Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Forty Starlink satellites were destroyed earlier this year in a geomagnetic storm.
moon rock
Knowing that technology would advance in the future, NASA put some moon rock samples into storage without opening them. Now, they have.
ai drone meteorite
Aerial drone footage was sent to an AI trained to track down space rocks.
The far infrared reveals both the coldest and hottest gas in the Universe, and can teach us what no other wavelength range can.
Is there any good reason for assigning North and South the way we do, or could we have just as easily done the reverse?
el gordo colliding galaxy cluster
The laws of physics state that you can't create or destroy matter without also creating or destroying an equal amount of antimatter. So how are we here?
A black-and-white abstract image featuring a dense field of small dots and a central dark oval, evoking the mysterious allure of black holes, surrounded by a lighter, glowing area.
To understand the edges of our universe, we’ll need to explore the edges of our own philosophies.
John Templeton Foundation
planets march 2022
In the night sky for March of 2022, only stars and the Moon, not planets, will greet you. The real show, however, arrives just before dawn.
existence of God
Despite all that we've learned about the Universe, there remain unanswered, and possibly unanswerable, questions. Could "God" be the answer?
Astronomers used supercomputers and an international network of antennas to create the stunning map.
how much dark matter
If dark matter exists in a large halo in our galaxy, made up of particles, then it's passing through us constantly. But how much?
hot big bang
When we look out at the Universe, even with Hubble, we're only seeing the closest, biggest, brightest galaxies. Here's where the rest are.
largest planet
There's a limit to how large planets can be, and it's only about double the radius of Jupiter. At least, so far.
hottest planet
Despite being the closest planet to the Sun, Mercury "only" reaches 800 °F at its hottest. Venus is always hotter, even at night.
amateur astronomy
Professional astronomy images are the gold standard. But this Large Magellanic Cloud composite is the amateur community's best image ever.
A Mars-like visual.
Our research on a Martian meteorite provides new clues about early surface conditions on the red planet.
is the multiverse real
Is the multiverse real? It's one of the hottest questions in all of theoretical physics. We invited two astrophysicists to join the debate.
Comet C/2014 Q2 Lovejoy
“When molecules misbehave, it can lead to great insight.”
chirality
Life is possible because of asymmetries, such as an imbalance between matter and antimatter and the "handedness" (chirality) of molecules.
galaxies without dark matter
Out of all the galaxies we know, only a few little ones are missing dark matter. At last, we finally understand why.
black hole hit Earth
The odds are slim, but the consequences would be devastating. Here's what would happen, plus how to avoid it.
The Kardashev scale ranks civilizations from Type 1 to Type 3 based on energy harvesting.
James Webb Space Telescope
Once science operations begin for James Webb, we'll never look at the Universe the same way again. Here's what everyone should know.
Lake Baikal
Lake Baikal holds nearly one-fourth of Earth's fresh surface water and is the most scientifically interesting lake on our planet.
Hopewell mound
A study proposes that an ancient trading network, called the Hopewell tradition, may have been wiped out by what is known as a cosmic airburst.
With 1550 distinct type Ia supernovae measured across ~10 billion years of cosmic time, the Pantheon+ data set reveals our Universe.
space expanding
Yes, the Universe is expanding, but you might wonder, "How fast is it expanding?"
average star
Please stop calling our Sun an "average star." It is philosophically dubious and astronomically incorrect.
bernardinelli-bernstein
65 million years ago, an asteroid strike caused the 5th great mass extinction. Could we save Earth, today, from a similar event?