NASA’s Newest Spinoff Tech Comes Back to Earth
While the space agency didn’t actually develop Tang, its R&D includes everything from robot gloves to vertical farming—with commercial benefits back home.
75 Years On, the Doomsday Clock Keeps Ticking
The iconic graphic of a timepiece originated as a nuclear warning. It updates its time on Thursday amid threats like climate change and pandemics.
Games Bring Space Exploration Home. But They Omit the Full Risks
There’s something trickier than teaching players to design rockets and navigate radiation.
Astrophysicists Release the Biggest Map of the Universe Yet
A powerful astronomy instrument called DESI charts millions of galaxies in the night sky. Can it help scientists finally figure out what dark energy is?
The Search for ET Has an X-Factor: the Evolution of Stars
To support life, a planet has to stay in its star’s “habitable zone.” But research on a nearby star shows that life-friendly zones won’t stay that way forever.
Earth’s Oceanography Helps Demystify Jupiter’s Flowing Cyclones
A team of scientists shows where some of the gas giant’s huge storms come from and how the process is similar to the buildup of extreme weather on our planet.
Earth’s Oceanography Helps Demystify Jupiter’s Flowing Cyclones
A team of scientists shows where some of the gas giant’s huge storms come from and how the process is similar to the buildup of extreme weather on our planet.
Astronomers Discover a Strange Galaxy Without Dark Matter
New, high-resolution observations of a faint, fluffy galaxy suggest that dark matter’s not as ubiquitous as scientists thought.
2021 Was the Year Space Tourism Opened Up. But for Whom?
SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic finally made commercial spaceflight possible. Now there are questions about the purpose of these exclusive trips.