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 […]
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The simple sights of sunrises and sunsets, spectacularly but seldom seem. “Lost — yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, […]
Obscured by our galactic plane, this once-unknown sight of the southern skies — Westerlund 2 — may house the Milky Way’s next supernova! “The wonder is, not that the field of the stars is […]
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 […]
Scientists work on it, it’s consistent with science, and it hopes to be the biggest scientific breakthrough of all. But it’s missing one key ingredient. “As of now, string theorists […]
Dark matter makes up the vast majority of mass in the Universe, and most of it is unknown. But not all of it. “A cosmic mystery of immense proportions, once […]
And are there independent ways to check? “Youth is the gift of nature, but age is a work of art.” –Stanislaw Jerzy Lec Each week at Starts With A Bang, […]
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 […]
We know the Standard Model isn’t all there is. So why haven’t we found a single particle outside of it? “I often feel a discomfort, a kind of embarrassment, when I […]
A live blog event from Nobel Prizewinner Art McDonald. “It’s ironic: in order to observe the Sun, you need to go kilometers underground.” –Art McDonald In the 1960s, a huge […]
If you saw the lunar eclipse from a city, here’s what you missed. “The reports of the eclipse parties not only described the scientific observations in great detail, but also […]
The first human colonies might not be on the surface of Mars, but amidst the clouds of Venus. “I remember as a kid having a balloon and accidentally letting the […]
Elon Musk says nuking Mars would get it nice and toasty for humans. Is that really within the realm of possibility?
“What was scattered, gathers.What was gathered, blows away.” –Heraclitus When you think of our Solar System, you think of planets (and other object) orbiting our central star, with moons (or […]
A scarcity of crucial resources like water and air, and the high stakes of even temporarily running out, suggest that any Martian government would function as a military dictatorship.
A recent spat between Sen. Ted Cruz and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden represents the always-sticky relationship between Congress and the U.S. space agency.
They won this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics, but their legacy’s just beginning. “I know all about neutrinos, and my friend here knows about everything else in astrophysics.” –John Bahcall, […]
The way you experience time changes when you near the speed of light. So what happens when you actually reach it? “Everyone has his dream; I would like to live […]
There’s no such thing as absolute time, but after 13.8 billion years, is anything relatively different? “The total number of people who understand relativistic time, even after eighty years since […]
NASA’s great observatories combine to give us a unique view of a sight no human ever saw the first time around. “And no one showed us to the landAnd no […]
The world’s most powerful and influential nations are democracies that have been ineffective (at best) at combating climate change.
Now that New Horizons has flown by the Plutonian system, can it be considered a planet after all? “Words are the source of misunderstandings.” –Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Back in 1930, […]
With Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra combined, we get a view like no other. “But I see it differently now. There has to be a middle. Without it, nothing can truly […]
A galaxy cluster that’s been actively devouring matter for hundreds of millions of years blows all the records away. “The world exploded into billions of atoms, and when it rearranged […]
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 […]
Is it possible that our problems indicate a flaw in the theory of gravity? “I soon became convinced… that all the theorizing would be empty brain exercise and therefore a […]
Let’s first cut carbon emissions that don’t make positive returns on human happiness.
Scientists are keeping their eyes on social media in order to track and map the appearance of auroras.
But especially for anyone who listened to your “Celebration of Creation” speech. “In science it often happens that scientists say, ‘You know that’s a really good argument; my position is […]
The glorious meteor shower peaking this week is the most consistent, year after year. Here’s why. “Men of genius are often dull and inert in society; as the blazing meteor, […]