Bad Astronomy

Muons aren't spinning the way the best physics model predicts. Why not? It may be due to completely unknown subatomic particles popping into and out of existence in the quantum foam. This isn't some sort of sci-fi…

NASA's Mars InSight lander just detected two more relatively large quakes on the Red Planet, and they came from the direction of a very interesting region that is known to be tectonically active. This highlights one of the…

Vega is arguably one of the prettiest stars in the night sky. Brilliant and blue, it's the sparkling sapphire that marks the constellation Lyra high in the northern sky. It's one of the brightest stars in the sky, due to it…

For the first time, astronomers have obtained large-scale images of the cosmic web — the incredibly ancient scaffolding of dark matter and hydrogen gas out of which galaxies in the Universe were formed. This material is so far…

Astronomers have found a super-Earth around a nearby star that will be perfect for future observations to determine what’s in its atmosphere. This is a very cool and important find. The star is called Gliese 486, and it’s a…

On Feb. 18, 2021 at 20:55 UTC, the Perseverance rover touched down on the surface of Mars. The flight down was successful and, by all accounts, picture-perfect. The rover landed in the 50-kilometer-wide Jezero crater, within…