Here in our modern Universe, it's cosmic dust that forms planets, complex molecules, and enables life. But how did the Universe create it?

Writer and media theorist Bogna Konior connects cosmos and computer by reconsidering our eerily silent Universe.

13.8 billion years have passed since the Big Bang, but many stars will survive for longer than that. What's the longest-lived a star can be?

Astronomer Jill Tarter explains why SETI is really about technology, patience, and learning how to tell alien signals from our own.

Even at its faintest, Venus always outshines every other star and planet that's visible from Earth, and then some!

Many collaborations have used JWST to take deep-field images: some wider and some deeper than others. Here's how it can surpass them all.

A century ago, quantum physics overthrew our view of a deterministic Universe. A profound 21st century theorem closes the door even further.

Why we should balance innovation with stewardship — while reframing the “techno-optimists versus doomers” polarization.

30 years ago, we didn’t know other stars had planets orbiting them. Now, we may be on the verge of finding Earth’s Twin. Sara Seager explains.

At the upper limits of what's energetically possible, cosmic rays still persist. What happens if a human gets hit by the most energetic one?

The revival of Pasto Varnish shows how living heritage can survive if knowledge is passed on in time.

Many top performers start behind — and overtake the early leaders later.

Our great hope is that today's indirect, astrophysical evidence will someday lead to successful direct detection. What if that's impossible?

Not all knowledge carries over.

Just like animals, galaxies often have bizarre, unusual, or even unique properties. But finding many, all at once, really does raise alarms.

Ernst Stromer discovered Spinosaurus in Egypt. His fossils were destroyed in WWII, yet still shape how we imagine this mysterious dinosaur today.

"In the process of mapping the heavens, it doesn't take long to realize the data problem they generated."

Our view of the world, the Universe, and ourselves can change with just one glimpse of what's out there. It's happened many times before.

Outer space begins just over 100 kilometers up, but what we can see extends for billions of light-years. Here's what all of it looks like.

"The process of systematizing, correcting errors, finding approximations, and making them work as civil systems that was what really drove me to start looking at human calculation and what was the foundation that it laid for the modern computer age."