There Were Glaciers… on Mercury?
I have lost count of how many times I have given public lectures and explained the temperature differences between Mercury…
What’s Going on With the Mars Sample Return Mission?
Anybody with a modicum of intellectual curiosity is looking forward to the NASA/ESA Mars Sample Return Mission. NASA's Perseverance rover…
Wow. JWST Just Found Methane in an Exoplanet Atmosphere
If there's one chemical that causes excitement in the search for biosignatures on other worlds, it's methane. It's not a…
Webb’s Infrared Eye Reveals the Heart of the Milky Way
The JWST is taking a break from studying the distant Universe and has trained its infrared eye on the heart…
A Galaxy Seen When the Universe was Only 332 Million Years Old
It’s wonderful to watch the fascination on people’s faces when you explain to them that studying distant objects in the…
In the Shadow of Saturn’s Rings
I can remember it very well, although not actually sure when it was, back around 1995/1996 I think. I was,…
JWST Peers into the Atmosphere of a Puffy, Fluffy Planet!
Exoplanets are definitely a bit of a hot topic at the moment. Throw in a sprinkling of the James Webb…
If You’re Trying to Prevent an Asteroid Impact, the Technical and Political Challenges are Staggering
While preparing for the threat of an asteroid strike might seem like a hypothetical exercise, it's really not. The Solar…
CERN Has Joined the Search for Dark Photons
Now that the Large Hadron Collider has measured the mass of the Higgs boson, physicists are trying to understand how…
A Chinese Booster (and Additional Secret Payload) Caused a Double Crater on the Moon
Last year, astronomers warned that a large piece of debris was on a collision course with the Moon. Initially, they…