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Astronomy
Forensics has reached the final frontier, and could be used to solve future space accidents—or crimes.
The center of the galaxy doesn't just host stars and a black hole, but an enormous set of rich gassy and dusty features. Find out more!
Well-preserved ancient plants and other finds at the Clarkia fossil beds hint at what kind of evidence any Martian life may have left behind.
From before the Big Bang to Voyager 1, particle physicist Harry Cliff takes us on a whiz-bang tour of the Universe's evolution.
Lasers, mirrors, and computational advances can all work together to push ground-based astronomy past the limits of our atmosphere.
Even if you aren't in the path of totality, you can still use the solar eclipse to measure how long it takes the Moon to orbit Earth.
There are only a precious few minutes of totality during even the best solar eclipses. Don't waste yours making these avoidable mistakes.
In logic, 'reductio ad absurdum' shows how flawed arguments fall apart. Our absurd Universe, however, often defies our intuitive reasoning.
NASA's only flagship X-ray telescope ever, Chandra, still works and has no planned successor. So why does the President want to kill it?
The least exciting of all eclipses, a penumbral lunar eclipse, foreshadows the spectacular show that April 8th's total eclipse will bring.
No matter how you define the end, including the demise of humanity, all life, or even the planet itself, our ultimate destruction awaits.
Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb claimed to track down and find alien spherules on the ocean bottom. Here's the sober truth.
Given enough time, all galaxies will expel their star-forming material and wind up dead. Is this the earliest one, or is it just asleep?
Galaxies don't simply feed their central supermassive black holes, but the activity generated inside affects the entire galaxy and more.
Ground-based facilities enable the greatest scientific production in all of astronomy. The NSF needs to be ambitious, and it's now or never.
To Fred Hoyle, the Big Bang was nothing more than a creationist myth. 75 years later, it's cemented as the beginning of our Universe.
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Is information intrinsic in our universe? NASA’s Michelle Thaller explains.
JWST has puzzled astronomers by revealing large, bright, massive early galaxies. But the littlest ones pack the greatest cosmic punch.
In 1957, humanity launched our first satellite; today's number is nearly 10,000, with 500,000+ more planned. Space is no longer pristine.
Leap day only comes once every four years, including in 2024. But the reason we have it, including when we do and don't, may surprise you.
The detection of two celestial interlopers careening through our solar system has scientists eagerly anticipating more.
For now, our Solar System's eight planets are all safe, and relatively stable. Billions of years from now, everything will be different.
Until the Apollo missions, we had no idea how the moon got here, just a series of educated guesses. They rewrote the story of the moon’s origins.
There are plenty of life-friendly stellar systems in the Universe today. But at some point in the far future, life's final extinction will occur.
So far, gravitational waves have revealed stellar mass black holes and neutron stars, plus a cosmic background. So much more is coming.
In the early stages of our Solar System, there were three life-friendly planets: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Only Earth thrived. Here's why.
For thousands of years, humanity had no idea how far away the stars were. In the 1600s, Newton, Huygens, and Hooke all claimed to get there.