From inside our Solar System, zodiacal light prevents us from seeing true darkness. From billions of miles away, New Horizons finally can.
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Black holes aren’t just the densest masses in the Universe, but they also spin the fastest of all massive objects. Here’s why it must be so.
As planets with too many volatiles and too little mass orbit their parent stars, their atmospheres photoevaporate, spelling doom for some.
The mutual distance between well-separated galaxies increases with time as the Universe expands. What else expands, and what doesn’t?
Our cosmic home, planet Earth, has been through a lot over the past 4.5 billion years. Here are some of its most spectacular changes
In many ways, we are still novices playing with toy models seeking to understand the stars.
The outer planets’ clouds hide the weirdness within.
Studies suggest that meditation can quiet the restless brain.
In a recent paper, biologists outlined a three-part hypothesis for how all life as we know it began.
The giant impact theory suggests our Moon was formed from proto-Earth getting a Mars-sized strike. An exoplanet system shows it’s plausible.
While humanity has been skywatching since ancient times, much of our cosmic understanding has come about only recently. Very recently.
Life arose on Earth early on, eventually giving rise to us: intelligent and technologically advanced. “First contact” still remains elusive.
Human beings are tiny creatures compared to the 92 billion light-year wide observable Universe. How can we comprehend such large scales?
Adams was infamously scooped when Neptune was discovered in 1846. His failure wasn’t the end, but a prelude to a world-changing discovery.
No planet enters retrograde more frequently than Mercury, which does so 3-4 times each year. Here’s the scientific explanation for why.
The strongest tests of curved space are only possible around the lowest-mass black holes of all. Their small event horizons are the key.
The number of planets that could support life may be far greater than previously thought, a recent discovery suggests.
With ~400 billion stars in the Milky Way and 6-20 trillion galaxies overall, that makes for a lot of stars. But not as many as you’d think.
The JWST’s observations of well-developed galaxies early in universal history may coincide with accepted astronomical theory after all.
Life arose on Earth very early on. After a few billion years, here we are: intelligent and technologically advanced. Where’s everyone else?
A more distant galaxy liked the lens so much that it went and put a ring on it. Here’s the science behind this remarkable cosmic object.
Back in 1990, we hadn’t discovered a single planet outside of our Solar System. Here are 10 facts that would’ve surprised every astronomer.
In the grand scheme of the cosmic story, a single year isn’t all that significant. But over time, the annual changes really add up!
Between the least massive star and most massive planet lies the mysterious brown dwarf: a class of objects that are neither star nor planet.
1.9 billion years ago, a star’s explosive death created a black hole. Its light just arrived at Earth. But did it set a cosmic record?
Physicists recently created Coordinated Lunar Time, a time zone for our Moon.
Unless you have a critical mass of heavy elements when your star first forms, planets, including rocky ones, are practically impossible.
NASA is creating a planet habitability index, and Earth may not be at the top. With our current data, ranking habitability is guesswork.