Astronomy
Meet WFIRST, The Space Telescope with the Power of 100 Hubbles
WFIRST ain't your grandma's space telescope. Despite having the same size mirror as the surprisingly reliable Hubble Space Telescope, clocking…
When Does the Sun Rise… Really?
It's strange but true... we may not fully understand one of the simplest metrics in observational astronomy: just what time…
See a Simulation of the Moon for Every Day in 2019
It's always easier to show someone a picture of something rather than to use 1,000 words to explain it. The…
Something Twice the Size of Earth Slammed into Uranus and Knocked it Over on its Side
Astronomers think they know how Uranus got flipped onto its side. According to detailed computer simulations, a body about twice…
The Saturn Nebula Kind of Looks Like the Planet in a Small Telescope, But in One of the Most Powerful Telescopes on Earth, it Looks Like This
Saturn is an icon. There's nothing else like it in the Solar System, and it's something even children recognize. But…
Here’s the First Image of the Sun from the Parker Solar Probe
It's been 124 days since the Parker Solar Probe was launched, and several weeks since it made the closest approach…
A Supernova 2.6 Million Years Ago Could Have Wiped Out the Ocean’s Large Animals
For many years, scientists have been studying how supernovae could affect life on Earth. Supernovae are extremely powerful events, and…
OSIRIS-REx Has Already Found Water on Bennu
NASA's OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer) has found water on the asteroid Bennu. Bennu is OSIRIS-REx's only…
Astronomers Count all the Photons in the Universe. Spoiler Alert: 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Photons
Imagine yourself in a boat on a great ocean, the water stretching to the distant horizon, with the faintest hints…
Prehistoric Cave Paintings Show That Ancient People Had Pretty Advanced Knowledge of Astronomy
According to a new study that examined ancient cave paintings and archaeological sites, it appears that prehistoric humans had a…