Watch the Orionid Meteor Shower Peak This Weekend
The Earth is once again passing through the debris left behind by Halley’s Comet, producing the Orionid meteors that peak this weekend. Go outside! Look at space!
Let’s Break Down What That Monumental Neutron Star Collision Actually Told Us
Astronomy has entered a new era, one where light and gravity both play a role in understanding the Universe’s craziest phenomena. On August 17, 2017, over 70 observatories around (and above) the world, including ones like LIGO and the Hubble Space Telescope, all spotted a flash of energy. This light came in many…
Colliding Neutron Star Discovery Could Solve This Mystery About Our Expanding Universe
Today, physicists across the world celebrated as telescopes and observatories on Earth and in space captured a “kilonova.” Two neutron stars collided 130 million light years away, sending gravitational waves, x-rays, gamma-rays, radio waves, and light waves to the Earth. But these events also serve as a new kind of…
Observatories Across the World Announce Groundbreaking New Gravitational Wave Discovery
Vicky Kalogera, a Northwestern University physicist, took her week of much-needed vacation in Utah this past August. She promised her family she’d stay off of email for a week. It wasn’t a real promise, of course, but she was going to try. She’d arranged the perfect day for August 17. Her husband was going to take the…
Intense Methane Rainstorms Carve Titan’s Icy Surface
If you were soaring above the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, you’d see mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas, but you might also run into a monsoon-like rainstorm. Severe weather doesn’t happen very often on Titan, but new research suggests than when it does, the skies unleash torrents of liquid methane that…
Scientists Measure Furthest Part of Milky Way Yet
This might come as a surprise, but we don’t really know what our own galaxy looks like. We can only see it from our lonely point in space, and we can’t leave it to get a picture from up above. Scientists want to change that—and they’re getting closer.
Close Encounter With Asteroid Will Test Earth's Early Warning System
Early tomorrow, a small asteroid will zip past Earth well inside the Moon’s orbit. NASA says poses no threat, but astronomers around the world will use the opportunity to test the international community’s ability to detect and track potentially dangerous objects.
That Wild Chinese Telescope Is Already Discovering Its First Pulsars
By now, you may have seen the incredible pictures of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope or FAST, an enormous telescope in the Guizhou province of China that just turned on last year. You’ve also probably heard that, yes, many hope it will find signs of alien life. It’s already beginning to make…
NASA's Odyssey Takes Its First Picture of Martian Moon Phobos After 16 Years
The Odyssey orbiter has been hovering above Mars, photographing its surface and taking data for 16 years now. There’s seemingly infinite combinations of things to study and instruments to study them with—this time, all NASA had to do was turn the camera around.
Our Nearest Neighboring Star Might Have Been Stolen From Somewhere Else
Less than five light years away sit three stars orbiting each other. You probably remember that one of them, Proxima Centauri, has a planet orbiting in its habitable zone—which got us really excited about the possibility of life. But what if that star was stolen?
That Time When Volcanic Eruptions Created a Temporary Atmosphere on the Moon
Aside from some floating dust, our Moon has absolutely no atmosphere to speak of. New research suggests this wasn’t always the case, and that long ago, an atmosphere briefly popped into existence as a result of intense volcanic activity.
Did a Meteorite Start a Forest Fire in New Hampshire? It's Unlikely
A three-alarm forest fire in the White Mountains near Woodstock, New Hampshire was linked to reports of a meteorite strike, the Boston Globe reported on Wednesday.
Huge Gravitational Waves Discovery Gets the Nobel Prize It Deserves
The Nobel Prizes are important and all. But if you’ve been paying attention to physics for the past two years, this year’s prize is akin to saying “my beautiful dog has won the Good Boy prize.” We’re very excited, but we aren’t surprised.
The Latest Discovery of Organics in Space Is Nothing to Get Excited About
Astronomers have detected traces of an organic compound known as methyl chloride around a group of young stars. The discovery comes as a complete surprise to scientists, but instead of signifying the presence of alien life, it’s forcing them to re-evaluate the source of this molecule and its role as a basic building…
An Earth-Sized Space Shield to Protect Us From Solar Storms Is Less Crazy Than It Sounds
Every 100 years or so, our Sun gives off a great big belch that sends an intense wave of charged particles towards Earth. This wasn’t a problem in the past, but our high-tech civilization is now disturbingly vulnerable to these solar storms. A new study quantifies the economic risks posed by these extreme solar…
Hubble Catches a Glimpse of the Most Distant Active Comet Ever Seen
Behold C/2017 K2 (PANSTARRS), or “K2" for short. At a jaw-dropping distance of 1.5 billion miles (2.4 billion km) from the Sun, it’s the farthest active inbound comet ever documented by astronomers.
The World's Largest Telescope May Be Built in Hawaii After All [Updated]
A years-long battle over the placement of the Thirty Meter Telescope saw a major development this week, when Hawaii’s Board of Land and Natural Resources issued the telescope a fresh construction permit to build on the dormant volcano of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. But a coalition of opponents to the telescope, led by Native…
NASA Delays Hubble Successor Launch
The Hubble Space Telescope is incredible and has done some truly remarkable science, but it’s getting old. After all, it was launched in 1990. Taking its place is the James Webb Space Telescope, an $8 billion-plus experiment that was scheduled to launch in October 2018.
Scientists Unexpectedly Find Rosetta’s Final Image of Comet 67P/CG
On September 30th, 2015, the Rosetta spacecraft slowly drifted to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, ending a wildly successful 12-year mission. Scientists from the European Space Agency thought they had recovered all of Rosetta’s photos, but a re-analysis of the spacecraft’s final transmission has…
Earth's Explosive History Explains Its Strange Chemical Make-Up
If you made a building out of bricks and cinderblocks, then hundreds of years later you’d expect it to still be, well, a building made of bricks and cinderblocks. But planets are not buildings if you haven’t noticed. Earth, for instance, just doesn’t seem to have the same composition as the meteors thought to have…
