Stories by Caleb A. Scharf

A new study provides substantial support for earlier claims of 520-million-year-old arthropod brain systems, raising interesting questions about the nature of brains, life and intelligence in the cosmos

A new explanation for the strange grooves on the surface of the martian moon Phobos suggests that the entire satellite already shows signs of how it will eventually be destroyed.

A review of "universe2go"—an augmented reality planetarium

Pluto's small moons are revealed in the latest image data and analysis from New Horizons' historic encounter—these may be the best view humanity ever gets of these distant objects

A recent claim for evidence of life on Earth as early as 4.1 billion years ago runs headlong into prevailing theories about a period of heavy asteroid impacts and the reshuffling of the young solar system's orbital architecture

A new study of fragments from the Chelyabinsk meteor reveal that it went through at least eight impact events spread across the last 4.5 billion years before it ended up impacting Earth

This week brings a video reconstructed from images of the Philae lander's approach to a comet, and a major new analysis of data from the Cassini mission that bolsters the case for a global, not just local, ocean beneath the icy crust of Enceladus

Living on a small planet in a big universe exposes us to all manner of existential problems, but what are the worst, and what are the weirdest?

A new estimate of Earth's total tree population shows previous estimates were seven times too low, and there are implications for efforts to understand the nature of life here and elsewhere in the universe

NASA's New Horizons team decide on their next target, a classical Kuiper Belt object that can be reached by January 2019, but the agency must still approve funds for this extended science mission

A hundred years on, and the implications of Einstein's general relativity still surprise and delight

NASA's Curiosity rover provides a beautiful, scientifically appetizing view of what's ahead on Mount Sharp on Mars

A new effort to bring global cohesion to origins of life science launches, and with it a fresh look at how to crack one of the greatest existential questions.

The announcement of a newly confirmed exoplanet in Kepler data within its star's "habitable zone" is great news, but also reinforces some misconceptions about what an Earth-like world means.

Early images from New Horizons' encounter with Pluto reveal an extraordinary surface of strange mountains and varying deposits of light and dark material

Although we've only just begun to see the scientific return from NASA's New Horizons mission and its close encounter with the Pluto–Charon system, this has been an unexpectedly profound human endeavor

Interstellar travel may present some unforseen problems in this short fiction

If we live in a multiverse, then Where Is Everybody Else?

Titan's lake depressions may form as its organic crust is dissolved by liquid hydrocarbons.

Indigenous methane appears to exist in Martian rocks

On July 14, 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finally reaches Pluto. But the encounter will be brief

A stunning library of comet close-ups

Over the years humans have deployed spacecraft into some wild, wacky, and extremely clever orbital configurations to better study the cosmos.

Astronomers use Kepler telescope to study weather on Jupiter-size planets beyond our solar system