We often think of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, as being a self-contained collection of stars, planets, gas and dust. Sure, it’s going to slam straight into the neighboring Andromeda galaxy at >>
We often think of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, as being a self-contained collection of stars, planets, gas and dust. Sure, it’s going to slam straight into the neighboring Andromeda galaxy at >>
For astronomers, discovering new worlds, stars, and even entire galaxies is really only half the battle. Once discovered, explaining how new features of space formed, and where they came from, often means extensive >>
Judging the size of something is often best done when comparing it to other things, but that line of thinking tends to break down when you start talking about objects in space. Earth >>
Our Solar System has remained largely unchanged for billions of years, and it’s likely to remain that way for a long time to come, but that hasn’t stopped astronomers from looking far into >>
Science fiction disaster movies like to imagine what life on Earth might be like in the midst of a space-borne catastrophe like an asteroid strike, but reality can be even more frightening. Imagine >>
Size is relative. A carpenter ant is huge compared to a regular ant, but it’s still tiny when compared to, say, your foot. The challenge of adequately describing size is even worse when >>
It wasn’t all that long ago that the thought of detecting planets outside of our own Solar System was nothing but a dream for astronomers. Thanks to the relentless march of technology, we >>
It’s always a bummer to find out you’re not as special as you thought you were — like when you scored great on an exam in school only to realize the entire class >>
