Trouvelot’s Total Lunar Eclipse
Immigrant artist Étienne Léopold Trouvelot used his skills to accurately represent the details—and the sublimity—of our solar system.
How to See the Invisible Universe
Telescopes that detect long-wavelength signals offer clues about the Big Bang, the centers of black holes, and the origins of life.
The Secrets of Jupiter’s Incredible Great Red Spot
Astronomers have worked out that Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a massive storm system, but what keeps a storm going for hundreds of years?
M-Dwarves and the Search for Life
In recent years, astronomers have broadened their search for habitable planets to include previously ignored stars like M-dwarves.
How We Know What Killed the Dinosaurs
How do we know that a meteor caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?
There May Be a Ninth Planet (And It’s Not Pluto)
Caltech astronomer Michael Brown has proposed the existence of a ninth planet, the existence of which would explain the strange orbits of six KBOs.
General Relativity 100 Years On
Einstein's groundbreaking theory of general relativity has remained an essential hallmark of modern physics.
The Canals of Mars
We now know there's liquid water on Mars, according to NASA. But at the turn of the 20th century, we believed something else: that Mars had canals.
