Latest articles by Rafi Letzter
China Plans to Build a Moon Base Near the Lunar South Pole
China plans to build a scientific research station on the moon in 'about 10 years' according to a state news agency.
There's a Tiny, Bright Magnetar Photobombing Our Galaxy's Supermassive Black Hole
Astronomers studying black hole SagA* have to deal with the weird, frustrating little star that lit up right between Earth and the black hole in 2013.
Physicists Closer to Solving Mystery of Weird Glowing Ring Around Milky Way's Black Hole
Astronomers watched a high-speed gas cloud slam into the atmosphere of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
College Students Hatch Nuclear-Powered Magnetic Plan to Protect Marsonauts from Cosmic Rays
A team of undergraduate students at Drake University in Iowa is developing a magnetic shield to defend interplanetary astronauts from the intense cosmic radiation between Earth and Mars.
These Wisps Around Black Holes Could Reveal How the Cosmic Beasts Eat
The international team responsible for the first-ever image of a black hole's shadow already has plans to take a better, more detailed image.
We Could Soon Watch a Black Hole in Action, Gobbling Up Matter in Real Time
The huge team behind the Event Horizon Telescope already made news with their first image of a black hole. But they've got bigger ambitions.
Physicists Think You Could Be Rescued from a Black Hole — But Don't Risk It
Researchers have developed a new, unspeakably dangerous, and incredibly slow method of crossing the universe. It involves wormholes linking special black holes that probably don't exist.
Physicists Scramble to Understand the Extreme Crystals Hiding Inside Giant, Alien Planets
Planetary scientists are calling on mineral physicists to help them figure out the strange chemistry going on inside super-Earths and mini-Neptunes.
3 Huge Questions the Black Hole Image Didn't Answer
Almost nothing in the black hole image surprised astrophysicists. These are the three biggest mysteries it left unsolved, and two questions it did answer.
Israeli Lander Failure Marks 1st Moon Crash in 48 Years
Beresheet's moon crash was the first in nearly half a century. But back in the day, moon crashes happened all the time.
Physicists Stuffed a Ghostly 'Skyrmion' Full of 'Antiskyrmions'
The ghostly 'quasiparticles' have barely any material existence, but physicists are still managing to manipulate them into uncanny shapes.
Extreme, Hydrogen-Crushing Physicists Are Pushing Us into a 'New Era of Superconductivity'
Lanthanum, diamond crushers and advanced computer models are changing the hunt for this extreme quantum mechanical effect.
Starquakes Rock Alien Sun, Revealing Details of a 'Hot Saturn'
NASA's TESS mission has, for the first time, detected a planet orbiting a star with visible starquakes.
Physicists Think They've Figured Out the Most Extreme Chemical Factories in the Universe
Our world is full of chemicals that shouldn't exist. New research could explain why they exist anyway.
Why Are These Massive, Baby Stars Orbiting So Close Together?
This massively bright "star" is actually two stars.
A Strange, Sleeping Magnetar Just Woke Up After a Decade of Silence
A particularly odd, spinning star has woken up, and it's spitting bright flashes of radio waves at us again.
Tons of Pressurized Oxygen Could Be Hiding Out in Earth's Molten Iron Core
Earth's vast magma oceans, roiling deep beneath our feet, seem to be pumping oxygen into the planet's liquid core.
An Exploding Asteroid Blasted Across Mars' Surface in the Last 10 Years
Sometime in the last decade, something heavy slammed into the Martian atmosphere and blasted apart into a hard rain of superheated material.
Climate Change Could Make These Super-Common Clouds Extinct, Which Would Scorch the Planet
Carbon dioxide emissions could wipe out one of Earth's most common types of clouds. That's bad news.
'River of Stars' Streaming Through the Milky Way Was Hiding in Plain Sight for 1 Billion Years
This cluster of stars has been visible for a long time, but scientists only just now realized they're part of the same cosmic river.
What Will Happen to the Opportunity Rover's Dead Body on Mars?
NASA's Opportunity Rover has died on Mars. Now what?
Why Can't NASA's Curiosity Rover Rescue Opportunity?
NASA has another mobile robot on Mars. Why not launch a rescue mission?
Plasma Waves Are Cooking Electrons in Earth's Magnetic Shield
Space is warm — or, at least, warmer than it should be. A new study seeks to explain why.
