Space & Astrophysics
Newton thought that gravitation would happen instantly, propagating at infinite speeds. Einstein showed otherwise; gravity isn’t instant.
Looking at our planet with post-Copernican eyes has the power to change how we relate to it and each other.
There are a few clues that the Universe isn’t completely adding up. Even so, the standard model of cosmology holds up stronger than ever.
With ~400 billion stars in the Milky Way and 6-20 trillion galaxies overall, that makes for a lot of stars. But not as many as you’d think.
Experts say it’s likely space junk—and there’s plenty more where that came from.
The biggest, brightest galaxies are the easiest to spot, but the tiniest ones teach us about how the Milky Way assembled and grew up!
American students are being compelled to specialize earlier and earlier. Here’s what it takes to build a successful physics foundation.
When the average person has a “theory,” they’re just guessing. But for a scientist, a theory is the pinnacle of what we can achieve.
The “Ring Nebula,” known for almost 250 years, is so much more than a Ring. With JWST’s capabilities, we’re seeing more than ever before.
By looking down, scientists are looking back in time.
Life in the supremely vast cosmos is incredibly rare. We need a new vision for our living planet and for ourselves.
The Universe isn’t just expanding, the expansion is also accelerating. If that’s true, how will the Milky Way and Andromeda eventually merge?
Despite the vast number of planets in the Universe, Earth’s specific evolutionary history guarantees that its life forms — including humans — are utterly unique.
When what we predict and what we measure don’t add up, that’s a sign there’s something new to learn. Could it be a new fundamental force?
The first observational evidence showing the Universe is expanding is 100 years old now: in 2023. Here’s the story of its 100th anniversary.
Ever wonder what would happen if we got sucked into a black hole? Turns out we could live in it for a while — if it was big enough.
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How fast is the Universe expanding? Two major methods disagree. New JWST data, just released, strengthens this Hubble tension even further.
Whether you call it 10 quintillion, 10 million trillion, or 10 billion billion, it’s a 1 followed by 19 zeroes.
Some constants, like the speed of light, exist with no underlying explanation. How many “fundamental constants” does our Universe require?
Two fundamentally different ways of measuring the expanding Universe disagree. What’s the root cause of this Hubble tension?
The Schumann resonances are the background hum of the entire planet. But they don’t affect humans in any way.
As Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery… consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
The visible Universe extends 46.1 billion light-years from us, while we’ve probed scales down to as small as ~10^-19 meters.
How scientists are hearing the gravitational background “hum” of the Universe for the very first time.
Einstein’s laws of gravity have been challenged many times, but have always emerged victorious. Could wide binary stars change all that?
Each of our three nearest stars might have an Earth-like planet in orbit around it. Here’s what we’ll learn when we finally observe it.
From when its light was emitted, the El Gordo galaxy cluster might be the most massive object in all of existence. Here’s how JWST sees it.
Scientists are notoriously resistant to new ideas. Are they falling prey to groupthink? Or are our current theories just that successful?
