Matthew Williams

Matt Williams is a space journalist, science communicator, and author with several published titles and studies. His work is featured in The Ross 248 Project and Interstellar Travel edited by NASA alumni Les Johnson and Ken Roy. He also hosts the podcast series Stories from Space on Patreon. He lives in beautiful British Columbia with his wife and family. For more information, check out his website.

Recent Articles

SpaceX Junk Hits the Moon. Not a Good Sign

August 07, 2026

The spent upper stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket has struck the Moon, illustrating the hazard posed by debris in cislunar space. This problem will increase as launches to orbit and to the Moon become more common in the coming years.
Astronomers Find a New Object from the Early Universe Using Webb Data

August 07, 2026

Homer Dávila Gutierrez, director of SKYCR.ORG, has identified a gravitational arc candidate in the galaxy cluster MACS J0308.9+2645 from public data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The object had not been previously reported and is located at a photometric redshift close to 4.4. The preprint is available on arXiv and the manuscript is under review in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.
Venus Isn't Dead After All

August 06, 2026

Simulations conducted by researchers at ETH Zurich suggest a strong likelihood that Venus’s rift valleys are still geologically active rather than being mere relics of a bygone era, as had been previously believed. This finding reshapes our understanding of Earth’s sister planet and will influence future missions to Venus.
Interstellar Travel II: the Birth of Fusion Drives

August 03, 2026

During the Space Age and Cold War, fusion-powered spacecraft systems were investigated as a possible means of reaching another star system within a human lifetime. Many of the proposed ideas are still on the table today, waiting for future advancements to make them realizable.
Interstellar Travel: The Space Age and Nuclear Rockets

July 31, 2026

Given the state of our technology, it would take a spacecraft a ridiculously long time to reach even the nearest star in our galaxy. However, scientists continue to ponder ways in which we could achieve the dream of interstellar spaceflight. Here are a few of their best ideas.
The Risks of Debris Between the Earth and the Moon for Future Exploration

July 29, 2026

A new study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) addresses the threat of debris in cislunar space, which could pose threats for future missions bound for the Moon.
Samples of Lunar Rock Are Leading Scientists to Rethink the Moon's History

July 28, 2026

Based on a new analysis of the Chang'e-6 lunar samples, scientists are again questioning the timing and intensity of the Late Heavy Bombardment period.
Chang'e-6 Samples Provide an Ancient Record of the Moon's Far Side.

July 28, 2026

The samples returned by the Chang'e-6 mission from the far side of the Moon reveal that the two hemispheres have had rather different experiences when it comes to space weather.
New Research Shows How Clouds Shape the Interiors of sub-Neptunes

July 26, 2026

Scientists at ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration have demonstrated how clouds in a sub-Neptune's atmosphere shape the interior structure of the planet.
UCF Researchers Are Developing Tools to Help Find Habitable Planets

July 26, 2026

Through the Photonics-Enabled Exoplanet Spectroscopic System (PEEPSS) program, researchers are developing a technology that will assist NASA's planned Habitable World's Observatory (HWO).
New Images Reveal the Stunning Properties of the Black Hole at the Center of M87

July 24, 2026

Researchers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with international collaborators, carried out the first spatially resolved dual-frequency spectral study of the M87 black hole using observations obtained in 2018 with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA).
Hubble Discovers the First "Missing" Black Hole in this Famous Star Cluster

July 24, 2026

Combining over 20 years of archival data from Hubble with new data from the James Webb Space Telescope, a team of astronomers has found the first of the "missing" black holes.
Researchers Narrow Down the Type of Meteorite that Killed the Dinosaurs

July 20, 2026

An international team of Earth scientists has narrowed down the class of impactor that caused the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event. According to their findings, it was a rare type of rock that originated in the outer Solar System.
Astronomers Determine that Exoplanets Around Barnard's Star are Extremely Uninhabitable

July 20, 2026

Scientists have painted the most detailed portrait yet of the planetary system orbiting Barnard’s Star. Unfortunately, the picture is not encouraging, as all four planets appear to be "extremely uninhabitable."
NASA's Perseverance Rover Uncovers Evidence of 4 Billion Year Old Impacts

July 19, 2026

Old rocks exposed on the rim of Jezero Crater preserve a roughly 4-billion-year-old cosmic “weather report” from the solar system’s most dynamic era.
NASA’s Artemis III Lander Test Will be a "Dress Rehearsal" for Returning to the Moon!

July 19, 2026

Before Artemis astronauts land on the Moon’s surface in 2028, NASA will conduct the Artemis III demonstration mission in 2027, allowing teams on Earth and in orbit to practice rendezvous and docking operations between commercial human landing systems and the Orion spacecraft. Data from that mission, along with future uncrewed demonstration missions at the Moon,
Submillimeter Array Catches a Gamma-Ray Burst Thanks to new Fast-Response System

July 18, 2026

The Submillimeter Array's (SMA) new semi-automated alert system demonstrates how the radio interferometer quickly responds to discoveries from space-based telescopes.
Satellite Images of Pengiun Poo Reveal Climate Change's Impact on the Species

July 16, 2026

Researchers utilized 30 years of Landsat satellite imagery to analyze the color and spectral signatures of Adélie penguin guano across Antarctica, marking the first time space-based observations have captured food-web and population dynamics at a continental scale.
A Relativistic Jet Could be an Indication of the 'Missing-Link' for Black Holes

July 14, 2026

Astronomers using the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array (NSF VLA) have detected an extraordinary burst of radio light from a rare cosmic event in which an intermediate-mass black hole tears apart a star, revealing what appears to be the off-axis afterglow of a powerful jet.
Researchers Prove Black Hole Theory in a Laboratory Setting

July 14, 2026

Researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center have demonstrated a new approach to wave amplification through interaction with rotating bodies. Rather than mechanically rotating matter, however, the team engineered a radio-frequency device with properties modulated in space and time to mimic spinning.