Rafi Letzter
Rafi wrote for Live Science from 2017 until 2021, when he became a technical writer for IBM Quantum. He has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of journalism. You can find his past science reporting at Inverse, Business Insider and Popular Science, and his past photojournalism on the Flash90 wire service and in the pages of The Courier Post of southern New Jersey.
Latest articles by Rafi Letzter
![The sun moves through the galaxy encases in a bubble formed by its own solar wind. In front of the sun, galactic debris builds up, inlcuding hydrogen.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/xBPgKXpajvc3enJmL7NZxj-320-80.jpg)
NASA Spotted a Vast, Glowing 'Hydrogen Wall' at the Edge of Our Solar System
By Rafi Letzter published
There's a vast "hydrogen wall" at the edge of our solar system, and NASA scientists think their New Horizons spacecraft can see it.
![coldest spot in the universe](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/S8JhqEqHconyfXnHHzP7FN-320-80.jpg)
NASA Created a Rare, Exotic State of Matter in Space
By Rafi Letzter published
A special device aboard the International Space Station has produced Bose-Einstein condensates in space for the first time ever.
![A figure from the study shows light waves interacting with one another around singularities.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/E6VsbtNuLHbmTRwPZGwNWV-320-80.jpg)
Physicists Tied Laser Beams into Knots
By Rafi Letzter published
The technology could improve future precision light sources. But right now the biggest surprise is how many holes there are in a laser figure-eight.
![This composite image of the July 27 lunar eclipse, shot from Australia, reveals the Earth's shadow in a whole new way.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gH9aP8Ciiw82E2gv4vvfwC-320-80.jpg)
This Amazing Photo Reveals a Lunar Eclipse Like You've Never Seen It Before
By Rafi Letzter published
Australian amateur astronomer Tom Harradine made an image of the century's longest lunar eclipse that reveals the true scale of the Earth's dark umbra.
![blueberry earth brighter](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dxMyqx3tc7iMnqgjijyoKJ-320-80.jpg)
What If Earth Turned into a Giant Pile of Blueberries?
By Rafi Letzter published
If Earth suddenly turned into an Earth-size pile of blueberries, things would start exploding. This is science.
![lhc blue tube](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PxFDWKBvhRdMeN8izpwTy-320-80.jpg)
Large Hadron Collider Just Spat Electron-ified Atoms to Almost the Speed of Light
By Rafi Letzter published
The Large Hadron Collider accelerated lead nuclei with orbiting electrons along its tunnel for the first time, opening new scientific doors.
![Tiangong-2 orbits the Earth in this illustration.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qYwQbZgafjiGXG2nxfiiHa-320-80.jpg)
World First: Chinese Physicists Made a Cold Atomic Clock Work in Space
By Rafi Letzter published
Atomic clocks have traveled to space before. But no one has ever managed to make one this accurate tick up there before.
![If life existed on the moon, we haven't found its remains yet.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/7AofXWfu34PdsxcqMZG9EQ-320-80.jpg)
Scientists Definitely Have Not Found Life on the Moon
By Rafi Letzter published
A new paper opens a door to the possibility of life having maybe once existed, possibly, on the moon. But it presents no direct evidence for life.
![Enceladus](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/gGiEm9M4zKNa3MFRxmFUug-320-80.jpg)
There's Spooky Plasma Music Traveling From Saturn to its Weirdest Moon
By Rafi Letzter published
Researchers for the first time recorded the gas giant's vibrating plasma signal to Enceladus. And now you can listen to it too.
![Ozone hole healing animation](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/PYzeKNhiwfzUwKe7Rwtkwm-320-80.gif)
The New York Times May Have Solved the Biggest Environmental Mystery in Decades
By Rafi Letzter published
A report from Xingfu, China, may point to the source of a bizarre spike in ozone-layer-depleting CFCs reported in May.
![An artist's illustration depicts a quasar, or supermassive, ultra-luminous black hole.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/qESFgN35jFKwUtED7YJZzH-320-80.jpg)
Physicists Just Found the Last Missing Protons and Neutrons In the Universe
By Rafi Letzter published
The universe's missing baryons have been found, and they're floating between the stars in the form of superhot oxygen.
