Remembering Frank Drake, who transformed the search for alien life & extraterrestrial intelligence into a full-fledged scientific endeavor.
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If you truly want to understand modern astrophysics, knowing how to read this graph is essential.
Avi Loeb says it’s aliens. Every other astronomer disagrees. Here’s why. In 2017, an astronomical event occurred that was unlike any other: for the first time, we observed an object that […]
The ‘final parsec problem’ is still a mystery for astronomers. When it comes to black holes in the Universe, we know there are at least two major types. There are […]
With 1550 distinct type Ia supernovae measured across ~10 billion years of cosmic time, the Pantheon+ data set reveals our Universe.
One single plot of data embodies the most profound thing we know about the stars.
When you don’t have enough clues to bring your detective story to a close, you should expect that your educated guesses will all be wrong.
The night sky is already noticeably different, and bigger changes are ahead. For all of human history until the launch of Sputnik, the only objects in the night sky were naturally […]
Unless you have a critical mass of heavy elements when your star first forms, planets, including rocky ones, are practically impossible.
Known as primordial black holes, they could thoroughly change our Universe’s history. But the evidence is strongly against them.
A new study from NASA and the SETI Institute comes up with an exciting number of potentially life-supporting planets.
Watch the plasma slide down the prominence like a roller coaster! Our Sun, despite it’s outward appearance as a perfectly hot sphere, is anything but uniform. When take a closer look […]
Don’t miss the summer’s greatest natural sights of all. Some of the natural highlights of our night sky are easy to overlook. Every year, you’ll hear about some of the brightest, […]
Unless you plan to try again in 6,800 years, this week is your shot.
There are so many problems, all across planet Earth, that harm and threaten humanity. Why invest in researching the Universe?
Just say no to artist’s illustrations. This is what the Universe actually looks like. The Universe we observe often surpasses our greatest imaginings. This 20-year time-lapse of stars near the center […]
There are two fundamentally different ways of measuring the Universe’s expansion. They disagree. “Early dark energy” might save us.
Debris from Pluto-sized collisions, not aliens, are streaming through the galaxy. In 2017, scientists discovered an object passing through our Solar System that was unlike anything else we had ever seen. […]
The Roman Space Telescope will study the expansion of the universe and search for distant planets.
GPS holds the key, but astronomers can’t do it without help. Since 2019, the night sky — as seen by both human eyes and the telescopes we use to enhance our views of […]
Even the ones hunting for aliens aren’t excited. Here’s the reason why. In this world, there are very few issues more polarizing than the notion of aliens. For as long as […]
No matter how your year went, Hubble’s views of the Universe never disappoint. Year after year, Hubble’s telescopic views are unparalleled. Saturn, its rings, and 5 of its moons are […]
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will truly usher in a new era of astronomy. If you want to find the very first galaxy of all, you have to understand not […]
Astronomers propose new estimate of Earth-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy.
Mass determines a star’s fate… except when it doesn’t. Supernova events are common, visually spectacular astronomical cataclysms. In 1987, a supernova just ~168,000 light-years away was observed in the Large Magellanic […]
Construction is nearly complete for a camera that will take 3,200-megapixel panoramas of the southern night sky.
If you think you know how an astronomical nova works, buckle up. You’re in for a ride like you never expected.
We only detected our very first gravitational wave in 2015. Over the next two decades, we’ll have thousands more.
Today, it’s common knowledge, but it took scientists centuries to figure out.