It’s Never Aliens—until It Is
2017 was a banner year for scientists seeking aliens—even though they (apparently) didn’t find any
Stories by Lee Billings
Air Force Tracks Final Frontier
General Jay Raymond, Commander of Air Force Space Command, talks about keeping watch over space and cyber.
Where Will NASA Go Next? Saturn's Moon Titan, or Maybe a Comet
A flying drone to sniff out life on Titan and a spacecraft to return comet samples to Earth are finalists in NASA’s search for its next interplanetary destination
A Map of Future Exoplanetary Discovery
Most of the alien worlds closest to our own are found around the smallest, dimmest nearby stars
Alien Probe or Galactic Driftwood? SETI Tunes In to 'Oumuamua
It’s a long shot, but scientists are about to listen very closely for radio signals from our solar system’s first known interstellar visitor
What Will NASA’s Biggest-Ever Space Telescope Study First?
To fully utilize the long-awaited James Webb Space Telescope, researchers will have to squeeze a generation of scientific studies into the multibillion-dollar observatory’s short lifetime...
Inflating the Universe with Prize-Winning Cosmologist David Spergel
This year’s Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the team behind NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, a space telescope that launched in 2001 to map the cosmic microwave background—the earliest, oldest light we can detect from the universe’s infancy...
Q&A: Plotting U.S. Space Policy with White House Adviser Scott Pace
The Executive Secretary of the National Space Council discusses the Trump administration’s plans to “make America great again”—in space
Astronomers Spot First-Ever Space Rock from Another Star
As it departs the inner solar system, scientists are racing to study the object before it fades from view
Astrophysicist Leads a Tour of the "Zoomable Universe"
A conversation with scientist and author Caleb Scharf about the relative scales of the universe, the limits of knowledge and finding significance in life
Neutron Star Collisions Create Gold
Astrophysicists searching for gravitational waves have finally learned what happens when you crash two neutron stars together--and it's very, very shiny.
Gravitational Wave Astronomers Hit Mother Lode
Spacetime ripples from a stellar cataclysm in a distant galaxy help explain the cosmic origins of gold, and chart the course for a new age of “multi-messenger” astronomy
Astronomers Are Finally Mapping the “Dark Side” of the Milky Way
Half of our home galaxy is terra incognita. That will soon change
China’s Huge Investments in Science Are Starting to Pay Off
Seeing a chance to lead, China is deploying clean energy, quantum satellites and genomics
New Telescope "Gives Back the Sky" to City-Dwellers
Any astronomy buff will tell you about the first time they looked through a telescope. What many of them won’t say, though, is how disappointing those first looks can be.
The Future of Gravitational Wave Astronomy
Fully opening this new window on the universe will take decades—even centuries
Galaxies Far, Far Away Send Us Highest-Energy Cosmic Rays
A new study hints that the most energetic particles ever seen come from far beyond the Milky Way.
Cassini’s “Grand Finale” Will Be a Blaze of Glory
The Cassini orbiter will burn out, but its legacy won’t fade away
James Webb Space Telescope Surrounded by Rising Floodwaters
Isolated in a giant thermal vacuum chamber, NASA’s $8.6 billion next-generation observatory is riding out the worst of Hurricane Harvey
“The Farthest” Brings NASA’s Voyager Missions Back to Earth
A new documentary marks the 40th anniversary of humanity’s most audacious interplanetary spacecraft
