Cosmology

Last year I got talking to theoretical physicist Aron Wall about the thermodynamics of quantum gravity. Now that's a deceptively beautiful phrase: in four words, you get three of the deepest areas in modern science.

A scramble is on to find an object in the outer solar system's Kuiper Belt in time for a close-up visit

Physicists cast doubt on a landmark experiment’s claim to have observed gravitational waves from the big bang

The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft came out of a three-year hibernation period this winter and is set to attempt a soft-landing on 67P-Churyumov–Gerasimenko in November

One of the most fundamental but elusive constituents of the cosmos could soon be cornered
 

If you appreciate John J. Audubon’s exacting detail and beautiful compositions and you marvel at the encyclopedic knowledge and delicate illustrations in the famous Sibley Bird Guides you may be interested to know that there are many contemporary masters following in their footsteps today.

For the past year, astronomers around the world have been watching the center of the Milky Way in anticipation of a once-per-eon event. Right around now (or, technically, 24,000 years ago--that's roughly how far away the galactic center is in light years), a cloud of gas and dust plummeting toward our galaxy's supermassive black hole, [...]

Live streaming video by Ustream It doesn’t get much better than this (well, of course being in space might be better, albeit colder).

Traces of primordial gravitational waves could tell us how and when the early universe went through its precipitous expansion

Data from the damaged spacecraft reveal new worlds

Astronomers hope that one day soon we’ll obtain a spectrum of light that might tell us whether or not an Earth-sized exoplanet harbors life.

Charles Liu, astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History, answers questions submitted to our YouTube Space Lab Channel