astronomy
Why It’s Hard for Black Holes to Get Together
The universe’s greatest sinkholes have no trouble swallowing anything—except themselves.
How to Discover a Galaxy with a Telephoto Lens
The Dragonfly telescope is pushing the boundaries of small-scale observational astronomy.
2015 Was the Best Year Ever in Space
The romance is back, argues a NASA adviser and best-selling science-fiction author.
The Beckoning of the Ice Worlds
We’ve been looking for life on Earth-like planets. Will Europa teach us better?
The 315-Year-Old Science Experiment
How counting sunspots unites the past and future of science.
Don’t Write Off ET Quite Yet
It’s true that we haven’t seen alien life, but neither have we seen much of the universe.
A Quick Spin Around the Big Dipper
See how the night sky would appear from a different part of the galaxy.
When the Earth Had Two Moons
A new model—“The Big Splat”—explains the strange asymmetry of the moon.
