Astrophysics

Astrophysics

infinity
And if it does, could we ever measure it?
Uranus
We've only seen Uranus up close once: from Voyager 2, back in 1986. The next time we do it, its features will look entirely different.
jwst change science
On July 12, 2022, JWST will release its first science images. Here are 5 ways the telescope's findings could change science forever.
life on mars
Researchers have discovered 830-million-year-old microbes living inside a salt rock on Earth. Could the same occur on Mars?
multiverse
There is nothing more important to science than its ability to prove ideas wrong.
galaxy cluster colors
Over time, the Universe becomes less dominated by dark matter and more dominated by dark energy. Is one transforming into the other?
big crunch
13.8 billion years ago, the hot Big Bang gave rise to the Universe we know. Here's why the reverse, a Big Crunch, isn't how it will end.
atom
Atomic clocks keep time accurately to within 1 second every 33 billion years. Nuclear clocks could blow them all away.
Voyager 1
In all of human history, only 5 spacecraft have had the right trajectory to exit the Solar System. Will they ever catch Voyager 1?
Credit: CNSA
Data from the Zhurong rover suggests the Red Planet was wet more recently than we thought.
mars sound
The high pitches from the flute and the harp would reach your ears before the notes from the tuba and the cello.
black hole spacetime
Everything is made of matter, not antimatter, including black holes. If antimatter black holes existed, what would they do?
advanced civilization
Do the laws of physics place a hard limit on how far technology can advance, or can we re-write those laws?
runaway black hole
At four million solar masses, the Milky Way's supermassive black hole is quite small for a galaxy its size. Did we lose the original?
Time isn't the same for everyone, even on Earth. Flying around the world gave Einstein the ultimate test. No one is immune from relativity.
The idea of black holes has been around for over 200 years. Today, we're seeing them in previously unimaginable ways.
Silhouette of a person standing on a field at night, gazing at a clear sky filled with stars and glowing celestial objects, evoking the wonder described by Jim Al-Khalili.
Popular media often frame scientists as having a cold, sterile view of the world. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
John Templeton Foundation
supermassive black hole
Astronomers in 2017 caught an image of a supermassive black hole in a galaxy far, far away. Doing it in our own galaxy is a huge milestone.
After years of analysis, the Event Horizon Telescope team has finally revealed what the Milky Way's central black hole looks like.
round
In Sun-like stars, hydrogen gets fused into helium. In the Big Bang, hydrogen fusion also makes helium. But they aren't close to the same.
cryovolcanoes
We have long thought that Pluto was completely frozen solid, but the discovery of cryovolcanoes challenges that assumption.
ancient greeks aliens
Speculation about the existence of aliens goes all the way back at least to the Greek philosophers. Their arguments will sound familiar.
planetary nebula
Everything that gets heated up has to, somehow, radiate that energy away. Here's what we see when that happens in the Universe.
local bubble
For a thousand light-years in all directions, there's a "bubble" that the Sun sits at the center of. Here's the story behind it.
Europa may be difficult to access. But if a recent study is correct, its subsurface ocean would be more accessible than previously thought.
science
Nature is a whole. The sciences should be, too.
gravity time
Extremely precise atomic clocks are not just of theoretical interest; they could help detect impending volcanic eruptions or melting glaciers.
humans universe
All life forms, anywhere in our Universe, are chemically connected yet completely unique.