Space

Female Firsts: Meet Dr. Kathy Sullivan

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In honor of Women's History Month, we're celebrating the achievements of women around the globe and throughout history. From the pages of The Explorers Journal, we're sharing stories from four women who broke boundaries in exploration, research, and science. In our final spotlight, meet the first American woman to walk in space and to reach the deepest known point in the ocean, Dr. Kathy Sullivan.

July in the Sky: Celestial Events Happening This Month

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With eclipses, meteor showers, and more, it's a busy month in the night sky this July. Take some time this summer to look up and enjoy these cosmic wonders.

Following Blue Origin’s NS-12 Rocket Launch

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Blue Origin, Billionaire Jeff Bezos’ spaceflight company, is rescheduled to launch its NS-12 reusable spacecraft on Wednesday, December 11. Watch it LIVE.

What is “Dark Flow”?

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It sounds super-scary: something from outside the universe, a force so unimaginable, is pulling every single galaxy towards it. What monstrosity of cosmic physics could it be?

The New Warp Drive Idea Isn’t Very Warpy

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Headline after headline is sharing the exciting news: a pair of theoretical physicists have realized that our sci-fi dreams may be real: it may be possible to build an actual, operational warp drive. One problem: it doesn’t go all that fast.

Why We'll (Probably) Never Be Able to Teleport

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For many of us, teleportation would be the absolute best way to travel. Imagine just stepping into a transporter and being able to go thousands of miles in nearly an instant.

May Sky Watch: What to Look Out For This Month

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Whether you can see it from home or stream it online, here are some of May's wonderous celestial events.

The Cost of Global Satellite Internet: Worse Astronomy

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A few billionare-backed companies have ambitious goals: launching tens of thousands of communication satellites to provide global high-speed internet access. Elon Musk’s StarLink, Jeff Bezos’ Project Kuiper, One Web, GuoWang, and more are all competing for this lucrative market. In less than a decade, we can expect over 50,000 new satellites to encircle the Earth. That’s about ten times more than are currently active.

Celebrating Hubble's 30 Year Legacy

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Three cheers for the Hubble! First launched in 1990 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery, the storied space telescope is celebrating is thirtieth year in lonely orbit around the Earth.

Are Aliens Calling Us From Proxima Centauri?

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The internet and news media alike are abuzz with news about a radio buzz coming from Proxima Centauri, the nearest neighbor star to our sun a mere four and a quarter light-years away. That star happens to host a planet, called Proxima b (because we don’t have a cooler name for it yet), that sits in the habitable zone of its parent star. That means that the planet can potentially host liquid water, and where there’s liquid water there’s a chance for life.

The Kuiper Belt: When Solar Systems Dance

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Pluto isn't alone after all. Besides being the home of Pluto, the Kuiper belt hosts dwarf planets, and smaller bits of rock and ice.

There’s Gold in Them Thar... Asteroids?

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Gold had to come to Earth from somewhere, right? So why not outer space?

What is the Multiverse?

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What if there was another you, somewhere out there, doing all the things you wished you could’ve done? What if there was a multiverse, where all the possibilities and choices of our lives became real? It seems like just another fantasy of science fiction, but it’s closer to reality than you might think.

Want to See a Black Hole’s Magnetic Field? Now’s Your Chance

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A couple years ago, the team of astronomers with the Event Horizon Telescope wowed the world by providing our first-ever snapshot of a real-life black hole. Now they’ve done one better and mapped out the swirling magnetic fields around the monster. It’s our first ever glimpse of the forces that power the largest engines in the universe.