The “constant points of light” in the sky are often anything but. “To be is to be the value of a variable.” –Willard Van Orman Quine We look up at […]
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Where new stars and the matter they form from fight for dominance. “People get cranky when you burst their bubble. Over time, advances in astronomy have relentlessly reinforced the utter […]
It’s what holds the nuclei in atoms together, overcoming electric repulsion. But how does it work? “I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say […]
Painting for Picasso was rule-breaking, serious business, but sculpture was rule-innocent child’s play.
A series of mysterious white features lurk at the bottom of one of its most massive craters. Here’s what they could be, and how we’ll find out! “One of the […]
Can the world’s most fantastic and speculative “theory of everything” candidate shed light on the Universe’s most invisible objects? “I just think too many nice things have happened in string […]
There are three things an idea must do to become a full-fledged scientific theory. How does the Multiverse stack up? “It’s hard to build models of inflation that don’t lead […]
With the full suite of evidence, there’s no escaping dark matter. “A cosmic mystery of immense proportions, once seemingly on the verge of solution, has deepened and left astronomers and […]
That picture of you at the Royal Observatory astride the Greenwich Meridian? It’s a lie.
Scientists are keeping their eyes on social media in order to track and map the appearance of auroras.
Why look for rare, precious metals on Earth when you can find them here? “Well, this is a thing unheard of. An Elf would go underground, where a Dwarf dare […]
Before you tout the next exoplanet as “the most Earth-like ever,” ask whether that’s true, and whether that’s even a good thing. “You can spend too much time wondering which […]
Why is gravity so different from the other forces? On the hierarchy problem. “Science enhances the moral value of life, because it furthers a love of truth and reverence — love of […]
According to relativity, there’s no universal frame of reference. But the Big Bang gave us one anyway. “The slow philosophy is not about doing everything in tortoise mode. It’s less […]
At some point, a star’s core runs out of fuel. Then what? “Man loves company — even if it is only that of a small burning candle.”–Georg C. Lichtenberg You normally think […]
Light and sound are waves that we all know. But gravity makes them, too. “Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, […]
Would there be only blackness past the event horizon? Or something more? They say ‘A flat ocean is an ocean of trouble. And an ocean of waves… can also be […]
Stars are born, live and die, but their light tells a remarkable story that changes over time. “Aristotle taught that stars are made of a different matter than the four […]
New Horizons is closing in on what was once our Solar System’s most distant planet. How did it get there? “Even in hindsight, I would not change one whit of […]
The possibilities were almost limitless, so why does everything line up? “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless […]
Or if it were perfectly smooth, instead, could we have still had stars and galaxies by today? “First, you should check out my house. It’s, like, kinda lame, but way […]
From our spiral shape to the heavy elements expelled in supernovae, our galaxy’s gravity reveals far more than we see. “I think if I had to choose, I would rather […]
Living on the moon may be a far reach — chances are any lunar colony would be located inside the moon.
The Anthropic Principle is more limited than we like to believe. “There is a voice inside of youThat whispers all day long,‘I feel this is right for me,I know that […]
Do craters only come in isolation? These images will make you think again! “These spots have never been observed by anyone before me; and from my observations of them, often […]
Even the dead stars still shine today, and will for a long time. But they, too, will fade to black. “As the blackness of the night recedes so does the […]
They’re our best measurement of dark energy, even better than supernovae! “If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.”–Philip K. Dick Imagine you’re looking […]
It’s the leftover glow from the Big Bang. Here’s what it teaches us, and why you shouldn’t worry about “anomalies” in the CMB. “The radiation left over from the Big […]
How, with a sunny solstice, you can figure out how much our planet is tilted! “Soon the earth will tilt on its axis and begin to dance to the reggae […]
Will you explode, freeze, or boil? Advice on how to maximize your life. “A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces […]