
Is Earth the only planet with total solar eclipses?
Other planets have moons, too. Do they get eclipses like we do?

Is Earth the only planet with total solar eclipses?
Other planets have moons, too. Do they get eclipses like we do?

What will happen to Earth’s moon in the far future?
The moon is Earth’s constant companion. But will that always be the case?

When astronomers get things hilariously wrong
Sometimes we mistake one kind of object with another to disastrous effect

JWST catches cosmic imposters spoofing faraway galaxies
The James Webb Space Telescope has found nearby brown dwarfs masquerading as far-distant galaxies. The discovery reinforces how, in astronomy, what you see isn’t always what you get

Scientists need more snapshots of shooting stars—and you can help
Meteor camera networks can reveal the hidden history of the solar system, and you can assist from your own backyard

Giant black holes may be the universe’s best planet makers
Planets might exist in the least likely place you’d imagine—around the outskirts of supermassive black holes

What’s the biggest galaxy in the universe?
Deep surveys of the sky have turned up galaxies vastly larger than our own. Are there even bigger ones yet to be seen?

What happens when galaxies collide?
Our galaxy and its nearest large companion, Andromeda, may be headed for a collision on a cosmic scale. What happens then?

Are astronomers ignoring some of the cosmos?
There are parts of the universe, and of the electromagnetic spectrum, that we’re not covering with our telescopes—but not as many as you might think!

Pluto and the folly of planethood
The problem with Pluto isn’t its planetary or nonplanetary status—it’s our insistence on declaring the world must be one or the other

What is the Kardashev scale, and can we climb it?
The Kardashev scale is an interesting but flawed gauge of a civilization’s growth

Death by primordial black hole is hard to come by
Subatomic black holes from ancient cosmic history could, in principle, make you have a very bad day. But chances are you’ll never encounter one