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Astronomy
Fire was crucial to the evolution of human technology. That's why alien species stuck in the "oxygen bottleneck" may be forever primitive.
One newly discovered, ancient star has a composition unlike any other. Explaining its existence is already blowing astronomers' minds.
Planets can be Earth-like or Neptune-like, but only rarely are in between. This hot, Saturn-like planet hints at a solution to this puzzle.
The midwest is particularly filled with them.
Finding it at all was a happy accident. Examining it further may help unlock the secrets hiding within the earliest galaxies of all.
A new measurement offers insights on the density of the mysterious force driving the Universe's expansion.
Each time you fold a piece of paper, you double the paper's thickness. It doesn't take all that long to even reach the Moon.
The record-breaking transmission could revolutionize deep space communication.
The cosmic scales governing the Universe are almost unbelievably large. What if we shrunk the Sun down to be just a grain of sand?
Figuring out the answer involved a prism, a pail of water, and a 50 year effort by the most famous father-son astronomer duo ever.
With the invention of the leap year, the Julian calendar was used worldwide for over 1500 years. Over time, it led only to catastrophe.
Earth wasn't created until more than 9 billion years after the Big Bang. In some lucky places, life could have arisen almost right away.
The first stars in the Universe were made of pristine material: hydrogen and helium alone. Once they die, nothing escapes their pollution.
The first tests of optical communications far from Earth will take place aboard the asteroid-bound Psyche spacecraft
The Universe is an amazing place. Under the incredible, infrared gaze of JWST, it's coming into focus better than ever before.
Physicists have yet to pinpoint the hypothetical matter that keeps galaxies from flying apart. Now they have a new focus.
As Uranus approaches its solstice, its polar caps, rings, and moons come into their best focus ever under JWST's watchful eye. See it now!
Thanks to observations of gravitational waves, scientists were able to settle a longstanding debate over the speed of gravity.
Misinformation was extremely popular in 2023, as bad science often made global headlines. Learn the truth behind these 10 dubious stories.
Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets — very few of which resemble Earth.
On December 9, 2023, Halley's Comet reached aphelion: its farthest point from the Sun. As it returns, here are 10 facts you should know.
The first elements in the Universe formed just minutes after the Big Bang, but it took hundreds of thousands of years before atoms formed.
Each December, the Geminid meteor shower puts on a show for skywatchers across Earth. With a new Moon at 2023's peak, it'll be outstanding!
Nearly half of all stars are born in binary systems, with the most massive ones dying the fastest. It's not pretty for the "second" star.
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring Starship's second test flight, a new "dark mysteries" telescope, and more.
The Big Bang theory is not threatened, but astrophysicists have some explaining to do.
"I grew up in New Jersey in the 1970s and that experience gave me everything I needed to become a skeptic."
The paper does not prove the existence of dark matter, but it mostly eliminates a rival theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
In 2022, Hubble owned the record for most distant galaxy. Today, that galaxy is down to the 9th most distant object. Thanks, JWST.
Two of the answers add a dimension to physics that doesn’t belong there. Maybe we could call it "astrotheology."