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Astronomy
Last week, an asteroid fell from the sky and struck the Lake Michigan area. What if it had been a city-killer instead? “By preventing dangerous asteroid strikes, we can save […]
Is gravitational repulsion a real thing? “For the first time, astronomers have outlined and named the network of galaxies that includes the Milky Way, adding a line to our cosmic address […]
Why Saturn’s Iapetus has three great mysteries… and we’ve only solved one of them. “The dance between darkness and light will always remain — the stars and the moon will always need the […]
One of the most famous quantum physicists of all makes his mark in space, 80 years after first predicting it. “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed […]
Before you even look through your telescope, you need to know where to begin. “If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control […]
The outer three can even be seen with a small, 1.5 meter telescope. This 2010 picture of three of the four known exoplanets orbiting HR 8799 represents the first time […]
How a telescope 100 times the size of Hubble is going to change everything. “For my confirmation, I didn’t get a watch and my first pair of long pants, like […]
Why do the asteroids that fall to Earth have the composition they do? A giant space collision 466 million years ago may be to blame. “Men of genius are often dull […]
Why weightlessness is possible, even if there’s no place you can hide from the Universe’s longest-range force. “It was a strange lightness, a drifting feeling. Zero gravity. I understood that […]
How to turn a galaxy on, once and for all. “Speculating and predicting what lies beyond the boundary is fascinating. Finding out is even more fascinating.” –Wallace H. Tucker When two […]
Why it’s not “the next Hubble,” but “the first James Webb.” “…because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is […]
Only a few galaxies exhibit this green glow in the nearby Universe. At early times, it’s practically all of the brightest ones. “The discovery that young galaxies are so unexpectedly […]
Just because we know it’s real doesn’t mean it’s easy to create in a lab. “For me the best answer is not in words but in measurements.” –Elena Aprile Atoms, molecules, […]
You don’t have to detect a particle to know that dark matter is real. “You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.” –Clayton Christensen In the 1970s, Vera Rubin’s observations showed […]
How Vera Rubin changed the Universe. “Science progresses best when observations force us to alter our preconceptions.” –Vera Rubin Look out at the night sky, and what do you see? […]
The first ultra-deep, ultra-wide field view of the Universe heralded what the 2010s would bring. “Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal […]
That’s not how probability works. Or asteroids, for that matter. “Bringing an asteroid back to Earth? What’s that have to do with space exploration? If we were moving outward from there, […]
Merging black holes are some of the most extreme events in the Universe. Could a modified event horizon reveal quantum gravity? “The bedrock nature of space and time and the unification […]
Sometimes, what nature gives you is even better than what you hoped for. “Science doesn’t always go forwards. It’s a bit like doing a Rubik’s cube. You sometimes have to make […]
And what it found was a world swimming, literally, with possibilities. Just as a Chihuahua is still a dog, these ice dwarfs are still planetary bodies. The misfit becomes the […]
From a speculative story to solid science! “The new ALMA images show the disk in unprecedented detail, revealing a series of concentric dusty bright rings and dark gaps, including intriguing features […]
Even if the Universe grows to infinity, there might not be enough space to hold all the possibilities. “We are actually living in a million parallel realities every single minute.” –Marina […]
In the depths of intergalactic space, the Big Bang’s leftover glow is just 2.73 K. But this spot in our own galaxy is even colder. “If you want your boomerang to […]
Whether it’s “super” or not, you won’t want to miss this piece of the Universe. “From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab […]
We’ve just had the largest full Moon in 68 years. Here’s what was — and wasn’t — true. “For most people, we often marvel at the beauty of a sunrise or the magnificence of […]
Some things are held to a higher standard than mob rule. “The evidence at present available points strongly to the conclusion that the spirals are individual galaxies, or island universes, […]
The reports that our Solar System is missing the galaxy’s most common type of planet are greatly exaggerated. “To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a […]
Perhaps the limits of what we can observe aren’t just artificial; perhaps there are no limits to what’s out there at all. “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, […]
Something isn’t right about the Universe without something extra. So why can’t scientists agree on what that “extra” thing is? “All we know so far is what doesn’t work.” –Richard Feynman […]
As if the north pole of Saturn weren’t weird enough already. “Cassini is different — it’s a mission of enormous scope and is being conducted in grand style. It is much more sophisticated […]