
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.
Lee Billings is a senior editor for space and physics at Scientific American. Credit: Nick Higgins
Astrophysicists searching for gravitational waves have finally learned what happens when you crash two neutron stars together--and it's very, very shiny.
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
Half of our home galaxy is terra incognita. That will soon change
Seeing a chance to lead, China is deploying clean energy, quantum satellites and genomics
Fully opening this new window on the universe will take decades—even centuries
A new study hints that the most energetic particles ever seen come from far beyond the Milky Way.
The Cassini orbiter will burn out, but its legacy won’t fade away
Isolated in a giant thermal vacuum chamber, NASA’s $8.6 billion next-generation observatory is riding out the worst of Hurricane Harvey
A new documentary marks the 40th anniversary of humanity’s most audacious interplanetary spacecraft
Is our nearest neighboring exoplanet, Proxima b, an "Earth next door," or is it a lifeless rock?
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...
Despite technical glitches and regulatory hurdles, nanosatellite swarms could someday be the cornerstone for revolutionary interplanetary or even interstellar space-science missions
New results suggest free-floating giant planets are less common than previously believed, but hint at vast numbers of smaller castaway worlds
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
The discovery could offer fresh insight into how fundamental forces bind together subatomic particles
Results from the Micius satellite test quantum entanglement, pointing the way toward hackproof global communications
New results from the gravitational wave observatory hint that black holes move in mysterious ways
A start-up aims to add new construction to the International Space Station to prep for a private sector orbital outpost
Scientist and author Gregory Benford discusses his latest book, The Berlin Project
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