
Lander Stable on Comet, for Now
The Philae lander settled atop the “head” of the rubber duck–shaped object despite trouble with systems designed to secure the probe to the comet
Lee Billings is a senior editor for space and physics at Scientific American. Credit: Nick Higgins
The Philae lander settled atop the “head” of the rubber duck–shaped object despite trouble with systems designed to secure the probe to the comet
Christopher Nolan’s new film, Interstellar, is a near-future tale of astronauts departing a dying Earth to travel to Saturn, then through a wormhole to another galaxy, all in search of somewhere else humanity could call home...
America's keystone human spaceflight mission for the next decade may be over before it begins
The Rosetta spacecraft has unexpectedly detected hydrogen sulphide and ammonia coming from Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Lee Billings reports
This week’s fiery failure of Orbital Sciences’s Antares rocket has some wondering if the company has the right stuff to support NASA’s goal to outsource orbital flights...
This morning in Roswell, New Mexico, a spacesuit-clad 57-year-old Google executive, Alan Eustace, strapped into a harness beneath a giant helium balloon and lifted off to new heights in the upper stratosphere...
Orbiters and rovers deliver the first up-close look at a once-in-a-lifetime interplanetary encounter
The “exocomets” swarming around Beta Pictoris mirror those seen in our own solar system, but for a few surprising differences.
Scientists and satellites gear up for a comet’s spectacular chance encounter with Mars
Scientists and satellites gear up for a comet’s spectacular chance encounter with Mars
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To learn how the universe evolved over time, a space telescope gazes back to the earliest galaxies ever observed
What would happen to you if you went back in time and killed your grandfather? A model using photons reveals that quantum mechanics can solve the quandary—and even foil quantum cryptography...
Issue Editor Lee Billings introduces the “Secrets of the Universe” special edition
Journalist Lee Billings Talks about his book Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search For Life Among the Stars, Part 2 of 2
Journalist Lee Billings Talks about his book Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search For Life Among the Stars, Part 1 of 2
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Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Moons orbiting distant exoplanets may account for most of the habitable locales in the galaxy. If only we could find them
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
Books and recommendations from Scientific American
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