Snowed in at NASA, Keeping Watch Over a Space Colossus
Time is running out on the agency’s most ambitious science mission in generations, and that means no stopping for anything—not even a historic blizzard.
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An Animated Guide to Humanity's First Interstellar Mission
Innovations in space exploration are making galactic travel increasingly tangible.
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NASA How to Jump-Start Life Elsewhere in Our Galaxy
A new paper on “Genesis missions” explains how interstellar probes could accelerate evolution on distant planets.
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Ross Andersen Alien Worlds Might Be Covered in Enormous Mountains
On the sublime scenery that might await us on exoplanets.
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European Space Agency / Hubble / NASA Want to Find Intelligent Life on Other Planets? Look for Refrigerators
Could Freon in the atmosphere of a distant planet be the thing that finally confirms humankind is not alone?
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NASA Fancy Math Can’t Make Aliens Real
An astrophysicist says extraterrestrial civilizations “almost certainly” existed at one time or another. Here’s what’s wrong with his argument.
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Richard Hammar Inside a Billionaire’s New Interstellar Mission
Yuri Milner is spending $100 million on a probe that could travel to Alpha Centauri within a generation—and he's recruited Mark Zuckerberg and Stephen Hawking to help. In an interview with The Atlantic, Milner makes his case for star travel.
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NASA Through Hardship to the Stars
Bob Ebeling, the engineer who foresaw the Challenger disaster, and lived with guilt for decades, has died.
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ESA The World's Most Urgent Science Project
To know the Earth’s future, you must first know its past.
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Jim Young / Reuters When Science Offers No Escape
What went unsaid in last night’s debate.
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The Most Powerful Space Telescope Ever
A behind-the-scenes look at the NASA telescope that will search for signs of life on distant planets
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Caltech The Meaning of Planet Nine
Astronomers think they may have found a “super earth” lurking in the outer solar system.
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NASA A Major Correction
We recently published an article naming Jupiter “the best planet.” As everyone knows, Saturn is the best planet. We regret the error.
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NASA In Photos: A Major Correction
Saturn, not Jupiter, is the best planet.
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Olivia Harris / Reuters Second Helpings: Delicious Journalism
Staff picks of our favorite science, technology, and health stories from 2015
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Denis Balibouse / Reuters Nature Has Lost Its Meaning
To solve climate change, we need to reimagine our entire relationship to the nonhuman world.
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NASA A Cosmic Detective Story
Hiding in the dense center of our galaxy are stars that formed just after the Big Bang. Here's how astronomers found them.
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International Space Station / Reuters Will Our Grandchildren Say That We Changed the Earth Too Little?
Get ready to start hearing a lot more about geoengineering.
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NASA The Oldest Galaxies in the Universe
Peering through a wrinkle in spacetime, astronomers have just seen the first galaxies.
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Kevin Morefield The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy
Astronomers have spotted a strange mess of objects whirling around a distant star. Scientists who search for extraterrestrial civilizations are scrambling to get a closer look.
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Raphael Perrino / Flickr The Consequences of Sexual Harassment in Astronomy
A six-month investigation found a decade of sexual-harassment complaints against famous astronomer Geoff Marcy to be credible.
