Lab Notes

Scouting for life on Mars

0
In 2012, a Dutch foundation called Mars One announced plans to establish a permanent human colony on Mars, with the first settlers arriving in...

Drifting in space and time

0
In 1916, Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicted ripples in the fabric of space known as gravitational waves. Just as accelerating electrons create...

Naming the stars

0
The holiday season is a peak time for companies that sell the novelty gift of “naming a star,” with a framed certificate and a...

Predicting seasons of the sun

0
Although you might take it for granted that the sun is extremely stable over time, the star at the center of our solar system...

Tracking wildfire smoke

0
It’s already been a challenging wildfire season in Colorado, with crews currently battling four major fires around the state. Driven by an exceptionally hot...

Developing a NASA mission

0
Imagine spending years coming up with an exciting idea for a space telescope, proposing it to NASA, and getting approval to develop the concept...

Comet ATLAS shrugs

0
In late December 2019, a telescope in Hawaii operated by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) discovered a comet on its way to...

Crowding the night sky

0
I n mid-March, SpaceX launched 60 satellites into orbit 340 miles above the surface of the Earth, part of a planned global broadband internet service...

Living with a star

0
Just after Christmas 2019, a NASA spacecraft soared past Venus toward the inner solar system, and near the end of January 2020, it passed...

Voluntary depopulation

0
During the first two weeks of December, delegates from around the world are meeting in Madrid for the latest round of international negotiations to...

Cheating extinction

0
When a huge space-rock fell from the sky 66 million years ago, it quickly brought an end to the age of the dinosaurs. Rat-like...

Chasing Arctic ice

0
In late September, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg led the largest global climate strike in history, inspiring 7.6 million people in 185 countries to urge...