100,000 Stars

An interactive 3D visualization of the stellar neighborhood, including over 100,000 nearby stars. Created for the Google Chrome web browser.

Network topology design at 27,000 km/hr | APNIC Blog

Guest Post: Computer scientists are proposing a novel network design that could double the network capacity of low-flying satellite Internet systems.

The Planet Hunting Machine

Caltech professor Gregg Hallinan and his team are scanning the universe for possible Earths with cheap antennae built from parts found online, cake pans, and, yes, chicken wire—taking the lonely search for habitable planets and automating it.

How Supermassive Black Holes Were Discovered

Astronomers turned a fantastic concept into reality.

The comet

How the Rosetta space probe brings a distant comet into vivid focus

What This Drawing Taught Me About Four-Dimensional Spacetime

Stuck in his research, a cosmologist finds a hint in an intricate drawing.

Think You Know the Definition of a Black Hole? Think Again - Facts So Roman

When I was 12, I made the mistake of watching the Paul W. S. Anderson horror film, Event Horizon. It gave me nightmares for weeks: The movie’s title refers to an experimental spaceship that could create artificial black holes through which to travel, making interstellar trips…

What is antimatter?

Logic tells us that antimatter should have annihilated the Universe. So why hasn’t it?

Speed Kills

Development of hypersonics is moving so quickly that it threatens to outpace any real discussion about the potential perils of such weapons, including how they may disrupt efforts to avoid accidental conflict, especially during crises.

An Orbit Map of the Solar System

A map of over 18,000 asteroids in the Solar System.

Q: Why was it so hard to take a picture of a black hole? What are we even looking at?

Physicist: Black holes and space are both black, so there’s that. But while black holes tend to be very small, space is bonkers big and filled with just enough stuff to give astronomers thin…

The Astronaut Who Might Actually Get Us to Mars – Texas Monthly

As an eighteen-year-old immigrant to the U.S., Franklin Chang Díaz dreamed of becoming an astronaut. Now, decades after tying the record for most spaceflights, he might be the best bet to get us to Mars.

One night of telescope time rules out black hole/dark matter idea

Black holes formed right after the Big Bang aren’t common enough to be dark matter.

Proof of life: how would we recognise an alien if we saw one?

Proof of life: what evidence would it take to convince you that alien intelligence had been found?

Lost world: An ancient ninth planet that went missing

Clues hidden in today’s orbits hint at the violent origins of the solar system — and a rogue giant kicked out long ago.

There’s now a giant net collecting garbage in space and it’s as cool as it

“This is not sci-fi. We repeat, not sci-fi.”

A satellite engineer explains the challenges of space electronics

A New World’s Extraordinary Orbit Points to Planet Nine | Quanta Magazine

Astronomers argue that there’s an undiscovered giant planet far beyond the orbit of Neptune. A newly discovered rocky body has added evidence to the circumstantial case for it.