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Interstellar Travel
Our dream of journeying to other star systems has a big obstacle to overcome: the vast interstellar distances. Can antimatter get us there?
23mins
Brian Cox examines why, despite billions of stars and trillions of planets, we have found no evidence of other intelligent life.
There will always be "wolf-criers" whose claims wither under scrutiny. But aliens are certainly out there, if science dares to find them.
11mins
"We're stuck at type zero. But what would it take to move between universes? What would it take to enter a black hole? What would it take to break the light barrier?"
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile will image the southern sky using the largest digital camera ever built.
18mins
“We are beginning to take our first steps out into the cosmic ocean… and the water seems inviting.”
We see objects whose light only arrives just now. But we see them as they were in the past: when that now-arriving light was first emitted.
The problem for galactic-scale civilizations comes down to two numbers.
Here's the dark side of first contact.
Two scientists recently wagered a bottle of whiskey. The bet? Whether we'll find evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life in the next 15 years.
"If we find just one other example of biology out there, then life is not an accident."
12mins
There are a few theories as to why we’ve never found other intelligent life in our Universe. Physicist Brian Cox walks us through them.
The concept of the warp drive is currently at odds with everything we know to be true about physics.
This oddball system of three stars might be our best chance at finding nearby life in the Universe.
Perhaps we should be searching for “other Mercurys” rather than “other Earths.”
Remembering Frank Drake, who transformed the search for alien life & extraterrestrial intelligence into a full-fledged scientific endeavor.
Quantum communication offers a surer path to sending an interstellar message, as well as receiving one. But can we do it?
The closest star system to Earth, just over 4 light-years away, has three stars and at least one Earth-sized planet. Is it time to go there?
With advanced laser technology and an appropriate sail, we could accelerate objects to ~20% the speed of light. But would they survive?
There are a few possible solutions to the problem of interstellar travel, but they largely remain within the realm of science fiction.
If we succeed in contacting them, will that seal humanity’s doom? One of the most wondrous questions of all concerns our place in the Universe. After 13.8 billion years of […]
Debris from Pluto-sized collisions, not aliens, are streaming through the galaxy. In 2017, scientists discovered an object passing through our Solar System that was unlike anything else we had ever seen. […]
It doesn’t have to be a science-fiction dream. For as long as human beings have been watching the night sky, we’ve dreamed of visiting other worlds and truly seeing what’s […]
It’s one of only five spacecraft that will exit the Solar System, and the only one we have a chance to aim at another star. Of all the spacecraft ever launched, […]
Two of our biggest science-fiction dreams might not remain fiction for much longer. Here’s how 21st-century science could make it real. For as long as human beings have looked up at […]
Forget about alien nonsense. The Universe as it actually is doesn’t need any embellishments to be interesting. In our Solar System, the planets, moons, asteroids, comets and other masses are […]
Traveling interstellar distances in human lifetimes is an amazing dream, but it won’t ever be achieved like this. For centuries, ever since we realized that every star we can see in […]
The ability to instantaneously jump from one location in space to another clearly violates the laws of physics. Or does it? There are a few rules in the Universe that seem […]
This is what we’ve learned from first object ever discovered to enter our Solar System from interstellar space. Billions of years ago, our Solar System was an extraordinarily different place […]