Astronomy

Extraterrestrial life doesn’t need to be intelligent to be worth finding.

One question for Paul Sutter, a theoretical cosmologist at Stony Brook University.

One question for Joseph Silk, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University.

The defining problem in the search for ET.

Early scientists didn’t know it, but we do now: The void in the universe is alive.

There was a lot more to this year than stunning images.

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.

With one small error or manipulation, cosmic interference would spell disaster.

First the oceans boil off. Then things really get serious.

An astrobiologist annotates what we are seeing in this James Webb Space Telescope image.

New research hints at what makes Earth’s moon special.

H.A. Rey recreated star maps with wit, grace, and accuracy.

All we are is dust in the wind, man. The same goes for the planets and asteroids and comets. Starting from our dusty beginnings, gravity and a mess of other forces conspired to build our solar system. There’s a venerable tradition of trying to figure out what that grand and hectic process must have looked […]

It doesn’t feel right to see a toddler walking down the street by themselves. Toddlers don’t just go rogue, and if they do they are quickly chased down by a parent or grandparent or teacher and brought back where they belong. Most planets are like toddlers: They follow a well-behaved orbit around a star. It […]

There may be more than one way to tune a universe for life.