Space & PhysicsDecember 20, 2016
Q&A: The Astronaut Who Captured Out-of-This-World Views of Earth [Slide Show]
Don Pettit discusses his dazzling orbital photographs of our home planet
Stories by Lee Billings
Lee Billings is a science journalist specializing in astronomy, physics, planetary science, and spaceflight and is senior desk editor for physical science at Scientific American. He is author of a critically acclaimed book, Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars, which in 2014 won a Science Communication Award from the American Institute of Physics. In addition to his work for Scientific American, Billings’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, Wired, New Scientist, Popular Science and many other publications. Billings joined Scientific American in 2014 and previously worked as a staff editor at SEED magazine. He holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Minnesota.
Space & PhysicsDecember 1, 2016
The Year in Planetary Science
Take a light-speed trip through the solar system to catch up on 2016’s biggest stories from our celestial neighborhood.
Produced with support from Explore Scientific
Space & PhysicsDecember 1, 2016
Plumes Spotted on Europa Suggest Easy Access to Water
Water vapor erupting from this Jovian moon could offer new pathways for exploring its subsurface ocean
Space & PhysicsNovember 30, 2016
Trump’s First 100 Days: Space
The new administration will likely shift NASA resources away from Earth exploration and into deep space. But many questions remain about how the agency will be led and funded
Space & PhysicsNovember 23, 2016
Under Trump, NASA May Turn a Blind Eye to Climate Change
The President-elect’s space policy platform calls for disruptive reorganizations and possible budget cuts to Earth-observing satellite programs
Space & PhysicsNovember 16, 2016
Pluto's Icy Heart May Hide an Ocean
New studies suggest the dwarf planet’s spin is tilted askew, perhaps by the presence of a subsurface sea
Space & PhysicsOctober 21, 2016
New Images Reveal Fate of Lost Mars Lander
European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli spacecraft crashed and possibly exploded
Space & PhysicsOctober 19, 2016
European Spacecraft May Be Lost on Mars
The Schiaparelli lander’s failure to phone home has scientists fearing the worst
Space & PhysicsOctober 19, 2016
European Spacecraft Attempts Mars Landing
With the Schiaparelli lander, Europe hopes to join the U.S. and Russia in successfully touching down on the Red Planet
Space & PhysicsOctober 14, 2016
Project Blue Sets Sights on "Pale Blue Dots" around Alpha Centauri
A privately funded small space telescope could soon seek Earth-like planets around the sun’s nearest neighboring stars
Space & PhysicsOctober 4, 2016
Will Elon Musk Scuttle the Search for Life on Mars?
If there is life on the Red Planet—even just alien microbes clinging to existence in isolated refuges—any biological contamination we import from Earth could cause an ecological and scientific catastrophe
The SciencesOctober 4, 2016
Physics Nobel Awarded for Breakthroughs in Exotic States of Matter
David Thouless, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz share the 2016 Nobel Prize for work explaining the topological underpinnings of superconductivity and other strange phenomena
The SciencesOctober 1, 2016
In the Dark about Dark Matter
Recent disappointments have physicists looking beyond WIMPs for dark matter particles
Space & PhysicsSeptember 30, 2016
Watch the Action as Rosetta Crashes into a Comet
Follow the pioneering spacecraft’s final descent to the bizarre surface of the distant space traveler
Space & PhysicsSeptember 29, 2016
How to See Proxima b
Astronomers are racing to get the first historic image of another possibly Earth-like planet. Here’s how they’ll do it
Space & PhysicsSeptember 28, 2016
Water Bears' Super Survival Skills Give Up Secrets
A protein from microscopic creatures called tardigrades keeps their DNA protected—and could someday shield humans from radiation.
Space & PhysicsSeptember 26, 2016
Astronomers Spy Shadowy Plumes around Europa
If confirmed, the icy Jovian moon’s eruptions could offer new pathways for exploring its subsurface ocean
Space & PhysicsSeptember 8, 2016
The Book That Predicted Proxima b [Excerpt]
A science fiction novel published in 2013 pegged some of the most salient details for our nearest neighboring exoplanet
The SciencesAugust 31, 2016
Physics Confronts Its Heart of Darkness
Cracks are showing in the dominant explanation for dark matter. Is there anything more plausible to replace it?
Space & PhysicsAugust 30, 2016
Have We Detected an Alien Signal? It's Highly Doubtful
A blip of energy picked up by a Russian radio telescope might have been nothing more than a satellite passing overhead—or even a software glitch
Space & PhysicsAugust 24, 2016
The Earth Next Door
Astronomers find an exoplanet that could be habitable—and it’s as close to us as it could possibly be
Space & PhysicsAugust 1, 2016
Voyage to Bennu and Back with OSIRIS-REx [Video]
NASA’s first sample-return mission to an asteroid could be vital for understanding life’s origins and shaping its future
Space & PhysicsJuly 27, 2016
Great Red Spot Helps Explain Jupiter's Warm Upper Atmosphere
A thermal spike linked to the solar system’s largest storm explains weather on gas-giant planets
Space & PhysicsJuly 20, 2016
Miniature Space Telescope Could Boost the Hunt for "Earth Proxima" [Video]
A new film presents an innovative plan to image potentially habitable planets around our sun's closest stellar neighbor—Alpha Centauri