An artist's rendering of a black hole

Ancient Black Hole Challenges Our Understanding of the Early Universe

The Big Bang theory is not threatened, but astrophysicists have some explaining to do.
Adoration of the Magi with Saint Anthony Abbot

What was the Star of Bethlehem?

Never stop looking at the skies in wonder.
Lion's Head rock formation on the shoulder of Mt. Washington, NH

Why the Worst Weather on Earth Is in New Hampshire

A combination of factors makes the weather at New Hampshire’s Mount Washington arguably the most brutal in the world.
The Sun photographed at 304 angstroms by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA 304) of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

How Earthquakes Helped Us Map the Interior of the Sun

Temperatures in the Sun’s core exceed 10 million degrees Celsius. But how on Earth did we actually come to know that?
Quinoa seeds

Quinoa: Rise of an Andean Superfood

Once considered a minor crop for Indigenous communities, quinoa’s journey to worldwide stardom was centuries in the making.

The Hunt for Life in Alpha Centauri

This oddball system of three stars might be our best chance at finding nearby life in the Universe.
A photograph of Cyanea pohaku from The indigenous trees of the Hawaiian Islands (1913)

Cyanea Pohaku: The Plant Discovered Right Before Extinction

Cyanea pohaku, the extinction of which can be traced to human interventions in the environment, was gone before we had a chance to really study it.
This artist concept depicts "multiple-transiting planet systems," which are stars with more than one planet.

To Find a New World, Watch How a Planet Dances with Its Star

Finding a tiny planet around bright stars dozens or hundreds of light-years from Earth is extremely difficult.