NASA Scientists Have a Plan to Make Pluto a Planet Again
“It’s bullshit,” Alan Stern, principal investigator of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto, has said about the…
Where Is the Farthest Place You Can Be That's Away from Everyone Else?
My life now has a purpose. I’ve discovered what I have to do before I die. From now on, every decision I make will be…
How to Save the Planet: An Interview With Two Iconic Scientists
What happens when two iconic scientists talk about saving our planet? Read on to find out what happened when E O Wilson…
Peer Into the Inside of Our Planet With This Trippy Computer Simulation
This trippy orb isn't the result of a youth misspent. Instead, the it's the fruits of complex computer simulations…
Where the Hell Is the True North Pole?
The North Pole is just at the top of the Earth, right? Well, not really: there isn't really a 'top' of a sphere…
Gaze upon all of Mercury for the first time ever
The existence of our solar system's innermost planet has been common knowledge since ancient times, but that doesn't…
This "comet factory" reveals first secrets of planetary formation
Planets have to start out somewhere, and the leading theory is that they begin as dust particles clumping together to…
Watch a Massive Black Hole Snack on a Planet
Over 47 million light years away, in a galaxy called NGC 4845, there's one hungry black hole. In fact, scientists…
A Map That Shows How Salty the Seas Are
Some briny deeps are brinier than others. The Atlantic Ocean has two huge "deserts" of extra-salty water, the result of…
Pluto Gives Astronomers the Finger as They Announce Tiniest Planet Ever Discovered
If I were Pluto, I would be really pissed off with the astronomers that just announced the tiniest planet ever…
One of the first exoplanets ever discovered could actually be made of diamond
Remember 55 Cancri e? Sure you do — and if you don't, you should. After all, it may be the first diamond planet ever…
Why There's More to Rising Sea Levels Than Melting Ice
Most simple explanations of climate change suggest that rising sea levels are a result of melting ice in the polar…
Is Extraterrestrial Life More a Dream Than a Real Possibility?
There is no getting around the fact that a lot of people would be very excited if extraterrestrial life existed. But…
Runaway planets find new homes around distant stars
After spending an eternity rocketing through the interstellar void, rogue planets can sometimes end their travels and…
Newly discovered exoplanets are over 13 billion years old
At first glance, there doesn't seem to be anything particularly remarkable about star HIP 11952 and its two planets.…
Hypervelocity planets are zooming out of our galaxy at warp speed
The wildest ride in the galaxy is found on hypervelocity planets. These worlds got too close to the supermassive black…
Earthshine: How Studying Earth Helps in the Search for Life on Other Worlds
Scientists looking at Earthshine reflected from the moon have concluded that, indeed, there is life on our planet.…
What do the Milky Way's billions of Earth-like planets really look like?
The latest estimates suggest there are at least 160 billion exoplanets in the Milky Way alone, which means there could…
Astronomers Discover a Planet Made Of Water
Zachory Berta says that "GJ1214b is like no planet we know of." Like Berta, part of a team at the Harvard-Smithsonian…
What causes rogue planets to run away from their stars?
We now estimate that every star in the galaxy has at least one planet, but that is leaving aside the potentially…