What Makes Earth Different from Mars and Venu
Earth is special because it sits in a comfortable zone around the Sun where temperatures allow liquid water to remain stable on the surface. Vast oceans regulate climate, plate tectonics recycle nutrients and a magnetic field shields the atmosphere from harmful radiation. The air is rich in nitrogen and oxygen, making it possible for complex…
The Starless Frontier: Journey of a Rogue Planet
In the vast darkness between the stars, astronomers have confirmed the existence of mysterious worlds known as rogue planets — planetary bodies that travel through space without orbiting any star. Once thought to be rare cosmic accidents, these wandering planets are now believed to be incredibly common throughout the Milky Way, possibly numbering in the…
Galaxies: Cities of StarsGalaxies: Cities of Stars
When people describe galaxies as cities of stars, they are trying to make something unimaginably vast feel familiar. Just as a city gathers millions or billions of people bound by gravity, culture and history, a galaxy gathers enormous numbers of suns, planets, gas, dust and dark matter into one grand, evolving system. Thinking this way…
Frozen Among the Stars: The Extreme Chill of the Boomerang Nebula
In a universe filled with blazing stars, violent explosions, and superheated plasma, one remote cloud of gas stands out for the opposite reason — it is unimaginably cold. The Boomerang Nebula, located approximately 5,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus, is officially the coldest naturally observed place in the universe, with temperatures plunging to…
Why the Sun Will Not Shine Forever
The star at the center of our system shines because immense pressure in its core forces hydrogen atoms to fuse into helium. This nuclear fusion releases extraordinary amounts of energy which travels outward and eventually reaches space as light and heat. As long as enough hydrogen remains in the core, this balance between inward gravity…
From the Big Bang to Today: The 13.8-Billion-Year Journey of the Universe
Astronomers estimate that the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old, a conclusion reached through multiple independent scientific methods that together create one of the most precise measurements in modern science. This estimate marks the time elapsed since the Big Bang, the event that initiated the expansion of the universe and the formation of all…
How Sunlight Ages Astronaut Equipment on the Moon
On the Moon, hardware sits in an environment far harsher than anything on Earth because there is no atmosphere, weather or magnetic shielding to soften the Sun’s output. Every sunrise brings intense ultraviolet light, X-rays and charged particles that strike materials directly, hour after hour, year after year. Ultraviolet radiation is especially destructive to fabrics,…
What Happens to Timekeeping Without the Moon
The Moon and Earth’s RotationThe Moon’s gravity creates a pull on Earth which slows down our planet’s rotation very slightly over time. This is called tidal braking. Without the Moon, Earth would spin faster, making days shorter than the current 24 hours. So, in a Moonless world, timekeeping based on the length of a day…
Alpha Centauri: Our Closest Stellar Neighbor and the Next Frontier of Space Exploration
Astronomy News — Located about 4.37 light-years from Earth, the Alpha Centauri star system holds the distinction of being the nearest known stellar neighbor to our solar system. Although this distance is enormous—equivalent to more than 40 trillion kilometers (25 trillion miles)—its relative closeness makes Alpha Centauri one of the most studied and scientifically important…
Solar Neutrinos: Ghost Particles from the Sun
Solar neutrinos are elementary particles produced in enormous numbers by the nuclear reactions that power the Sun. In the core, hydrogen nuclei fuse into helium through chains of reactions and several of the steps release neutrinos. Because they interact only via the weak nuclear force and gravity, they stream outward almost completely unhindered, carrying direct…
