Carolyn Collins Petersen
IceCube Makes a Neutrino Map of the Milky Way
We've seen the Milky Way with ultraviolet eyes, through x-ray vision, gamma-ray views, radio emissions, microwaves, and visible light. Now,…
860 Million-Year-Old Quasar Had Already Amassed 1.4 Billion Times the Mass of the Sun
It wasn't long after the Big Bang that early galaxies began changing the Universe. Less than a billion years later,…
That New Car Smell… But for Planets
Remember how a new car smells? It's a chemical signature of all the materials used to make the car's interior.…
Another Key Molecule for Life Found in Space by JWST
The search for life is an incredibly evocative driver of cosmic exploration. It captures our imagination to think that there…
A Nearby Supernova Almost Destroyed the Solar System Before it Could Form
Way back in time, about 4.6 billion years ago, our Sun and planets were busily forming nestled inside a cloud…
Supervillains Take Note. Here’s a New Way to Destroy a Star
If you're an evil genius supervillain looking to freak out your enemy with a big messy space kablooie, here's a…
Mind-Blowing Animation Shows What the World Would Look Like If You Could See Carbon Dioxide Emissions
It's a strange, eerie-looking place. Carbon dioxide gas appears… and disappears in cycles and bursts throughout the year. It's how…
The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole had a Burst of Activity 200 Years Ago. We Just Saw the Echo.
We in the Milky Way Galaxy are pretty lucky to have a fairly quiet central supermassive black hole in Sgr…
Astronomers Find a White Dwarf Pulsar
When astronomers talk about the "end states" of stellar evolution, several categories come to mind: black holes, neutron stars/pulsars, and…
The Evidence is Building that Dark Matter is Made of Axions
There's some potentially big news on the hunt for dark matter. Astronomers may have a handle on what makes this…