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
What’s the weirdest planet in the solar system?
All the sun’s planets are oddballs. But some are more so than others
NASA’s Dragonfly will explore the air, land and seas of Titan, Saturn’s most mysterious moon
NASA plans to launch a wildly ambitious nuclear-powered octocopter to Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2028
Where did the ‘Oh-My-God’ particle come from?
A single subatomic particle from deep space had the same energy as a baseball pitch, and scientists still don’t know how it got here