Latest articles by Rafi Letzter
Catastrophic Ohio Methane Leak Stayed Hidden Until a Satellite Found It
A blowout in Ohio made little news in 2018, but satellite images show it was a major global event.
Scientists Found the Deepest Land on Earth Hiding Beneath Antarctica's Ice
A new mapping effort revealed critical new details of Antarctica's hidden land.
Our Large, Adult Galaxy Is As Massive As 890 Billion Suns
We live in a very big house, but we can't see most of it.
Neutron Flashes Never-Before-Seen Type of Magnetic Field at Earth
Neutron stars have never been caught behaving this way before.
19 Galaxies Are Apparently Missing Dark Matter. No One Knows Why.
Nineteen newly discovered dwarf galaxies seem to be missing their dark matter, and physicists aren't sure why.
There Might Be Cracks in the Universe — But We Can't See Them from Earth
The cracks, if they exist, are old, remnants of a time shortly after the Big Bang.
3 Black Holes Possibly Seen Cooking Their Galaxies Alive
Without the turbulence, the galaxies would die in just a few billion years.
Mysterious Gravitational Wave Sparks Days-Long Hunt — But It Was Just a Glitch
This wasn't what anyone was hoping for.
New, 'Hidden' State of Matter Coaxed into Being by Ultrafast Laser Flashes
Physicists think this might be the first of many hidden states of matter that could be uncovered using laser flashes.
Mathematicians Solve 'Twin Prime Conjecture' — In an Alternate Universe
Mathematicians have uncovered a big new piece of evidence for one of the most famous unproven ideas in mathematics, known as the twin prime conjecture.
Why NASA's Annoyed About Elon Musk's Giant Rocket
SpaceX has never flown a person into space in its first spacecraft, the Crew Dragon. But already Musk is showing off his big, shiny Starship — and NASA is bristling.
Fireball That Flew Over Japan in 2017 Was Tiny Piece of Giant Asteroid that Might One Day Threaten Earth
If you'd looked up into the sky in Kyoto, Japan, on April 28, 2017, you may have seen a preview of an event that could, far down the road, threaten the whole Earth.
An Asteroid-Smashing Star Ground a Giant Rock to Bits and Covered Itself in the Remains
Good news for scientists. Bad news for any asteroid dwellers.
A Second Interstellar Visitor Has Arrived in Our Solar System. This Time, Astronomers Think They Know Where It Came From
When 'Oumuamua passed through our solar system in 2017, no one could figure out where the object came from. But astronomers think they've worked out how Comet 2I/Borisov got here.
Is Our Solar System's Mysterious 'Planet 9' Really a Grapefruit-Size Black Hole?
Astronomers have long hunted a mysterious planet in the outer reaches of our solar system. These scientists think that it might really be a primordial black hole,
Rogue Ice Moon Could Be Spilling Its Guts All Over 'Alien Megastructure' Star
Often, when we don't have an immediate explanation for something strange in space, some people blame aliens. But better explanations usually come along in time.
Afterglow of Colliding Neutron Stars Would Outshine Our Sun
A new, hours-long Hubble study of the collision site revealed never-before-seen details of the neutron-star merger
Astronomers Decode Weird X-Ray Pattern Coming from Neutron Star
Astronomers have detected a neutron star system blasting X-ray light at Earth and detected a rare, months-long pattern in those light bursts.
