Astrophysics

How JWST Is Changing Our View of the Universe

Scientific American: Close your eyes and imagine “space,” and there’s a good chance your mind will pull up a picture taken by Hubble. The space telescope became a household name in the 1990s as the images it captured appeared on TV…

The Problem With Spinning Spacecraft

Wired: While it would be awesome for people to be able to live in space, a “weightless” environment poses some serious challenges. Humans function best on Earth’s surface, where they are affected by a constant gravitational force. Without it, there are well-known consequences of long-term exposure to microgravity, including…

Wormholes Could Be Hiding in Plain Sight

Physics: In movies and TV shows, wormholes are typically depicted as tunnels that move travelers between two points in time and space. While long theorized (they were first predicted in 1916), these mystical objects have never been observed by scientists….

The Enduring Mystery of the Dragonfly 44 Galaxy

Quanta Magazine: In 2016, astronomers led by Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University published a bombshell paper claiming the discovery of a galaxy so dim, yet so broad and heavy, that it must be almost entirely invisible. They estimated that the…