News Archive / Author: Laurel Kornfeld
Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne University’s Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazine’s guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.
Articles By Laurel Kornfeld
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Pass the salt shaker: Key ingredient of life found on Europa
June 14th, 2019A new study has identified yellow regions on the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa as sodium chloride or table salt, which may originate in the large moon's underground ocean.
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Design phase begins for Psyche mission to metal asteroid
June 13th, 2019NASA's Psyche mission to a unique metal asteroid has attained the important milestone of being approved to begin spacecraft design and construction.
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Spitzer mosaic depicts family of stars
June 7th, 2019A brightly colored mosaic of nebulae in the constellation Cepheus captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope depicts a family of stars ranging from new to old.
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Scientists, SpaceX debate Starlink satellites’ impact on night sky
June 4th, 2019SpaceX's launch its first 60 Starlink satellites is generating controversy about their potential impact on night sky observation and radio astronomy.
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OSIRIS-REx mission seeking citizen scientists’ help
May 29th, 2019NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission is seeking help from citizen scientists in choosing a site on asteroid Bennu to collect surface samples to be returned to Earth.
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Observations indicate comets may have brought water to Earth
May 27th, 2019Observations of Comet Wirtanen by the world's largest airborne observatory support the notion that comets may have delivered water to Earth.
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Gas layer may be keeping Pluto’s subsurface ocean from freezing
May 25th, 2019A layer of gas located beneath Pluto's icy shell could be keeping the dwarf planet's subsurface ocean from freezing, according to a new study.
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LRO identifies crash site of Beresheet lander
May 22nd, 2019The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imaged the crash site of SpaceIL's Beresheet lander, which impacted the Moon after a critical failure during its descent.
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Data shows Jupiter’s magnetic field changes over time
May 21st, 2019Jupiter's internal magnetic field undergoes changes over time, NASA's Juno orbiter confirmed after recent science flybys of the giant planet.
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Scientific paper speculates about formation of Ultima Thule
May 20th, 2019The first peer-reviewed academic paper about Ultima Thule based on New Horizons' flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object was published in the journal Science.
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Data reveals tectonic activity on the Moon
May 15th, 2019New images captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal recent tectonic activity on the Moon in the form of "wrinkled" hills and shallow trenches.
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Study shows ancient galaxies brighter than previously thought
May 11th, 2019The universe's earliest galaxies, which formed less than one billion years after the Big Bang, may have been significantly brighter than previously thought.
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R3D2 satellite demonstrates ‘rapid’ spacecraft development
May 8th, 2019Northrop Grumman successfully launched the small R3D2 defense satellite for the U.S. government developed over a period of just 20 months.
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Scientists debate planet definition, status of Pluto
May 5th, 2019Scientists Ron Ekers and Alan Stern debated the planet definition and the status of Pluto in an event sponsored by the Philosophical Society of Washington.
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Falsified test results caused two mission launch failures
May 2nd, 2019Investigators at NASA's Launch Services Program have determined the root cause for two back-to-back launch failures of a Taurus XL rocket in 2009 and 2011.
