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Why extraterrestrial civilizations may be exceedingly rare
Source: Wikimedia commons There’s been a lot of news lately about the estimate of habitable planets in our galaxy. It sounds like there may be 40 billion planets in the habitable zones around their...
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UChicago researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien...
Weather forecasters on exoplanet GJ 1214b would have an easy job. Today’s forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds. That’s the implication of a study led by researchers in...
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Why is the solar system flat?
Machines Like Us and others linked to this cool video explaining why the solar system is flat. I’m not entirely sure the four dimensional stuff was necessary, although it was interesting. One thing to...
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You say multiverse, I say galaxies
(Photo credit: Wikipedia) Corey Powell has an interesting post up on what he calls the Four Great Eras of Exploration. The first era was Galileo’s discovery of the vastness of the universe, the second...
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Growing doubt that gravitational waves were actually detected
Nature has an article up describing the problems with the BICEP2 results that are now being identified by various scientists. It’s actually the second one I’ve seen them publish on this. The...
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The Fermi Paradox – Wait But Why
The “Wait But Why” blog takes an in depth look at something some of us were discussing on another thread: the Fermi Paradox. Everyone feels something when they’re in a really good starry place on a...
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Your cosmic address: The edge of the Laniakea supercluster
This is pretty cool: New Map Locates Milky Way in Neighborhood of 100,000 Galaxies. A new map of the Milky Way’s cosmic neighborhood shows where our galaxy lives in relation to thousands of others...
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Video on Laniakea supercluster
I reported on this yesterday, but Nature has put out a video with more information that is well worth checking out. As a bonus, it demonstrates how to pronounce Laniakea! h/t Matthew Cobb at Why...
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Cosmic inflation appears to have shifted from settled science back to...
You can get background on what I’m talking about in this post here and here. Probably the best thing to do is let the experts weigh in on this. Planck team measurement consistent with our (Flauger et...
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Complex life in the universe may be much rarer than previously thought
At least, according to a couple of astrophysicists: Complex life may be possible in only 10% of all galaxies | Science/AAAS | News. The universe may be a lonelier place than previously thought. Of the...
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Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead
I tweeted this yesterday, but it deserves a blog entry: Gravitational waves discovery now officially dead : Nature News & Comment. A team of astronomers that last year reported evidence for...
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The Milky Way May be 50 Percent Bigger Than Thought
Sometimes it’s amazing how much settled science, even something as longstanding as the size of our galaxy, can get called into question: The Milky Way May be 50 Percent Bigger Than Thought : Discovery...
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