Search
Astronomy
Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 confirmed exoplanets — very few of which resemble Earth.
On December 9, 2023, Halley's Comet reached aphelion: its farthest point from the Sun. As it returns, here are 10 facts you should know.
The first elements in the Universe formed just minutes after the Big Bang, but it took hundreds of thousands of years before atoms formed.
Each December, the Geminid meteor shower puts on a show for skywatchers across Earth. With a new Moon at 2023's peak, it'll be outstanding!
Nearly half of all stars are born in binary systems, with the most massive ones dying the fastest. It's not pretty for the "second" star.
Freethink's weekly countdown of the biggest space news, featuring Starship's second test flight, a new "dark mysteries" telescope, and more.
The Big Bang theory is not threatened, but astrophysicists have some explaining to do.
"I grew up in New Jersey in the 1970s and that experience gave me everything I needed to become a skeptic."
The paper does not prove the existence of dark matter, but it mostly eliminates a rival theory called Modified Newtonian Dynamics.
In 2022, Hubble owned the record for most distant galaxy. Today, that galaxy is down to the 9th most distant object. Thanks, JWST.
Two of the answers add a dimension to physics that doesn’t belong there. Maybe we could call it "astrotheology."
With LEDs bringing brighter nighttime lighting than ever before, and thousands of new satellites polluting the skies, astronomy needs help.
Finding alien technology on the seafloor would be truly incredible. This extraordinary claim, however, is debunked by the actual evidence.
38mins
Our host Kmele went inside Fermilab, America’s premiere particle accelerator facility, to find out how the smallest particles in the universe can teach us about its biggest mysteries.
In 1667, a core-collapse supernova happened right here in the Milky Way, invisible to all humans. ~350 years later, here's what JWST sees.
When we look at our Sun, its properties are incredibly constant, varying by merely ~0.1% over time. But all stars don't play by those rules.
Light can be turned into heat, which can then be turned into motion, and the effect of that motion can be turned into a big squeeze.
In our Universe, all stable atomic nuclei have protons in them; there's no stable "neutronium" at all. But what's the reason why?
With JWST, Chandra, and gravitational lensing combined, evidence has emerged for the earliest black hole ever. And wow, is it a surprise!
The TRAPPIST-1 system is a treasure trove of possibilities and questions. Observations by JWST have just begun.
If the Universe is expanding, and the expansion is accelerating, what does that tell us about the cause of the expanding Universe?
In 1054, a core-collapse supernova occurred 6500 light-years away. In 2023, JWST imaged the remnant, and might solve a massive mystery.
Out of the four rocky planets in our Solar System, only Earth presently has plate tectonics. But billions of years ago, Venus had them, too.
35mins
Dispatches host Kmele Foster is on a journey to understand humanity’s role in the cosmos. His first stop? The Atacama Plateau in Northern Chile, home to the darkest deserts and largest telescopes on earth.
For the first time, astronomers have created a data-driven estimate for how many black holes are in our Universe: more than anyone expected.
There's a quantum limit to how precisely anything can be measured. By squeezing light, LIGO has now surpassed all previous limitations.
JWST has already broken many of Hubble's cosmic records. Perhaps additional record-breakers already exist within this data-rich image?
Although we still don't know the question, we know that the answer to life, the Universe, and everything is 42. Here are 5 possibilities.
From ancient Greek cosmology to today's mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, explore the relentless quest to understand the Universe's invisible forces.
The Universe, although violent, is filled with creation events following destructive ones. 1850 light-years away, both types are unfolding.