astronomy – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Mon, 16 Sep 2024 14:10:47 -0400 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2 The Webb Telescope Further Deepens the Biggest Controversy in Cosmology https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-webb-telescope-further-deepens-the-biggest-controversy-in-cosmology-20240813/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-webb-telescope-further-deepens-the-biggest-controversy-in-cosmology-20240813/#respond Tue, 13 Aug 2024 11:17:15 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=139758 The post The Webb Telescope Further Deepens the Biggest Controversy in Cosmology first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Nearly a century ago, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is getting larger. Modern measurements of how fast it is expanding disagree, however, suggesting that our understanding of the laws of physics might be off. Everyone expected the sharp vision of the James Webb Space Telescope to bring the answer into focus. But a long-awaited analysis of the telescope’s observations released late...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-webb-telescope-further-deepens-the-biggest-controversy-in-cosmology-20240813/feed/ 0 Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy https://www.quantamagazine.org/tracing-the-hidden-hand-of-magnetism-in-the-galaxy-20240701/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/tracing-the-hidden-hand-of-magnetism-in-the-galaxy-20240701/#respond Mon, 01 Jul 2024 14:05:21 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=138884 The post Tracing the Hidden Hand of Magnetism in the Galaxy first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Amid the roilings of the Milky Way, immense pockets of gas coalesce into clouds where stars are born. In this process, there is a hidden hand at play: magnetism. “There’s this fantastic quote: You can measure a man’s ignorance by the strength of his magnetic field,” said Susan Clark, an astrophysicist at Stanford University. “In other words, when we have a piece of a problem historically in...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/tracing-the-hidden-hand-of-magnetism-in-the-galaxy-20240701/feed/ 0 How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2024 15:03:13 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=136825 The post How the Ancient Art of Eclipse Prediction Became an Exact Science first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Solar eclipses were interpreted throughout much of history as bad news for the sovereign — an ominous sign for their personal health or that of the realm. But those fears helped fuel thousands of years of scholarship. This progress began in Mesopotamia with a hunt for periodic patterns in historical data. It has culminated in an era in which we know the interdependent future motions of solar...

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-the-ancient-art-of-eclipse-prediction-became-an-exact-science-20240405/feed/ 0 Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting https://www.quantamagazine.org/doubts-grow-about-the-biosignature-approach-to-alien-hunting-20240319/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/doubts-grow-about-the-biosignature-approach-to-alien-hunting-20240319/#respond Tue, 19 Mar 2024 13:50:35 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=136372 The post Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> In 2020, scientists detected a gas called phosphine in the atmosphere of an Earth-size rocky planet. Knowing of no way that phosphine could be produced except through biological processes, “the scientists assert that something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s source,” the New York Times reported. As “biosignature gases” go, the phosphine seemed like a home run. Until it wasn’t.

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/doubts-grow-about-the-biosignature-approach-to-alien-hunting-20240319/feed/ 0 To See Black Holes in Stunning Detail, She Uses ‘Echoes’ Like a Bat https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-see-black-holes-in-detail-she-uses-echoes-like-a-bat-20240212/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/to-see-black-holes-in-detail-she-uses-echoes-like-a-bat-20240212/#respond Mon, 12 Feb 2024 17:43:29 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=135193 The post To See Black Holes in Stunning Detail, She Uses ‘Echoes’ Like a Bat first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Unlike many astronomers, Erin Kara didn’t grow up star-struck. “I don’t have that story of being that little kid staring up at the stars and wanting to do this, which gave me some anxiety,” she said. “Did that make me a fake?” But after discovering astrophysics as an undergraduate, Kara was hooked. Now an observational astrophysicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

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