Space & Physics

In honor of SciAm’s 180th birthday, we’re spotlighting the biggest “wait, what?” moments in science history.

After a string of fiery failures, SpaceX’s biggest rocket faces another test flight with sky-high stakes for U.S. space ambitions

The 60-meter asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 4 percent chance of hitting the moon. Could such a lunar collision create a dangerous new meteor shower?

In his latest book, science journalist Peter Brannen argues that CO₂ is the most important—and most misunderstood—molecule on Earth

The journal Science has lifted an expression of concern on a paper claiming evidence of Majorana quasiparticles, but concerns linger

With no fuel or engines, tiny explorers will surf sun-warmed air alone to explore high in the skies of Earth and Mars

Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have spotted a moon nestled near Uranus’s rings that’s so small you could walk around it

The Juno spacecraft has rewritten the story on Jupiter, the solar system’s undisputed heavyweight

The search for extraterrestrial life has periodically been turned upside down

The universe has a habit of disproving “unassailable” facts

Beneath the surfaces of distant planets, microbes might subsist on harsh radiation rather than starlight, a new study suggests

Neptune’s discovery was a race that ended not long after this magazine came to be