![Stephen Hawking in zero-gravity](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/TqMM9f6oeeVmbjfc2Sgvzb-320-80.jpg)
Stephen Hawking's Family Will Beam His Voice Toward a Black Hole
By Rafi Letzter published
The physicist's remains will be interred at Westminster Abbey between those of Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. Meanwhile, his voice will stream through space.
![hawk balloon telescope](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/mvfAgv9PeZeXCfzuFo74HA-320-80.jpg)
Confused Baby Falcon Rescued from Inside Balloon Telescope
By Rafi Letzter published
When the baby bird invaded the telescope scientists scrambled to make sure it wouldn't damage sensitive optics (or hurt itself).
![Curiosity, NASA's rover responsible for the new findings, took this self-portrait on Mars in 2015.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/FqrVv5hZmPuv95AA39SfnC-320-80.jpg)
There May Be Life on Mars, But This NASA Report Doesn't Prove It
By Rafi Letzter published
NASA did find two more scraps of evidence about the kind of life that might exist on Mars. Here's what the new research really shows.
![IceCube Neutrino Observatory](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/CJ4pxsqgF4VwYdRXPvT3tK-320-80.jpg)
A Major Physics Experiment Just Detected A Particle That Shouldn't Exist
By Rafi Letzter published
There's something strange happening in the universe, and it's either evidence of a hidden particle, or a sign that the experiments are broken.
![The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider is one of the machine's two big all-purpose detectors.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/JVJNrfFfQBbgtNRJLPoMAk-320-80.jpg)
Nuclear Detectives Hunt Invisible Particles That Escaped the World's Largest Atom Smasher
By Rafi Letzter published
The Large Hadron Collider hasn't found any new physics since the Higgs boson. A team of outsider physicists think they know why.
![A view of Earth, half in darkness, with a powerful white spiral storm heading over the U.S. East Coast.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/icUpqPgXQ4EupHaSJi6jfV-320-80.jpg)
Why Is NOAA's Brand-New, Billion-Dollar Weather Satellite Going Blind?
By Rafi Letzter published
NOAA's GOES-17 was supposed to watch for deadly storms and dust clouds in the Western Hemisphere. Instead, it's spending half the day blind.
![The hole in Earth's protective ozone layer that forms over Antarctica each September was the smallest seen since 1988, according to NASA and NOAA.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/dKKZoNaCS9bB8eT7DiLFHd-320-80.jpg)
There's No Good Explanation for Why Ozone-Ripping CFCs Are Back
By Rafi Letzter published
Scientists can't explain why in the world someone would decide to pump out the dangerous gases again.
![An artist's rendering shows polarized light interacting with the honeycomb lattice.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/iFC5sRdmyvt6wLQtdQy3WX-320-80.jpg)
Lasers Could Make Computers 1 Million Times Faster
By Rafi Letzter published
Pulses of light from infrared lasers can speed up computer operations by a factor of 1 million, and may have opened the door to room-temperature quantum computing.
![Stephen Hawking Smile](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/uQnMEimjCyXTqcrLBjkKyk-320-80.jpg)
Stephen Hawking's Final Paper Cuts the Multiverse Down to Size
By Rafi Letzter published
The great physicist's library of work is now complete.
![LIGO merging neutron stars](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hecMhp7MxseQWocTESxvZB-320-80.jpg)
NASA Will Solve a Massive Physics Mystery This Summer
By Rafi Letzter published
What size is a pulsar?
![Albert Einstein](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/X5rNayw4wcUHWnyYfNE4Mh-320-80.jpg)
Swiss Scientists Perform Massive Test of 80-Year-Old, 'Spooky' Quantum Paradox
By Rafi Letzter published
This new experiment is a huge example of the behavior Albert Einstein called "spooky action at a distance."
![This clip is made up of 25 minutes worth of images from ESA's Philae lander, and was processed by Twitter user landru79.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/jHCaQGFz8k8QKLBzGzs6sS-320-80.gif)
The Truth Behind This Amazing Video from the Surface of a Comet
By Rafi Letzter published
A Twitter user managed to turn 25 minutes worth of images from the ESA's comet lander into a dramatic short film.
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