Stories by Lee Billings

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

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

The Air out There: Astronomers Aim to Find Atmospheres of Alien Earths

Is our nearest neighboring exoplanet, Proxima b, an "Earth next door," or is it a lifeless rock?

Witness the Solar Eclipse without Frying Your Eyes or Your Camera

America is preparing for a sea-to-shining-sea solar eclipse. Here’s how you can watch the spectacular display, and maybe even snap a photo to commemorate the event, without burning your retinas or damaging your camera’s optics...

Reaching for the Stars, Breakthrough Sends Smallest-Ever Satellites into Orbit

Despite technical glitches and regulatory hurdles, nanosatellite swarms could someday be the cornerstone for revolutionary interplanetary or even interstellar space-science missions

Wandering in the Void, Billions of Rogue Planets without a Home

New results suggest free-floating giant planets are less common than previously believed, but hint at vast numbers of smaller castaway worlds

Juno Delivers Stunning New Views of Great Red Spot

Scientists and the public are dazzled by images from the spacecraft’s close encounter with Jupiter’s largest—and the solar system’s most famous—storm

LHC Physicists Unveil a Charming New Particle

 The discovery could offer fresh insight into how fundamental forces bind together subatomic particles

China Shatters “Spooky Action at a Distance” Record, Preps for Quantum Internet

Results from the Micius satellite test quantum entanglement, pointing the way toward hackproof global communications

LIGO’s Latest Black-Hole Merger Confirms Einstein, Challenges Astrophysics

New results from the gravitational wave observatory hint that black holes move in mysterious ways

Who Will Build the World’s First Commercial Space Station?

A start-up aims to add new construction to the International Space Station to prep for a private sector orbital outpost

An Alternate History of the Atomic Age

Scientist and author Gregory Benford discusses his latest book, The Berlin Project