Astronomy
250 articles-
The Sneaky Force Behind Our Sun’s Violent Outbursts
A strange discovery from flying close to the sun.
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The Case for a 200-Year Space Mission
How a composer is working with NASA scientists to shift our thinking about obsolescence.
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This Molecule May Have Seeded Earth Life
A new finding boosts Panspermia, the theory that life on Earth originated in deep space.
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When Stars Twinkle, They Make Music
Astronomers are learning to decode the meanings hidden in stellar songs.
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The Shiniest Planet Has Clouds of Metal and Glass
This exoplanet’s sun should have obliterated its atmosphere. It’s still going strong.
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What Can We Do with Moon Dust?
Lunar soil is rich with clues about our origin and future home in space. Scientists can’t wait to get their hands dirty.
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Humans Living on Mars May Not Be Human for Long
Why colonists on the Red Planet are bound to become a new species.
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Where Earth Got Its Water
A new theory shows Earth’s water was more locally sourced than ever thought before.
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A New View of the Martian Globe
This map of Mars provides an in-depth look at its expansive geography and topography.
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Saturn’s Rings Could Be Younger Than Flowers
We’re lucky that a relatively recent catastrophe created the gas-giant spectacle.
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Why Do So Many Moons Have Oceans?
One question for Julie Castillo-Rogez, a planetary geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Searching for Life Under a Methane Rain
What future missions to Saturn’s moon Titan will reveal about the universe.
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What the Webb Telescope Really Showed Us About the Cosmos’ Beginning
And how the family business first took me there.
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Astronomers Dig Up the Stars That Birthed the Milky Way
There once was a cosmic seed that sprouted the Milky Way galaxy. Astronomers have discovered its last surviving remnants.
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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.
