Science & Tech

Science & Tech

Explore the discoveries that reveal how the world works, alongside the technologies that extend, reshape, and sometimes challenge what’s possible.

Split image: On the left, green and pink power aurora lights shimmer in the night sky over water; on the right, bright white fireworks explode against the darkness.
Over 800,000 fireworks explode in under an hour in the world's largest fireworks shows. How do natural auroral displays compare in energy?
comet collide with earth
65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth, causing a mass extinction. Without advance warning, could anyone have spotted it?
stars omega centauri globular cluster
With ~400 billion stars in the Milky Way and 6-20 trillion galaxies overall, that makes for a lot of stars. But not as many as you'd think.
A dense, bright cluster of stars glows at a galaxy’s core, surrounded by numerous smaller dark matter free galaxies and stars scattered across a shadowy background.
The first one, NGC 1052-DF2, was mired in controversy. With four examples now, there only remains one possible escape. What does nature say?
A dense galaxy cluster, possibly the most distant lens cluster, features bright yellow-white central galaxies surrounded by numerous smaller galaxies against a dark space background—a scene revealing the surprises of dark matter.
Over 10 billion years in the past, an ultra-massive galaxy cluster lenses objects behind it. That has big implications for dark matter.
galaxy NGC 1277 Perseus cluster
At 240 million light-years away, galaxy NGC 1277 hasn't formed new stars in over 10 billion years. Could it contain the first stars' ashes?
unreachable
We live on Earth, orbiting the Sun, part of our Solar System, within the Milky Way. But what's our membership status on even larger scales?
A dotted sphere with an eye at the center has lines radiating outward, set against abstract shapes in blue, gray, orange, yellow, and green on a light background.
Members
Mindfulness is trending, with widespread celebrity endorsements and varying claims about its benefits, but Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of The Center for Mindfulness, aims to clarify its true meaning amidst the hype.
A diagram illustrating one of the biggest mysteries: the origin of the universe, from the Big Bang and inflation to today, showing the formation of atoms, stars, galaxies, and the ongoing expansion of space.
When it comes to the big question of our cosmic origins, inflation is our leading theory. But did string theory ultimately cause inflation?
A grainy black and white image shows SPHEREx comet 3I/ATLAS gleaming at the center, surrounded by stars appearing as streaks due to long exposure.
Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS has an ancient age, but not for the reason most commonly touted. These three lines of evidence are far stronger.
A dense globular cluster of stars with varying brightness in deep space, some showing blue and orange hues, appears concentrated toward the center—possibly an imposter resembling Terzan 5.
Globular clusters are some of the most ancient cosmic relics that still survive in our Milky Way today. Famed Terzan 5 isn't one of them.
JWST deep field vs hubble
With targets from all across the Universe, focusing a space telescope — with so many moving parts — is challenging, but doable. Here's how.
A large planet orbits a bright blue star, with swirling rings of gas and dust—rich in boron and beryllium—surrounding both objects against the distant glow of white dwarfs in space.
Despite their rarity, boron and beryllium can both be detected within white dwarf atmospheres. What does their presence and abundance imply?
The grid features 15 images of distant galaxies, each labeled with identifiers and redshift values from z=4.75 to z=8.92. Captured by JWST, these celestial wonders include intriguing little red dots scattered across the vast cosmos.
When JWST opened its eyes, it spied a huge number of Little Red Dots. What we saw inside was a puzzle, but what's missing could solve it.
Map showing locations and number of whale falls in the Indian Ocean, marked with orange circles; inset displays the broader region with study area highlighted in a red box.
In a lightless canyon at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, Earth has been quietly collecting dead whales. Scientists have just discovered the archive.
A supermassive black hole caught turning on reveals a mesmerizing cosmic dance, with bright streams of light and colorful gases swirling around it against a starry backdrop.
Once you cross over to the inside of an event horizon, you can never come out again. But then, how do black holes emit all sorts of things?
A visual timeline illustrating the history and evolution of the universe from the Big Bang to the present, featuring major cosmic events and the formation of galaxies and stars.
Introducing Big Think’s first-ever poster — a stunningly detailed infographic of the universe from its earliest moments to the present day.
A blurry object is centered in a camera viewfinder on an orange background, with a white "N" in the lower right corner.
This 11-point scale aims to reduce the number of "false alarm" sightings so scientists can focus on harder-to-explain reports.
Oort cloud object Bernardinelli–Bernstein has the largest known cometary nucleus: 119 km wide. An impact with Earth would be catastrophic.
transit spectroscopy PLATO
The Universe took a great many steps to create not just life, but intelligent life, here at home. What can we say about life beyond Earth?