Star-gazers are captivated by an astronomical phenomenon called a glitch. Glitches occur in neutron stars, which are remnants of a collapsed star and are the smallest stars in the universe. But don’t underestimate them: they are extremely dense, with just a teaspoon of their matter weighing around a hundred million tons on Earth! When neutron […]
Just before midnight in late July 2013, onlookers began lining the side of an interstate right outside of Chicago — many pulling out their smartphones to film. They watched as the flashing police lights leading the procession silently illuminated the suburb. The sea of reds and blues slowly faded into a sweeping gold. Following the
Late afternoon on Sunday, June 13, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center received an unlucky but increasingly familiar message: The Hubble Space Telescope entered safe mode. The telescope’s primary computer halted, likely because of degrading hardware. NASA’s inability to send astronauts on a servicing mission, due to the Space Shuttle’s retirement, severely limited the Goddard team’s
As Hubble falters, astrophysicists find hope in the telescope’s successor Read More »
We are all alone. Or are we? There is no definitive proof of alien life — at least any widely accepted proof — despite the vast number of planets that have orbited the stars of the Milky Way for billions of years. This is the quandary that the mathematician Enrico Fermi pondered in 1961. After
Where are they? The question of the Fermi Paradox Read More »
As the search for living entities in outer space continues, a team of researchers found that some bacteria may have the ability to survive amidst the harsh environment. Outer space is notorious for its inability to support living organisms. Extreme temperatures and low pressures prevent organisms from surviving. Additionally, ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun
Sticking together for life (quite literally)! Read More »
My generation may be the last to be able to gaze upon a star-studded sky. One night in early 2017, from the terrace of a relative’s home in a tiny village in India, I was astonished and delighted to see the sky packed with stars. Many glowed dimly but steadily. A handful of them had
Opinion: Stargazing will be redefined for future generations Read More »
Only 0.1 percent. Without artificial intelligence (AI), cutting-edge astral observatories around the world may be able to comprehensively classify only 0.1 percent of the approximately 1 million supernovae observed yearly. Ashley Villar of Columbia University, along with many other experts, is aware of the limitations of data collection using human techniques. In response, these experts
A sight to behold: Supernovae through the eyes of an artificial intelligence Read More »
Elon Musk walks out to applause for his September 2015 interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” After exchanging pleasantries, Colbert asks Musk about his fascination with our closest solar neighbor: “You sincerely think that we should go to Mars…Why do we want to go to Mars? It’s uninhabitable.” “It is a fixer-upper of
Terraforming Mars: The hard science & bizarre culture surrounding the sci-fi concept Read More »
The night sky is breathtakingly captivating. It entrances viewers with twinkling lights that allow for navigation, make shapes, and tell stories. As technology advances, people are even able to put manmade lights into the sky in the forms of planes or satellites. Often those observing the sky try to tell the two apart, which is
From a Supernova Comes a Spider Read More »