Astronomy
‘Radical Change’ Needed After Latest Neutron Star Collision
A recent neutron star merger has defied astronomers’ expectations, leading them to question longstanding ideas about neutron stars and the supernovas that create them. “We have to go back to the drawing board.”
Galactic Settlement and the Fermi Paradox
The results of galactic colonization models are a mixed bag for SETI optimists.
Do We Share DNA with ET?
If there’s life beyond Earth, the genetic code might be our common bond.
Top Dark Matter Candidate Loses Ground to Tiniest Competitor
Physicists have long searched for hypothesized dark matter particles called WIMPs. Now, focus may be shifting to the axion — an ultra-lightweight particle whose existence would solve two mysteries at once.
If We Believe in Dark Matter, Why Not Extraterrestrial Life?
Avi Loeb has a lot of thoughts about aliens and scientific prejudice.
Physics Nobel Honors Early Universe and Exoplanet Discoveries
The astronomers Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz won half of the prize for their 1995 discovery of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a nearby star. The cosmologist James Peebles won the other half for work exploring the structure of the universe.
