Idaho Dims The Lights For One Of The Best Night Skies Anywhere
Central Idaho hopes to land on a very short list of the best places on Earth to see the Milky Way at night.
Space
NASA Taps Young People To Help Develop Virtual Reality Technology
Scientists at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center are hoping to use virtual reality technology to study space, and Earth, without leaving their offices. Talented high school students are helping.
The Largest Digital Camera In The World Takes Shape
A two-story tall, digital camera is taking shape in California. It will ultimately go on a telescope in Chile where it will survey the sky, looking for things that appear suddenly or change over time.
On The Alien Question: Where Are They?
The great physicist Enrico Fermi asked this question in the 1950s. There are more than 50 possible "solutions" to Fermi's Paradox: Here, astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser explores a few.
3-Plus Tons Of Supplies Headed To International Space Station After Virginia Liftoff
The Sunday launch of an Antares rocket from Wallop Islands has some 7,400 pounds aboard. The rocket was developed by private firm Orbital ATK, which conducts supply missions for NASA.
The Answer To Life, The Universe — And Everything? It's 63
Over time, the expansion of the cosmos and the passage of light has unlocked 63 orders of magnitude to us, each one a new opportunity for novelty and complexity, says guest blogger Caleb Scharf.
iPTF14hls: The Star That Won't Die
NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Iair Arcavi, postdoctoral fellow in astrophysics at UC Santa Barbara, about the strange behavior of supernova iPTF14hls. This star doesn't seem to want to die.
In New Novel, 'Martian' Author Andy Weir Builds A Colony On The Moon
Artemis imagines the first moon settlement as a mining town and tourist trap. "I had a lot of fun doing the world building," Weir says.
Terra Incognita: 'The Planet Factory' And 'The Undiscovered Islands'
Two new books about unreal islands and yet-to-be-real planets have much to tell us about what human beings want to know when we look around at the world — life is uncertain, and our fears need maps.
The Interdependence Of Humanity And Earth
We owe our existence to little photosynthetic bacteria — but there is much more to this story, as life can only mutate and adapt when the planet offers the right conditions, says Marcelo Gleiser.