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Astronomy
Past or present, if there’s ever been any life at all, it changes everything. “They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially ‘colonized’ it. So technically, I colonized […]
Could there be a massive, giant planet beyond Neptune? Here’s what the science says… for now. “Finding out that something you have just discovered is considered all but impossible is one […]
A live-blog event happened a week ago, but you can catch the entire thing anew here, right now! “We have never observed infinity in nature. Whenever you have infinities in […]
We’ve discovered some behemoths, but one outclasses them all. “There is always a heavy demand for fresh mediocrity. In every generation the least cultivated taste has the largest appetite.” –Paul Gauguin […]
You might think that it should be all black, but then how would we see it? “It is conceptually interesting, if not astrophysically very important, to calculate the precise apparent shape […]
Sometimes, designing a careful experiment and measuring absolutely no effect can be the most important result of all. “It appears, from all that precedes, reasonably certain that if there be any […]
Its 18 large, segmented golden mirrors aren’t even the whole story. But how much gold is really in there? “Hey, if our eyes could access the infrared part of the light […]
With liquid water, an energy source, and the perfect raw ingredients, Enceladus might be the holy grail we’ve been seeking. This article is written by contributing author Jesse Shanahan. Jesse is […]
We’ve never seen an event horizon, nor directly imaged a black hole. Thanks to a worldwide effort, victory may at last be in sight. “Never look down to test the ground […]
And how if you try this with someone shorter than you are, you’ll find it extra convincing! “I drive from Florida to California all the time, and it’s flat to […]
If you think federal funding for science is expensive, wait until you see the cost of not funding it. “For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as […]
The answer lies billions of years in the past. “Dark matter or invisible element?You decide.” –Toba Beta When we look out at the luminous matter in the Universe — stars, galaxies, clusters of […]
What Hubble sees at its best is only a tease for what James Webb will deliver. “With the Hubble telescope and all the other things that are out there, I believe […]
You know how bright the full Moon is. Well, from the Moon, how would the ‘full Earth’ compare? “I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted […]
We claim it’s the leftover glow from the Big Bang, but where is this light actually coming from? “We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we […]
Space is getting bigger, but atoms, humans, Earth and our Milky Way stay the same size. How is this possible? “The Universe is expanding the way your mind is expanding. […]
Have you heard that life is unlikely around low-mass, red dwarf stars? It might be time to rethink that flawed conclusion. “Laws of nature mixed with evolutionary/historical contingencies allow for […]
There’s a lot to learn about other worlds, but you can’t learn it all without looking up. “One should not need a teleportation device to decide whether a newly discovered object […]
20 years before Sally Ride, Valentina Tereshkova set the bar. She’s still amazing after more than 50 years. “A bird cannot fly with one wing only. Human space flight cannot develop […]
With James Webb and WFIRST launching soon, the Universe can expect a revolution. But what will it look like? “For the first time we can learn about individual stars from near […]
The red planet once wasn’t so different from Earth. Here’s what happened. “Mars’ atmosphere is so thin, you do not need a lot of streamlining. By the time the ship […]
We take for granted how much the Moon does for Earth, but not all of the changes would be bad. “If we get rid of the moon, women, those menstrual cycles […]
A live-blog event of an incredible public lecture by a scientist on the inside of James Webb’s team. “The [James Webb] telescope is basically designed to answer the big questions in […]
You may have heard of Laniakea, but don’t count on it being real. “It’s the gravity that shapes the large scale structure of the universe, even though it is the weakest […]
But are any of these potentially Earth-like worlds actually inhabited? Here are the prospects. “It isn’t only the beauty of the night sky that thrills me. It’s the sense I […]
Phobos and Deimos may have had another, inner, much larger companion! “The larger inner moons fall back to Mars after about 5 million years due to the tidal pull of […]
Hydrogen is #1, Helium is #2. Who’s number 3? Hint: it’s not #3 in the periodic table! “It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign […]
If the Big Bang happened and everything is moving away from us, where’s the center? “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out […]
We haven’t found the truly “first” ones yet, but we’re not just on our way; we’re almost there. “For the first time we can learn about individual stars from near the […]
Sometimes science is stranger than fiction. “To morrow, I believe, is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I think it perfectly meet and proper that the sun in the […]