even power grids on terra firma.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) A turning point in the history of life occurred two to three billion years ago with the unprecedented appearance and dramatic rise of molecular oxygen. Now researchers report they have identified an enzyme that was the first – or among the first – to generate molecular oxygen on Earth.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) A turning point in the history of life occurred two to three billion years ago with the unprecedented appearance and dramatic rise of molecular oxygen. Now researchers report they have identified an enzyme that was the first – or among the first – to generate molecular oxygen on Earth.

(University of California – Davis) UC Davis researchers have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth. The new paradigm could lead to a better understanding of corrosion and how toxic minerals leach from rocks and soil. It could also help in the development of “green” technology: new types of batteries, or catalysts for splitting water to produce hydrogen fuel.

(University of Florida) Unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are disrupting normal patterns of glaciation, according to a study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher and published online Jan. 8 in Nature Geoscience.