One thing’s for sure: Escaping the dung heap doesn’t come cheap.
Author: DENNIS OVERBYE
Touring Trinity, the Birthplace of Nuclear Dread
A recent visit to the site of the first atomic bomb explosion offered desert vistas, (mildly) radioactive pebbles and troubling reflections.
Will the Next Space-Weather Season Be Stormy or Fair?
As another 11-year cycle of solar activity begins, scientists debate how violent our stellar friend is likely to be.
What to Name a Bunch of Black Holes? You Had Some Ideas.
Recently, astronomers asked aloud which plural term would best suit the most enigmatic entity in the cosmos. The responses were plentiful.
A Tiny Particle’s Wobble Could Upend the Known Laws of Physics
Experiments with particles known as muons suggest that there are forms of matter and energy vital to the nature and evolution of the cosmos that are not yet known to science.
The Most Intimate Portrait Yet of a Black Hole
Two years of analyzing the polarized light from a galaxy’s giant black hole has given scientists a glimpse at how quasars might arise.
Once Upon a Time on Mars
A dune buggy is about to set off on behalf of its human owners to fulfill a primordial yearning.
Seven Hundred Leagues Beneath Titan’s Methane Seas
Mars, Shmars; this voyager is looking forward to a submarine ride under the icebergs on Saturn’s strange moon.
At the Edge of Time, a Litter of Galactic Puppies
The discovery of a black hole surrounded by protogalaxies provides astronomers with a rare glimpse of the web of matter permeating the cosmos.
On Venus, Cloudy With a Chance of Microbial Life
Astrobiologists shift their gaze, and speculations, to Earth’s broiling sister planet.