Astronomy
268 articles-
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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Top 10 Underrated Astronomy Papers of 2022
There was a lot more to this year than stunning images.
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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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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.
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The Moon Is Underrated
New research hints at what makes Earth’s moon special.
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Readers Love Curious George. I Fell in Love with the Author’s Astronomy Books.
H.A. Rey recreated star maps with wit, grace, and accuracy.
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Planets Are Born from Dust Trap Rings
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 […]
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We Discovered a Rogues’ Gallery of Monster-Sized Gas Giants
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 […]
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A Wrinkle in Nature Could Lead to Alien Life
There may be more than one way to tune a universe for life.