Planetary Science

Planetary Defense Is Good—but Is Planetary Offense Better?

A new approach could mitigate the most damaging effects of an imminent asteroid or comet strike—or ensure many threatening objects never get close to striking Earth in the first place...

Philip Lubin and Alexander Cohen | Opinion

Astrophysics

FAST, the World’s Largest Radio Telescope, Zooms in on a Furious Cosmic Source

China’s Five-Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope has detected more than 1,600 fast radio bursts from a single enigmatic system

Ling Xin

Quantum Physics

AI Designs Quantum Physics Experiments beyond What Any Human Has Conceived

Originally built to speed up calculations, a machine-learning system is now making shocking progress at the frontiers of experimental quantum physics

Anil Ananthaswamy

Particle Physics

New Universal Force Tested by Blasting Neutrons through Crystal

A recent experiment has placed the best-yet limits on the strength of a long-sought fifth fundamental force

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

Astronomy

‘Auroral’ Exoplanets Could Help Boost Searches for Alien Life

Four candidate worlds found via flashes of radio emission may be the first of many revealed by a new planet-hunting technique

Nola Taylor Tillman