Don’t wait until Christmas to gift a telescope this year. All throughout the year, two bright lights have stood out in the post-sunset skies. Earlier this year, on March 31, 2020, […]
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The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
Speeding through the Universe and leaving a wake of new stars, this runaway supermassive black hole is likely the first among thousands.
If you want to know what the Universe is like, you have to look at it in the right way. Only by observing it can we know what the Universe is […]
The Universe’s idea of a ‘typical star’ has changed dramatically over time. When you look out at the Universe today, you’re not seeing it exactly as it is at one particular […]
Oxygen is thought to be a biomarker for extraterrestrial life, but there are at least three different ways that a lifeless planet can produce it.
The zero-point energy of empty space is not zero. Even with all the physics we know, we have no idea how to calculate what it ought to be.
If stars don’t go supernova at first, they can get a second chance after becoming a white dwarf. But can their companions survive?
We pretend to be in control, but we have frighteningly little knowledge upon which to base our life’s decisions.
After a wait of 397 years in orbit, we’re finally getting a truly ‘Great’ Conjunction. Recently, December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn finally met. Looking towards the southwest skies from […]
65 million years ago, a massive asteroid struck Earth. Not only did Jupiter not stop it, but it probably caused the impact itself.
All across the Universe, planets come in a wide variety of sizes, masses, compositions, and temperatures. And most have rain and snow.
Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there some way to avoid “having to live with it?”
One galaxy may have eaten one of its slightly smaller, more primitive neighbors.
If you had a clear western horizon, you had your shot at this view! On September 9, 2021, the Moon and Venus nearly overlapped. A simulated view of the post-sunset skies […]
If it weren’t for the intricate rules of quantum physics, we wouldn’t have formed neutral atoms “only” ~380,000 years after the Big Bang.
We can do so much more, so much faster, with the same data. When you think about how astronomy works, you probably think about observers pointing telescopes at objects, collecting data […]
Gamma-ray bursts are among the most energetic cosmic events of all. On October 9, 2022, a remarkable one occurred: the brightest ever seen.
The Universe certainly formed stars, at one point, for the very first time. But we haven’t found them yet. Here’s what everyone should know.
The newly discovered galaxies are 62 times bigger than the Milky Way.
Using image analysis tools developed for astronomy, researchers are predicting cancer therapy responses.
By the end of the decade, we may discover one million black holes. A large enough mass in a compact volume inevitably forms a black hole. Both inside and outside the […]
A new government report describes 144 sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena.
Centuries ago, the plague forced people into quarantine for years. Isaac Newton and Galileo used the time to revolutionize the world.
We think of physical reality as what objectively exists, independent of any observer. But relativity and quantum physics say otherwise.
New studies find the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov is the most “pristine” ever discovered.
With radio and X-ray data combined, we’re understanding how energy flows like never before. When we look out at the Universe on the largest cosmic scales of all, gravity is the […]
From succubi to aliens, stories of abductions or other unsettling encounters have been with us for millennia. What explains them?
It’s last “hard” test is over. Now, we wait for its launch. Despite numerous delays, funding crises, and technical challenges, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is almost ready. The science instruments […]
When we look at the night sky, we may see junk instead of stars.