Telescope lasers could give humanity an edge in war against space junk By Rafi Letzter published 22 April 21 Space junk is a growing problem. Better fight it with lasers.
Monster antimatter particle slams into Antarctica By Rafi Letzter published 18 March 21 The most remote particle detector on Earth has detected the most energetic antimatter neutrino ever, confirming a 51-year-old prediction.
US Air Force says it will test bizarre 'hypersonic' weapon this month By Rafi Letzter published 16 March 21 At some point in the next few weeks, the U.S. plans to fire an extreme, hypersonic weapon. The question remains: What's the point?
Meteor explodes over Vermont with the force of 440 pounds of TNT By Rafi Letzter published 9 March 21 If you live in Vermont and heard an explosion just before dinnertime Sunday (March 7), there's a good chance that was a shockwave from an incoming meteor exploding over the state.
Planet 9 probably doesn't exist, new paper argues By Rafi Letzter published 21 February 21 Does the solar system really have a big, dark ninth planet drifting somewhere far beyond the orbit of Neptune? A new paper argues that Planet 9 is a statistical mirage.
Mystery of gamma radiation solved: Hidden cannibal star is just having dinner By Rafi Letzter published 12 February 21 The mystery at the heart of an unexplained, bright point of gamma-ray light in the sky has been solved: a violent, whirling redback.
Why Mars is having its busiest two weeks in 47 years By Rafi Letzter published 11 February 21 It's a busy February for Mars, with three probes from three separate space agencies arriving at the red planet over the course of just nine days. Here's why.
Seas will likely rise even faster than worst-case scenarios predicted by climate models By Rafi Letzter published 7 February 21 Sea levels will probably rise faster than the most mainstream climate models predict, according to a new study.
A giant black hole suddenly went dark, and no one knows why By Rafi Letzter published 6 February 21 In 2018, one of the brightest X-ray lights in the sky went dark, and scientists still aren't sure why.
Chinese researchers to send an 'uncrackable' quantum message to space By Rafi Letzter published 6 February 21 It's now possible to send uncrackable quantum messages through thin air, and the people who figured out how to do it are getting ready to send the messages into space.
'Sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system' discovered whirling through the Milky Way By Rafi Letzter last updated 27 January 21 Ever ridden a teacup ride at a state fair? If so, you might have a small taste of life in a whirling, twirling sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system.
Now-dead radio telescope finds bizarre venomous-spider star By Rafi Letzter last updated 19 January 21 Data from the now-destroyed Arecibo radio telescope has revealed a bizarre new type of hybrid venomous spider star.
An alien machine already visited us, Harvard astrophysicist still contends By Rafi Letzter published 9 January 21 Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb has reignited a debate about whether alien life can explain an object that visited the solar system in 2017 in a scathing new book.
We've already blown past the warming targets set by the Paris climate agreement, study finds By Rafi Letzter published 7 January 21 A new study shows that due to pollution already released, Earth will eventually blow past Paris goals. But that doesn't mean all is lost.
The Milky Way is probably full of dead civilizations By Rafi Letzter last updated 2 January 21 If there are other intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way, they are probably much closer than we are to the galactic center, and fairly young.
Mysterious asteroid the size of a dwarf planet is lurking in our solar system By Rafi Letzter published 31 December 20 There's a giant asteroid somewhere out there in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth that left behind meteorites unlike any scientists had ever seen.
Alien hunters detect mystery signal coming from the closest star system By Rafi Letzter published 21 December 20 Astronomers hunting for radio signals from alien civilizations have reportedly detected an "intriguing signal" from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star system to the sun.
Did the universe's creator hide a message in the cosmos? By Rafi Letzter published 20 December 20 Did the creator of the universe leave a hidden message in the cosmos for intelligent life? If so, scientists have yet to find it. But at least one is still trying.
Earth spent 500 million years creating and eating dead continents By Rafi Letzter published 8 December 20 For more than a billion years, Earth covered itself in new continents. New research shows that those continents were quickly swallowed up again but their deaths fertilized life on the surface.
The Milky Way's quiet, introverted monster won't spin By Rafi Letzter last updated 11 May 22 This supermassive black hole's spin has been measured for the first time, and it's surprisingly low.
Higgs boson possibly caught in act of never-before-seen transformation By Rafi Letzter last updated 30 June 22 If the Higgs boson really is decaying into pairs of muons in the Large Hadron Collider, that's a big deal for particle physics.
Warm pasta helps hot, angry neutron stars cool down By Rafi Letzter published 22 October 20 Neutron stars are like the most efficient thermoses in the universe, filled with hot noodle soup. Here's how, over the course of millions of years, they cool down.
Astronomers claimed galaxy was 98% dark matter. They were wrong. By Rafi Letzter published 21 October 20 Back in 2016, researchers claimed Dragonfly 44 was a "failed" Milky Way — a galaxy with a huge dark matter mass but almost no stars. Now, on closer examination, that claim has fallen apart.
Physicists keep trying to break the rules of gravity but this supermassive black hole just said 'no' By Rafi Letzter published 17 October 20 A new test of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity has proved the 20th Century physicist right again, this time using a supermassive black hole.