We’ve already observed three cases where it’s happened. When you look at an object in space, it’s pretty easy to tell if it’s a star or a planet. Stars are […]
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We can describe what we see happening, but we don’t understand why. Despite our vast cosmic knowledge, enormous unknowns remain. The quantum fluctuations inherent to space, stretched across the Universe […]
Our views from the red planet’s surface are more spectacular than ever. Ever since the earliest spaceflight, humanity has reached for Mars. This photo composite shows Meande Ring, a river on […]
If you want to understand what the Universe is, how it began, evolved, and will eventually end, astrophysics is the only way to go.
Here are the best answers science has to a myriad of commonly asked questions. Over the past 12 months, the status of humans on planet Earth has changed dramatically. The […]
Identity politics has become a highly contentious element within modern political discourse. Those who support this approach believe it bolsters the presence and power of those who would otherwise be […]
Sound waves behave quite differently on Mars than on Earth.
It doesn’t propagate at infinite speeds, and that’s a problem for Newton. When you look at the Sun, the light you’re seeing isn’t the light that’s being emitted right now. Instead, […]
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 […]
Not nearly well enough. And we should all be concerned. In 1859, the science of solar physics truly began with the largest eruption in recorded history: the Carrington event. Prior […]
Imagine Heraclitus spending an afternoon down by the river…
Delaying or refusing vaccines for non-medical reasons is literally a killer choice. When it comes to issues at the intersection of science and society, there are all sorts of things that […]
A theoretical physicist returns to Penrose and Hameroff’s theory of “quantum consciousness.”
The Vertebrate Genomes Project may spell good news for the kakapo and the vaquita.
Yes, the Big Bang is real, but what about what came before? If you ask anyone about the origin of some phenomenon that we’ve observed, they’ll usually default to the same […]
Leap years will only get us through the next few thousand years before we have to fix it. With every year that passes, we assume that two separate things will both […]
Quantum physics isn’t quite magic, but it requires an entirely novel set of rules to make sense of the quantum universe.
If computers can beat us at chess, maybe they could beat us at math, too.
How quickly is it expanding today, and how does that expansion rate change over time? What is the Universe made of? How quickly is it expanding today, and how does that […]
Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago find that death triggers increased activity in certain brain cells.
A reversal in Earth’s magnetic field 42,000 years ago triggered climate catastrophes and mass extinctions. Can the field flip again?
One image can give over 100 times the data we now get from Hubble. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, revealed the previously unseen Universe. The most distant galaxy ever […]
There’s no such thing as a miracle drug.
There was a time in the Universe before we formed stars. Here’s how we’re exploring it. When we look out at the Universe today, we see that it’s full of […]
Researchers discover strange behavior in magnetars, ultra-powerful magnetic stars.
Americans don’t like to ride the bus. There are ways to fix that.
Sure, we’re warming now. But will this continue, or will natural factors change things? According to our best understanding of Earth’s climate, the global average temperature has increased significantly over the […]
Learn how to practice “self-indifference.”
Using atoms to probe the Universe reveals the complete Standard Model. If you wanted to uncover the secrets of the Universe for yourself, all you’d have to do is interrogate […]
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 […]