It does undergo nuclear fusion, but there are more reactions and more energy released from reactions other than H → He. “The sun is a miasmaOf incandescent plasmaThe sun’s not simply […]
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Everything is made of quarks, leptons, photons, and gluons, yet everything comes with a finite, non-zero size. “There’s something about sitting alone in the dark that reminds you how big the […]
The ‘big discovery’ is nothing of the kind. We need a new planet-finding mission to probe the next frontier. Last week, NASA dropped a bombshell that it’s Kepler mission — the greatest […]
Elon Musk publishes a visionary paper on his company’s plans to colonize space.
If you haven’t finished your holiday shopping yet, consider these 10 gifts, good any time of year! One of the hardest things when it comes to holiday shopping is to find […]
Instead of nearly-circular ellipses, comets are extraordinarily elongated, or even on an exit path. Why so different? When you look at how the planets orbit in our Solar System, the […]
This isn’t an XZibit joke; it’s a real scientific question. And the answer may be that it’s possible after all. “People who work every day are kind of scared of things […]
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 […]
You might think Jupiter is large, but you’ll be surprised at what happens if you try and make it larger! “A few centuries ago, the pioneer navigators learnt the size and […]
Very sure. Here’s how we know. You’ve no doubt heard that the Universe itself has been around for 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang, and that scientists are extremely confident […]
The Earth is round, Kyrie Irving. But not every world needs to be. “‘I’ll follow him to the ends of the earth,’ she sobbed. Yes, darling. But the earth doesn’t have […]
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 […]
The most elusive naked-eye planet is downright impossible to view for billions of us on Earth. “I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without […]
A very small person asks a very big question: why aren’t the moons of gaseous planets also made of gas?
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What would energy without a particle to attach itself to even look like? “It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on […]
Before we go venturing off to another star to look for life, why not look here? “If I had to describe myself to an alien I’d say I was bigger than […]
Now we know, on every scale. “There is no such thing as perpetual tranquillity of mind while we live here; because life itself is but motion, and can never be without […]
Elon Musk announces that SpaceX will fly two private citizens on a mission around the moon in 2018.
65 million years, an impact wiped out 30% of all life on Earth. Could another one be imminent? “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” […]
Why are we so hung up on Pluto’s planetary status? Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson urges us to get over it already!
More massive is bigger, less massive is smaller, right? That’s not even half the story. “Billions of years from now our sun, then a distended red giant star, will have reduced […]
After nearly 20 years in orbit around Saturn, Cassini prepares to say goodbye. “All the atoms of our bodies will be blown into space in the disintegration of the solar system, […]
Life may not be a rarity after all, but the result of a certain set of conditions.
This mission will also help us better understand the core of our and other terrestrial planets, too.
Churchill displays a surprising amount of knowledge on a question that we are still wrestling with.
Alpha Centauri A and B are just 4.37 light years away. Do they have planets around them? And possibly life? We just might find out! “Resources exist to be consumed. And […]
Its unique method of creating energy is likely to be employed elsewhere in the space program.
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 […]
A small, icy planet with a weirdly elliptical orbit has been discovered beyond Pluto.
With gift ideas from as little as $11, there might be something to tickle anyone’s fancy. “It is worthy of notice that in Table VI the brighter variables have the longer […]