Science
How an Advanced Civilization Could Exploit a Black Hole for Nearly Limitless Energy
A black hole as a source of energy? We know black holes as powerful singularities, regions in space time where…
Pluto and Other Kuiper Belt Objects Started Out With Water Oceans, and Have Been Slowly Freezing Solid for Billions of Years
It seems unlikely that an ocean could persist on a world that never gets closer than 30 astronomical units from…
New Simulations Show How Black Holes Grow, Through Mergers and Accretion
One of the most pressing questions in astronomy concerns black holes. We know that massive stars that explode as supernovae…
The Meteor Impact that Wiped Out the Dinosaurs Created a Vast Underground Hydrothermal System
The Chicxulub impact event was an enormous catastrophe that left a huge imprint on the Earth's surface. Not only did…
Black Hole Seen Blasting Out Jets at Close to the Speed of Light
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has spotted a distant black hole shooting out jets of material, at close to the speed…
Mars Doesn’t Have Much of a Magnetosphere, But Here’s a Map
Even though Earthling scientists are studying Mars intently, it's still a mysterious place. One of the striking things about Mars…
TESS is Also Helping Astronomers Study Bizarre Pulsating Stars
NASA's TESS, or Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has one main job: finding exoplanets. But it's also helping astronomers study a…
A Cool Idea to Catch Up With an Interstellar Visitor
Poor, dim-witted humanity. We used to think we were the center of everything. That wasn't that long ago, and even…
The Atmosphere On Venus Rotates Faster than the Planet, and Now Astronomers Think They Know Why
Venus is unique—almost—in our Solar System because it's what's known as a "super-rotator." That means that Venus' atmosphere rotates faster…
Astronomers Find a Planet With Three Times the Mass of Jupiter
Jupiter is the Boss. Well, in terms of planets in our Solar System it is. It's played a huge role…