International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/B. O'Connor (UMD/GWU) & J. Rastinejad & W Fong (Northwestern Univ) Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), J. Miller, M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)

Explaining GRB 221009A, the Greatest Cosmic Explosion Humanity Has Ever Seen

The brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed, GRB 221009A behaved in unexpected ways that might help us understand how they occur.
Aerial view of Barringer crater in Arizona

The Eight Best Hidden Impact Craters on Earth

Many impact craters on Earth have been erased thanks to wind, water, and plate tectonics. But scientists have clever ways to find them.
The IceCube Laboratory just before South Pole Dawn

“Ghostly” Neutrinos Help Us See Our Milky Way as Never Before

As Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery...consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
The view south from Viking 2, one of two probes sent to investigate the surface of the planet Mars for the first time, September 6, 1976

We Might Have Accidentally Killed the Only Life We Ever Found on Mars Nearly 50 Years Ago

In one experiment, the Viking landers added water to Martian soil samples. That might have been a very bad idea.
An illustration of Star Trek's USS Enterprise in warp drive

Is Star Trek’s Warp Drive Possible?

The concept of the warp drive is currently at odds with everything we know to be true about physics.
Animation of Black Hole Disk Flare in OJ 287

Solved: Astronomers Identify Origin of Mysterious Flares in Galaxy OJ 287

In a distant galaxy, a cosmic dance between two supermassive black holes emits periodic flashes of light.
Credits: Frank Summers (STScI), Greg Bacon (STScI), Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Leah Hustak (STScI), Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Science by: Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (RIT), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin)

NASA’s Deepest 3D Fly-through of the Universe

From the present day all the way to less than 400 million years after the Big Bang, we're seeing how the Universe grew up like never before.
Still-life of a Pioneer brand laserdisc player

From DiscoVision to SelectaVision

While these videodisc formats ultimately failed, they signaled that consumers were hungry for control of their home viewing.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry addresses delegates before he signed the COP21 Climate Change Agreement on Earth Day, April 22, 2016, at the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York, N.Y.

The Paris Agreement: Annotated

Adopted by almost 200 parties at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference, the Paris Agreement captures international ambitions for cooperative climate action.