Astronomy
Early Life Was Radically Different Than Today
All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged…
Why Venus Died
Venus is only slightly smaller than the Earth, and so has enjoyed billions of years of a warm heart. But…
Why Mars Died
We know of Mars as the Red Planet, for its surface and atmosphere is caked in endless swirling dust of…
NASA Invests in New Nuclear Rocket Concept for the Future of Space Exploration and Astrophysics
In the coming years, NASA plans to send several astrobiology missions to Venus and Mars to search for evidence of…
This Galaxy Hosted One of the Most Powerful Supernovae Ever Seen
In 2010, an exceptionally luminous supernova exploded in a small galaxy about 150 million light-years away called UGC 5189A. The…
Thirsty? Water is More Common than you Think
Water is the most common chemical molecule found throughout the entire universe. What water has going for it is that…
Vera Rubin Will Help Us Find the Weird and Wonderful Things Happening in the Solar System
The Vera Rubin Observatory (VRO) is something special among telescopes. It's not built for better angular resolution and increased resolving…
Is this the Lightest Black Hole or Heaviest Neutron Star?
About 40,000 light-years away, a rapidly spinning object has a companion that's confounding astronomers. It's heavier than the heaviest neutron…
Astronomers See Massive Stars Forming Together in Multiple Star Systems
All stars form in giant molecular clouds of hydrogen. But some stars are extraordinarily massive; the most massive one we…
Astronomers Identify 164 Promising Targets for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
Planning large astronomical missions is a long process. In some cases, such as the now functional James Webb Space Telescope,…