What appears to be a double-lobed nuclear explosion is actually the result of a rare astronomical outburst known as a supernova impostor. A “small” nuclear explosion occurred in the massive star Eta Carinae nearly 200 years ago, but the star...
For the first several billion years of our Universe’s history, the Universe’s expansion rate was decreasing and distant galaxies slowed in their recession from ours, as the matter and radiation densities dropped. However, for the past ~6 billion years, distant...
This sand dune, known as Dingo Gap, was crossed by Mars Curiosity in 2014. This image has been slightly ‘white balanced’ as opposed to being shown in true color, which enables the differences in the compositions and intrinsic colors of...
The brain is a network of neurons, connected by synapses, embedded in a substrate of four different types of glial cells. There is both white and gray matter in the brain, and a three-layer protective casing surrounding it, all fed...
This map of stars in the vicinity of the identified object Ursa Major III/UNIONS 1 in two-dimensional space, with the contours showing the central location of a stellar overdensity. This may merely be the last remnants of a globular cluster,...
To learn how galaxies grow and evolve over cosmic time, including an understanding of how gas infalls and gets expelled from galaxies, we will need to develop a suite of multiwavelength observatories, missions, and facilities. All of this is possible...
The image above shows an illustration of the three future LISA, or Laser Interferometer Space Antennae, spacecrafts, in a trailing orbit behind the Earth. LISA will be our first space-based gravitational wave detector, sensitive to objects thousands of times as...
Fascism isn’t defined by symbols like a strong-arm salute, a red hat, or a cult of personality surrounding a leader. Instead, it’s defined by the actions of a government: what they oppress and what they support. When comparing the 14...
Although we like to think that the Universe is symmetric, reflecting something as simple as a left hand in a mirror reveals a fundamental asymmetry: the mirror image of your hand is actually a right hand, not a left hand....
In this photo, a patient receives a vaccine known as the Jynneos vaccine, which is used to combat mpox. Although vaccines are the safest, most beneficial public health intervention in history (other than perhaps safe drinking water and sanitation), many...
