The Milky Way’s largest star is slowly dying, and all astronomers can do is watch. Of course, even if we could get to VY Canis Majoris, there isn’t much we could do to stop the death of a star. In th… [+2867 chars]
The fossil record tells us about ancient life through the preserved remains of body parts like bones, teeth and turtle shells. But how to study the history of soft tissues and organs, which can decay… [+3797 chars]
Magnetars are some of the most fascinating astronomical objects. One teaspoon of the stuff they are made out of would weigh almost one billion tons, and they have magnetic fields that are hundreds of… [+4013 chars]
Volcanoes account for some of Earth's most interesting and violent geographical features, a force for destruction and creation. However, volcanic activity isn't limited to our planet and space volca… [+8018 chars]
Its nice to have a feel-good story every once in a while, so heres one to hold off the existential dread: the Earth isnt likely to get flung off into deep space for at least 100,000 years. In fact, a… [+3602 chars]
Within the solar system, most of our astrobiological research is aimed at Mars, which is considered to be the next-most habitable body beyond Earth. However, future efforts are aimed at exploring icy… [+7459 chars]
Scientists just measured the spin of one of the most massive black holes in the known universe, and it may just confirm a dark and violent theory for how the most massive black holes reach their enor… [+3514 chars]
Making a 3D map of our galaxy would be easier if some stars behaved long enough to for us to calculate the distances to them. However, red supergiants are the frisky kids on the block when it comes t… [+6082 chars]
The fossil record tells us about ancient life through the preserved remains of body parts like bones, teeth and turtle shells. But how to study the history of soft tissues and organs, which can decay… [+3797 chars]
When you look up at the night sky, you have likely noticed that the stars twinkle. Interestingly, stars do not actually twinkle. If you were to leave the Earths atmosphere, the stars would appear sol… [+2338 chars]
Exploring beneath the surface of other planets may be the key to determining whether life has ever existed outside of Earth. As other missions, including that of NASA's InSight lander, have shown, d… [+6066 chars]
Curing debilitating genetic diseases is one of the great challenges of modern medicine. During the past decade, development of CRISPR technologies and advancements in genetics research brought new ho… [+4428 chars]
