Cosmos
Stars, black holes, and the scale of everything above your head.
24 articles
COSMOSOne Of The Most Researched Star Systems Hid A Massive Secret
Two separate teams found the same planet on the same day. It had been sitting in the pictures for eleven years.
COSMOSOn August 30, NASA launches a telescope that sees one hundred times more space than Hubble
Same mirror as Hubble. One hundred times the view. And a question about the universe that it may finally settle.
COSMOSA hundred and fifty years ago, this was a normal American sky.
Every human who ever lived looked up and saw the Milky Way. Then, in a single lifetime, most of America stopped, and almost nobody noticed it happening.
COSMOSA ripple in space just did something Einstein predicted a century ago, and something even he didn't expect.
The clearest signal ever caught from space just put Einstein to his hardest test yet.
COSMOSThis is one of the most important archaeological finds in our history.
It was buried with two swords and an axe, dug up illegally, and sold on the black market twice before anyone understood what they were holding.
COSMOSA Telescope Found a Sign of Life on Another Planet. Then the Argument Started, and It Still Hasn't Ended.
A team at Cambridge found a gas that, on Earth, comes almost entirely from life, drifting in the atmosphere of a planet 124 light-years away. Within days, other scientists said the signal barely exists at all, and the argument still hasn't been settled.
COSMOSMost Places Wait 375 Years for a Total Solar Eclipse. On August 12, 2026, Somebody's Wait Ends.
Most Places Wait 375 Years for a Total Solar Eclipse. On August 12, 2026, Somebody's Wait Ends.
COSMOSNobody Meant to Hit the Moon. We Did Anyway.
An independent analyst predicted it months in advance, to within about two minutes. Nobody has measured the crater yet, and the published estimates disagree by nearly a factor of two.
COSMOS1 Year at Near Light Speed is about 700 Years at Home
You leave for exactly twelve months and keep the promise. When you get back, everyone you said goodbye to has been dead for centuries, and nothing was broken to make it happen.
COSMOSSomething From Outside Our Solar System Just Passed Within Reach of Mars, and Scientists Still Can't Agree on What It Is
A Harvard astrophysicist says the interstellar object now leaving our solar system might not be a rock. Almost every other scientist disagrees, and nobody can fully explain why it's behaving the way it is.
COSMOSThe Gold in Your Ring Is Older Than the Sun
Every atom of gold in your hand is older than the solar system. Astrophysicists are still arguing about which cosmic catastrophe made it.
COSMOSSomething Is Heading for Us and It Might End Life as We Know It
For a century the collision looked certain. New data from Hubble and Gaia turned it into a coin flip.
COSMOSEvery Star You See Orbits a Black Hole You'll Never See
Every star in the Milky Way, including our Sun, is quietly orbiting a black hole four million times heavier than the Sun, one it took eight telescopes and five years to finally photograph.
COSMOSNASA launched a message in a bottle in 1977. It never stopped moving.
A machine with less computing power than a modern calculator, built to last four years, is about to become the first human-made object a full light-day from Earth.
COSMOSThe Photo Almost Nobody Understands
One last look back. A single frame that still stops people cold, decades later.
COSMOSThe Coldest Place in the Universe
Two nebulae, the same shape, the same cause, and temperatures at opposite ends of what the universe allows. One is a degree above absolute zero. The other is lit by a star hotter than 250,000 degrees.
COSMOSEvery poster of our solar system is lying to you
Every poster of our solar system is lying to you. Not with bad facts, with an impossible drawing.
COSMOSA Day on Venus Is Longer Than Its Year
Venus spins so slowly, and backwards, that its own day outlasts its entire year.
COSMOSThere's a Treasure No One Will Ever Be Able to Steal
Deep inside Neptune, scientists think it rains diamonds. There is no way anyone could ever reach them.
COSMOSA Teaspoon That Weighs a Billion Tons
A neutron star packs so much mass into so little space that a single teaspoon of it could weigh about as much as every person on Earth combined.
COSMOSThe Sun You See Is 8 Minutes Old
The sunlight warming your skin right now already left the Sun eight minutes ago.
COSMOSWhat Happens If You Fall Into a Black Hole?
Cross the edge where even light can't escape, and here is exactly what would happen to you, and to everyone watching from outside.
COSMOSOne of the Biggest Stars Ever Found
Nearly ten billion Suns could fit inside this star, and astronomers still argue about exactly how big it is.
COSMOSHow Small Are You?
A few thousand stars tonight is nothing. Zoom out, and you'll see how small we really are.