Astronomy
273 articles-
The Dwarf Planet on Our Doorstep
The series of fortunate astrophysical events that gave us Ceres.
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Shadows in the Big Bang Afterglow Reveal Invisible Cosmic Structures
Cosmologists are using secondary signatures from the cosmic microwave background to map the universe’s hidden matter.
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How Will the Universe Evolve?
One question for Jillian Scudder, astrophysicist and author of “The Milky Way Smells of Rum & Raspberries.”
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Humans Could Go the Way of the Dinosaurs
The time is now to prepare for the cosmic object that could spell our end.
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What Makes the Milky Way Special?
One question for Miguel Aragon, a computational physicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
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New Telescopes Will Help Us SETL
Extraterrestrial life doesn’t need to be intelligent to be worth finding.
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What Is Our Universe Expanding Into?
One question for Paul Sutter, a theoretical cosmologist at Stony Brook University.
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Should People Live on the Moon?
One question for Joseph Silk, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University.
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Will We Know Alien Life When We See It?
The defining problem in the search for ET.
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The Remarkable Emptiness of Existence
Early scientists didn’t know it, but we do now: The void in the universe is alive.
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Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Reveals Possible Hints of Dark Matter
A recent gamma-ray burst known as the BOAT—“brightest of all time”—appears to have produced a high-energy particle that shouldn’t exist. For some, dark matter provides the explanation.
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Should We Really Be Messing with Asteroid Orbits?
With one small error or manipulation, cosmic interference would spell disaster.
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A Step-by-Step Guide to Our Solar System’s Demise
First the oceans boil off. Then things really get serious.
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A Mirror of Our Best Selves
An astrobiologist annotates what we are seeing in this James Webb Space Telescope image.
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This Planetary Scientist Is Always Reaching for Something Big
Persistence, says Lindy Elkins-Tanton, has led to her success in science.
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Gravitational Waves Continue to Astound
Seven years after their discovery, the ripples in spacetime have opened new windows on the universe’s deepest secrets.
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Were It Not for Cosmic Good Fortune, We Wouldn’t Be Here
Why Earth wasn’t swept into the dustbin of space.
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We Were Here
How advanced civilizations could leave us a message of their presence.
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The Real Impact of Meteorites on Earth
Life as we know it was seeded by rocks from outer space.
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Four Years On, New Experiment Sees No Sign of “Cosmic Dawn”
When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.
