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The JWST Has Spotted Giant Black Holes All Over the Early Universe
The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. Years before she was even sure the James Webb Space Telescope would successfully launch, Christina Eilers started planning a conference for astronomers specializing in the early universe. She knew that if—preferably, when—JWST started making observations, she and her colleagues would have a lot to talk…
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Space photo of the week: A radio ‘ring of fire’ shows a solar eclipse as never seen before
What it is: Radio images of an annular solar eclipse. When it was taken: Oct. 14, 2023. Where it was taken from: Owens Valley Radio Observatory Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA), California. Why it’s so special: Scientists have taken the first radio telescope images of an annular solar eclipse’s famous “ring of fire” effect — even…
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Befouling the Final Frontier
Cassini was crashed into Saturn, Opportunity sits covered in dust. The shuttles were dispersed to museums, and Kepler was shut down to remain in its Earth-trailing orbit, hunting exoplanets no more. And soon, the International Space Station will join the litany of retired NASA missions. When its time comes, in 2030 — unlike Mir before…
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Space News: What’s up for November 2023
What’s up for November? Venus and Jupiter on opposite sides of the sky, the Leonid meteors return, and the celestial “sea” surrounding Saturn. This November, Jupiter is up in the sky all night and sets just before sunrise, while Venus rises in the early morning hours. This means you can see them on opposite sides…
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Her Space, Her Time: How Trailblazing Women Scientists Decoded the Hidden Universe
Shohini Ghose is a quantum physicist and Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. She is Director of the Laurier Centre for Women in Science (WinS) and the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering. She is the recipient of several awards, including a TED Senior Fellowship and selection to…
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Civilizations Could Use Gravitational Lenses to Transmit Power From Star to Star
In 1916, famed theoretical physicist Albert Einstein put the finishing touches on his Theory of General Relativity, a geometric theory for how gravity alters the curvature of spacetime. The revolutionary theory remains foundational to our models of how the Universe formed and evolved. One of the many things GR predicted was what is known as…
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Franklin Institute has a new take on the final frontier
From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know! Derek Pitts couldn’t be happier. The astronomer and spokesperson for the Franklin Institute helped announce its newly expanded and updated outer space exhibition, Wonderous Space. It takes up two floors of the Institute’s…
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James Webb Space Telescope could soon solve mysteries of the Milky Way’s heart
Ever since astronomers first laid their eyes on the sparkling spiral arms of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, they have wondered what processes might drive the evolution of these massive, star-studded structures. Presumably, those same processes are why we see such a stunning diversity of galactic neighborhoods in the observable universe, which contains an…
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SETI Works Best When Telescopes Double-Check Each Other
The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has evolved considerably in the past sixty years since the first experiment was conducted. This was Project Ozma, which was conducted in 1960 by Dr. Frank Drake and his colleagues using the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia. While the experiment did not reveal any…
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Beyond UFOs: The future of Unexplained Anomalous Phenomena
I got involved with SETI early in my career. I was a junior at UC Santa Cruz and saw an advertisement for the first-ever astrobiology conference, which was an emerging field at the time. On a whim, I decided to cut school and attend. It was there I met other SETI researchers, and I’ve collaborated…