Lisa Grossman

Lisa Grossman

Astronomy Writer

Lisa Grossman is the astronomy writer for Science News. Previously she was a news editor at New Scientist, where she ran the physical sciences section of the magazine for three years. Before that, she spent three years at New Scientist as a reporter, covering space, physics and astronomy. She has a degree in astronomy from Cornell University and a graduate certificate in science writing from UC Santa Cruz. Lisa was a finalist for the AGU David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism, and received the Institute of Physics/Science and Technology Facilities Council physics writing award and the AAS Solar Physics Division Popular Writing Award. She interned at Science News in 2009-2010.

All Stories by Lisa Grossman

  1. An astronaut in a space suit stands with their back to the camera and looks out at inflatable domes as part of a habitat on Mars.
    Space

    ‘Off-Earth’ asks how to build a better future in space

    As humans prepare to live in space someday, ethics should be as much of guide as science and technology, an astrophysicist argues in a new book.

  2. An image of Maat Mons on Venus based on data from spacecraft. A yellow mountain rises up on a black background with a brown area in the foreground.
    Planetary Science

    A volcano on Venus was spotted erupting in decades-old images

    A new look at old data reveals an eruption on Venus in the 1990s that was probably similar to Hawaii’s Kilauea eruption in 2018.

  3. An illustration of a black hole.
    Astronomy

    A runaway black hole has been spotted fleeing a distant galaxy

    A bright streak stretching away from a remote galaxy might be the light from stolen gas and new stars caught in the wake of an escaping black hole.

  4. An image from the James Webb Space Telecope showing face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 628, with its whorls of colored gas and dust, pockmarked with dark areas.
    Astronomy

    Newborn stars sculpt their galaxies in new James Webb telescope images

    Dark voids riddle the galaxies’ faces, highlighting previously invisible details about how new stars alter their locales.

  5. A view of the Earth from space with several white dots, representing Starlink satellites, forming a ring around it.
    Astronomy

    Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX. Here’s why that may be a problem

    Of the roughly 7,300 active satellites in Earth orbit, about 3,600 are part of SpaceX’s growing fleet of Starlink internet satellites.

  6. Six images from the James Webb Space Telescope with three on top and three on the bottom. Each shows a different bright, red, dot that is a galaxy.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope found six galaxies that may be too hefty for their age

    The galaxies formed in the universe’s first 700 million years and may be up to 100 times more massive than predicted.

  7. An illustration of the James Webb Space Telescope deployed in space.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope spotted the earliest known ‘quenched’ galaxy

    A galaxy dubbed GS-9209 ceased forming stars more than 12.5 billion years ago after a 200-million-year-long sprint.

  8. An illustration of the dwarf planet Quaoar.
    Astronomy

    The Kuiper Belt’s dwarf planet Quaoar hosts an impossible ring

    Quaoar’s ring lies outside the Roche limit, an imaginary line beyond which rings aren’t thought to be stable.

  9. aerial photo of San Francisco at night
    Astronomy

    New data show how quickly light pollution is obscuring the night sky

    Tens of thousands of observations from citizen scientists spanning a decade show that the night sky is getting about 10 percent brighter every year.

  10. A chain of craters on Enceladus looks like a Saturnian snowman.
    Planetary Science

    Enceladus is blanketed in a thick layer of snow

    Pits on the Saturnian moon reveal the surprising depth of the satellite’s snow, suggesting its plume was more active in the past.

  11. The James Webb Space Telescope’s first image captured three “Green Pea” galaxies in the early universe (circled in green). The galaxies’ light has been stretched by the expansion of the universe, making them appear red.
    Astronomy

    The James Webb telescope found ‘Green Pea’ galaxies in the early universe

    The James Webb telescope spotted tiny “green” galaxies that might have helped trigger a dramatic cosmic makeover more than 13 billion years ago.

  12. A night photo of the Artemis I rocket launching
    Astronomy

    The James Webb Space Telescope wasn’t the only big space news in 2022

    DART crashed into an asteroid, Artemis went to the moon and we got a pic of our galaxy’s monstrous black hole. Space was a busy place this year.