Science
A Star was Blocking a Galaxy, but Now it’s Moved Enough That Astronomers can Finally Examine What it Was Hiding
One of the biggest puzzles in astronomy, and one of the hardest ones to solve, concerns the formation and evolution…
Astronomers Detect the Faint Glow of Stars in Between Galaxies
Not all stars are members of galaxies. Some stars exist in the space between galaxies, though they didn't form there.…
Nature’s Ultra-Rare Isotopes Can’t Hide from this New Particle Accelerator
A new particle accelerator at Michigan State University is producing long-awaited results. It's called the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams,…
Why ‘Contact’ still resonates after 25 years
25 years ago, the film Contact made its theatrical debut starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey and told the story…
Andromeda Contains the Remnants of a Recent “Feeding Event”
There's a growing body of evidence that galaxies grow large by merging with other galaxies. Telescopes like the Hubble have…
The Perfect Tidal Tail Connects These two Galaxies Seen by Hubble
Sometimes it's tempting to imagine a supernatural hand behind the arrangement of celestial bodies. But the Universe is big, huge…
Scientists Piece Together the Shoreline of an Ancient Ocean on Mars
Scientists have long suspected that Mars was once warm and wet in its ancient past. The Mars Ocean Hypothesis says…
Arecibo Won’t Be Rebuilt
The National Science Foundation announced last week that it won’t rebuild or replace the iconic Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico,…
Webb Sees Organic Molecules in the Hearts of Galaxies, Surprisingly Close to Active Supermassive Black Holes
When the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched, one of its jobs was studying galactic formation and evolution. When we…
How Should the World’s Governments Respond if We Detect an Alien Civilization?
Science fiction is the realm where people traditionally wrestle with the idea of contact with an ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligence.) But…