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Rebecca Boyle

Contributing Writer

Latest Articles

A panoramic image of the cosmos shows hundreds of galaxies, including four blobs of light that are magnified and labeled with their corresponding redshifts.
astrophysics

Standard Model of Cosmology Survives a Telescope’s Findings

By Rebecca Boyle
January 20, 2023
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Reports that the James Webb Space Telescope killed the reigning cosmological model turn out to have been exaggerated. But astronomers still have much to learn from distant galaxies glimpsed by Webb.

An array of images of protoplanetary disks with bright suns at the centers surrounded by rings, arcs, filaments and spirals.]
astronomy

Astronomers Reimagine the Making of the Planets

By Rebecca Boyle
June 9, 2022
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Observations of faraway planets have forced a near-total rewrite of the story of how our solar system came to be.

Cora Dvorkin in front of a starry backdrop.
Hidden Structure

The Cosmologist Who Dreams in the Universe’s Dark Threads

By Rebecca Boyle
November 5, 2020
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Cora Dvorkin discovered new possibilities for what dark matter could be. Now she’s devising unorthodox ways to identify it.

Six looping videos of different types of snowflakes and snow crystals growing.
crystals

Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Snowflakes

By Rebecca Boyle
December 19, 2019
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Snow crystals come in two main types. The “pope” of snowflake physics has a new theory that explains why.

planetary science

Wandering Space Rocks Help Solve Mysteries of Planet Formation

By Rebecca Boyle
July 16, 2019
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After an interstellar asteroid shot past the sun, scientists realized that there’s probably a lot of itinerant rocks out there.

Art for "As Planet Discoveries Pile Up, a Gap Appears in the Pattern"
Abstractions blog

As Planet Discoveries Pile Up, a Gap Appears in the Pattern

By Rebecca Boyle
May 16, 2019
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Astronomers are puzzling over a paucity of planets in the galaxy measuring between 1.5 and two times Earth’s size.

Art for "Galaxy Simulations Offer a New Solution to the Fermi Paradox "
Abstractions blog

Galaxy Simulations Offer a New Solution to the Fermi Paradox

By Rebecca Boyle
March 7, 2019
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Astronomers claim in a new paper that star motions should make it easy for civilizations to spread across the galaxy, but still we might find ourselves alone.

Art for "How Nearby Stellar Explosions Could Have Killed Off Large Animals"
Abstractions blog

How Nearby Stellar Explosions Could Have Killed Off Large Animals

By Rebecca Boyle
January 15, 2019
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Subatomic particles called muons are thought to have streamed through the atmosphere and irradiated megafauna like the monster shark megalodon.

Art for "Why the Best Place to Find Dark Matter May Be in a Rock"
dark matter

Why the Best Place to Find Dark Matter May Be in a Rock

By Rebecca Boyle
January 7, 2019
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Dark matter may occasionally interact with minerals in the earth, leaving telltale tracks that physicists hope to decipher.


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About the author

Rebecca Boyle is a science journalist based in St. Louis. She is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a contributor at FiveThirtyEight, and her work frequently appears in New Scientist, Popular Science, NBC, and several other publications for adults and kids.
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