Astronomy

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.

Persistence, says Lindy Elkins-Tanton, has led to her success in science.

Seven years after their discovery, the ripples in spacetime have opened new windows on the universe’s deepest secrets.

Why Earth wasn’t swept into the dustbin of space.

How advanced civilizations could leave us a message of their presence.

Life as we know it was seeded by rocks from outer space.

When astronomers tried to confirm a signal from the birth of the first stars after the Big Bang, they saw nothing.

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 […]