Optics

Scientists have used quantum technology to track individual particles of light as they begin the process of photosynthesis

The wildfire smoke that smothered the U.S. Northeast last week has surprising connections to astrophysics—and to the historic search for our place in the cosmos

Telltale evidence gathered by the James Webb Space Telescope suggests we’re closer than ever before to finding elusive Population III stars

More and better data are required to solve the mystery of strange apparitions in the air, the sea and space, according to NASA’s Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study team

The huge watery cloud spurting from Enceladus could carry the ingredients for life farther into space than previously known

Researchers still hope to discover hundreds of new binary black hole mergers despite technical setbacks that have sidelined key detectors in Italy and Japan

After years of downtime for upgrades, the world’s premier gravitational-wave observatories are coming back online with big hopes for transformative discoveries

Saturn’s surprisingly young rings and record-breaking bounty of moons make the planet a ripe target for springtime sky watchers

White dwarfs, Earth-sized exoplanets, early galaxies and even Saturn’s moon Enceladus are on the agenda for JWST’s second year in space, but exomoons and others miss out

For at least three years, the mysterious blast has shined 10 times brighter than any supernova

Launching a fleet of space telescopes is not the solution to the Starlink problem

Laser-based optical frequency combs, originally developed to time atomic clocks, can also perform fast, noninvasive tests for COVID—and potentially other diseases as well