Clik here to view.
why alien moons might just be teeming with life
Another day, another study identifying more potentially habitable worlds in the Kepler data, this time by professional astronomers and volunteers called the Planet Hunters who discussed their planet...
View ArticleClik here to view.
did the cosmological principle get knocked down?
Since the dawn of modern cosmology there’s been an implicit assumption that no particular spot in the universe was supposed to be any more special than the rest. On the biggest scales of all, scales...
View ArticleClik here to view.
are we ready to go roving on europa?
We’ve long known that there was an ocean or something very much like it under the icy crust of the Jovian moon Europa, and that this icy wasteland offers one of the best chances to find life in our...
View ArticleClik here to view.
how the media discovered an alien signal
Well, as you were warned, Weird Things is back in action, coming to you from Los Angeles with the latest in high tech, astrobiology, strange, bleeding edge science, and skepticism, and I can’t think...
View ArticleClik here to view.
peeking at dark matter during a tidal strip show
Dark matter is a substance that makes up nearly all mass in the universe, but decades after we discovered it, all we have are indirect measurements which show us that it’s there in very large amounts,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
how to doomsday prep like a planetary scientist
Unlike you see in the movies, no one will be rushing to save the Earth at the last minute with no budgetary or logistical constraints when we detect a killer asteroid headed towards us. Instead, there...
View ArticleClik here to view.
how the cosmic web’s fingers can shape galaxies
We all know that our vast universe is lousy with galaxies. Trillions of trillions of the things sprawl across the known cosmos and more than likely, the unknown one as well. We know a lot about them,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
when the answer could actually be aliens
Imagine a relatively ordinary white star much like our own, because despite appearing yellow in our skies, it’s actually bright white. Now, increase its size by half and add a pattern of dimming when...
View ArticleClik here to view.
how scientists accidentally solved the universe’s weight problem
No one seems to be exempt from having some sort of an issue with weight nowadays, even all the matter in the universe. You see, by measuring the gravitational pull of all the galaxies, we’re able to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
the deep space cataclysm that keeps on happening
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are quickly becoming one of the most interesting things out there in deep space and the more we study them, the more strange questions they raise. In less than a year, the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
the many mysteries of proxima centauri b
When astronomers recently discovered evidence of a rocky world orbiting our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri, there was much rejoicing and many scientists started wondering what life on that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
the amazing, rocky, nearby, (potentially) habitable solar system
When you see concept art of alien worlds, you often end up with images of skies that feature numerous other planets close by, looming over deserts or oceans, sometimes turning the image into a game of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
to find aliens, we need to know when and why life began on earth
Illustration: Mt. Agung in Bali by Alexander Yarovnikov How old is life on Earth? It’s a pretty simple question but the answer is both very complicated and extremely important. Since we keep...
View ArticleClik here to view.
do alien space sailors unfurl their solar sails to surf interstellar laser...
Remember when fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were bizarre anomalies which may have been the birth cries of exotic black holes, then alien signals, then impatient scientists’ snacks, then once again odd...
View ArticleClik here to view.
no, seriously, all planets are round
Science may still be debating exactly what is and isn’t a planet, but it knows for damn sure that in order for something to be a planet, it has to be round because every heavy enough object in the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
supermassive black holes, the paradoxical creators of stars, planets, and life
Black holes are places where the laws physics as we know them break down as they’re spun a thousand times per second in trillion degree plasma made of elementary particles. And while they get a bad...
View ArticleClik here to view.
‘oumuamua, the galaxy’s slowest interstellar spaceship?
Last year, a bizarre shard from interstellar space entered our solar system and after a year of cruising, it left, headed to parts unknown. It was the size and shape of a skyscraper, tumbling end over...
View ArticleClik here to view.
turns out the oldest known star in the universe is in our backyard
When we think of the first stars, we generally imagine massive, fast burning giants that live for a few million years, then detonate into massive clouds of dust and heavy elements speeding away from a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
right round, like a black hole baby, right round…
Computer simulation of a black hole’s event horizon exhibiting a phenomenon known as frame dragging, in which space is warped at different speeds based on the movement of the black hole Black holes...
View ArticleClik here to view.
why saturn’s majestic rings won’t be around for much longer
Saturn’s rings are iconic, so much as that we can say “the ringed planet” and fully expect that even little kids will instantly know what world we have in mind. But what if I were to tell you that...
View Article