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Astronomy

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How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science

March 11, 2019

The latest AI algorithms are probing the evolution of galaxies, calculating quantum wave functions, discovering new chemical compounds and more. Is there anything that scientists do that can’t be automated?

Galaxy Simulations Offer a New Solution to the Fermi Paradox

March 7, 2019

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.

With a Second Repeating Radio Burst, Astronomers Close In on an Explanation

February 28, 2019

Brief cosmic blips called fast radio bursts have puzzled astronomers since their discovery earlier this decade. Now researchers appear to be close to understanding what powers them.

Q&A

An Astrophysicist Who Maps the Universe’s Terra Incognita

February 4, 2019

Priyamvada Natarajan has pioneered the mapping and modeling of the universe’s invisible contents, especially dark matter and supermassive black holes.

Missing Galaxies? Now There’s Too Many

January 9, 2019

Astronomers couldn’t find enough satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Now they have the opposite problem.

New Studies Rescue Gravitational-Wave Signal From the Noise

December 13, 2018

Two independent papers vanquish lingering doubts about LIGO’s historic discovery of gravitational waves.

Ewine van Dishoeck, the Netherlander Who Traced Water’s Origin

November 1, 2018

The astrochemist and winner of the 2018 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics has wondered about the cosmic origin of water while enjoying Noordwijk beach near her hometown of Leiden.

Q&A

Prepping for a Flood of Heavenly Bodies

October 24, 2018

Mario Jurić is leading the push to get astronomy ready for the torrents of data that are about to flow.

Interstellar Visitor Found to Be Unlike a Comet or an Asteroid

October 10, 2018

The mystery of ’Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever observed, continues to deepen.

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