The Carrington Event of 1859 Disrupted Telegraph Lines. A “Miyake Event” Would Be Far Worse
We don't know what causes Miyake events, but these great surges of energy can help us understand the past—while posing a threat to our future.
“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.”
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.
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.
Challenging the Hegemoon: the Geopolitics of Space Infrastructure
Cooperative space initiatives between non-US powers such as China and South America are under-explored in scholarship and misunderstood in popular politics.
Should We Go to Mars? Carl Sagan Had Thoughts
It'd be "a step more significant than the colonization of land by our amphibian ancestors some 500 million years ago." But Sagan had reservations.
Space Medicine for the Inexperienced Astronaut
The promise of commercial spaceflight raises questions about how untrained travelers will endure the extreme hostility of space.
Our Space Brothers Might Not Actually Look Like Little Green Men after All
If we find aliens, chances are they'll be nothing like we ever imagined.
Sidney M. Gutierrez: Shooting for the Stars
The first U.S.-born Latino astronaut to pilot a space mission blazed the long road to NASA with determination and optimism.
Francesca Vidotto: The Quantum Properties of Space-Time
Theoretical physicist Francesca Vidotto on feminist epistemology, white holes, string theory, and her book (with Carlo Rovelli) on loop quantum gravity.